Spend time with the Acoustic Nomads, and you’ll take a musical journey from the Andes to Appalachia.
This Boston-based quartet combines jazz, bluegrass, old-time, and South American folkloric music traditions to create a unique and enthralling soundscape that transcends labels and categories.
“The big question that it kind of makes me wonder about is, what does it mean to be American? What is or isn't American?” says Noah Harrington, who sings and plays upright bass in the band. The very nature of American identity has always been an amalgamation of things brought, things shared, and things invented together. And I think that remains very true with what we're doing.”
Band leaders Harrington and Maurizio Fiore Salas met as students at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Harrington had deep jazz roots before he discovered and embraced bluegrass. Fiore Salas sings and plays the guitar and the Venezuelan cuatro--a four-string folk instrument that resembles a small guitar.
“I was born and raised in Venezuela,” Fiore Salas explains. “I did not grow up with folkloric or traditional music in any way. I started playing the guitar when I was about ten, and I just kind of played everything from rock and roll to punk. And when I was about 15 I discovered the cuatro, which is the national instrument of Venezuela that we play all over the country. And I was just very attracted to it.”
Even as he was studying jazz guitar, his growing fascination with the cuatro led him to explore the South American music genres in which it plays a prominent role. When he arrived at Berklee and met Harrington, he had decided the cuatro would be his primary instrument.
“So it was kind of like the ingredients were there for what ended up being this thesis statement and this broth, as we may call it, of the combining of North and South America,” says Fiore Salas.
Mandolinist Ethan Setiawan, a winner of the National Mandolin Championships, strengthens the band’s bluegrass chops. Fiddler Clara Rose is well-versed in bluegrass, Celtic, Swedish, blues, Balkan, and jazz folk traditions. Both are Berklee College of Music graduates.
In an Acoustic Nomads set, you might hear “Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still,” an Appalachian fiddle tune, while the percussive cuatro provides accompaniment. You’re sure to hear a Joropo, a very fast Venezuelan waltz. Harrington says this combining of sounds and traditions has always been part of bluegrass.
“Bluegrass comes from Irish music, from Scottish music, all of those Northern European fiddle traditions. But it also comes very much from African music. Think about the origins of the banjo itself, or even just the way people approach rhythm and polyrhythm and that kind of harmony. There's so much cultural cross-pollination that has happened, not just across the Atlantic Ocean, east to west, but also north to south.”
And the Acoustic Nomads aren’t the only ones interested in presenting South American music in a new context. On her latest album, On Banjo, banjoist Alison Brown plays a song from the Brazilian choro tradition. The musical duo Larry and Joe combines folk music from Venezuela and North Carolina.
“Bluegrass is a genre that I think is very conservatively defined. But in reality, it's changed an enormous amount in just 70 or so years and will likely continue to change going forward,” Harrington says.
Though their music comes from many traditions, The Acoustic Nomads have discovered elements shared by genres. For instance, there are parallels between bluegrass and Venezuelan folk music called Música Llanera.
“The banjo is mirrored in the cuatro, and the fiddle and mandolin are both reflected in the harp because we have a harp,” Fiore Salas says. All the roles are there.”
“There's a very funny parallel aesthetic in the cowboy hats,” Harrington continues. “You know that big old Stetson hat (Bill Monroe fiddler) Kenny Baker always has on? All the Música Llanera guys always have that on. The album covers look very similar. And then you hear them singing. It's high, it's lonesome, it's fast. It's everything you want.”
In addition to being masters of their instruments, Harrington and Fiore Salas are powerful singers.
“When we first started, we were all doing just instrumental music. And we love that,” says Harrington. “But I think the biggest thing that we've done over the past year that has really made a difference is to bring in singing because there's nothing that people connect with like the human voice.”
The Acoustic Nomads have found a unique identity and are eager to be heard. Harrington says that’s their ambition as they appear at festivals and clubs and work on recordings.
“We're trying to get out there and see more people and keep refining our craft and connecting with people and connecting people with each other. All over America. That's our goal.”