Pine Tree Flyers

The Pine Tree Flyers’ full-length debut album proudly waves the banner of New England (US) roots music. Fundamentally, this fiddle-based acoustic music was derived from the traditional Scots-Irish and Celtic repertoire, which informs most of contemporary old-time, bluegrass and string band playing. What lifts the 11 tracks on Pine Tree Flyers above the fray is a lightness of being, a sweet soulful exuberance and palpable delicacy discernible in the performance and material, which permeates songs such as ‘Lady of the Lake / Lady Walpole / Lady Ann Montgomery’, ‘Elly’s / Îles de la Madeleine’ and ‘Shadows on the Lawn’. All of the members of Pine Tree Flyers – Katie McNally (fiddle), Emily Troll (accordion), Owen Marshall (guitar) and Neil Pearlman (piano) – hail from Portland, Maine, which is in the extreme northeast corner of America. This particular geolocation accounts for the Québécois and Nova Scotian influences in the steadily rollicking rhythm and bright melodic riffing that run through ‘La Bastringue / Joys of Québec’ and ‘Smith’s Reel / Point-au-Pic’. Pine Tree Flyers want to raise what was previously considered mere ‘dance music’ to a place of significance alongside its Americana and Canadiana kin. With this debut, they might well consider their mission accomplished.