Two long-time performers, iconoclastic musician Peter Feldmann and master fiddler Blaine Sprouse join forces to bring you their own unique interpretation of traditional American music. Ballads, songs, and fiddle instrumentals are combined to present a program on the early days of bluegrass music. Blaine and Pete play ancient melodies, songs, and stories, on fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and guitar. Hill tunes from West Virginia, banjo breakdowns from Kentucky, Lasie-makin' songs from Tennessee, and low-down blues, done right!

Breakin’ Up The Bluegrass takes audiences on a tour of ancient ballads, blazing instrumentals, old-time love and murder songs, to railroad epics, country blues, comedy, and cowboy songs from the Old West. Peter Feldmann, a noted bluegrass and old time vocalist and multiinstrumentalist, is now in his 53rd year of performing American folk, old-time, and bluegrass music. He's joined by Blaine Sprouse, born and raised in West Virginia, the hearland of the music, who began his professional career at the age of 17, as fiddler with the “King Of Bluegrass” Jimmy Martin. Blaine continued his career with stints in many country and bluegrass classic bands like Jim & Jesse, The Osborne Brothers, Charlie Louvin, and Bill Monroe & The Blue Grass Boys, performing from the stage of the Grand Ole Opry to tours and performances around the world.

Together, their distinct backgrounds form a fresh blend of experience and talent with an invigorating approach to classic American music. They treat their material as a true musical treasure chest . . . with knowledge, artistry, love, and respect, exciting and delighting audiences
wherever they perform.

Pete and Blaine - “Breakin’ Up The Bluegrass” - Presenting music with verve, xcellence, and authenticity

Blaine Sprouse: Born and reared in the mountains of West Virginia, Blaine moved to Nashville, TN before turning eighteen, fast-tracking his professional career by joining Jimmy Martin as a Sunny Mountain Boy, with whom he toured the United States and Japan. Over the next 25 years Blaine toured nationally and internationally and recorded with a stunning array of legendary bluegrass and country artists, among them, Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, Jim and Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys, Charlie Louvin, Alabama, Randy Travis, Glen Campbell, and the Osborne Brothers. Much in demand as a performer and session player, Blaine performed on the Grand Ole Opry for over 15 years. His solo recordings are available on the Rounder, Cumberland Record, and Hen Cackle labels.

Peter Feldmann: An award-winning vocalist, mandolin and guitar player, a recognized authority on the music and founder of the Santa Barbara Old Time Fiddlers’ Convention. A singer and multi-instrumentalist with many years' performing experience throughout California and the West, Peter has been presenting bluegrass, folk, string band, and related musics since the early 1960's, and is known as the founder of the Santa Barbara Old Time Fiddlers' Convention (now in its 44th year), the Montessori Folk and Bluegrass festival, and the original Bluebird Café in Santa Barbara, a music club highly influential on the Southern California Music scene. Peter was awarded a Music Legend Award by the Topanga Banjo/Fiddle contest in 2008. Peter's tribute CD to Uncle Dave Macon, Grey Cat On The Tennessee Farm, was named to the nation's Top Ten Bluegrass albums of 2005 by the Chicago Tribune.