Grass Pistols

Location: R.A. Fountain

Trad & original bluegrass from Russia!
Mikhail Dushin on banjo and vocals and Tatiana Pechenova, who plays mandolin and sings, put on a big time show of original newgrass and new interpretations of bluegrass standards, including beautiful covers of “Kentucky Waltz” and “In Them Old Cotton Fields Back Home.” Mikhail writes their originals. Tatiana, a graduate of the Nizhny Novgorod Conservatory as a domra player, prompted one of our old-timers to comment that she could give Frankie Harrison (fastest mando picker in these parts, father of Justin Harrison) a run for his money, and, he added, she never broke a sweat. Travel troubles prevented the bassist and guitarist from arriving; but they were hardly missed in a performance we’d love to host again–one of those “you shoulda been here” kinds of nights.

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from our promo for this concert

From Nizhny Novgorod (formerly Gorky) in eastern Russia, the Grass Pistols have been based out of Johnson City, Tennessee for the summer. The band is fronted by vocalist and songwriter Mikhail Dushin, who also plays banjo.

Tatiana Pechenova, a conservatory trained domra player, sings and picks mandolin. 

The Pistols had their start in 1979 as a country band comprised of students at the Gorky Institute of Languages. Over the years, members have changed out, but when Mikhail Dushin joined in 1989, it began moving more towards bluegrass, although it did not change its original name, Country Saloon, to the Bluegrass Pistols until 2010. 

The band took second place at the 2006 International Bluegrass Festival in La Roche-sur-Foron in France, and in 2008 they toured the U.S. for the first time, performing on Tim White’s TV show “Song of the Mountains.”

At Vilnius Bluegrass 2009 in Lithuania, they performed with Peter Rowan, and toured the U.S. again the next year.

Tags: bluegrass, Concert, new grass, Russian, tradtional bluegrass