3hattrio was born when violinist Eli Wrankle was 15 years old. The group got together when his family held a small recital in their home to raise funds for Eli's high school orchestra to perform at Disneyland. After the rehearsal, family friends and veteran musicians Greg Istock and Hal Cannon asked if Eli wanted to jam. He had never played music that way before but agreed. When they finished he asked for more. The group was born purely out of friendship, localness, and musical chemistry.
Living in a rural place in southern Utah, the group has a lot of time on their hands so they decided to employ that time to develop a sound that reflects the landscape they live in and the musical influences that they are passionate about. From that came a first album, "Year One," that they described in literary terms as "Magic Realism."
If you ask most people what Western music is you are likely to hear the response, cowboys and Indians. 3hattrio has great respect for these music’s but they also think there is more to the West and its music. Musicians like to identify with things larger than themselves. Music is often identified with place, like the Delta and its blues or mountain music of Appalachia. It can even be a city’s music like New Orleans, Austin or Bakersfield. In the case of the 3hattrio inspiration comes from the deserts of southern Utah, thus, American Desert Music.
3hattrio hails from Zion Canyon in Southern Utah and includes Hal Cannon who is a singer and plays banjo and guitar. He is also a cowboy music scholar. Greg Istock plays acoustic bass and foot percussion. He has a Caribbean music background and sings in a haunting and soulful style. Eli Wrankle, a classically trained violinist who studies at Southern Utah University and comes from a family of artists.
Their songs are mostly original and even their old-time cowboy and pioneer songs have an unusual twist. Living in the same isolated place, surrounded by an inspiring landscape of red cliffs is what makes this group thrive. Their first album, “Year One,” was hailed by Baxter Black as a “profundo Gregorian sagebrush chant.” Since then they released several albums. Their second CD is "Dark Desert Night," then "Solitaire," followed by "Lord of the Desert," then "Live at Zion." Their newest release "Lost Sessions" releases March 26, 2021.
The 3hattrio plays American Desert Music. Their aim is to create a new music which responds to the natural world of their sacred homeland near Zion National Park in Utah. They also strive to acknowledge the cultural traditions of generations of people who have worked and lived on the deserts of the American southwest. The subject matter of the songs is often desert oriented, sometimes not. Mostly, they express the desert experientially from a daily-ness of watching light off distant mesas and hearing the way sound plays off sheer sandstone cliffs. Then they play music. They don’t over-think it.
3hattrio lives in a place that has a great and lasting indigenous imprint on it. They don’t attempt to perform the music of the nomadic Native peoples who have lived here for centuries. They are modern day settlers in a place where settlement is not all that old. Folklorist and musician Hal Cannon says, "From our vantage we are not all that different from other pioneers who came from diverse places to make community. From our varied musical backgrounds something truly American can be made out of the necessity to find sociability in an isolated place and to come with the intention to create something new."
Living in a rural place in southern Utah, the group has a lot of time on their hands so they decided to employ that time to develop a sound that reflects the landscape they live in and the musical influences that they are passionate about. From that came a first album, "Year One," that they described in literary terms as "Magic Realism."
If you ask most people what Western music is you are likely to hear the response, cowboys and Indians. 3hattrio has great respect for these music’s but they also think there is more to the West and its music. Musicians like to identify with things larger than themselves. Music is often identified with place, like the Delta and its blues or mountain music of Appalachia. It can even be a city’s music like New Orleans, Austin or Bakersfield. In the case of the 3hattrio inspiration comes from the deserts of southern Utah, thus, American Desert Music.
3hattrio hails from Zion Canyon in Southern Utah and includes Hal Cannon who is a singer and plays banjo and guitar. He is also a cowboy music scholar. Greg Istock plays acoustic bass and foot percussion. He has a Caribbean music background and sings in a haunting and soulful style. Eli Wrankle, a classically trained violinist who studies at Southern Utah University and comes from a family of artists.
Their songs are mostly original and even their old-time cowboy and pioneer songs have an unusual twist. Living in the same isolated place, surrounded by an inspiring landscape of red cliffs is what makes this group thrive. Their first album, “Year One,” was hailed by Baxter Black as a “profundo Gregorian sagebrush chant.” Since then they released several albums. Their second CD is "Dark Desert Night," then "Solitaire," followed by "Lord of the Desert," then "Live at Zion." Their newest release "Lost Sessions" releases March 26, 2021.
The 3hattrio plays American Desert Music. Their aim is to create a new music which responds to the natural world of their sacred homeland near Zion National Park in Utah. They also strive to acknowledge the cultural traditions of generations of people who have worked and lived on the deserts of the American southwest. The subject matter of the songs is often desert oriented, sometimes not. Mostly, they express the desert experientially from a daily-ness of watching light off distant mesas and hearing the way sound plays off sheer sandstone cliffs. Then they play music. They don’t over-think it.
3hattrio lives in a place that has a great and lasting indigenous imprint on it. They don’t attempt to perform the music of the nomadic Native peoples who have lived here for centuries. They are modern day settlers in a place where settlement is not all that old. Folklorist and musician Hal Cannon says, "From our vantage we are not all that different from other pioneers who came from diverse places to make community. From our varied musical backgrounds something truly American can be made out of the necessity to find sociability in an isolated place and to come with the intention to create something new."
HAL CANNON sings lead vocals and plays banjo and guitar in the group. He also writes many of the hat's songs . Widely known as a folklorist, songwriter and radio producer, his early musical life was dedicated to capturing the beauty and styling of nineteenth century folk music of the American West. He is a founding light of the Deseret String Band, the Western Folklife Center and the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. After producing over a hundred cultural features for NPR, he now produces occasional radio documentaries for Australia's Radio National. He lives in a pecan orchard in the old pioneer village of Pocketville on a bend in the Virgin River.
ELI WRANKLE was given a tiny violin at the age of four with accompanying "force fed" lessons. It was only when he gained comfort and his violin began sounding good that he warmed to the training. Now, 24 years old, Eli loves being engulfed by music. He is close to graduating from Southern Utah University. Out of school he listens to an eclectic mix of new folk, classical and digital music. Eli is both the apprentice to the group and the old soul with a fresh ear. His family is steeped in the arts and lives in Toquerville, Utah where Eli grew up.
GREG ISTOCK plays the stand-up bass and sings in the group transporting listeners to another dimension with his creative rhythms and leads. He also plays foot percussion instruments in the group. At home he can play about any instrument you put in his hands. He also sings leads and writes many of the group's songs. He's originally from Florida where he spent thirty years exploring Caribbean music. His first love is experimental jazz. He produces, arranges and engineers the 3hat recordings. Besides music, he is a visual artist and lives on a ledge above the Virgin River. All three 3hat albums were recorded in his painting studio.