ABOUT
From deep within the urban forest of Pittsburgh's East End, the Squirrel Hillbillies often emerge to share their eclectic mix of acoustic roots music, spanning folk, country and blues.
Rabidly social and clawingly curious, they relish opportunities to interact with diverse audiences. They perform regularly at festivals and folk clubs as well as non-traditional venues across the US and the UK.
Through a collaborative, nonlinear songwriting process, duo partners Jenny Wolsk and Gary Crouth draw from personal experiences, third-hand stories, and vivid imaginations to craft songs that are unpredictable and quirky yet widely accessible. Their CDs have gotten radio play on stations around the world.
Rabidly social and clawingly curious, they relish opportunities to interact with diverse audiences. They perform regularly at festivals and folk clubs as well as non-traditional venues across the US and the UK.
Through a collaborative, nonlinear songwriting process, duo partners Jenny Wolsk and Gary Crouth draw from personal experiences, third-hand stories, and vivid imaginations to craft songs that are unpredictable and quirky yet widely accessible. Their CDs have gotten radio play on stations around the world.
JENNY WOLSK (vocals, uke, mando, bass, percussion) grew up in Greenwich Village but was completely oblivious to the folk music scene raging just outside her front door. Instead, she listened to Casey Kasem's weekly countdowns and dabbled in musical theater, landing a starring role in an off-off-Broadway production of Heidi at the age of 10, a job that paid $12 per show, in cash. Her musical tastes matured during high school and in college she joined a co-ed accapella singing group, acquiring an ear for harmony, an interest in arranging music, and an appreciation for just how much abuse a voice can withstand before laryngitis sets in. She’s immersed herself in Americana now but she continues to derive way too much pleasure from singing along to top 40 radio with her daughters.
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GARY CROUTH (vocals, guitar, uke) was born in a sleepy city in upstate New York at a time when the President was an army general and people talked seriously about bomb shelters and communists. His musical brain awoke around the 5th grade and he chose to play guitar, mainly because it looked nothing like an accordion, studying with a guitar master who recklessly drove a red Karmann Ghia and had once played with the Jackie Gleason Orchestra. Nepotism got him a his first gig, singing and playing banjo on a replica packet boat pulled by Belgian horses on the Erie Canal. His style is deeply rooted in the musical dirt of his past: traditional and contemporary acoustic music, early country, and sixties pop songs.
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Photo credit: Chiemi Karasawa
Photo credit: Derek Wahila
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Photo credit: Faith Selzer
Photo credit: Allan McMillan
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Photo credit: Faith Selzer
Photo credit: Lewis Jones
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