Hailing from Portland, Oregon, the Water Tower Bucket Boys play raw, hard-driving music with tight harmonies and virtuosic instrumental work. The Bucket Boys formed in 2005 with Josh Rabie (fiddle, guitar, banjo) and Kenny Feinstein (guitar, mandolin, harmonica) in their senior year of high school. After several lineup changes, Cory Goldman (banjo, guitar) and Walter Spencer (upright bass) have rounded out the band's sound. After four years, three studio recordings, appearances on NPR and BBC radio, and successful tours of the US and UK, the boys are poised to take the world of acoustic music by storm.
The Water Tower Bucket Boys got their start busking on the street corners of Portland and playing for local square dances. Honing their abilities as a solid dance band up and down the west coast, the boys perfected their unique style, drawing from classic bluegrass, old-time, and country. Equally influenced by the raw sound of 78 era artists as the uninhibited energy of punk rock, their wide diversity of inspirations distinguishes them from other string bands. While the boys still perform many of the traditional songs that inspired their musical foundation, they are not afraid to expand and reinvent their captivating original repertoire. On stage, they play their hearts out, giving their all and constantly pushing each other in exciting musical directions. Their lightning performances and charismatic stage presence will invigorate audiences of all ages.
Prolific in the studio, the band has already released three recordings since spring of 2008 and is currently working on their fourth. Their latest full-length album Catfish on the Line features the band's first recorded original material, and is praised by fiddlefreak.com as "a rambunctious ramble through classic bluegrass, old-time country, and ornery originals. Comparisons to Old Crow Medicine Show are inevitable here, and I mean that as a compliment." Even more original songs have found their way onto the latest recording, the EEL-P, and the boys continue to develop their songwriting skills with the group.
Their recent touring schedule found the boys traveling across the globe and sharing stages with a diverse set of artists including Chuck Ragan, Austin and Bob Lucas, Frank Turner, The Maybelles, The Crooked Jades, Foghorn Duo (Caleb Klauder and Sammy Lind), Tom Paley, Bex Marshall and the Flat Mountain Girls. The boys are now working on their next album of entirely original songs, to be produced by punk legend Mike Herrera (Tumbledown, MXPX) at his Monkey Trench Studios in Bremerton, Washington. Performing on stage, on the street, in markets, at dances or weddings, the Water Tower Bucket Boys bring fresh energy to traditional and original songs while still maintaining that 'high-lonesome' integrity.
