When my wife Sara and I first sat down and started figuring out what we wanted this website to be and how it should work, we knew we wanted to cover the Binghamton music scene in a way Gord Downie might describe as fully, completely. And that means a lot of things, from profiling local artists and businesses to writing guides and more. So writing about Driftwood was something we wanted to do from day one. You can’t really tell the story of the Binghamton music scene without them. And more to the point, there’s little else as encouraging to those just starting out as seeing hometown heroes thriving the way they have.
Since their formation, we’ve all watched Driftwood rise through the ranks of local and regional celebrity and into that stratospheric echelon of having a coast-to-coast national audience. This is a band that tours religiously across the country. They’ve released five studio albums and have another on the way. Their music has appeared on CMT and NPR. And that’s all incredibly inspiring for any local act. Because if they can rise to their level of acclaim, so too can other Binghamton bands. You don’t need to be based out of New York City to make it.
Driftwood are often summed as “Americana”, an apt compromise for what might otherwise be a run-on list of all the musical genres they so perfectly tour. Traditional and alternative folk, rock, country, bluegrass, old-time … it’s difficult to find a single label for their music. A likely result of having three musically talented singer-songwriters in the group. That dynamic might cause chaos for most bands, but for Driftwood, it’s poetry and symmetry. And if you’ve been following our website, you’ll know that’s precisely how we define the Parlor City Sound.
Background
Driftwood began in 2005 after school friends Dan Forsyth and Joe Kollar, both of whom are singer-songwriters and gifted guitarists, attended the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado. They’d meet vocalist and fiddler Claire Byrne in 2008, and by 2009, they were touring full time. Bassist Joey Arcuri would join the band in 2010, and Sam Fishman, their most recent member, would assume drumming duties in 2021.
Driftwood’s releases include the LPs Rally Day (2009), A Rock & Roll Heart (2011), Driftwood (2013), City Lights (2016), and Tree of Shade (2019). They’ve also put out two live LPs—Live at Grassroots in 2014 and Live at the Purple Fiddle in 2018. Oh, and they’ve also worked with Grammy-winning producer Robby Hunter, as well as Lumineers producer Simone Felice on Tree of Shade. We just wanted to squeak that bit in.
Their next album, December Last Call (which you can pre-save here), is due for release on March 22nd. We’ll be reviewing their new LP as soon as it’s piping into our fancy ear goggles.
The band’s members also keep busy with a flurry of other exciting music projects. Dan Forsyth and Joe Kollar have released solo music. Kollar performs with Caviar & Grits and Lutheran Skirts, the latter of which includes Claire Byrne. Byrne is also a member of The Vollmers with her husband Brian Vollmer, as well as recently starting work with a newly-formed country band, The Silver Wings. And Joey Arcuri and Sam Fishman are both professional musicians with resumes as long as your arm.
Learn More About Driftwood
We’re planning on writing a feature piece on Driftwood in the near future, which we’ve already been discussing with the band, so stay tuned for that. And we’re super stoked to hear December Last Call and review that here as well. In the meantime, please be sure to visit Driftwood and learn more about them directly by following these links:
Driftwood are an independent music act. You can contact them directly via email at driftwoodgroove@gmail.com for press/ media inquiries. And please contact Jon Bell at Madison House for bookings.
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