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Twisted Pine (Musical Group)
Twisted Pine is a musical group based in Boston. They initially characterized themselves as a bluegrass band, but “are now ‘something else, a wider version of a stringband’.” They primarily perform and record with acoustic instruments.

The original group met while attending Berklee School of Music in Boston, and were a part of Berklee’s Roots Program. They formed Twisted Pine in 2014, “after lots of ‘jamming’” in the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a dive bar and music venue, where they developed a long-term residency. They have toured since 2014, playing clubs and Festivals in the United Kingdom as well as the United States.

The current members of the group are


 * Kathleen Parks, on 5-string fiddle (with a low C string) and lead vox, an original member.


 * Dan Bui, on mandolin and vocals, an original member.


 * Chris Sartori, on bass and vocals.


 * Anh Phung, on flute and vocal harmonies.

Rachel Sumner, Twisted Pine’s original guitarist and vocalist, left the group in 2019.

Ricky Mier, on Banjo, and Adam Moore, on standup bass, were original members, but left before the group recorded its first album in 2017.

Kathleen Parks is from Newburgh, N.Y. and has a musical family; her father professionally played trumpet for over 30 years. She graduated from Berklee in the Spring of 2018. Like the other members, she plays and records with other musicians, and teaches and gives lessons. Notably, she and her fiancé, Brad Bensko, perform together as Kat & Brad and have recorded an album. Since 2019, she has taught at the Concord Conservatory of Music. Dan Bui, from Houston, Texas, also graduated from Berklee. Chris Sartori, from Concord, Mass., attended the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, but also studied jazz at Berklee. He joined the band in 2015. Sartori started playing the electric bass in middle school, and switched to the upright acoustic bass in college.

Anh Phung, from Chilliwack, British Columbia, received a BMus in Jazz Performance from McGill University in 2012. She was a friend of the band since at least 2018, and began touring with them in the summer of 2019. Chris Satori commented: “The addition of Anh. . . was very serendipitous. . . . We had a couple gigs Anh just jumped into. She was familiar with our music but we hadn't rehearsed or anything, but we had a blast.” On her own, Phung has played, toured internationally, and recorded in versatile genres. She made her solo debut with an orchestra at the age of 13, with L'Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, playing Chaminade’s Concertino, Op. 107. She performed on at least 10 CDs that were released in 2019, including one in her own name (with Braden Gates), titled Screech Plank Flute Fly.

Twisted Pine has released one commercial album and one commercial EP, on the Signature Sounds Recordings label. Another album is scheduled to be released in August 2020.

Twisted Pine is a 13-song album released July 14, 2017. All the material was composed by the band members (5 written or co-written by original member Rachel Sumners). It was produced at Dimension Sound in Jamaica Plain (Boston), Massachusetts.

Dreams is a 7-song EP released June 8, 2018, with cover versions of several widely popular songs, including “Heart of Glass” by Blondie, “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” by the Beatles, and "Dreams" by The Cranberries. Chris Satori described the EP as a “non-traditional bluegrass groove approach” to the songs.

The group earlier self-produced two EPs.

In early 2020, Twisted Pine began producing another EP at Dimension Sound studio, with the expectation of having it available for sale at the numerous shows they had scheduled for 2020, including at least 11 festivals. A director at Signature Sounds Recordings asked the band to return to the studio and make the EP into a full-length album. While they were in the studio, in the second half of March 2020, the Coronavirus Pandemic forced lockdowns, cancellations of many shows, and self-segregation of the band members. The recordings were finished with the benefit of some additional introspection inspired by the Coronavirus crisis. The 10-song album Right Now will be released on August 14, 2020. Most of the songs are original compositions composed by the band, and a couple are cover versions. Several of the songs have been released as singles, with videos.