In the mid-1990s, Bruce Molsky told his wife that he planned to quit a mechanical engineering job and play music for a living. She replied, “I can’t believe you didn’t do this 10 years ago.”
A Beacon resident since 2002, Molsky has toured and recorded with top-tier collaborators in folk, Americana and bluegrass circles. On Sunday (Sept. 29), he joins an old pal, pioneering banjo picker Tony Trischka, at the Westchester Bluegrass Club’s lakeside shack in Purdys, just over the Putnam County line.
The men, friends since the early 1980s, have performed together more than 70 times when their schedules mesh.
“We’ll play a little bit and see what makes us smile and then get a set list together,” says Molsky. “Concerts are fun when we’re hanging over a precipice, playing something we don’t normally play.”
One such seat-of-the-pants moment occurred during the warm-up before a show in Virginia. “We wrote a tune, did it that night, had fun and promptly forgot it,” he says. “I always try to challenge myself. As soon as you think you’ve got it down, you’re in trouble.”
Molsky also has a new album, Lockdown Breakdown, a duet with Darol Anger that includes “feral fiddling,” according to its liner notes.
What a strange trip for the ex-engineer and self-taught musician, who retains a trace of a Bronx accent. He called his first disc Lost Boy but found his way fast.
Ample evidence exists of his onstage exuberance. A video on his website captures one of the first shows by Molsky’s Mountain Drifters, in 2016, with younger cohorts Alison de Groot on banjo and guitarist Stash Wyslouch.
A grinning Molsky prances and dances throughout the crackling rendition. Despite the obvious joi de vivre, some folks in the background stand with their arms folded.
“They’re evaluating,” Molsky says. “We were new at the time and the generational mix had to be tested.”
Passing more torches, he teaches at the American Roots Music minor program at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
An older sister influenced his participation in the 1970s post-Bob Dylan New York City folk movement. As he learned to play guitar, Molsky took a deep dive into old-timey music, a micro-subgenre based on an instrumental string band tradition with roots in centuries-old fiddle tunes and songs from the British Isles.
The proto-country style also relies on guitar and banjo — an African instrument. To get a taste of old-timey flavor, spectators and musicians are invited to participate in a jam at the Howland Cultural Center every second Tuesday of the month. Harry Bolick, a local author who specializes in fiddle tunes from Mississippi, hosts the hootenanny.
Thanks to thirsty ears, Molsky’s musical horizons expanded, and two flashy guitarists attracted his attention: flatpicker Doc Watson from North Carolina, who played what Molsky calls mountain music, and bluesman Mississippi John Hurt, a mesmerizing fingerpicker. The discoveries “kicked me in the pants.”
Molsky keeps finding new (and old) styles. His discography includes an album of Civil War songs and a live recording with Shetland fiddler Aly Bain; Ale Möller, a legend in Sweden; and the Liverpool Philharmonic.
Personal relationships and new interests guided the musical meanderings in diffuse directions: His 2022 disc Everywhere You Go tours the sounds of Peru, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Senegal, Madagascar and “right here in the USA.”
As the title conveys, the latest album is a pandemic product. Molsky plays standard four-string fiddle and Anger performs with a five-string violin and a five-string baritone violin, which can sound like a viola or cello. The contrasting timbres enhance the hypnotic, interlocking interplay during Möller’s tunes, “Hjaltadans” and “Kvartetten.”
Pop songs include the R&B hit “Can I Change My Mind” and Dion’s “Abraham, Martin and John.” Liner notes indicate that “Bruce doesn’t write a whole lot of tunes,” but the title track, “Lockdown Breakdown,” “appeared during one of the darkest periods of the pandemic after listening to a lot of old Texas music.”
Now, at age 69, Molsky reflects on his decision to leave a practical profession so he could play and absorb as much music as possible.
“There’s no money in this, but the personal connections I’ve made are invaluable,” he says. “It’s social music, that’s why I love it. I get to connect with people I would never have met and it gives me the opportunity to do something I love that also makes other people happier, too.”
The Westchester Bluegrass Club is located at 33 Lake Way in Purdys. Molsky and Trischka will perform on Sunday (Sept. 29) at 4:30 p.m. following an acoustic jam at 2 p.m. and open mic at 3:30 p.m. A $30 donation is requested at the door. To purchase Lockdown Breakdown and other albums, see brucemolsky.bandcamp.com.
