Hand On The Plow

Fast Rattler made it's debut on the 2009 Grammy-nominated album Singing Through the Hard Times: A Tribute to Utah Phillips, which included artists like Emmylou Harris, Ani DiFranco, Pete Seeger and Tom Paxton paying their respects at the passing of one of Folk music's activist heroes. Fronted by Utah's son Brendan, Fast Rattler dug deep into Utah's extensive catalogue, crafting their own versions of his songs and setting his poems to music. Fast Rattler's full-length debut Linger On: Celebrating the Songs of Utah Phillips, was released in 2011 to wide acclaim, as they toured throughout the US and Canada, earning slots at major folk festivals including the Kate Wolf Memorial Folk Festival. The band's follow-up EP, 'Hands on the Plow, focuses on original material and new arrangements of traditional folk songs. While Utah's music will always be a part of Fast Rattler's repertoire, the band has won audiences over with their own original material and renditions of cherished classics. Most significantly, Fast Rattler has been invited to contribute an original track to the upcoming Occupy This Album, a compilation of songs inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement, featuring artists from Willie Nelson and Steve Earle to Third Eye Blind and Thievery Corporation. Fast Rattler weaves vocal harmonies with banjo, fiddle, guitars, and pedal steel, and a rock 'n' roll rhythm section into a musical tapestry equally capable of bringing audiences to their feet as melting their hearts with stories of disaster, struggle and love lost. Blending traditional American folk, bluegrass, Irish and Gypsy music with elements of jazz, swing, and rock, their performance evidences a genre-bending, quicksilver grace that nods to forebears ranging from Pete Seeger and Dave Van Ronk to Tom Waits and Wilco.