The Blackberry Bushes

 The Blackberry Bushes are a Northwest Acoustic Americana and Bluegrass band whose sound falls somewhere between Gillian Welch and The Infamous Stringdusters. Their songs evoke the natural world, with themes of imperfection and impermanence. The instrumentation is precise and improvisational. The Bushes have that rare magic that allows them to fuse voices from many genres into an  acoustic instrumentation that retains distinct threads of sonic color. Elements of jazz, classical, pop, old-time and bluegrass saturate this modern string band sound that is buoyant, bold, and like their thorny namesake, rooted and growing, growing, growing.

The Appalachian Mountains are the meeting place of the fiddle and the banjo, and musical culture permeates the entire length of the Mississippi River. Jes Raymond and Jakob Breitbach may have started their musical journey in the rainy bottom of the Puget Sound, but their work is infused with the essence of the homes they wandered West from. The Blackberry Bushes draw from the deep roots of American traditional music to create a playful and resonant sound with both twang and sophistication. They are emerging as artists with an obvious love of performing, spot on chemistry, and a live show that truly aims to stir the spirit.

Jes’s songs connect the day to day with the muses of wonder, folk wisdom, and earthiness. She sings with joy and a desire for every person in the house to feel that she is singing to them, and her skillful flatpicking interlocks the band’s soundscapes. Jakob’s virtuosic fiddle improvisation  propels a song-focused band to expand outward in exploratory delight. Backed by a rotating cast of believers, including progressive banjo player Alex Genova (Berklee College of Music) they simultaneously honor the genius of tradition and innovation.