Black Jake & the Carnies, "The Original Kings of Crabgrass", are a

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

/ bluegrass band out of Ypsilanti,

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. "Crabgrass" refers to the group's stylistic mash-up of punk, bluegrass and

americana Americana may refer to: *Americana (music), a genre or style of American music *Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1992 TV series), a documentary series presented by J ...

. The current and variously pseudonymous members are Black Jake (

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

, lead vocals, lyrics), Gus Wallace (

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

), Zach Pollock (

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

), Joe Cooter (

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

), Billy "the Kingpin" LaLonde (

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, washboard), and JC Miller (

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

). The band released its debut album, ''Where the Heather Don't Grow'' in 2008. The song "Happy Easter to Ya" was on the

Jackson Citizen Patriot ''Jackson Citizen Patriot'' is a daily newspaper published in Jackson, Michigan. Since 2012, the ''Citizen Patriot'' has been published at AnnArbor.com ''AnnArbor.com'' was an online newspaper that covered local news of Ann Arbor, Michigan, ...

's list of best new songs of the year at number No. 21, beating out many better-known groups such as

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the first alternati ...

Black Jake and the Carnies have performed live shows throughout Michigan, as well as in Ohio, Indiana, and Chicago, and a performance on Brown Student Radio's show, "Phoning It In". They recently had their debut performance at The Ark, Ann Arbor's venerable folk venue.
Black Jake & the Carnies, Current.com

References

External links

* AllMusic Review- ''Where the Heather Don't Grow''
Americana.uk Review- ''Where the Heather Don't Grow''

Black Jake & the Carnies on MySpace
American bluegrass music groups Musical groups from Michigan People from Ypsilanti, Michigan {{US-punk-band-stub