Steep Ravine, Patchy Sanders

STEEP RAVINE'S soulful tunes and fiery instrumentals take roots and acoustic music in compelling new stylistic directions. Blending equal parts poetic lyricism and string-playing ingenuity, the San Francisco-based band has been racking up rave reviews for its debut album of original music, TRAMPIN' ON. During the spring and summer following its release, Steep Ravine gave notable performances at festivals including High Sierra Music Festival, Four Corners Folk Festival, Outside Lands, Strawberry Music Festival, and many more.

Principal lyricist Simon Linsteadt (guitar, lead vocals) and Jan Purat (violin, vocals) began playing music together back in high school in Marin County, later moving on to study music at UC Santa Cruz and the California Jazz Conservatory. They fortuitously met bassist Alex Bice (bass, vocals) through jam sessions in Santa Cruz. Recently, the band has been hard at work with their new record, THE PEDESTRIAN, which is slated to be released the summer 2015. With this project they are diving deeper into their musical roots, bringing in an increasingly wide range of collective influences. The album meanders through folk, jazz, bluegrass, funk, and popular music, and ultimately centralizes around songwriting and collaborative composition. It harnesses Simon's background in songwriting, folk, and jazz composition, Jan's deep relationship to classical and jazz violin, and Alex's tremendous strength as a rock solid acoustic bassist, percussionist, and drummer. "Built on a solid foundation of gifted songwriting, fine singing, and acoustic string dexterity, [Steep Ravine] may well be opening up a whole new stylistic direction for musicians and listeners alike to follow." —Bluegrass Unlimited


The "Seven-Piece Folk Orchestra" weaves the musical traditions of Celtic, Appalachian, Medieval, and Bluegrass while building bridges into the current of today's Folk. The band's three distinct songwriters draw upon these diverse influences to bring forth a new, yet familiar sound that goes beyond categorization.

In the spring of 2013, Patchy Sanders set out to record the most wondrously fresh and unique debut record possible, "& The Wild Peach Forest." This led them into the hands of famed producer and master sound engineer, Sylvia Massy (Johnny Cash, Tom Petty, Tool, Red Hot Chili Peppers). Massy sees working with Patchy Sanders as a milestone in her luminous career, "I've been waiting 14 years to make THIS record!"

Patchy Sanders is a true family band with sisters Dani and Jacqui Aubert, their partners Ian Van Ornum and Dan Sherrill, and good friends Sara Wilbur, Eric Jones, and Alex Patterson. Patchy Sanders plays banjo, mandolin, guitar, bouzouki, fiddle, upright bass, drums, penny whistle, lever harp, sings 4-part harmonies and adds in few more surprises for good measure!

Mason Jennings describes Patchy Sanders live performance: "Great musicianship, harmonies and feel. A really warm vibe that makes wherever you are standing feel like the center of a gypsy caravan."