Ken & Brad Kolodner

“Ken and Brad transport the listener to a distant, dusty crossroads across the sea making ancient music that touches a place inside of us that some of us didn’t even know was there.”

“…oozing with variety. From trad standards to new classic folk songs to lush originals, the repertory found here is both dependable and enjoyable. The arrangements include barn-burning twin-fiddle ragers, mellow meditations on hammered dulcimer, and bluegrass settings with solos on the breaks and three-part harmony vocals.”

The dynamic father-son team Ken & Brad Kolodner weave together a captivating soundscape on hammered dulcimer and clawhammer banjo blurring the lines of Old-Time, Bluegrass and American Roots music. Regarded as one of the most influential hammered dulcimer players in North America, Baltimore’s Ken Kolodner joined forces in 2009 with his son Brad Kolodner, a renowned clawhammer banjo player. They've sculpted their own brand of driving, innovative, tasteful acoustic roots music with a “creative curiosity that lets all listeners know that a passion for traditional music yet thrives in every generation.” The hypnotizing groove of the percussive hammered dulcimer and rhythmic clawhammer banjo is the core of their sound. They are joined by bassist Alex Lacquement who locks everything together with his commanding presence and the dynamic multi-instrumentalist Rachel Eddy on fiddle and guitar. The quartet won 1st place in the Neo-Traditional Band Contest at the Appalachian Stringband Festival in the summer of 2019. They released their fourth studio album Stony Run in March 2020.