Bay Area Band plays Vashon

Born Hilary Perkins, San Francisco area roots singer Nell Robinson performs in the name of her late grandmother in honor of her Southern (Alabama) ancestry, and it’s as Nell that she will sing at the Blue Heron at 7:30 pm, Saturday, April 28, with her All-Star Band, the Jaybirds.

After her debut album Nell Robinson in Loango, (her hometown) charted in bluegrass and Americana in 2010, Nell was named one of the most "utterly charming," and "freshest voice" in roots music and likened to early Emmylou Harris and longtime political activist and singer Hazel Dickens. With her second album On the Brooklyn Road, named after the red clay dirt road that led to her family’s farm in rural Alabama, Nell returns with more of her original compositions. "I like stories," Nell says. "Telling a story- you can understand the words, you can follow it. Music enhances the words, and vice versa. Most of my songs are stories. Story-telling is a Southern pastime and some of the stories I know are best told like they happened yesterday, even though they are 150 years old. They foster this deep connection to people and place, so much that sometimes I miss a past that I wasn’t even present for."

After working on Loango, John Reischman & the Jaybirds offered to back Nell, and they became the All-Star Band, providing backup for Nell’s distinctive vocals and fresh new bluegrass and country music. The Jaybirds, with Reischman on vocals and mandolin, Jim Nunally on vocals, guitar and slide steel, Nick Hornbuckle on banjo, Greg Spatz on fiddle and Trisha Gagnon on vocals and string bass, have enjoyed a long and successful roots career of their own with years of European and North American tours, five critically acclaimed albums, two Juno nominations and two Canadian Folk Music Award nominations. - by Eric Horsting

Nell Robinson & Her All-Star Band
Saturday, April 28
7:30 pm

Tickets: (need to double check)VAA, Heron’s Nest, Vashon Bookshop, brownpapertickets.com