Order Brad's Debut Solo Release Chimney Swifts Today!

"Brad’s focus on clawhammer banjo has paid off in clean technique, excellent tone and his own musical innovations. He plays with drive, precision and when appropriate, quieter and more evocative tones." - Cathy Fink, Grammy-winning banjoist
Brad Kolodner’s debut solo album Chimney Swifts proves that traditionally-rooted banjo music is alive, well, and on the move. After years of recording in a duo with his father Ken and with progressive roots supergroup Charm City Junction, Kolodner has assembled a powerful debut of instrumental clawhammer banjo music. Honed during solo practice time during the pandemic, Chimney Swifts focuses on what he calls “private music.” This is what musicians play when they first pick up their instruments, it’s familiar and evokes time and place. The record’s fifteen tracks feature solo pieces as well as duets with Kolodner’s frequent collaborators like his father Ken Kolodner, Rachel Eddy, and the members of Charm City Junction including Patrick McAvinue, Alex Lacquement and Sean McComiskey. Kolodner showcases deft original tunes, both jaunty and plaintive, alongside traditional music spanning old-time, Irish, bluegrass and even a Greek number. A handful of pieces feature the haunting tone of fretless gourd banjo. Clawhammer banjo is frequently used as accompaniment to fiddle music and songs but rarely as a lead voice. One of the most daring achievements of Chimney Swifts is to highlight clawhammer banjo as a central melodic voice. With this record, Kolodner positions himself besides other contemporary banjo luminaries like Jason Romero, Allison de Groot, Jake Blount, and Nora Brown.

  1. Chimney Swifts 3:46 (Brad Kolodner)
  2. Five Miles From Town 3:09
  3. Foggy Mountain Special 3:40 (Earl Scruggs)
  4. Old Grimes 3:00
  5. Ants In The Honey Jar 2:48 (Brad Kolodner)
  6. Chirps & Williams 2:48 (Calvin Vollrath)
  7. Mr. Pantaleish 2:43
  8. Killavil Fancy 3:01
  9. Julianne Johnson 3:01
  10. Tuckerman Lane 2:28 (Brad Kolodner)
  11. Catalpa Hop 2:51 (Brad Kolodner)
  12. Old Aunt Jenny 3:06
  13. Campbell’s Farewell to Red Gap 2:39
  14. Blue Violet Waltz 3:01
  15. Waynesboro 3:46 ​


Brad Kolodner: banjo, gourd banjo
Ken Kolodner: hammered dulcimer (2, 14)
Alex Lacquement: upright bass (1, 3, 7, 11)
Patrick McAvinue: mandolin (3, 10, 11)
Lucas Chohany: guitar (3, 6, 11)
Rachel Eddy: guitar (4, 12)
Sean McComiskey: button accordion (8)

Recorded at Tonal Park, Takoma Park, MD Engineered and Mixed by Don Godwin Mastered by Randy LeRoy
Art and Design by Kelley Wills
Photo by Joanna Tillman

Recordings

The Birds' Flight (2021)

$18.00
The Birds' Flight is the culmination of several years' worth of collaboration between Tim Cummings (pipes), Pete Sutherland (fiddle, song), and Brad Kolodner (banjo). Traditional and otherwise familiar Scottish pipe tunes were handpicked and re-imagined to become compelling, authentic-sounding Old-Time/Appalachian-style hoedowns and waltzes. ...Or perhaps that's not at all what happened, and these are in fact genuinely traditional Old-Time tunes that, like much of the established repertoire, naturally possess Scottish DNA, but are only just now resurfacing after more than a century of dormancy. The truth is sometimes murky; but the tunes, songs, and performances featured in this collection are anything but!
credits
released July 31, 2021


• Produced by Tim Cummings, Pete Sutherland, Brad Kolodner & Jeremy Mendicino
• Recorded by Jeremy Mendicino at Lane Gibson Studios (Charlotte, VT: March - November 2020) and Brad Kolodner at Tater Patch Studios (Baltimore, MD: January 2021)
• Edited & mixed by Jeremy Mendicino at Lane Gibson Studios
• Mastered by Grey Larsen at Grey Larsen Mastering (Bloomington, IN)
• Painting © John M. Bell
• Album design by Dana Dwinell-Yardley


Made in the U.S.A.


The instruments used in this recording include smallpipe and Border pipe components made by Nate Banton, Will Woodson, Hamish Moore, and Nigel Richard; a Kevin Enoch Dobson banjo and Pete Ross gourd banjo; and a Rudoulf Doetsch fiddle.


For more information please visit TheBirdsFlight.com


All tracks copyright © ℗ 2021 Birchen Music & Publishing, BMI / Epact Music, BMI. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws.
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