LIVE PERFORMANCE • THE LITTLE CAFE

Rooted in the songs of the Richie and Rosie duo, this quartet is a new take on the music with more drive, texture, and room to move. It is complex, fresh, dynamic, and exciting, finding a common ground in old-time music but not afraid to explore the beyond.

Richie and Rosie both came from deeply musical childhoods: Richie Stearns built his first banjo at 14 and created a band with young friends who spent their free time busking around Ithaca. Rosie Newton’s mom and dad are both musicians, so she grew up sleeping in bass cases at late night gigs and traveling to music camps where her mother would teach Scottish music on the cello. It was through this environment that she fell in love with the fiddle. In 2008 Richie and Rosie found a shared language in songs and tunes rooted in the Americana, old-time, and folk traditions.

Both part of the original Evil City String Band, Steve Selin on guitar and Ben Gould on bass have been playing with Richie for more than 20 years in various endeavors. This project is widening a musical conversation that has been going on for decades in an organic expansion of an already thrilling duo.