Today we’d like to introduce you to Upstream Drifters.
Hi Upstream, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Sometimes, you find what you didn’t know you were looking for. In late 2022, Craig called Aubrey to ask if she knew any fiddlers who could play along on his St. Patrick’s gigs. She replied, “How about a banjo?” Fortunately for everyone, Craig was willing to give it a go.
We met about 20 years ago at a small liberal arts college (Goshen College) in Indiana. Though we knew of each other and respected each other’s musicianship, our musical paths didn’t really converge until early 2023 when we formed the Upstream Drifters.
Our band name kind of gives it away! Much, if not all, of our songwriting comes from our connection to water, land, and people that we know who have an interesting story to tell. Many titles for our instrumental tunes come from the place in which they were written: “Eclipse” (under the half-light of the total solar eclipse last April); “Crooked Step, Open Gate” (written while sitting on a boardwalk in a wetland near Mansfield), “Joy Fell Up” (from a daydream Aubrey had outside my house when I still lived in the city, of golden sparkles rising up from the cracks in the sidewalk after a long season of darkness). Other songs come from stories that happened in a particular place at a particular time (“Stranger,” “Somewhere to Lay My Head,” “Chicago’s Finest Boat Launch”). And some pay tribute to a specific person (“Cotton Candy Man,” “Cleo”).
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Starting in March 2024, we found our stride writing collaboratively. We don’t necessarily follow a formula, but typically Craig will lay down a chord progression, or one of us will come up with a tune or story idea. Or it’s just a mood. Then we pass ideas back and forth using a multi-track recording app on our phone. (We’re very high tech). Craig makes our songs come alive in another dimension with rhythm and percussion texture. Aubrey loves playing with harmonies, and we both enjoy arranging as storytelling / painting pictures with sound.
We’re also driven by the fact that it is so much fun. We’re both doing this not as professionals but because we love it. As parents with full-time obligations at work and home, we have found this to be the perfect fuel for keeping joy in our lives. It fits into the pockets of everyday life, which is why you won’t see us on a nationwide tour or releasing perfect albums.
Folk music is music of the people, and we hope folks hear our music and think: I could do that! In fact, we hope they do. Our music reflects real life: at times sheer delight, at times chaotic and messy, hopefully always approachable. We hope it makes listeners want to sing along and dance. In taking the exposed step of putting our songs and stories “out there,” we hope listeners feel seen and encouraged in their everyday joys and griefs.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We are both lifetime lovers of folk music and have immersed ourselves in traditional styles as well as music by contemporary artists creating new sounds with a folk foundation. Strong influences include Irish traditional music, Appalachian old-time fiddle and clawhammer banjo, Sacred Harp a capella singing from the Shenandoah Valley, Pete Seeger sing-alongs, Black banjoists like Rhiannon Giddens (of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Silk Road Project) and Allison Russell, and other modern folk artists Aoife O’Donnovan, Peter Mayer and Mipso, to name a few.
2024 was the year we laid the groundwork for the band and solidified our songwriting sound/style. We recorded our EP Carried Along last summer/fall with Ron at RealGrey Records, just the two of us playing each instrument and singing track by track. We learned a ton about recording and what we’re striving for through that process! The first single was released in January, and the full EP was released on February 21.
This year, we also assembled a full band for another recording project, including bassist Scott Williams (Phinger Guns), the talented drummer Kevin Himes (Honeytown) and state champion fiddler Joe Lautzenheiser. We just wrapped up a live studio recording with Benjamin Patrick at Akron Recording Company to crank out our first full-length album Crooked Step, Open Gate, which we hope to release by the end of May.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Craig has a jack-of-all-trades background that started with piano lessons, orchestra percussion and various high school rock bands. Aubrey’s early music training was in classical piano and choral performance. Interestingly, it was in a college elementary music methods class where she first saw the clawhammer banjo style played up close. Completely entranced, her professor had to pick her jaw up off the floor.
For the band, Craig plays everything: guitar, mandolin, all varieties of percussion and synth. (He also happens to be a stellar hammered dulcimer player, but it’s a bit of a bear to bring to gigs and tune). Aubrey plays banjo, tin whistles, melodica and occasionally the ukulele.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.upstreamdrifters.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/upstreamdrifters/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UpstreamDrifters/
- Other: https://upstreamdrifters.bandcamp.com/
