Michael Dion - Guitar/Harmonica/Vocals - "Some of his songs are reminiscent of the Grateful Dead... while other songs are wails of pain for the sheer exhilarating hell of it."
David Cleaves - Mandolin/Vocals - "He has a rhythm that never gets lost in the mix and a style that can never be forgotten.."
Jed Rosen - Upright Bass/vocals - "Animated and playful where the others are soulful and earnest, Rosen adds high harmonies, low harmonies, and a bit of country corn to the proceedings."
Jon Cumming - Banjo/Dobro/Vocals - "Cumming’s soloing seems to be more about following sound where it leads than displaying a lightning technique in strict time"
Hot Day at the Zoo is a fiercely progressive, 4-piece string band (guitar, mandolin, banjo, upright bass) that's pioneering a new genre of music their fans are calling "ZooGrass"!!! It's a high-energy, gritty-urban-bluegrass with strong elements of folk, rock, blues, ragtime and jazz. Simply put HDATZ embodies what it means to put down your troubles for a while and get caught up in a laid down groove that's sure to bring a smile to your face and a sway to your hips.
Reviews... "Spreading their Celtic, reggae-tinged, down-home, stomping music out across the country, the band that played its first gig at a Lowell Folk Festival is no longer small-town. Selling out the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge for their fifth anniversary in January was proof they are expanding their fan base at home. Serendipitously, as Hot Day At The Zoo hits its stride, a renewed interest in roots music has taken hold across the country. Bands like Hot Buttered Rum String Band are heating up the national circuit with Hot Day in their wake."- Lowell Sun 3/08
"When we think of a hot day at the zoo, we picture lethargic animals and sweating visitors. But this Hot Day at the Zoo is very cool, and anything but lethargic. The frenetic foursome from Lowell peels off a gritty urban-bluegrass sound laced with folk, blues, ragtime, and jazz - a mix their fans call 'ZooGrass'."- Boston Globe 1/08
"The new EP does show a creative leap from Cool As Tuesday. The sound is more diverse, and the arrangements are more tightly meshed. "Gypsy Moon (The Raven)" blends a theme of wanderlust with the supernatural inspiration of Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic masterpiece. Cleaves’s clip-clopping mandolin rhythm drives the story at a speedy, precise trot, and Dion’s vocal and harmonica nod toward the Minnesotan nicknamed Jack Frost. “Outside Looking In” is similarly Dylanesque, though it sounds as if moonshine were also a factor in its ragged-but-right performance. Cumming’s banjo comes to the fore in "The Wheel," a road song that seems like an Appalachian version of the Buddhist cycle of life and death — though with, yes, a considerable helping of whiskey. And then there’s “Lost,” an up-tempo yarn of "a life gone wrong" that has the peppery spirit of an Irish drinking song." - Boston Phoenix 1/08
"HDATZ sprawls and folds in plenty of flavors without making "polyglot" a necessary adjective. And the three-set show is their specialty: build momentum in the first, slay in the second, exhaust in the third. Everyone goes home tired and satisfied, and each song makes the beer taste a little bit better."Jambands.com 2/07
"Acoustic has never sounded so electric! At first, Lowell 'bluegrass' band Hot Day at the Zoo looks like a bluegrass band. The instruments are bluegrass (all strings). The fast-paced, finger-pickin' tunes start out sounding like bluegrass. Even the slight drawl in singer Mike Dion's voice seems like traditional bluegrass. But listen a wee bit longer and it is anything but." Boston Globe 8/06
"After listening to the Zoo live, you quickly get a sense that the conventions of traditional bluegrass and its cousin old-time music matter less to the band members than the directness and adaptability of the string band format. HDATZ creates a musical space with plenty of room for personal songwriting, musical virtuosity, hollerin and carryin on." The Middlesex Beat 7/06
"Bluegrass youngbloods, Hot Day at the Zoo, respect the musics tradition but tug the genre in ways Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs never expected!" Boston Pheonix 1/06
"Coming from a state that managed to produce both New Kids on the Block and Aerosmith within the same ten mile radius, we should have been prepared for the day when four nice Massachusetts boys would rock out with bluegrass instruments and form a band thats destined to become a powerful musical demigod: HOT DAY AT THE ZOO" The Pulse 1/06
"Hard to believe a band with so much cracked corn soul is from Massachusetts. There’s homebrewed magic here and returning for more swigs has only convinced me further of its kick. Take notice, Hot Day is gonna be around for a while!" JamBase 12/05
"What a treat for the ears this disc is! Its undeniably bluegrass but with a very young feel. Songs about whiskey-drinkin Irishmen, songs of leaving and coming home, lonesome songs of heartache and women with long black hair, and of course, songs about mama. Hot Day at the Zoo has definitely got something going on here!" 168 Magazine 7/05
"With all the complex amalgamations that transform traditional bluegrass music into 21st century fusion mutations of itself - slamgrass,' jazzgrass,' and newgrass' among the curious nomenclatures - it's refreshing to find a band (local, no less) that can deftly combine the music with other influences without fundamentally erring from its basic, deceptively simple all-strings ensemble ethos."Patriot Ledger 2/05
"'Cool as Tuesday' is an ode to Lowell, women and whiskey. But it's not all raucous fun. There's a hint of melancholy in their tone and style, especially on ballads like Lonesome 49er."Lowell Sun 1/05
"Superbly recorded and played 'Cool as Tuesday' gives a whole new generation of listeners a taste of music from a time long gone by from a group of talented musicians that could very well be reincarnated. Good stuff!"Metronome Magazine 3/05
"You need to drive on this album, loving where youre headed and unable to wait for your destination, yet appreciating the anticipation Its the perfect sound track for leaving or going home, wherever that place you feel comfortable enough to call home is."Outlet Magazine 2/05
WHAT: STERLING STAGE STRING FLING WHEN: July 3-6, 2008 WHERE: STERLING STAGE, 274 Kent Rd, Sterling NY 13156 WHO: 7/3 - Tim Herron and Charley Orlando 7/4 - Boris Garcia, Hot Day At The Zoo, Free Grass Union, Jamie Notarthomas, Jatoba, more 7/5 - Jazz Mandolin Project, Gordon Stone Band, Dana Monteith & the Flying Jays, Appalachian Still, Cabinet, more 7/6 - Love Volcanoes, more tba
"The String Fling is a celebration of the growing popularity of modern music inspired by traditional American roots. Bluegrass, Appalachian, and Country & Western are all influences, but this is hardly your grandfathers music. Inspired more by Jerry Garcia and Old and In The Way then by Bill Monroe (please forgive us) and by such national festivals as San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and the Austin City Limits Fest, the String Fling brings this concept to Upstate NY and the rest of the Northeast. An event where bluegrass, newgrass, jamgrass, alt. country, appalachian, singer/songwriters, string jazz, and a bunch of otherwise uncategorized stuff all blends together seamlessly."
Oswego County's Sterling Stage is an old Christmas tree farm that began hosting live music events in 1995. In the past 13 years, Sterling Stage has presented Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, Grammy winners, bluegrass legends, and legendary guitar heroes, along with hundreds of regional and local musicians. Past performers include Dickey Betts, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Vassar Clements, New Riders of The Purple Sage, Donna Jean Godchaux Band, Merl Saunders, Commander Cody and Jonathon Edwards just to name a few. Sterling Stage is located 15 minutes west of Oswego, and is only a few miles from Lake Ontario.
C'mon now, I know you guys wanna jam some Emmit Otter's Jug-band Christmas!? go to our profile and pick along . . . "with a perty girl dancin to jug-band music"
