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LATEST NEWS: KINDLING STONE DEBUT CD NOW AVAILABLE ON CD BABY and iTUNES. TO PURCHASE, GO TO: http://cdbaby.com/cd/kindlingstone

Check out the Kindling Stone feature and podcast at RockOm.net

BIO:

Two-hundred-year-old American sacred songbooks might not be the most obvious place to go looking for guidance on how to find balance in the fast-paced, multi-cultural, high-tech, war-torn, money-driven, political, world of today.

But Kindling Stone members Chris Moore and Mark Wingate found just that in a bounty of wise words and powerful melodies from two early-American musical traditions: The Sacred Harp and The United Society of Shakers. These traditions (which blossomed during the 18th and 19th centuries and both continue today) respond to some of the same questions that Kindling Stone explore in their own compositions - questions about community, aging and death, love, family, peace, discipline, nature, prayer and meditation.

Kindling Stone’s musical influences are also decidedly eclectic - bluegrass, folk, old-time, country, rock, sacred, and several world music traditions are all part of the landscape. Added to the mix are Mark’s collection and interest in early American hymnals, along with Chris’s study of Buddhist and Quaker teaching and practice.

As a result, the eponymous debut recording from this Nashville-based group harkens back to the early roots of the American musical spirit. At the same time, it leans forward into the growing spiritual pluralism of contemporary culture. This is a place of congregation, where the divine is found in the ordinary, and the natural world informs the inner journey. The sound is that of a simpler time - fiddle, mandolin, and reed organ – while the voices ask the listener to consider the ancient, timeless, poetic, and philosophical.

Chris Moore (voice, mandolins, reed organ) grew up in Maine. He began studying piano at age seven and classical violin at age ten. After receiving his degree in acting from Skidmore College in 1984, he moved to New York City, where he worked as a performance artist, musician, puppeteer, and on the staff of the Arts at St. Ann’s concert series in Brooklyn. While in New York, he studied with mandolin master with Andy Statman. In 1989, he returned to Maine and founded the band Rust Farm with Boston guitarist John McGann. Rust Farm released two albums, the second produced by bluegrass great Tim O’Brien in 2000. Chris has composed, performed, and recorded music for dance, film, and television. He has performed as a classical soloist, and was awarded a Maine Artist Fellowship in 2001. His songs have been recorded and performed by Adrienne Young, Mark Erelli, Rani Arbo, Carol Noonan, Northern Lights, Dennis Brennan, and others. He moved to Nashville in 2003.

“Chris Moore is simply an amazing songwriter” – Dave Palmatier, WUMB, Boston

“Moore’s poetic verse, in particular, is strange and arresting. His spiritual ballad ‘Closer’ is a gem.” Acoustic Guitar Mag.

Mark Wingate (voice, fiddle) grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the Carter Family, the Monroe Brothers, and Mainer's Mountaineers had all played, but it was the urban folk boom and the Beverly Hillbillies theme that got him interested in the banjo, then the guitar and mandolin. He found that the Salvation Army had a small house full of nothing but books and old 78 rpm records. There he found the Delmore Brothers, DeFord Bailey, Django Reinhardt, the Heavenly Gospel Singers, and much more. Two neighborhood friends took up instruments. Five years later, they had somehow evolved into a four-piece band, Chicken Hot Rod. By that time, fiddle had become his main instrument. They played for several years on the coffeehouse circuit, which took them to colleges from New York to Minnesota to Louisiana to South Carolina and points in between. After the group disbanded in 1973, Mark married Sally Davis, an accomplished bluegrass banjo player. They settled in Winston-Salem, NC, raised a family and continued to play music with area bluegrass bands and for the local contradances. Their daughter Sarah's songwriting prompted them to move to Nashville in 1996. They still play as much music as they can get away with, which includes playing regularly for the Nashville contradance group with their band The Contrarian Ensemble.