3hattrio Electronic Press Kit
In the Desert with 3hattrio from Kukaloris on Vimeo.
The 8 minute documentary tells who the 3hattrio are, what they do and shows them in performance.
An INTRODUCTION
3hattrio (three hat trio) counts the rings on its tree from early 2013 when Eli, violinist and boy wonder just turned sixteen. This group wakes each day grateful to live where they live and for the magic of music in their lives.
The Trio now has six albums under their collective belt. Their most recent experimental album, "LOST SESSIONS," was preceded by a 2019 live recording, LIVE AT ZION and before that a studio recording, LORD OF THE DESERT. All have been graced with phenomenal reviews (see below).
What is the Sound
For 3hattrio, the Southwest desert has an almost spiritual significance. Rooted in the natural world of their sacred homeland near Zion National Park in Utah, they say that their genre is “American desert music,” a simple idea for a complex sound. The music 3hattrio are making sounds more like extended landscapes of sound, bare mesas that ring with electronic echoes of acoustic instruments, twisting and turning as the wind shifts. 3hattrio mix the routine with the unusual, fusing American folk music with outsider elements like autotune, psychedelia, and minimalism. It’s a wildly unusual sound, but the product of three very different musicians coming together to form something new.
Who are they
Hal Cannon sings, plays banjo and guitar and writes many of the 3hattrio songs. He's been a practicing musician most of his life but also takes pride in his life as a folklorist, radio producer and scholar of cowboy lore. Greg Istock plays acoustic bass and foot percussion. He has a Caribbean music background and is an active visual artist. Eli Wrankle is a classically trained violinist and a graduate of Southern Utah University. He comes from a family of artists. Now, 26 years old, he is the old soul of the group.
BLURBS
50 words
Rooted in the natural world of their sacred homeland, Zion National Park in Utah, 3hattrio call their music “American desert,” a simple idea for complex sound. More like extended landscapes -- bare mesas ringing with electronic echoes of acoustic instruments -- their music twists and turns as the wind shifts.
108 word
For 3hattrio, the Southwest desert has an almost spiritual significance. Rooted in the natural world of their sacred homeland near Zion National Park in Utah, they say that their genre is “American desert music,” a simple idea for a complex sound. The music 3hattrio are making sounds more like extended landscapes of sound, bare mesas that ring with electronic echoes of acoustic instruments, twisting and turning as the wind shifts. 3hattrio mix the routine with the unusual, fusing American folk music with outsider elements like autotune, psychedelia, and minimalism. It’s a wildly unusual sound, but the product of three very different musicians coming together to form something new.
136 words
3hattrio takes pride in originality both in their music and style. They call their music, American Desert Music. Musicians often identify with things larger than themselves such as place, like the Delta blues or Appalachian mountain music. And though 3hattrio has great respect for what is called western music, they believe the vastness of the American West deserves many interpretations of its glorious traditions and landscape.
3hattrio’s home base is Virgin, Utah at the doorstep of Zion National Park. The Trio has been together five years and has four CD’s to their credit. They’ve toured Europe three times, performing at the prestigious Gothenburg Sweden Culture Festival, the Tønder Festival in Denmark and Celtic Connections in Glasgow, Scotland. They’ve also performed twice at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering and have done extensive collaborations with Repertory Dance Company
275 Words
3hattrio’s home base is Virgin, Utah at the doorstep of Zion National Park. The Trio has been together a decade and have six albums to their credit. They toured Europe for the fourth time in 2019. Previously they have performed at major festivals including the Gothenburg Sweden Culture Festival, Tønder Festival in Denmark and Celtic Connections in Glasgow, Scotland and the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada.
The group includes Hal Cannon, who sings, and plays banjo and guitar. He is also a scholar of cowboy music and poetry and is Founding Director of the Western Folklife Center. Greg Istock plays acoustic bass and foot percussion. He has a Caribbean music background and is also a visual artist. Eli Wrankle, is classically trained violinist who comes from a family of artists.
276 words
3hattrio’s (3-Hat-Trio) home base is Virgin, Utah at the doorstep of Zion National Park. Together for six years, they have four CD’s to their credit. They have toured Europe three times performing at the prestigious Gothenburg Sweden Culture Festival, the Tønder Festival in Denmark, and Celtic Connections in Glasgow, Scotland. They have also toured extensively in the American West and have performed numerous time with Repertory Dance Company.
The trio is Hal Cannon, who is the retired founding director of the Western Folklife Center and the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering and raises a few cattle and Navajo Churro Sheep with his artist wife, Teresa Jordan. He sings, and plays banjo and guitar. Greg Istock sings and plays acoustic bass and foot percussion. He has a Caribbean music background and is also a visual artist. Eli Wrankle, is classically trained violinist who studies at Southern Utah University and comes from a family of artists.
3hattrio was voted in the top five performing groups in AmericanaUK 2018 Readers Poll. Their most recent CD was the top rated CD of the year from Northern Lights Magazine and has garnered praise such as, “Fascinatingly original” Magnet Magazine, or “A compelling, hypnotizing, uncompromising album.” American Songwriter Magazine, or "It’s a beautiful thing." NO DEPRESSION Magazine
3hattrio takes pride in originality both in their music and style. They call their music, American Desert Music. Musicians often identify with things larger than themselves such as place, like the Delta blues or Appalachian mountain music. And though 3hattrio has great respect for what is called western music, they believe the vastness of the American West deserves many interpretations of its glorious traditions and landscape.
2018-2019 REVIEWS
3hattrio was included in the genre busting "Best albums of 2018," from legendary jazz historian and critic Ted Giola.
“Gloriously beautiful and savagely strange” Marc Higgins, Northern Sky Magazine”
"It’s a beautiful thing to be able to retain the traditional sound and spike it with haunting, ghostly and noir-inspired ambiance." John Apice, NO DEPRESSION MAGAZINE
“Creating an atmosphere of big mystery and weirdness without resorting to sonic clichés of the West.” John Adamian, RELIX Magazine
“Fascinatingly original” Magnet Magazine
“It’s a compelling, hypnotizing, uncompromising album that naturally pushes boundaries to create an idiosyncratic genre this band can rightly call its own.” American Songwriter Magazine
“Their most adventurous and eclectic work yet - long may they reign.”
Mike Davies for Folk Radio UK
“Sit and listen closely and you’ll be repaid with something that captures a spirit, a feel – the sense of the uncompromising desert life and how men live with it as they deal with the awe it creates.”Mike Wistow - folking.com
“A highly original and inspired album” Cowboys and Indians Magazine
“Listen to the sense of freedom in the music” 8/10 Rick Bayles, Americana – UK Magazine
“3hattrio have delivered a record that is very high on aspiration, imagination and vision but never at the expense of the listening experience.” Paul Jackson, Fatea - UK
“3hattrio is unlike anything you ever heard. Guaranteed.” Culture Collide Magazine
“There’s a strange other-worldly feel to this music, the taste of another time, a reflection of a place long-visited, and of spirit and life-force.”Tom Franks FolkWords
“Lord Of The Desert screams for time and attention...It is music that makes the clock tick less quickly and it is music that pulls you into the American desert whether you want it or not.” Erwin Zijleman for De Krenten Ult de Pop - Netherlands
“Incredible soundscapes painted by the hugely talented 3hattrio.”
Mike Morrison, AmericanRootsUK
“One of the most intriguing and exciting albums I’ve heard this year.”
Blues Matters, ANDY SNIPPER
“Their music somehow evokes the desert’s beauty, it’s heat, cold and dangers.”
David Innes, RnR Magazine UK
“Haunting in its drama and nicely executed,” Michael Dunn, Penguin Eggs Magazine
“An open range of a record, with this trio wandering like spirit animals over a landscape that covers cowboy poetry to airy space jams.” Gary Whitehouse, Green Man Review
“Mind expanding in the best sense… a string band par excellence” Paul Kerr, Blabber ‘n’ Smoke
COMMENTS FROM SPONSORS AND PERFORMING ARTISTS
“Absolutely wonderful” – Geoffrey Richardson, Penguin Café Orchestra
"It’s Americana, it’s desert rock, it’s hypnotic, it’s dry as dust and above all it’s just brilliant. Catch them live if you possibly can" – Reviewer Jeremy Searle, AmericanaUK
"3hattrio went down a storm. the feedback from everyone as they left was 100% positive – including those asking how on earth I had managed to get them to play here!" – John Little, Reeth Memorial Hall, North Yorkshire
"This is one of the very few bands that I feel extremely privileged to watch and hear. They are truly awesome. They let the music do the talking but are always fully engaged with their audiences and are in no way aloof. See them if you can" - Leeds-based reviewer Keith Belcher
"They were everything we had hoped for and much much more. Blew the house away with three standing ovations!! Amazing night. Catch them if you can!" – Johnny Fewings, Whitstable Sessions Music Club.
“The guys were amazing, even better than last time – a completely brilliant gig!” – Ron Dukelow, promoter, The Live Room, Saltaire
"There's a serene Zen like wisdom imparted from the band to those in the audience prepared to empty their preconceptions." Paul Kerr, Celtic Connections, Glasgow Scotland in February, 2017. Read the whole review HERE
“3hattrio played to a full house in Logan, Utah last September. The audience was spellbound! The trio truly captures the essence of the desert--its landscape and people and our stories transformed into unique sound and style. Nora Zambreno, Bridger Folk Music Society
“3hattrio—speaking of “hats"— blew "the lid" off the joint in Jan. 2016 at the 32nd annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, where we’ve impatiently waited for years for a fresh sound deep-rooted in cowboy-n-Indian country. Their “Desert Music” not only reflects a magical landscape of the American West, but it becomes it, both physically and spiritually in the same lyrical and melodic breath/riff/groove/notes, which this trio renders in creative celebration of fellow-being cactus, cottonwood, lizard, snake, coyote, rabbit, bird, cumulonimbus, sun, wind, rain, snow, and that otherworldly desert air bonding together the entire mystical ecosystem. This is music that would have reverently spoken to bygone western-hat-donners from Gene Autry to Georgia O’Keeffe to Edward Abbey. This is music that, now, in the crucial throes of these climate-change times, must speak to all cowboys-at-heart riding the Milky Way’s open ranges. You bet!—all of us forked to this glorious orb of a paint horse, named Planet Earth.” Paul Zarzyski, poet
They have a sound that is not only unique and alive but every audience ends up giving them a standing ovation, at least the shows I have seen…. Moab Folk Festival 2015, George Thompson
“A profundo Gregorian sagebrush chant.” Baxter Black, cowboy poet
“What really grabs me is the energy of the creative moment – It’s just really alive.” Martha Scanlan, singer-songwriter
“I like the sound - very evocative of the desert canyon lands - the vocals are spooky which fits (Glad there is no Indian flute) Keep pushing the envelope.” Ian Tyson- cowboy singer/songwriter
“The music you are creating now is a combination of the timeless and the transient. We are the transient ones in a timeless landscape. I'd say this trio has a good long future ahead of it.”
Jim Rooney – Americana producer
“Dark Desert Night” reveals a musical insight of vistas that are anything but deserted – with a light of understanding into the mysteries of our vast American landscape. It is a portrait of who we are, as settlers, and the legacy of who they were, before our guns, germs and steel," Van Dyke Parks- composer
"3hattrio's music is a fresh, original sound tied to a love for the desert land…and I'm a desert rat. These guys are sonic pioneers." Tom Russell – singer/songwriter
SOCIAL MEDIA
Spotify – Ranging from 16k - 26k monthly listeners in 2018, most listened to song, “Crippled up Blues,” 712K
Facebook, over 1000 following
LISTEN
3hattrio (three hat trio) counts the rings on its tree from early 2013 when Eli, violinist and boy wonder just turned sixteen. This group wakes each day grateful to live where they live and for the magic of music in their lives.
The Trio now has six albums under their collective belt. Their most recent experimental album, "LOST SESSIONS," was preceded by a 2019 live recording, LIVE AT ZION and before that a studio recording, LORD OF THE DESERT. All have been graced with phenomenal reviews (see below).
What is the Sound
For 3hattrio, the Southwest desert has an almost spiritual significance. Rooted in the natural world of their sacred homeland near Zion National Park in Utah, they say that their genre is “American desert music,” a simple idea for a complex sound. The music 3hattrio are making sounds more like extended landscapes of sound, bare mesas that ring with electronic echoes of acoustic instruments, twisting and turning as the wind shifts. 3hattrio mix the routine with the unusual, fusing American folk music with outsider elements like autotune, psychedelia, and minimalism. It’s a wildly unusual sound, but the product of three very different musicians coming together to form something new.
Who are they
Hal Cannon sings, plays banjo and guitar and writes many of the 3hattrio songs. He's been a practicing musician most of his life but also takes pride in his life as a folklorist, radio producer and scholar of cowboy lore. Greg Istock plays acoustic bass and foot percussion. He has a Caribbean music background and is an active visual artist. Eli Wrankle is a classically trained violinist and a graduate of Southern Utah University. He comes from a family of artists. Now, 26 years old, he is the old soul of the group.
BLURBS
50 words
Rooted in the natural world of their sacred homeland, Zion National Park in Utah, 3hattrio call their music “American desert,” a simple idea for complex sound. More like extended landscapes -- bare mesas ringing with electronic echoes of acoustic instruments -- their music twists and turns as the wind shifts.
108 word
For 3hattrio, the Southwest desert has an almost spiritual significance. Rooted in the natural world of their sacred homeland near Zion National Park in Utah, they say that their genre is “American desert music,” a simple idea for a complex sound. The music 3hattrio are making sounds more like extended landscapes of sound, bare mesas that ring with electronic echoes of acoustic instruments, twisting and turning as the wind shifts. 3hattrio mix the routine with the unusual, fusing American folk music with outsider elements like autotune, psychedelia, and minimalism. It’s a wildly unusual sound, but the product of three very different musicians coming together to form something new.
136 words
3hattrio takes pride in originality both in their music and style. They call their music, American Desert Music. Musicians often identify with things larger than themselves such as place, like the Delta blues or Appalachian mountain music. And though 3hattrio has great respect for what is called western music, they believe the vastness of the American West deserves many interpretations of its glorious traditions and landscape.
3hattrio’s home base is Virgin, Utah at the doorstep of Zion National Park. The Trio has been together five years and has four CD’s to their credit. They’ve toured Europe three times, performing at the prestigious Gothenburg Sweden Culture Festival, the Tønder Festival in Denmark and Celtic Connections in Glasgow, Scotland. They’ve also performed twice at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering and have done extensive collaborations with Repertory Dance Company
275 Words
3hattrio’s home base is Virgin, Utah at the doorstep of Zion National Park. The Trio has been together a decade and have six albums to their credit. They toured Europe for the fourth time in 2019. Previously they have performed at major festivals including the Gothenburg Sweden Culture Festival, Tønder Festival in Denmark and Celtic Connections in Glasgow, Scotland and the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada.
The group includes Hal Cannon, who sings, and plays banjo and guitar. He is also a scholar of cowboy music and poetry and is Founding Director of the Western Folklife Center. Greg Istock plays acoustic bass and foot percussion. He has a Caribbean music background and is also a visual artist. Eli Wrankle, is classically trained violinist who comes from a family of artists.
276 words
3hattrio’s (3-Hat-Trio) home base is Virgin, Utah at the doorstep of Zion National Park. Together for six years, they have four CD’s to their credit. They have toured Europe three times performing at the prestigious Gothenburg Sweden Culture Festival, the Tønder Festival in Denmark, and Celtic Connections in Glasgow, Scotland. They have also toured extensively in the American West and have performed numerous time with Repertory Dance Company.
The trio is Hal Cannon, who is the retired founding director of the Western Folklife Center and the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering and raises a few cattle and Navajo Churro Sheep with his artist wife, Teresa Jordan. He sings, and plays banjo and guitar. Greg Istock sings and plays acoustic bass and foot percussion. He has a Caribbean music background and is also a visual artist. Eli Wrankle, is classically trained violinist who studies at Southern Utah University and comes from a family of artists.
3hattrio was voted in the top five performing groups in AmericanaUK 2018 Readers Poll. Their most recent CD was the top rated CD of the year from Northern Lights Magazine and has garnered praise such as, “Fascinatingly original” Magnet Magazine, or “A compelling, hypnotizing, uncompromising album.” American Songwriter Magazine, or "It’s a beautiful thing." NO DEPRESSION Magazine
3hattrio takes pride in originality both in their music and style. They call their music, American Desert Music. Musicians often identify with things larger than themselves such as place, like the Delta blues or Appalachian mountain music. And though 3hattrio has great respect for what is called western music, they believe the vastness of the American West deserves many interpretations of its glorious traditions and landscape.
2018-2019 REVIEWS
3hattrio was included in the genre busting "Best albums of 2018," from legendary jazz historian and critic Ted Giola.
“Gloriously beautiful and savagely strange” Marc Higgins, Northern Sky Magazine”
"It’s a beautiful thing to be able to retain the traditional sound and spike it with haunting, ghostly and noir-inspired ambiance." John Apice, NO DEPRESSION MAGAZINE
“Creating an atmosphere of big mystery and weirdness without resorting to sonic clichés of the West.” John Adamian, RELIX Magazine
“Fascinatingly original” Magnet Magazine
“It’s a compelling, hypnotizing, uncompromising album that naturally pushes boundaries to create an idiosyncratic genre this band can rightly call its own.” American Songwriter Magazine
“Their most adventurous and eclectic work yet - long may they reign.”
Mike Davies for Folk Radio UK
“Sit and listen closely and you’ll be repaid with something that captures a spirit, a feel – the sense of the uncompromising desert life and how men live with it as they deal with the awe it creates.”Mike Wistow - folking.com
“A highly original and inspired album” Cowboys and Indians Magazine
“Listen to the sense of freedom in the music” 8/10 Rick Bayles, Americana – UK Magazine
“3hattrio have delivered a record that is very high on aspiration, imagination and vision but never at the expense of the listening experience.” Paul Jackson, Fatea - UK
“3hattrio is unlike anything you ever heard. Guaranteed.” Culture Collide Magazine
“There’s a strange other-worldly feel to this music, the taste of another time, a reflection of a place long-visited, and of spirit and life-force.”Tom Franks FolkWords
“Lord Of The Desert screams for time and attention...It is music that makes the clock tick less quickly and it is music that pulls you into the American desert whether you want it or not.” Erwin Zijleman for De Krenten Ult de Pop - Netherlands
“Incredible soundscapes painted by the hugely talented 3hattrio.”
Mike Morrison, AmericanRootsUK
“One of the most intriguing and exciting albums I’ve heard this year.”
Blues Matters, ANDY SNIPPER
“Their music somehow evokes the desert’s beauty, it’s heat, cold and dangers.”
David Innes, RnR Magazine UK
“Haunting in its drama and nicely executed,” Michael Dunn, Penguin Eggs Magazine
“An open range of a record, with this trio wandering like spirit animals over a landscape that covers cowboy poetry to airy space jams.” Gary Whitehouse, Green Man Review
“Mind expanding in the best sense… a string band par excellence” Paul Kerr, Blabber ‘n’ Smoke
COMMENTS FROM SPONSORS AND PERFORMING ARTISTS
“Absolutely wonderful” – Geoffrey Richardson, Penguin Café Orchestra
"It’s Americana, it’s desert rock, it’s hypnotic, it’s dry as dust and above all it’s just brilliant. Catch them live if you possibly can" – Reviewer Jeremy Searle, AmericanaUK
"3hattrio went down a storm. the feedback from everyone as they left was 100% positive – including those asking how on earth I had managed to get them to play here!" – John Little, Reeth Memorial Hall, North Yorkshire
"This is one of the very few bands that I feel extremely privileged to watch and hear. They are truly awesome. They let the music do the talking but are always fully engaged with their audiences and are in no way aloof. See them if you can" - Leeds-based reviewer Keith Belcher
"They were everything we had hoped for and much much more. Blew the house away with three standing ovations!! Amazing night. Catch them if you can!" – Johnny Fewings, Whitstable Sessions Music Club.
“The guys were amazing, even better than last time – a completely brilliant gig!” – Ron Dukelow, promoter, The Live Room, Saltaire
"There's a serene Zen like wisdom imparted from the band to those in the audience prepared to empty their preconceptions." Paul Kerr, Celtic Connections, Glasgow Scotland in February, 2017. Read the whole review HERE
“3hattrio played to a full house in Logan, Utah last September. The audience was spellbound! The trio truly captures the essence of the desert--its landscape and people and our stories transformed into unique sound and style. Nora Zambreno, Bridger Folk Music Society
“3hattrio—speaking of “hats"— blew "the lid" off the joint in Jan. 2016 at the 32nd annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, where we’ve impatiently waited for years for a fresh sound deep-rooted in cowboy-n-Indian country. Their “Desert Music” not only reflects a magical landscape of the American West, but it becomes it, both physically and spiritually in the same lyrical and melodic breath/riff/groove/notes, which this trio renders in creative celebration of fellow-being cactus, cottonwood, lizard, snake, coyote, rabbit, bird, cumulonimbus, sun, wind, rain, snow, and that otherworldly desert air bonding together the entire mystical ecosystem. This is music that would have reverently spoken to bygone western-hat-donners from Gene Autry to Georgia O’Keeffe to Edward Abbey. This is music that, now, in the crucial throes of these climate-change times, must speak to all cowboys-at-heart riding the Milky Way’s open ranges. You bet!—all of us forked to this glorious orb of a paint horse, named Planet Earth.” Paul Zarzyski, poet
They have a sound that is not only unique and alive but every audience ends up giving them a standing ovation, at least the shows I have seen…. Moab Folk Festival 2015, George Thompson
“A profundo Gregorian sagebrush chant.” Baxter Black, cowboy poet
“What really grabs me is the energy of the creative moment – It’s just really alive.” Martha Scanlan, singer-songwriter
“I like the sound - very evocative of the desert canyon lands - the vocals are spooky which fits (Glad there is no Indian flute) Keep pushing the envelope.” Ian Tyson- cowboy singer/songwriter
“The music you are creating now is a combination of the timeless and the transient. We are the transient ones in a timeless landscape. I'd say this trio has a good long future ahead of it.”
Jim Rooney – Americana producer
“Dark Desert Night” reveals a musical insight of vistas that are anything but deserted – with a light of understanding into the mysteries of our vast American landscape. It is a portrait of who we are, as settlers, and the legacy of who they were, before our guns, germs and steel," Van Dyke Parks- composer
"3hattrio's music is a fresh, original sound tied to a love for the desert land…and I'm a desert rat. These guys are sonic pioneers." Tom Russell – singer/songwriter
SOCIAL MEDIA
Spotify – Ranging from 16k - 26k monthly listeners in 2018, most listened to song, “Crippled up Blues,” 712K
Facebook, over 1000 following
LISTEN
