Marla Fibish, Erin Shrader and Richard Mandel in Three Mile Stone.
This trio of musicians has at long last gelled into an ‘item’ after many, many years of loving to play together. Erin & Marla’s bold styles are well matched to each other and lovingly prodded and propelled by Richard’s brilliant back-up. The core of their sound is the full string thing -- fiddle, mandolin and guitar playing Irish dance music - jigs & reels. But don’t worry, there’s relief - Erin and Marla sing as well. Erin is likely to grace and surprise you with lovely a capella songs from her collection. Marla is more likely to accompany her singing with mandola and Richard’s lovely guitar playing. Toss in their “you can’t stop us” instruments -- button accordion and banjo -- and you have it all...and then some!
Marla Fibish - mandolin, mandola, button accordion
Marla has been a part of the San Francisco Irish Music scene for the last 25 years. Her reputation as a mandolin player is unique - she is known for playing the music, as it were, from the driver's seat. Her playing is driving and rhythmic, her style is playful, whimsical, and as lyrical as one can be on a tightly strung little box you play with a plectrum. She is also a singer, and uses the warm midrange tones of the mandola as accompaniment to her alto voice. Marla has appeared in many guises over the years, in the duo Double Treble with singer, guitar player and fellow mandolinist Sylvia Herold; for many years with the primarily vocal group Out of the Rain; as the 'tall blonde' in The Frontmen with Rory McNamara and Steven Coyle, and for many years with Heart of the Roll.
Erin Shrader - fiddle
Former multi-instrumentalist Erin Shrader now limits her carry-on baggage to a small, brown fiddle case and a handful of unaccompanied songs that take up less space than her third-hand iPod. In her youth she was National Endowment for the Arts fellow in the folk arts, a US Irish fiddle champion and traveled the country playing, recording and teaching in venues of all kinds. Since childhood Erin has been the student of a bewildering array of master artists starting with national flatpicking champion Roger Ferguson, Irish sean nos singer Joe Heaney, New England fiddler Rodney Miller, medievalists Margriet Tindemans and Thomas Binkley, and finally master bow maker Charles Espey. Fundamentally unteachable by nature, she sticks with the things she taught herself: Irish fiddling and writing about the violin trade as an editor at Strings magazine.
Richard Mandel - guitar, tenor banjo
Richard Mandel has been a mainstay in the San Francisco Bay Area Irish music scene since the mid-1990s. In addition to the trio, Richard can be heard playing DADGAD guitar and tenor banjo with the traditional Irish group Tipsy House, and as a duo with Erin at contra dances throughout the Bay Area. Richard has backed up legendary Irish performers including Tommy Peoples, Gerry O'Connor, Jerry O'Sullivan, and Andrew MacNamara. Richard can be heard on Tipsy House's recent CD, "Sets in the City," Radim Zenkl's latest recording, "Restless Joy," and a soon-to-be-released CD from singer Christa Burch. Richard teaches Irish guitar at the Lark in the Morning music festival, and most recently at the Summer Solstice Music Festival.
