Folk music revival, with the familiar and the new, at Mt. Airy concert

In the 1960s, folk music was all the rage in many parts of the country. In downtown Philly, for example, fans flocked to the Gilded Cage, The Artist Hut, The Focal Point and the Second Fret, or the Main Point in Bryn Mawr, to hear legends like Pete Seeger, Peter Paul and Mary, the Kingston Trio, Joni Mitchell, Arlo Guthrie, Judy Collins and more. But with the ascent of rock ‘n’ roll, heavy metal, soul music and eventually disco, folk music faded into the background.

But if Midnight on the Water has anything to say about it, American folk music, with its roots in British, Irish and Scottish ballads merged with African music styles, just might be making a comeback. The popular Philly-based cross-genre string trio will be performing an intimate concert at Mt. Airy Violins & Bows, 6665 Germantown Ave., on Friday, May 1, at 7:30 p.m.

The concert will offer a sneak peek at the trio’s dual debut albums, “Stardrops Volumes I & II,” which push the boundaries of the genre by sharing a futuristic dream for the world in which “all music is folk music,” in the words of the band.

The trio consists of Tom Krumm (fiddle, mandolin, guitar, vocals), Nathan Bishop (fiddle, viola, hardanger d’amore) and Dani Hawkins (cello). Their captivating music can be heard at listening rooms, festivals and contra dances through the mid-Atlantic region. According to Bishop, the name of the band was taken from “the name of a gorgeous waltz by Benny Thomasson. We floated some other names that were more generic like Two River Strings, but we ultimately figured it was best to name ourselves after something that’s beautiful and simple as a reminder to ourselves.”

Krumm, 29, of Plymouth Meeting, who has performed with boldface names like Roseanne Cash and Al Kooper, was a recent soloist with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra. Krumm, who graduated in 2017 from the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston with a degree in professional music and concentration in violin performance, logged over 400 hours of studio and performance time during his studies. He particularly enjoyed exploring micro-tonal Arabic music.

“Our upcoming record features around two thirds original material alongside our own arrangements of other material,” Krumm told the Local last week. “For this May 1 concert, we’ll probably be playing a decent bit from the album and working in some new material we’ve been excited about.”

Germantown native Hawkins, who is “slightly older than Tom and Nathan,” has performed with the Boston Philharmonic and Delaware Symphony Orchestra and has taught music at Cornell University, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Swarthmore College.

Hawkins, who earned a Ph.D in ethnomusicology from Cornell University, told the Local, “We originally formed the band with very mercenary intentions. The more different kinds of music you can play, the more gigs you can take. The original concept of Midnight on the Water was a group of string players that could play lots of different kinds of music and so take lots of gigs because we all have lots of rent to pay. But as we started gigging, we also found that we really enjoyed each other as creators and as people, and so it morphed into a more fun, creative enterprise.

“I’ve been in a number of gig bands, the ensembles that play and the ensembles that help you make rent. And I’ve been in a few creative ensembles that don’t necessarily make you any money but that provide the space in which you explore your creative ideas and hopefully make something a little bit meaningful. And I’ve been in ensembles where you didn’t really like your colleagues… but I feel endlessly grateful, literally every day, that in Midnight in the Water I’ve found a great gig ensemble that is also a really exciting creative ensemble, and I actually like them. Most of the time.”

Bishop, 28, a Fairmount resident who previously lived in Germantown, has a music education degree from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. He first met Krumm in 2018 at the Ashokan Center in New York State’s Catskill Mountains and introduced him to Hawkins. Soon they all realized they were simpatico and just might be able to create a successful, growth-inducing trio.

In addition to playing fiddle, viola and hardingfele (Norways’s national folk instrument), Bishop plays baroque violin in the early music ensemble La Fiocco and fiddle in his Irish folk trio, Faoilean He also has taught the fiddle at the University of New Hampshire.

“I often think of our music as ‘musician’s music,’” Bishop said, “as the quotes, style swapping and improvisation reward a listened ear, but that doesn’t mean that everyone can’t enjoy it! Audience members on May 1 can expect familiar traditional tunes in new settings, original tunes by Tom and Dani, a fiddle-infused rendition of Hall & Oates’ ‘Rich Girl’ and jazz-informed tracks such as Bill Withers’ ‘Just the Two of Us,’ featuring intimate vocals by Krumm matched by virtuosic solos from the band.”

For more information, visit midnightonthewater.com. Len Lear can be reached at [email protected].