This weekend Hickory Project will land on campus. Though it sounds like a lumberjack company, this band's brand of bluegrass should not have the audience "sawing logs."
At 10 p.m. tomorrow in the HUB-Robeson Center, college students will be exposed to Hickory Project's original music.
Bluegrass is a staple of Pennsylvania, like flapjacks, apple cider and cheese steaks. Hickory Project plays bluegrass with its own unique flavor. Its members meld the mandolin, fiddle, acoustic guitar, bass, banjo and vocals into a new breed of song.
Some of the artists' eclectic influences include Miles Davis, Van Halen, the Beatles and Nanci Griffith. With each member contributing songs, these styles mesh with a common bluegrass overtone. Anthony Hannigan, the band's mandolin player, calls its playing "aggressive, progressive bluegrass."
In the three and a half years they have been together, Hickory Project has produced four albums. Its newest offering, Big Darby, was released in July.
John Harlow, assistant director of student activities, is excited about this free acoustic offering.
"Surprisingly, bluegrass does well at Late Night," he said. "As opposed to country, which doesn't do well with a young audience."
Country and bluegrass have similar origins and are sometimes lumped together, but they look very different today.
Hickory Project's fiddle player, Sue Cunningham, said "Today's country is about electric guitars, with a focus on vocals. Bluegrass, though, is acoustic with a stronger focus on instrumentals."
Based out of the rural Pennsylvania town of Wellsboro, these artists have a certain ethos when they play their "mountain man" music. As bluegrass goes, Hickory Project is a fairly decorated band. Hannigan was a National Mandolin Champion at the Walnut Festival Valley Festival and Cunningham is a Florida Fiddle Champion. Hickory Project has toured the world, but to Hannigan the band's pinnacle was playing the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. earlier this year.
The members of Hickory Project look forward to their Penn State tour of the University Park, Erie and Fayette campuses. Hannigan, who started his college career at Penn State, said "Penn State was a mecca at one time for acoustic music, especially bluegrass. I would like to make a benchmark in PA."
Harlow hopes Penn State students will open their minds and their ears and give bluegrass a chance.
"Diehard aficionados will hear some chestnuts of old, but they will also hear some originals," he said. "This is straightforward music played by real people."
