Happy Birthday Dewey

I’ve been obsessed with mandolins for nearly my entire life, so it was a total dream to record a full length album on a 100 year old Lloyd Loar mandolin! The project was released on February 18th, 2024, exactly 100 years after the mandolin was stamped at the Gibson factory. The project was funded by 95 donors at Kickstarter

The album features the amazing talents of Riley Calcagno, Rebecca Branson Jones, Sonya Badigian and Joebass Dejarnette. It was featured on Bandcamp’s Best of Country Music February 2024 

Rebecca Branson Jones and I are teaming up to make a short documentary about this historic mandolin. We have a short teaser video up and are hoping to complete the film in 2024. Stay tuned!

The Swannanoa Sessions

After years of playing in bands, I finally made my own album which showcases my love for bluegrass/old-time fiddle music. This is a snapshot of my life in Asheville, NC, where I got to spend time with master fiddlers like Tatiana Hargreaves, Rob Fong, John Duncan and Lindsay Pruett. I organized 4 sessions over two days and had each fiddler come in and record a few tracks with a powerhouse band comprised of Nick Dauphinais on guitar, Derek Vaden on banjo and Celia Millington-Wyckoff on bass. It’s a fun album and hopefully will make you want to get up and dance. Check it out here!

Aaron Burdett Trio

Aaron Burdett is an amazing songwriter from Saluda, North Carolina. He invited me to join his acoustic trio right before the pandemic hit, which was truly a bummer! Nevertheless, we were still able to go into the studio and record some of his new material and I’m really proud of the results. You can hear my mandolin playing on his album Dream Rich, Dirt Poor, which was featured on the Bluegrass Situation

Flat Bridge

During my time in Asheville, NC, I had the extremely good fortune of meeting the multi-instrumentalist Emma Rast. Our mutual obsession with fiddle tunes and bluegrass led us to record an album on a 4-track cassette machine in the heat of summer in 2019. We then embarked on a two month tour from North Carolina to Washington to Texas, playing house concerts and clubs along the way. If you’re interested in obtaining a copy of our record, email me at ulohdan@gmail.com

Rain City Ramblers

I’ve always loved bass/mandolin/guitar trios and this is our take on that theme. I helped co-found Rain City Ramblers with Forrest Marowitz and Jim Horbett. We toured pretty intensely for 2016-2017 before parting ways. Our songwriter/guitar wizard Jim passed away in 2019 leaving behind a lot of beautiful music and sad friends. We recorded some good music while we were together and you can check out our album at our bandcamp. 

The Blackberry Bushes

The Blackberry Bushes is a Northwest-based group that features the original songwriting of Jes Raymond.  I had the privilege and pleasure of touring with them for most  of 2014 and 2015 and played mandolin on their record Three Red Feathers. You can find out when the Bushes will be playing by checking their website here.