Mike Gangloff is a fiddler who for the past few decades has wandered back and forth between traditional and avant garde music, seeking unity and beauty in long drones and freeform scree, and in compositions that wrap melodies in a skin of groans and whoops. He is a founder of bands that include veteran improvisers Pelt, old-time rowdies Black Twig Pickers, and most recently, the cosmic Appalachian quartet Eight Point Star. With albums by all three bands released last year, Mike is focusing on a set of new, solo fiddle compositions, many played on a hardanger-style instrument. Like much of his music, the new pieces revolve around and relate somehow to the people and atmosphere of his home in Southwest Virginia.

Adam Kiesling's favorite thing to do is playing his guitar and backing up a good old-time fiddler. He got his start playing bass as a teenager in south-eastern Wisconsin, and ended up playing more guitar after moving to the Twin Cities in the early 90s, where he fell down the rabbit hole of flatpicked fiddle tunes à la Norman Blake and the country blues of Mississippi John Hurt. Adam started playing old-time string band music around 2000 and spent some time with the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers, the Mill City Grinders, and also had a stint as the bass player for Pert Near Sandstone from 2010 to 2014. In addition to performing as a solo artist, Adam's main musical output has been with Corpse Reviver, a Minneapolis-based trio who focuses on the music found on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music.