Dylan Ladd
"It's getting to the point with me where, if there's going to another band, it had better be really necessary.
So yeah; Mr Sun absolutely had to happen. Really good people who like each other and are also brilliant, unique and funny artists? That's a prickly order, it might have taken a while. Good food takes time, we know that. But here we are.
Mr Sun is an uber-band name, floating above the stampede of Skillet-Lickin' Squirrel-head-Boilin' Log Rollers Of Grassology. But it fits better every time we play together. We've also stepped outside the March Of Acoustic Progress or any other music trend, in favor of 4 intense personalities conversing… as we must.
As we try to crack each other up, we find ourselves making the music we hoped we'd always hear. I can always count on Joe, Grant and Aidan to totally jump onto the emotional arc of every song, which gets to looking more and more like a rainbow or a rocket trail and sounds like maybe nine guys sometimes.
Mr Sun is relaxing in a way that makes my mind flip on and spark and spin. I think it'll do the same for most people who like acoustic string music."
- D. Anger
Mr Sun comprises some of the most original musicians to apply themselves to the American String Band.
Legendary fiddler Darol Anger is at home in a number of musical genres, some of which he helped to invent, and is a member of the original "nuclear" generation of pickers who extended Bluegrass, Jazz, and Classical music to find their common ground; Mr Sun is the latest iteration in that legacy. Joe K. Walsh is one of the foremost contemporary mandolinists, with 4 award-winning years in the Gibson Brothers, 3 solo recordings, and a Berklee professorship. Grant Gordy is a standout in the crowded field of Acoustic Guitar Wunderkinds. Grant's work was quickly recognized for its kaleidoscopic excellence and startling emotion, fusing Jazz, R&B, and Bluegrass concepts to an unprecedented degree. The group recently added the masterful bassist Aidan O'Donnell, a Brooklyn, New York (by way of Scotland) jazz veteran.
The 4 musical personalities of Mr Sun are so strong that one might imagine the group could explode if not for the palpable love and humor that emanate from every note they play together. The group means to take a relaxed approach to writing its own chapter in the American Music Saga with their new Compass Records release “extrovert”, on CD & bright yellow vinyl.
Mr. Sun radiates hi-tone improv that will actually drop your jaw. Darol Anger's Gang of Four is steeped in bluegrass and jazz and swing and everything else under the.....
Their compositions range from heart-tugging pastorality to the intensity of a solar flare tsunami. It's beyond inspiring to play with them as they beam virtuosity and warmth to the rest of the audient solar system.
- Tony Trischka, Banjo innovator and uber-mensch
“This is brilliant music, seriously playful, full of light and shade and a seemingly effortless virtuosity that always makes a musical and human point. Airborne and exultant; it flies eight miles high and digs right down to the core.”
–Tom Piazza, Author, Grammy/Faulkner Society/James Michener Awards winner