Hank, Pattie & the Current

Location: R.A. Fountain

Hank, Pattie, and the Current bring a new perspective to bluegrass on new album Paper Lanterns, Play RAF for the First Time

Our main street is under construction–park in back or across US 258 or on any residential street.

Hard-hitting bluegrass pickers who moonlight as symphonic classical musicians, Hank, Pattie, and the Current have forged their unique sound by approaching their string band much as they would a string quartet. The 4-piece group based in Raleigh is led by banjo player Hank Smith and fiddle player and vocalist Pattie Kinlaw. On their new album, Paper Lanterns, they present a collection of intricately crafted messages to their lovers, friends, and children.  

Kinlaw grew up in Williamston, the daughter of a church organist. She began studying classical violin as a kid, but soon discovered and became enamored with the fiddle music of her native rural region. She never felt she had to choose between the two genres,  and got a degree in violin performance before moving to Nashville where she worked with the legendary Mark O’Connor, and then Asheville, where she studied with bluegrass master Bobby Hicks. When Kinlaw moved back to the Raleigh area, she soon met kindred musical spirit Smith, and the two began playing together regularly. 

Smith, who grew up in Florence, South Carolina, was a relatively latecomer to music, picking up the banjo at age sixteen. However, once he started playing, he was a man on a singular mission, studying the music of Earl Scruggs and Bela Fleck with extreme tenacity. “I was the kind of kid who would write research papers that were not assigned,” he laughs. “So I kind of did my own independent study in banjo music”. After completing an undergraduate and then a master’s degree in Middle Eastern History, Smith gave up the academic path to join the burgeoning jamgrass band Barefoot Manner,  which brought him to the Raleigh area.  

As Kinlaw and Smith’s various musical projects began slowing down in 2015, the two friends realized that it might be time to start a project of their own. “We were playing in a band, both primarily as instrumentalists, and that band kind of imploded,” explains Kinlaw. “And as the other band members all went back to their regular day jobs, we both looked at each other like, ‘well we are full-time musicians, what are we supposed to do?’” Smith was determined that the two of them should create their own project.  “We need to make a band”, he said. “We need to choose our players, play the music we want to play without compromising”

RAF was one of the first places where Pattie’s violin turned into a fiddle. Some of those early jams were incredible to witness, with Marshall Stephenson,  J.R. Stafford, even Keith Kinlaw on bass a few times, everybody glad to pick with Pattie.  She’s also recently completed a recording project with fellow Martin County picker Justin Edwards, whom she first me as a violin teacher for his children. Their CD, Isabella, was released in September; his bluegrass band, Screamin’ Bridge, plays RAF on December 7.

Pattie, an ECU grad, has also played RAF a few times with more formal lineups, including a terrific show with Lynda Dawson. Help us welcome Hank and the Current to Fountain for the first time tonight.

Advance purchase highly recommended– links to purchase are at bottom of this page.

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Tags: acoustic Carolina, banjo, bluegrass, bluegrass gospel, Concert, eclectic, fiddle, new grass, tradtional bluegrass