It’s been a few years since Dave Bielanko and Christine Smith of the folk-punk/roots-rock band Marah landed in the central Pennsylvania countryside, hunkered down in a farmhouse amid the academics, the Amish, and the ATV crowd. Here they made a new start, one that ironically was built around a bunch of cast-off instruments from yesteryear: a set of flea market drums, an old organ picked up from an Amish second-hand store, a creaky piano that a nearby church was giving away. 

They pushed that piano all the way down a country road. They kept on pushing, and it paid off. Life is a Problem, the band's self-described “folked-up mess of American rock and roll”  released in 2010, was praised as  “blissful, shambolic rock brilliance,” overflowing with  “skittering hooks and pregnant refrains.” No Depression called it “the most honest, open and human collection of songs Marah has yet produced.” A few of those songs, we're thrilled to note, were debuted right here at the Tree House.

Since then, the two have put down some roots, literally and figuratively, and have birthed a few more projects -- not to mention a litter of goats. Later this spring, they’ll release not one but two new records. Although very different in character, both were crafted the old fashioned way on reels of tape, with a little help from rubbing alcohol, razor blades, and Q-tips. One is a collection of new songs, the other has been dubbed the Mountain Minstrelsy project and stems from forgotten song fragments and lyrics from their neck of the woods documented in a book of the same name by Henry W. Shoemaker in 1931. We here at the Tree House cannot wait to hear what Dave and Christine have been up to, and it’s all gonna go down at our satellite location at the VFW.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mountain-Minstrelsy

Get tix: Upcoming Shows