Bio

Montana-born guitarist, singer, bouzouki player and teacher Lindsay Straw found her musical home in Boston’s vibrant local Celtic music scene while studying at Berklee, where she added the influence and music of the Irish session world to her folk revival inspirations (Renbourn, Jansch, Graham, Bensusan). While she continues to draw from the deep well of traditional Celtic music, in recent years she’s been embracing American roots music and blending style and songs from both sides of the Atlantic. She can be found playing all over New England and beyond, not only solo but with bands The New Grown-Ups (modern American roots) and The Ivy Leaf (Celtic). With three - soon to be four! - albums and countless festival, club, and private event gigs under her belt, Lindsay has been heralded as a reincarnation of the legendary trad singers of eras past.

Lindsay has also spent the last five years in the boutique guitar world, working closely with some of the world’s best modern luthiers to promote their work at shops like The Music Emporium, Cedar Rock Studio & Guitar Gallery, and The North American Guitar (now Carter Vintage).

Instruments:

Lindsay is a Jewitt Guitars artist, playing a Jewitt 00-13c redwood and walnut, as well as a Blind Guitars artist, playing a B-26 Indian rosewood and Adirondack spruce and a 12-fret B-26 mahogany and Alpine spruce. She also plays a Brondel A-2 cocobolo and Carpathian spruce, and a Fylde long-scale archtop bouzouki in spruce Indian rosewood.

Press

"With a voice as bold and beguiling as the songs she chooses, Straw carries the torch of traditional folk music with striking elegance and a fierce breath of originality . . . Beyond the songs, Straw’s passion for the history of the music is matched only by her seemingly limitless abilities. The charming anecdotes of the people behind the songs bridge the gap between past and present, connecting listeners to a Celtic past in order to make sense of the future."

- Spencer Brown, Triad City Beat

"A voice! By turns husky and sultry, clear and bright, controlled and dreamy; with hints of Cara Dillon and Geraldine Hollett, Lindsay Straw’s beautiful voice shines out in this delightful debut album . . . The combination of a youthful sound and 10 traditional songs - all arranged and performed by Lindsay - hearken back to more innocent times, of Greenwich Village and pure folk.”

- The Living Tradition

"All of the traditional material here is thoughtfully arranged and skillfully sung and performed. Straw sings in a clear, soft, mid-register vocal with crystal diction and subtle modulation that pays attention to the storytelling. She has the perfect ballad-singer's voice."

- fRoots

"While the familiarity of these songs could lead to a feeling of déjà vu, Straw's vocals elevate this and makes it feel as fresh as if you are hearing these for the first time. She has an incredible warmth and depth to her voice that draws you in and refuses to let you go. Not that you'll want to be released. While the music is strictly traditional, the vocals are anything but."

- FATEA

"Hard to understand how a young woman can interpret so implicitly the rich old music of an era hundreds of years before her time. Yet, here she is - almost a reincarnation of many of the female singers who carried on this tradition."

- No Depression