- Spare Rib and the Bluegrass Sauce -
Spare Rib & The Bluegrass Sauce are a five piece bluegrass string band from Seattle, WA. Formed in 2005, Spare Rib & The Bluegrass Sauce brings it's own special blend of Groove-Grass to the NorthWest. Playing a wide range of Traditional, Old Timey, Classic Rock, and Original music that merges Bluegrass with marathon Jams, the Bluegrass Sauce will get you hootin', hollerin' and stompin' all night long!
The percussionless sound is familiar, but Spare Rib & Co. do it well—playful layers of fiddle, banjo, and mandolin are heightened by memorable choruses that burst with three-, four-, even five-person harmonies.
- The Stranger
Sean Paul Horst
Sean Paul Horst,(aka Spare Rib) was born in El Paso, Texas, and to his good fortune was lucky enough to wind up in Cololorado playin' in the beautiful mountains and rivers there. Then following dreams and rivers up and down over mountains he moved to the northwest...the Skykomish valleys of Washington, to be exact. At that time he was singin' and playin' the harmonica and hand drums and doin' whatever he could to stay out of trouble. Always feeling the power of a good jam he developed the desire to play music forever.
One night at a show, a mandolin came to him in a dream and beckoned to be played by his clumsy fingers. He's been playing one ever since. Somewhere along the way between here and there he met Hunter. Hunter was a riverman who loved to jam and have a real good time. They played campfires and parties until the call of Cliff Perry's bluegrass class brought them to the shoreline community college upon where they met both Alice and Emmett, to go on and meet John through another connection. Rib's musical inspirations are Jerry, Janice, Jesus, Jimi, Jo Mama, and you!
Hunter Hendrickson
Hunter's interest in music was sparked at a young age while singing in the Philadelphia Boys Choir. His Jersey upbringing and rowdy childhood rounded out his taste with a healthy dose of 80s rock, old school rap and heavy metal exposure. But it wasn't until college where Hunter began playing guitar and studying the good ole Grateful Dead. Five years and 1000 sing-alongs of I Know You Rider later, Hunter moved to the great Northwest in search of rivers and mountains.
Once here, Hunter found all that, a skinny dude named Rib by the river and an old banjo in the closet. After a few community college classes and many campfire jams Hunter happened into the band and into his first bluegrass experience. Hunter brings speed, a funky edge and a mean beat box to the stage. He loves to mash genres and blend the lines making the Bluegrass Sauce one the most accessible string bands around. Hunter has been most inspired and influenced by Jerry Garcia, Old and In the Way, Phish, The Redd I Ramblers, Jon Markel, Frank Zappa and Flowmotion
Alice Boytz
Alice started playing violin in third grade, thanks to the Seattle Public Schools. After many, many years of playing classical music, she spent a week at the Festival of American Fiddle tunes in Port Townsend, WA, where she discovered a variety of other musical styles featuring her instrument. Goodbye violin, hello fiddle. She eventually found herself at the Shoreline Community College bluegrass class, where she was quite fortunate to meet her current band mates.
She loves all kinds of music, lately she's been inspired by: Laurie Lewis, Tim O'Brien, the Quebecois bands Genticorum and De Temps Antan, and the cajun gypsy swing band The Red Stick Ramblers, featuring Kevin Wimmer on fiddle.
John Brown
Reverend John Brown, “Minister of Music”, was born a Band Geek. After many years of playing every instrument he could get his hands on, John finally found his true love at the age of 15, the Bass. Thus began his career as a Band Whore, playing in as many bands of various styles/genres as time would permit (everything from Classical to Jazz to Blues to R&B to Funk to Punk to Classic Rock to Roots Reggae to Indie Grunge Rock to “Post-Gothic Rock”). After a long stint trying to make it “big” in the LA music scene (and due to the freedom found from the Dot.Bomb fallout in 2001), John bought a 1962 VW Bus and a beat-up Banjo, and slowly headed north for a couple years, until he finally reached his native Seattle with the goal to conquer the local music scene one way or another.
David Katz
Raised in Connecticut, David Katz grew up in a house filled with music. A flat-picking father and finger-picking mother provided a childhood immersed with the songs of the Folk Revival, including The Carter Family, Woody Guthrie, Bill Monroe, the Greenbriar Boys and Pete Seeger. David began performing at the Wooster School, in Danbury, CT, where he played frequently with fellow students Tracy Chapman and Holly Poynter. Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, The Clash, Joni Mitchell, The Talking Heads, Led Zeppelin and Elvis Costello provided lyrical and musical inspiration, building upon the roots that the Stanley Brothers and Bill Monroe provided. David moved to San Francisco in 1986, where he managed Circle Arts at the Albion and played in the bands Shut Up Ned and The Startt Brothers. Today David teaches at Chief Sealth High School in Seattle, where he lives with his wife, Leslie, and two sons, Evan and Josh.
