Live from the Boom Room is a live music video series featuring live performances recorded in the Blip Blap Video HQ bunker in St. Louis, Mo. Learn more about Blip Blap Video at blipblapvideo.com, or follow them on Instagram and YouTube.
Live from the Boom Room’s final season kicks off with the heartfelt harmonies of The Mighty Pines performing their original “Nantucket.” Stay tuned as we release our remaining nine episodes every two weeks.
About this week’s artist:
They are the band that puts the wildcat guitar in the jazzgrass, the electric mandolin in the country-reggae, the three-part harmony in the zydeco-folk, and the contrapuntal bass in the jump-blues jamboree. It’s the Mighty Pines, the butt-kickingest band in Americana that has made national splashes by way of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, NBC’s The Voice, collaborations with the legendary Michael McDonald and Yonder Mountain String Band’s Allie Kral, and their own booming roots-music festival, Pines Fest.
The St. Louis-based Mighty Pines have barnstormed the country with their almighty musicality, gorgeous ambrosial melodies, pass-the-chillum string shredding, consciousness-expanding grassedelica, and electric roots-rock fire. Nobody brings it live like the Pines, as the quartet continues to wow audiences by bringing their superb original material to life with daredevil picking, sophisticated arrangements, and aorta-exploding melodic charge.
The Pines’ singer/guitarist Neil Salsich went nationwide during the 2023 season of The Voice, setting the stage ablaze with a four-chair judges turnaround during his blind audition and going on to the show’s playoff rounds. Salsich has since continued to be one of roots music’s most highly coveted collaborators, lauded for his silvery tenor, boundless stylistic range, magnetic stage personality, and sizzling acoustic guitar runs.
Multi-instrumentalist Gerard Erker brings fireside vocals, kaleidoscopic mandolin, breakneck banjo, and mountain-soul fiddle to the Pines’ genre-fluid tapestry. Extraordinary bassist John Hussung is a master of melodicism, a virtuoso of technique and feel, and a smooth shapeshifter of rock, jazz, country, reggae, and funk styles. Highly decorated drummer Mike Murano is a much sought-after studio ace and a creator of dynamic rhythmic approaches and in-the-pocket propulsion, playing with incredible power and dexterity.
Together, the Mighty Pines are deft instrumentalists and genre archivists who use their encyclopedic repertoire of rock and roots music to create an eclectic sound all their own as heard on their dazzling studio albums, including 2017’s Lonesome Blues and 2020’s Late Last Night. Last year’s single “Thank You” demonstrates the Pines’ trademark blend of tender soul, bucolic stomp, soothing melodies, and Salsich’s twilight vocals, creating literary, mandolin-abetted testaments to romantic yearning and shared experiences.
What brought you to this point in your life as a working St. Louis artist?
Hard work. Lots of gigs. Long nights, long drives. Trust in the process and faith in the dream. And a willingness to quit our day jobs!
What inspires your music? What does this song in particular mean to you?
Travel is a big inspiration for us. That, and learning the music of the masters. This song is called “Nantucket” and was directly inspired by both our frequent travels to Nantucket and the “Open C” guitar tuning we learned from the songs of David Wilcox.
Who in St. Louis are you inspired by right now?
JigJam is killing it right now and they inspire us to hit the road more.
What bands are you touring with lately?
We really enjoy teaming up with Aaron Kamm & The One Drops—they are truly one of the best and most original-sounding groups we’ve ever played with.
Where do you hope to be in 5 years?
Onstage at Red Rocks!
Links:
Website | Facebook | Instagram
Season 5 of Live from the Boom Room is coming to you with no sponsorship or financial support. Help keep Live from the Boom Room an absolutely free service for musical artists by supporting the project with your donation here: https://paypal.me/blipblap and like and subscribe on YouTube to keep the content coming.
