The Coal Porters are a British-American bluegrass

Bluegrass music

Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...

 band headquartered in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and led by Sid Griffin (mandolin

Mandolin

A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...

, autoharp

Autoharp

The autoharp is a musical string instrument having a series of chord bars attached to dampers, which, when depressed, mute all of the strings other than those that form the desired chord. Despite its name, the autoharp is not a harp at all, but a chorded zither. -History:There is debate over the...

, harmonica

Harmonica

The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...

 and vocals) and Neil Robert Herd (guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 and vocals) The other members are Carly Frey (fiddle

Fiddle

The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...

, vocals), John Breese (banjo

Banjo

In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...

, vocals), and Andrew Stafford (bass, vocals). Griffin formed the group in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 in 1989 and then reorganized the band after moving to London.

Griffin was a founding member of The Long Ryders

The Long Ryders

The Long Ryders are an American alternative country and Paisley Underground band, principally active between 1983 and 1987, and which reformed in 2004 to do a reunion tour...

, and the author of Shelter From The Storm: Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Years, Million Dollar Bash: Bob Dylan, The Band and The Basement Tapes, co-author of Bluegrass Guitar: Know the Players, Play the Music and Gram Parsons – A Music Biography. He has contributed reviews and feature articles to Mojo

Mojo (magazine)

MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...

, Q

Q (magazine)

Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...

, The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

and appears every six weeks on BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...

 to discuss cultural changes on the Mark Radcliffe-Stuart Maconie Show.

Neil Robert Herd, in addition to his career as a musician, has performed as a comedian, and finished second to Stewart Lee as the Best New Stand-Up Comedian at the Hackney Comedy Awards Festival in 1992. He has also promoted many British comedy, film and music festivals.

Carly Frey has appeared with the Barrage

Barrage (group)

Barrage is a violin-based, modern worldbeat ensemble headquartered in Calgary, Alberta Canada. They are well known, most notably for their innovative blend of violin music and high-energy choreography during their performances...

, performing more than 300 dates a year throughout North America, Europe and Asia. She has also performed with the groups Abbi & Kikwetu, the Hootenannies, Gogo Simo, Jeremy Walsh and is a regular violinist/fiddler for the Soulforce Project.

Bassist Andrew Stafford for years played rockabilly

Rockabilly

Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...

 with the Death Valley Surfers and indie rock with Grandads Don’t Indicate.

Banjoist John Breese has played with ‘Andsome and Some, Miles Apart, Banjo Accelerator, Shoot The Breese, The Wirtzels, The John Breese Trio and Kick Up the Grass.

History

Seven full-length album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

s and two EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

s are credited to the Coal Porters. Their latest release (January 2010) is Durango on the Prima label, distributed in the UK by Proper and in the USA by Burnside. Veteran producer recorded the 12-track album in the Southern Colorado town

Durango, Colorado

The City of Durango is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of La Plata County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau said that the city population was 16,887 in 2010 census.-History:...

 for which the album is named. Tracks include No More Chains, Roadkill Breakdown featuring Tim O’Brien as guest mandolinist, and Peter Rowan’s Moonlight Midnight, with Rowan joining the Coal Porters for the session.

Their preceding CD, Turn The Water On, Boy! (2008), received four-star reviews in Mojo, Uncut

UNCUT (magazine)

Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...

, The Sunday Times, Maverick and Word magazines. The dozen-track album featured original songs by Griffin, Herd and other band members, as well as a bluegrass revamping of the Long Ryders’ Final Wild Son, a cover of former Byrds

The Byrds

The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...

 member Gene Clark

Gene Clark

Gene Clark, born Harold Eugene Clark was an American singer-songwriter, and one of the founding members of the folk-rock group The Byrds....

’s Silver Raven and a guest appearance by another member of the Byrds, Chris Hillman

Chris Hillman

Christopher Hillman was one of the original members of The Byrds which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, and Michael Clarke....

 who played mandolin on a tribute to Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie

Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...

. Earlier bluegrass-style Coal Porters’ albums are How Dark This Earth Will Shine (2004), with Peter Case

Peter Case

Peter Case is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, who has had a wide-ranging career ranging from new wave music to folk rock to solo acoustic performance.-Early career:...

 and Amy Rigby

Amy Rigby

Amy Rigby is an American singer-songwriter. After playing with several New York bands she began a solo career, recording several albums which had only modest sales despite enthusiastic reviews. She settled into a career of touring small venues and private parties while raising a daughter, then...

 as guests, and the live Chris Hillman Tribute Concerts (2001), featuring run-ups of songs from Hillman’s career with the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Manassas

Manassas (band)

Manassas was an American rock band, formed by Stephen Stills in 1971. The nucleus of the band had already backed Stills on his July 1971 album, Stephen Stills 2, and in May 1972, the double album, Manassas, was released. Down The Road was released in 1973, but in October of that year the band split...

 and Desert Rose.

The evolution to bluegrass from country-rock

Country rock

Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...

 occurred after Griffin produced Lindisfarne

Lindisfarne (band)

Lindisfarne were a British folk/rock group from Newcastle upon Tyne established in 1970 and fronted by singer/songwriter Alan Hull. Their music combined a strong sense of yearning with an even stronger sense of fun...

’s Here Comes The Neighborhood album in 1998. Inspired by that band’s acoustic instrumentation, he and Herd worked up bluegrass versions of their Coal Porters’ (and occasional Long Ryders’) repertoire and debuted them successfully at a London charity event for Children in Need at Royal Festival Hall

Royal Festival Hall

The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...

. The band's earlier country-rock albums are the following: the live Gram Parsons Tribute Concert (1999), EP Roulette (1998), Los London (1995), Land of Hope and Crosby (1994) and the initial EP Rebels Without Applause (1991).

Griffin formed The Coal Porters in 1989 following the demise of The Long Ryders

The Long Ryders

The Long Ryders are an American alternative country and Paisley Underground band, principally active between 1983 and 1987, and which reformed in 2004 to do a reunion tour...

. The Coal Porters, like their predecessors, initially demonstrated strong Byrds and Gram Parsons influences, playing country

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 and country-rock songs written by Griffin with occasional collaborators. Before the band’s initial lineup fell into place, a number of Griffin’s musician friends made appearances at early gigs and performed on first recordings, including drummer Greg Sowders from The Long Ryders and Billy Bremner

Billy Bremner (musician)

William "Billy" Bremner is a guitarist best known for his work in the band Rockpile and on many of Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds' albums...

 of Rockpile

Rockpile

Rockpile were a British rock and roll group of the late 1970s and early 1980s, noted for their strong rockabilly and power pop influences, and as a foundational influence on new wave...

.

By 1991, the band had solidified with Griffin on lead vocals and guitar, Chris Buessem lead guitar, Ian Thomson bass, Billy Block drums and Andy Kaulkin keyboards

Keyboard instrument

A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

. Tracks featuring this lineup appeared on the EP Rebels Without Applause, Land of Hope and Crosby and Los London. By then Griffin and Thomson had relocated to the United Kingdom, while Block opted for a career in Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

 and Kaulkin moved to the business side of music to run Epitaph Records

Epitaph Records

Epitaph Records is a Hollywood, California based independent record label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. The label was originally "just a logo and a P.O. box" created in the 1980s for the purpose of selling Bad Religion records, but has evolved into a large independent record...

 and found the ANTI-

ANTI-

ANTI- is an American record label founded in 1999 as a sister label of Epitaph Records.While Epitaph's focus has shifted over the last decade from mostly punk rock, nowadays ANTI- has a more diverse roster, ranging from country , hip hop , reggae , Soul , folk , rap-rock , indie rock...

 label. Subsequent UK members have included Kevin Morris (Dr. Feelgood

Dr. Feelgood

Dr. Feelgood may refer to:In music:*Dr. Feelgood , an album by American band Mötley Crüe**"Dr. Feelgood" , a single and the title track from that album*"Dr. Feel Good", a song by Travie McCoy on the album Lazarus...

), John Bennett (High Llamas), Ian Gibbons

Ian Gibbons

Ian Gibbons is an English keyboardist, most notable for playing with The Kinks.Gibbons began playing the accordion at the age 9, playing in the school band, and solo at music festivals, competitions and charity events. At the age of 14, he started a school rock band, playing guitar and singing...

 (Kinks), and Rob Childs (Otis Lee Crenshaw).

The Coal Porters

Origin Los Angeles, California, USA

Genres Alternative bluegrass

Years active 1989–present

Labels Prima Records, Temple Bar, Zuma, Rubber Records

Associated acts Western Electric, Long Ryders

Website Coal Porters

Members

Sid Griffin

Neil Robert Herd

Carly Frey

Andrew Stafford

John Breese

Former members

Dick Smith

Paul Sandy

Gemma White

Matt Woolvett

Pat McGarvey

Bob Stone

Andy Steele

Rob Childs

Will Morrison

Kevin Morris

Dave Morgan

Ian Gibbons

Graham Chesters

John Bennett

Ian Thomson

Toby Petrie

Chris Buessem

Andy Kaulkin

Billy Block

Henry Nield 'H'

Discography

Rebels Without Applause (1991)

Land of Hope and Crosby (1994)

Los London (1995)

EP Roulette (1998)

Gram Parsons Tribute Concert (1999)

Chris Hillman Tribute Concert (2001)

How Dark This Earth Will Shine (2004)

Turn the Water On, Boy (2008)

Durango (2010)