Richard Sleigh + Gus Tritsch

Richard Sleigh carved out a name for himself in the international harmonica community as one of the pioneers of custom diatonic harmonicas in the 1990s and went on to cobble together a career as a musician, teacher, and harmonica geek. He has played with two symphony orchestras, Bo Diddley and Taj Mahal, while opening up for dozens of great musicians like Bill Monroe, John Hartford, John Hammond, and Maria Muldaur!

Gus Tritsch’s electrifying performances include collaborations that span folk, blues, old-time, and rock music. He’s toured extensively with roots musician Jake Blount, adding electric guitar, banjouke, and other instruments to a band that evolved from an acoustic string ensemble into an electrified, genre-bending sound. That collaboration has taken him to major stages across the United States, the United Kingdom, and beyond, including a nationally recognized NPR Tiny Desk performance. In recent years Gus has been part of the Wild Shoats, an award winning Appalachian string band, and along with brother Huck, blues / roots group Wicked Chicken.

Richard and Gus started exploring the ways that blues harp blends with the sounds of fiddle tunes, and from there it went on to include electric and acoustic guitars and vocals. They particularly like the roots music that lives on the edge of madness, out where the boundaries blur, time stops, and when you are done, you wonder what just happened