Hot Pickin 57s

Hot Pickin 57s is Austin’s most popular band playing Bluegrass, Classic Country and Americana. We're out of Austin, but playing all over Texas. Whether you're planning a corporate event, wedding, festival, house concert, private party, gala, or booking a club, we'd love to help make your event a success. Hot Pickin 57s was featured on Discovery Plus Channel’s Monster Garage TV show, Hosted by Jesse James (aired Jan 2021). Their second release "Hot Picks" is being played on 35+ radio stations across US & Canada.

Max Zimmet is a graduate of Berklee College of Music in guitar and mandolin performance. He started at 8 on classical guitar, but got hooked on Bluegrass after seeing Bill Monroe on Austin City Limits. He's been playing in venues in Central Texas and beyond since his early teens. Max plays in Hot PIckin 57s, One Eye Open and the Eddie Collins & Max Zimmet duo. He also teaches guitar and mandolin in a private studio in Austin TX. Max has played on stage with Mark Cosgrove (David Bromberg band), Bebbe Gambetta, Sierra Hull, Howard Kalish (Texas Swing Music Hall of Fame), Jon Kemppainen (Squirrel Nut Zippers), among others.

Shawn Spiars has been playing the 5-string banjo and performing for audiences for over 30 years. Since earning an Associate-of-Arts degree in Bluegrass Music from South Plain College in 1982, he has performed with numerous bands throughout Central Texas including Hard to Make a Living, Sabine River Bend Bluegrass, Blue Country Grass, Randy Collier & Grassland, and now Hot Pickin 57s. His driving banjo style borrows elements from banjo legends Earl Scruggs, Don Reno, and Alan Munde.

Fiddle player, Mike Montgomery started classical violin training at age 10. He grew up also immersed in Old Timey and Bluegrass music. While he continued to study violin at college, his love of science led him to a PhD in Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Since graduating, Mike has been working as a professional astronomer, and his research has taken him to Vienna, Cambridge in the UK, and finally back to Austin. Since his return, he has played with Whit Smith's Hot Jazz Caravan, and local artists such as Alan Munde, Billy Bright, and Eddie Collins and now Hot Pickin Bluegrass. Mike also sings harmony vocals.

Vance Hazen rounds out the band on upright bass and with lead & harmony vocals. Born in Montana and raised in Ohio, he has branched out, touring across the US, Europe and Japan, playing electric and upright bass with a wide assortment of bands.