Folkworks Magazine voted Susie Glaze & The Hilonesome Band into the top 10 of "Folkworks' Top Ten Live Acoustic Bands in Southern California for 2008" writing "Susie is justifiably endorsed by Appalachian music legend Jean Ritchie, and the band has a fine repertoire of beyond-bluegrass originals from its chief songwreiter, Rob Carlson. They can take you up in the hollars, or sound like a female-fronted Asleep at the Wheel." (Larry Wines for Folkworks). This is the best in New Bluegrass to Appalachia Folks Roots Fusion, an experience of gorgeous eclectic blends of mountain folk and exciting new bluegrass-inspired originals, all with the remarkable voice of Susie Glaze. Winner of the Just Plain Folks 2006 Music Award for Best Roots Album, and Folkwors Magazine's Pick for Best Bluegrass Album of 2005 for "Blue Eyed Darlin'", Susie's Hilonesome Band is Steve Rannkin on mandolin, Rob Carlson on guitar and dobro, Mark Indictor on fiddle and Fred Sanders on bass, a band formed to showcase the original songwriting of lead guiartist Rob Carlson. Their show features work from their critically-acclaimed "Green Kentucky Blues" (produced by Bluegrass favorite Laurie Lewis), award-winning "Blue Eyed Darlin'" and classics from Susie's debut solo album "Home On the Hill," along with mountain standares from the Jean Ritchie collection, favorites from Gillian Welch and Steve Earl. Marvin O'Nell of Classicheartland.com writes: "Susie Glaze does something with a song that only great singers can do...she grabs hold of song's deepest emotion and purpose and wraps it tightly around your soul" and Bluegrass Unlimited calls her "an important voice on the California Bluegrass scene." "Susie Glaze has one of the most beautiful voices in bluegrass and folk music today. She performs a song straight from ehr heart and soul." (KPFK's FolkScene).
Favorite appearances include: The Freight & Salvage Coffee House, Berkeley, California McCabe's Guitar Shop, Santa Monica, CA San Francisco Bluegrass & Old Time Festival The Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival, Tres Pinos, CA Don Quixote's International Music Hall, Santa Cruz The Broad Stage with Billy Bragg, Los Angeles Summersounds at the Bowl, Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles CalTech Folk Music Society WFMT's "Folkstage" with Rich Warren, Chicago Song Tree Concert Series Claremont Folk Music Center and Folk Festival FolkScene with Howard and Roz Larman Folk Alliance Premier Showcase Artists, national and Far West regional events
Broadway actress and singer, award-winning recording artist and critically-acclaimed Bluegrass powerhouse vocalist, Susie Glaze has been called by BLUEGRASS UNLIMITED "...an important voice on the California Bluegrass scene." A native Tennessean, Susie grew up in the shadow of the Grand Ole Opry, learning the craft of country and bluegrass from a short distance by regular immersion of Flatt & Scruggs, Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn among others. When just 16 she sang for her brother Rick's writer's nights song showcases in Nashville. New York audiences saw Susie's Broadway debut when she played the role of the young Southern matriarch Mary Jane Wilkes in the original Broadway company of Roger Miller's musical play "Big River." During her two years with that company, Susie began researching the works of the pioneering artists who developed country, folk and bluegrass music from the early years in America and was led inevitably to the work of The Stanley Brothers, The Carter Family, Bill Monroe, Doc Watson and Jean Ritchie among many others. After relocating to Southern California and joining the bluegrass group The Eight Hand String Band, Susie debuted as a recording artist with the group's 2000 release "The Simple Truth" and was the winner of the Los Angeles 1999 Topanga Banjo and Fiddle Contest and Folk Festival for Traditional Singing. In 2002, Susie's debut solo CD "Home On the Hill" reaped praise from Sing Out! and Bluegrass Unlimited magazines. The following year Susie appeared alongside Jean Ritchie at the Conner Prairie Living History Museum's White River Folk Festival, and in 2004 Susie premiered her new concert piece "The Appalachian Songs of Jean Ritchie" at Southern California music festivals. The year 2003 also saw the formation of The Hilonesome Band with Susie and her husband, mandolinist Steve Rankin, to debut and showcase the work of Santa Clarita songwriter Rob Carlson. Susie's second solo CD "Blue Eyed Darlin'" was released in July 2005 to praise from Bluegrass Unlimited and Folkworks magazines (their top Bluegrass Album of 2005), and won her the Just Plain Folks 2006 Music Award for Best Roots Album. Her concert/theatre piece: "Singing the Moon Up: The Voice of Jean Ritchie" was a critical success in its debut at The Pennsylvania Centre Stage Company at Penn State University in September 2005, and the live soundtrack album of that piece was released in 2007. Susie has just released her third solo CD project "Green Kentucky Blues" produced by Bluegrass legend Laurie Lewis. "Live at the Freight & Salvage" with her Hilonesome Band was released in March 2011. Photo by Patricia Van Over
ROB CARLSON (featured songwriter/lead guitar/dobro/vocals)
Rob Carlson's original songwriting is the centerpiece of the Hilonesome Band's recorded product, with a total of 14 of his songs on their two studio albums. Their "Blue Eyed Darlin'" won the 2006 Best Roots Album award from Just Plain Folks, and Rob's song "Hurricane" was nominated for Best Bluegrass Song of 2006. Rob started playing guitar after hearing the Beatles and was inspired to study with Mickey Zekely who taught him the style of Mississippi John Hurt and Elizabeth Cotten. After discovering country music, Rob formed the bluegrass band "Parsons Trail" with brother James, and soon banjoist Rodger Phillips introduced them to Flatt and Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers and Bill Monroe. Rob began the study of the style of Clarence White and Doc Watson with Barry Solomon and enrolled as a music composition major at Cal State University, Northridge, studying Bach, Brahms, Beethoven and Bartok, and playing bluegrass at night. In 1990, Rob began to write seriously. He states about his award-winning songwriting: "I like to write genre songs – I like to think of myself as a counterfeiter in that if a song sounds absolutely authentic, that you can't tell it wasn't written 150 years ago, or its not a long lost Flatt and Scruggs tune then I consider that to be a success. Every note, every word has to be exactly natural and organic or why bother?" Photo by Cam Sanders STEVE RANKIN (mandolin/Deering Old Time Banjo/guitar/vocals)
Steve Rankin is an actor/director/musician who was born and raised in the American Heartland of Illinois. His musical influences come from a wide spectrum, ranging from big band swing, rock n' roll, to folk and bluegrass. He got his first guitar at age 12 and never looked back, immediately forming a band and playing for Junior High events in the local church basement. His acoustic epiphany occurred with the release of the "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" album. This was the music that opened his eyes to the power of simple complexity and the vast resource of story telling. While living in Tennessee, Steve jammed with local musicians in barber shops and out of the way small country grocery stores, starting his first bluegrass band, Waddy Peytona and the Frogtrotters.In 1980 he moved to Louisville, Kentucky and met Fred Sanders, the two of them becoming life-long friends with music as a fertile ground of expression, which has continued for over thirty years including time spent with The Legend in Their Spare Time Band, The Eight Hand String Band, the show "Feast Here Tonight" in New York and now with Susie Glaze and the Hilonesome Band. In 2006 Steve adapted Jean Ritchie's memoir "Singing Family of the Cumberlands" into the stage show "Singin' The Moon Up: the Voice of Jean Ritchie" and directed its premier at the Pennsylvania Center Stage, a collage of musical theater, concert and story telling. Photo by Chuck Nelson
MARK INDICTOR (fiddle/vocals)
Mark Indictor began his musical and creative journey when he asked his parents for violin lessons at the age of seven. Since that time, Mark has contributed artistically and technically to projects ranging from live theater and film scoring to live and televised concert appearances in both the United States and Europe. His talents encompass music composition, performance, musical direction, production, and post production. Mark's stylistic repertoire is uncommonly eclectic, allowing him to play and improvise freely in virtually any musical style from Traditional Celtic to Chicago Blues, Zydeco to Tejana, Country Swing to Big Band, and much more. Mark was selected as Celtic Fiddle Champion by the Irish News in 1998. Since opening his “Sundog Studio” in 1993, Mark has engineered and produced many local and diverse artists, and continues to appear in performance and on record with several Los Angeles based musical organizations, including "Susie Glaze and the Hilonesome Band", "Merlin Snider and his Pretty Good Acquaintances", "Acadiana", "Josh Rich and Friends", and "Border Radio", among others. Mark continues to refine his style and break new ground with the innovative "Hilonesome Band" featuring the angelic voice of Susie Glaze and the incredible songwriting of Rob Carlson, and other local songwriters. Photo by Mike Melnyk
FRED SANDERS (bass/vocals)
Fred Sanders is a Philadelphia-born actor/director/musician who started playing the bass in rock bands at age 12. In the early 80s Fred first played music with current bandmate Steve Rankin as part of the R&B/Blues Rock band Steve Rankin and the Legend in their Spare Time Band in Louisville, Kentucky. While living in Louisville and working as an actor at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Fred heard Bill Monroe, Jim and Jesse, the New Grass Revival as well as other bluegrass and newgrass greats and was inspired to begin dipping his toes into those styles. In New York Fred was hired for the National Tour of Roger Miller's Huck Finn musical "Big River" and soon after worked alongside Steve Rankin once again, along with Susie Glaze, in an original Off-Broadway Americana/bluegrass musical called "Feast Here Tonight." After relocating to Los Angeles Fred started playing standup bass exclusively, this time with the bluegrass/roots group The Eight Hand String Band, and in 2003 joined Susie's new Hilonesome Band. In December 2010 music and theatre came together once again when Fred was honored to play bass and act with Lyle Lovett and Sara and Sean Watkins (of Nickel Creek fame) in a country-bluegrass version of "Much Ado About Nothing" for Shakespeare Center LA. Photo by Cam Sanders
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Steve Rankin is an actor/director/musician who was born and raised in the American Heartland of Illinois. His musical influences come from a wide spectrum, ranging from big band swing, rock n' roll, to folk and bluegrass. He got his first guitar at age 12 and never looked back, immediately forming a band and playing for Junior High events in the local church basement. His acoustic epiphany occurred with the release of the "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" album. This was the music that opened his eyes to the power of simple complexity and the vast resource of story telling. While living in Tennessee, Steve jammed with local musicians in barber shops and out of the way small country grocery stores, starting his first bluegrass band, Waddy Peytona and the Frogtrotters.In 1980 he moved to Louisville, Kentucky and met Fred Sanders, the two of them becoming life-long friends with music as a fertile ground of expression, which has continued for over thirty years including time spent with The Legend in Their Spare Time Band, The Eight Hand String Band, the show "Feast Here Tonight" in New York and now with Susie Glaze and the Hilonesome Band. In 2006 Steve adapted Jean Ritchie's memoir "Singing Family of the Cumberlands" into the stage show "Singin' The Moon Up: the Voice of Jean Ritchie" and directed its premier at the Pennsylvania Center Stage, a collage of musical theater, concert and story telling.
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Folkworks Magazine voted Susie Glaze & The Hilonesome Band into the top 10 of "Folkworks' Top Ten Live Acoustic Bands in Southern California for 2008" writing "Susie is justifiably endorsed by Appalachian music legend Jean Ritchie, and the band has a fine repertoire of beyond-bluegrass originals from its chief songwreiter, Rob Carlson. They can take you up in the hollars, or sound like a female-fronted Asleep at the Wheel." (Larry Wines for Folkworks). This is the best in New Bluegrass to Appalachia Folks Roots Fusion, an experience of gorgeous eclectic blends of mountain folk and exciting new bluegrass-inspired originals, all with the remarkable voice of Susie Glaze. Winner of the Just Plain Folks 2006 Music Award for Best Roots Album, and Folkwors Magazine's Pick for Best Bluegrass Album of 2005 for "Blue Eyed Darlin'", Susie's Hilonesome Band is Steve Rannkin on mandolin, Rob Carlson on guitar and dobro, Mark Indictor on fiddle and Fred Sanders on bass, a band formed to showcase the original songwriting of lead guiartist Rob Carlson. Their show features work from their critically-acclaimed "Green Kentucky Blues" (produced by Bluegrass favorite Laurie Lewis), award-winning "Blue Eyed Darlin'" and classics from Susie's debut solo album "Home On the Hill," along with mountain standares from the Jean Ritchie collection, favorites from Gillian Welch and Steve Earl. Marvin O'Nell of Classicheartland.com writes: "Susie Glaze does something with a song that only great singers can do...she grabs hold of song's deepest emotion and purpose and wraps it tightly around your soul" and Bluegrass Unlimited calls her "an important voice on the California Bluegrass scene." "Susie Glaze has one of the most beautiful voices in bluegrass and folk music today. She performs a song straight from ehr heart and soul." (KPFK's FolkScene). 
SUSIE GLAZE
ROB CARLSON
