Keystone Station

KEYSTONE STATION

Keystone Station is a new traditional bluegrass band from Marin County, CA, yet the members of the band are all veterans of the Bay Area music scene. Formed in the winter of 2001 and having made their grand debut at a SRO show at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley in June, the band is already causing a stir in bluegrass circles.

Keystone Station was built upon the duo Keystone Crossing -- Larry Carlin and Claudia Hampe. These two have been performing together since 1996, singing the songs of the brother duos from the early days of country and bluegrass music. They have shared the stage with Ralph Stanley, Peter Rowan, David Grisman, The Laurel Canyon Ramblers, and many others, and they are regulars at the Sweetwater. Last winter they started jamming informally with mandolin player Dana Rath and banjo picker Francis Mougne, with Larry on bass and Claudia on guitar. After working up a couple of sets of material, they then added fiddler Kenny Blacklock to the mix, and just like that Keystone Crossing became Keystone Station.

The repertoire of Keystone Station is based on the songs of such notables as the late Father of Bluegrass, Mr. Bill Monroe, as well as the Stanley Brothers, and Flatt and Scruggs. With haunting three-part harmony, hot instrumental picking on acoustic instruments, Keystone Station is steeped in bluegrass tradition.

Check out their gig schedule on Musi-Cal.

KEYSTONE STATION BAND MEMBERS

Larry Carlin -- one of the founders of the band, Larry is a performer, producer, and writer of bluegrass in the San Francisco Bay Area. Originally from King of Prussia, PA, he has been living in Marin County for 23 years, and he plays standup bass. He performs in four bands, writes a monthly column titled "The Bluegrass Muse" for Bluegrass By The Bay, writes a biweekly e newsletter called "Carltone's Corner," and he produces a monthly show called Bluegrass Gold at Sweetwater in Mill Valley. He is an active member of the International Bluegrass Music Association, and he also handles press and promotion as a committee member for the San Francisco Bluegrass and Old-Time Festival.

Claudia Hampe -- the other founding member of the band, Claudia is from Radnor, PA, and has been in Mill Valley for 30 years. She sang in folk groups in high school, was in the band Rowdy and the Rivets some years back during the Urban Cowboy Scare of the early 1980s, and she also warbles the high parts with The Warblers. Claudia plays rhythm guitar and sings the beautiful parts that make the rest of the Keystone Crossing /Station sound so good.

Dana Rath -- originally from Burlington, CO, and now living in Corte Madera, Dana is one of the real musicians in the band. A founding member of the acclaimed Modern Mandolin Quartet, he started out studying classical guitar before then going to Europe to study with mandolin virtuosos. He has performed with the Berkeley and Louisville Symphonies, as well as the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. When not playing with his quartet, Dana can be found pickin' hot bluegrass licks on the mandolin in this band. Amazingly so, he does not perform under an alias, nor does he wear a disguise.

Francis Mougne -- born and raised in Houston, Texas, Francis moved to the Bay Area in early 1996. At the time he was in a rock & roll band as lead guitarist, but it took less than two years for him to come to his senses and to realize his passion was the banjo. (His neighbors wish he'd stayed with the guitar). Shortly thereafter he helped form a band called the Calico String Band, in which he also plays mandolin. He now lives in Fairfax, and he showed up at the Marin bluegrass jam one night and immediately turned heads with his banjo pickin'. Francis speaks fluent French, and is ready to lead the band on a tour of France, St. Barts, and other former French territories.

Kenny Blacklock -- the newest member of the band, Kenny has been living either in Sausalito or Japan over the past eleven years. Besides playing fiddle (he also plays keyboards, mandolin, musical saw, and viola)(but not in this band), Kenny also is also a music teacher, a member of the folk/rock band The Keepers, and he is the grandson of legendary Bay Area saw player Charlie Blacklock. He speaks, reads and writes Japanese, works as a Japanese translator, and is ready to lead the band on tour of Japan.

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