Bluegrass Holiday plays everything from get-up-out-of-your-seat-and-dance fiddle tunes to soulful country cry-in-your-beer ballads. Their repertoire draws heavily from pillars of bluegrass such as the Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe, and Red Allen, while mixing in various old-time fiddle tunes and songs. Hailing from Mill Valley, San Rafael, Novato, Santa Cruz, and Petaluma, this all-women group features Tonya Newstetter on guitar, Karen Wilhoyte on bass, Amy Kassir on fiddle, Sonia Shell on banjo, and Mary Kussmaul on mandolin. All five women sing lead and harmony parts for tight bluegrass vocal arrangements. Members of the band play or have played in numerous California bluegrass bands, including the Hossettes, Sidesaddle, The All-Girl Boys, The Goat Hill Girls, Old Belle, Hydra-Matic Drive, B*Craft, Solid Gold Stranger, and Lucky Drive Bluegrass Band. Bluegrass Holiday plays for bluegrass fans around the North Bay and beyond, appearing frequently at favorite North Bay and San Francisco bluegrass spots. They are traditional in repertoire, instrumentation, and vocal arrangement, if not in the keys they choose for the songs. Whether they are singing a lyrical trio arrangement of “East Virginia Blues” or diving headlong into “Squirrel Hunters,” Bluegrass Holiday will surely bring a show you won’t want to miss.
