"Shooting sparks in the face of folk traditionalism, the quintet approaches the banjo and mandolin with a level of brash recklessness hardly heard since the now-mythical reign of Uncle Tupelo. Bill Monroe and Joe Strummer would both be proud." - San Francisco Bay Guardian
"On Duluth, the band runs a thin line among blazing breakdowns as much indebted to the Ramones as Flatt & Scruggs, teary country blues, and brittle folk, all laced with stray shards of jazz and rock." - City Pages Minneapolis
Trampled by Turtles is an acoustic quintet from Duluth, MN. Based on their instrumentation, the initial instinct is to view the band as a bluegrass or new-grass outfit, but spend more than a cursory moment with their music and it’s clear this tag doesn’t really fit. Trampled by Turtles exist beyond the box of categorization. For those who are simply fans of music, not bound by rules or forms, Trampled by Turtles take pieces of it all and just play from the heart. Call it alt-bluegrass, nontraditional string, indi-folk, rock-grass, punk-grass or anything else, they don’t care what name you put on it, just show up with an open mind and it won’t be long until you fall under their spell. Like all of us, where they were raised has influenced what they are and these guys didn’t grow up in southern roots country, they come from way up north where folks do it a little different.
TBT came together in 2003 when several local bands fell apart around the same time. Bandleader/vocalist/songwriter/guitarist Dave Simonett began playing with mandolin player Erik Berry as an acoustic duo at which point they met banjoist Dave Carroll. Soon they picked up bass player Tim Saxhaug and “just kind of started jamming in living rooms and playing for fun” explains Simonett. “It was kind of like a side project, and then eventually everybody else’s band split up so we started doing this one full-time.”
But here’s the key to understanding Trampled by Turtles: This is their first string band. “The instrumentation was different. None of us had played in an acoustic group before” says Simonett. And that’s why this isn’t a bluegrass band, all those other groups they came from were rock bands and they still play with that plugged-in intensity, only now they’re doing it with acoustic instruments and beautiful, high-lonesome vocal harmonies. When was the last time you saw crowd surfing brought on by an acoustic string band without any drums?
Constantly touring, Trampled By Turtles have criss-crossed the country more times than they can count, sharing the stage with stalwarts like LOW, Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven and Billy Joe Shaver to name a few. They’ve also been invited to festivals such as Rothbury, 10,000 Lakes, Wakarusa and Pickathon.
