Rani Arbo & Daisy Mayhem

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A bracing fusion of American roots music with splashes of contemporary pop and jazz.

One of America's most inventive string bands (The Boston Herald), Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem mix traditional, original, and contemporary sounds on fiddle, guitar, bass and recycled percussion - and top that with joyous harmonies from four skilled lead singers. Hailed as one of the most song- and arrangement-oriented bands in a field overgrown with pyrotechnic, jam- and solo-conscious virtuosos. (San Francisco Guardian), the band tackles the human condition with playfulness, courage and heart.

Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem draw from the deep well of American roots music, and have an adventurous way of mixing things up. They'll hang a 200-year-old Georgia Sea Islands song over a New Orleans groove. They'll set original lyrics to an Irish fiddle tune, then layer it with a groove on a South American box drum. A Leonard Cohen cover gets a clawhammer banjo; Springsteen gets high-octane, bluegrass-style harmonies - and band's originals range from Unitarian funk gospel tune to 1950s swing. With influences from Doc Watson to Django Reinhardt, from Ghanaian drumming to the funky Meters, and from Fiddlin' John Carson to Bob Dylan, daisy mayhem celebrates America's rich musical past and brings it into the present. These are four musicians who pick up what's lying around - from tin cans, to old songs, to human stories - and create something new.

The band has earned a reputation for delving deep and their new album, Some Bright Morning, offers up their trademark mix of traditional material, unexpected covers and smart, probing originals. But this isn't a Sunday morning record. It's an all-week, all-year, all-life kind of album, one that leaps from love to loss, through longing and fear, into hope and play. It is a tincture of ukulele, banjo, recycled percussion, standup bass, fiddle and guitar. It is a salve of spine-tingling four-part harmony. It levies the healing power of four musicians who have played together for twelve years and are still reaching for it.