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A BIT ABOUT US

The Roe Family Singers are a good-time, old-time, hillbilly band. What started as the husband-and-wife duo of Kim and Quillan Roe has now grown into a band that can comprise as few as 2 musicians or as many as 9! Whether it's a large group or small, you're always going to have a good time, as they play a mix of music from Bill Monroe to the Misfits, Hank Williams to Patsy Cline, and their own songs, too. Contact us at pappyroe(at)yahoo(dot)com

In 2006 Kim was voted Best Female Vocalist by our local indie paper The City Pages. February 14, 2010 we won the 28th Annual Battle of the Jug Bands, to be crowned best jug band of the year, beating out 18 other bands. Contact us at pappyroe(at)yahoo(dot)com

We love playing shows. We tour whenever we can, seeing the rest of the country and meeting new folks. You should have us at your next festival, event, or show. Contact us at pappyroe(at)yahoo(dot)com

We love playing at weddings. You should hire us for yours! Contact us at pappyroe(at)yahoo(dot)com

We dream of performing on/at Prairie Home Companion, the Grand Old Opry, Merlefest, and Mountain Stage some day. We also aspire to meet Willie Nelson, Pete Seeger, Dolly Parton, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Raffi, Ella Jenkins, and Elizabeth Mitchell. Contact us at pappyroe(at)yahoo(dot)com

In the blog there are links to live recordings made of us over the past few years. Check them out and let us know what you think, please. Contact us at pappyroe(at)yahoo(dot)com

We have played shows with Doc Watson, Ralph Stanley, Mike Seeger, Spider John Koerner, Del McCoury, Dale Watson, Robbie Fulks, Charlie Parr, Mountain Heart, Monroe Crossing, Becky Schlegel, the Stairwell Sisters, Pert Near Sandstone, and the House of Mercy Band. We've played the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day Walkathon, Hurricane Katrina benefits, events for Accessability (a non-profit org. that helps folks with disabilities find work), farmers' markets, elementary schools, daycares, and grocery stores. We've talked at colleges and given seminars and workshops. We've played weddings, funerals, birthday parties, and anniversaries. Contact us at pappyroe(at)yahoo(dot)com

REVIEWS

February 5, 2010

If you overheard someone talking about a family band rocking out on autoharps, kazoos, washboards and banjos, it would be hard not to stick them in a category with the likes of Beverly Hillbillies and Lester’s Possum Park from A Goofy Movie. However, if you took the time to look into The Roe Family Singers and listen to a few of their songs, it would quickly become clear that they belong alongside bluegrass greats such as Flatt and Scruggs and award-winning family band Cherryholmes. Begun as the husband-and-wife duo of Kim and Quillan Roe, the band now ranges in size from the original two to as many as nine musicians. Instruments such as a musical saw (perfect for murder ballads and ghost stories) to a Dobro guitar create the unique old-time, good-time, hillbilly sound of The Roe Family Singers. Currently taking advantage of Minneapolis’ diverse music scene, the band aims to someday awe audiences at the Grand Old Opry with their washboards, fiddles and down-to-earth musical talent. But for now, they're all ours.

Ellen Burkhardt, http://metromag.com/0p124b14be333/kazoos-fiddles-and-jugs-331-club/

June 1, 2009

The Roe Family Singers are a Minneapolis eight-piece band that blends old-time music with indie sensibilities into sparse, subtly beautiful arrangements which underscore the vocals of Kim and Quillan Roe. A unique attribute is the musical saw which sets the mood of the murder ballads, ghost stories and tales of desperation. Also contributing to the eerie sound is traditional instrumentation that includes guitar, fiddle, bass, washboard, jug, banjo, autoharp and dobro. The Earth and All That is in It is a fresh take on traditional music that provides an immersive and intense listening experience.

J. Felton, http://www.recorddept.com/

May 22, 2009

Quillan Roe first made his name in the Twin Cities music scene in the mid-’90s as lead singer of Accident Clearinghouse, a group that played straight-up old-school country music long before it was safe to take the prefix “alt” off the genre and explore traditional sounds again. These days, he fronts Roe Family Singers with his wife Kim, playing every Monday at the 331 Club. The Singers deal in backwoods-style country on banjo, autoharp, and saw that’s both invitingly sweet and a bit eerie—the more so when their excellent disc The Earth And All That Is In It explores topics like cocaine addiction and being torn apart by starving wolves. Fans of The Handsome Family should take note.

Decider Twin Cities, http://twincities.decider.com/events/roe-family-singers,88249/

May 18, 2009

The Musical Saw

It must be many years since I last heard a musical saw, perhaps on a TV programme like Opportunity Knocks in the 70s. It seemed like a purely novelty instrument and just made a funny noise.

So, I was a little surprised to hear that warbly sound on the album “The Earth and All That Is In It” by The Roe Family Singers. You would imagine a band with that name, and a predeliction for banjo music and musical saw to be just a cutesy bunch of hicks from the sticks. But, have no fear, once again I have gone to visit Gothic Country. It’s the sort of place where the dead bodies rise from the ground if you don’t bury them deep enough. Many of the tracks wouldn’t sound out of place on a “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou” soundtrack album but the extra lyrical twists (and an entrancing female voice) make it very special.

The musical saw is used on some of the strongest tracks. On Shallow Grave it becomes the spooky backdrop that evokes the dark creepiness of back yards where zombies might roam. White Horse is a grim tale of Heroin addiction and some of its affects (killing an unborn child for example) and the musical saw adorns it like a wasp that won’t go away. The closest equivalent I can think of to the way the musical saw is used here is Eno in Roxy Music or Allen Ravenstine in Pere Ubu and the way they used un-musical sysnthesiser noise to unsettle the listener.

Dave Home, www.coolnoise.co.uk/2009/05/18/the-musical-saw.html

March 26, 2009

RTM music review: Roe v Brownbird

...More than a decade later people continue to use the raw clay of the past to mold new sounds, shapes, and identities. Two new-ish discs recently were sent to me that represent what I feel are different schools of the genre. Both of the discs feature well-crafted, clever songs performed entirely on acoustic instruments with sounds, cadences, and structures that mirror post-war American folk music. The first disc of the pair that I listened to was The Earth and All That is in It by The Roe Family Singers out of Minneapolis. The RFS are a group centered around the husband and wife duet of Kim and Quillan Roe. For this recording they are joined by a group of players using instruments ranging from the standard guitar and bass to the traditional washboard and jug to the more ethereal musical saw. The music on this album is clean and crisp. The instrumental parts are executed with care and precision, providing an interesting contrast to the recurring semi-apocalyptical lyrics speaking of topics of death, murder, and environmental disaster. The vocal performances are compelling, if slightly derivative. I found myself growing particularly fond of the song “My Heart Took to the Earth,” with its imagery and soothing music...

Wally Marx, http://receivethemusic.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/rtm-music-review-roe-v-brownbird/

March 05, 2009

Freshly dug old-time.

8 out of 10

The stark pseudo-woodcuts of the sleeve and perhaps self-consciously macabre song titles such Shallow Grave initially suggest that the Roe Family Singers might be another addition to the increasingly clichéd canon of Gothic Americana. Yet whilst they assuredly have some leanings in this direction, especially thematically, opening track The Buckeye Tree immediately dispels any fears that we're going to be subjected to a further collection of scratchy dirges desperately trying to invoke the otherworldly primitivism of Roscoe Holcombe by way of The Handsome Family.

Indeed, what is remarkable is how ebullient much of this album sounds, even when the song concerns a party of pioneers beset by wolves in the snow. Minor key songs such as My Poor Boy or the aforementioned Shallow Grave possess a propulsive quality which never palls and only the ghostly keening of a musical saw throughout hints at the lyrical darkness. As a consequence, many tracks acquire a genuinely spiritual potency such as the infectious call-and-response of Woe Is Me whilst White Horse, the only overtly threnodic piece here, retains its capacity to move.

In addition to the sheer energy of many of the songs, the album owes much to the luminous vocals of Kim and Quillan Roe, whose harmonies together are so natural you'd think they were siblings rather than husband and wife. Combined with the earthy, organic sound of the instrumentation, especially the autoharp and dobro, it produces an immersive warmth which exists in an unusual but invigorating tension with the lyrical imagery. There are few missteps, mainly two rather simplistic and uninteresting instrumentals, but otherwise this is a surprisingly vibrant rendering of the old-time tradition.

Kai Roberts, www.americana-uk.com

February 27, 2009

Got the record today, played two tracks on the show and people asked about it !!! It's a great recording, a winner of a recording. It's really brilliant: the saw playing and vocals make this so haunting yet compelling I'm so completely impressed with the album and I think it's going to see some good air.

Chris Darling, host of "Us Folk," WMPG 90.9 & 104.1 FM, Portland, ME

February 20, 2009

Recieved the CD you sent! I wanted to say thanks first off and second....I LOVE THIS ALBUM!!!!

Amy Teague, WGOT 94.7 LP FM, Gainesville, FL

SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2009

Best Newcomers of 2008

This "Best of 2008" post celebrates the best newcomers of the year, in recognition of each finalist's release of an artistically (if not commercially) succcessful debut album…

The Roe Family Singers - The Earth And All That Is In It (self) - this Minneapolis band blends old-time music with modern indie folk to make sparse, subtly beautiful music that underscores the fine singing of Kim and Quillan Roe; especially unique and engaging is the musical saw performance by Adam Wirtzfeld throughout this album, as it helps to set the mood for these murder ballads and similar fare without ever becoming a novelty.

http://radiofreeamericana.blogspot.com/2009/01/best-newcomers-of-2008.html

New Adds, Festival Radio, January 10, 2009

I got an amazing disk in the mail this week from a Minneapolis-area band called the Roe Family Singers. Describing them as gothic old-timey doesn’t really go far enough. The songs feature original murder ballads and musical saw amidst the banjo and autoharp. Among the musical topics:

-Starving wolves come down out of the mountains in the snow and attack a couple
-A wife kills her husband and is haunted by him because she could only bury him two feet in the earth (moral - if you do’em in, bury’em deep!)
-A woman loses her unborn baby because of her cocaine habit and turns to prostitution for money to support her habit.

If you like Gillian Welch, Charlie Louvin, the Handsome Family or Red Molly, you have to check these guys out.

http://www.onlinefolkfestival.com/blog/2009/01/10/the-roe-family-singers/

SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 2009

Shallow Grave :: Roe Family Singers

My first band of choice for Local Music Month is the Roe Family Singers, one of my favorite Twin Cities bands… Their sound comes from a different time and place, heavily influenced by old American folk, bluegrass, and roots music. If I imagine a family vacation to old Appalachia with the Carter family, it sounds a lot like the Roe Family Singers.

You can catch them every Monday night at the 331 Club, a great little corner bar up in NE Minneapolis. Playing a combination of their own songs and covering classic old-timey tunes from Hank Williams to June Carter Cash to old American folk, they are always a total pleasure to watch. And they are darn nice. Really. I've met members of the band, and these are good people. Always free and always guaranteed to please, I totally recommend hitting up one of these shows.

I'm choosing the song "Shallow Grave", from their 2005 self-released EP Andronicus. There's nothing quite like a song about a jilted woman killing her husband, especially when it includes the bone-chilling whir of a saw.

Support those local artists!

XOXO
Kim

http://asongfortheday.blogspot.com/

BEST VOCALIST (FEMALE) Kim Roe

Like fellow prairie bohemians Haley Bonar and Sara Softich, or Texas cult diva Jolie Holland, the Roe Family Singers are the new wave of old-time. They play traditional-sounding originals rooted in bluegrass, folk, and genres once labeled "hillbilly" and "race" when they were 78s—but with a streak of self-conscious spookiness. Comics artist Adam Wirtzfeld plays musical saw behind married singers Kim and Quillan Roe (the latter of Accident Clearinghouse), and the trio expands with other instrumentalists live. The effect of the saw, on the hand-to-hand 2005 EP Andronicus, is like hearing the wind whistle through a living-room jam. Yet even more striking are Kim's lead vocals, absent from recent shows as she travels abroad. The singer is soulful without melisma, perfectly in key without pushing, and vaguely Southern-sounding—she's like a soft-focus Dolly Parton. In other words, she's an earthy, modern natural among aficionados, which makes the minor-key cocaine tale of "White Horse" (no, not the Laid Back song) convincing and felt in its first-person narrative, rather than exotic or gothic. Listen for big things.

http://www.citypages.com/bestof2006/sexdrugsrocknroll/bestof2839.asp

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