Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band to tour Korea
Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band, a U.S.-based quartet of talented young musicians, is coming to Korea for the first time this weekend.
“We’ve always wanted to travel and tour Korea, but it just never worked out due to scheduling and a lack of connections,” Miles Quale, the band’s fiddler, told The Korea Times, before departing for the Japan leg of their tour. “However, in 2022 we played at the La Roche Bluegrass Festival in France and were lucky enough to meet Country Gongbang. We quickly became friends and when we were planning our upcoming tour in Japan, we realized that we had a few days that were open.”
As well as their seven dates in Japan, they also have three shows in Incheon and Seoul, part of which they will be backed by Country Gongbang, a Korean bluegrass act.
Korea is a remote outpost the global bluegrass scene — which, yes, is quite widespread worldwide. Although bluegrass may conjure up specific images of moonshine-swilling Appalachian hillbillies, it is enjoying increasing diversity.
The four young band members range in age from 17 to 22 — and they’ve already been playing together for about eight years. It was first founded in 2016 as the Crying Uncle duo in 2016 by Miles — now 20 — and his younger brother, multi-instrumentalist Teo — now 17.
In 2017 they expanded it to a four-piece band, officially called Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band. The band lineup now includes upright bass player, trombonist and vocalist
Andrew Osborn — now 21 — and flatpick guitarist Ian Ly — the oldest at 22 now. Previously John Gooding played guitar, before moving to Tennessee where he plays with the band Little Roy and Lizzie.
Miles and Teo also have a younger brother, Niko, 15, who has his own band named Who’s Feeling Young Now, with Teo playing guitar.
Three of the four members have Asian American heritage. Miles and Teo are part Filipino and Japanese, and Ian is part Vietnamese. Miles jokingly called Andrew, who is white, the “honorary Asian,” and added that the bassist jokingly calls himself the “diversity hire.”
Miles added that they’re all connected to their Asian heritages, but while that helps them stand out, sometimes “it can be more detrimental than helpful.”
“A lot of the time it can be the thing that people focus on, rather than our music,” he explained. “With that being said, there is a solid community of Asians and Asian Americans who play this music and it feels good to be part of that group. I hope that our band ends up encouraging more young Asian Americans to pick up bluegrass and continue to grow this demographic in the genre!”
An expert at bluegrass fiddle and jazz violin, Miles began playing violin at age 3 and switched to bluegrass fiddle when he was 6. His younger brother Teo also started on the fiddle at age 3 and began mandolin studies at age 8.
“My parents started me and my siblings out on classical violin,” Miles said, “but I think that they had a good balance of pushing us to find our passions while also allowing us to stop if it really wasn’t something that we were enjoying.”
The two musicians and their slightly older bandmates hope that they stand out not for their youth or ethnicity, but for their pure skill. All are highly accomplished, award-winning instrumentalists, each with a list of credentials too exhaustive to list here.
“Bluegrass… is a community that is very welcoming, friendly and loves to have a good time. To this day, I haven’t found a more open musical community in terms of being welcoming to players of all skill levels. There is a jam for everyone regardless of how long you’ve played.”
Last year, the band toured Japan for the first time.
“Touring Japan might have been my favorite tour so far. Everyone was extremely welcoming and helped out a great deal with the logistics of our travels. The bluegrass scene there is really interesting,” Miles said. “There was an assortment of amazing musicians that we got to jam and play with, and what surprised me most was the prevalence of a strong bluegrass scene in universities around the nation.”
This will be their first time in Korea, and the band members don’t have a clear idea what to expect.
“None of us have ever been, but from what I’ve been told it’s a very beautiful and respectful country with a very rich history. I don’t have any idea as to what the bluegrass scene is like, or how we will be received, but based on stories from Country Gongbang, I have a feeling that it’ll be really fun,” he said. “I can’t wait to see what the Korean bluegrass community is like!”
The first show is this Thursday at Michiko Seoul jazz lounge in southern Seoul’s Gangnam District. The second show on Friday is at Delight Art Center in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, and costs 30,000 won. The final show at Space Turtle in Seoul on Saturday costs 25,000 won in advance, or 30,000 won at the door. The last two shows also feature Country Gongbang.
The two bands will also be reunited this June, when they play at ROMP Festival in Kentucky.
Visit cryingunclebg.com for more information, or go to cryinguncle. bandcamp.com to sample or purchase their music.