One day in the spring of 2010 while driving home from a weekend of gigs in NY, Rose Sinclair handed Hubcap Brian her iPod so he could listen to some tunes she had been working on with her friend Lyon Graulty. What he heard was some great renditions of western swing steel guitar classics and some "gypsy jazz" in the style of Django Reinhardt. When he asked Rose about it, she mentioned she and Lyon had been looking for places they could play. This set the seed and soon Brian lined up a series of performances for the summer of 2010, bringing Captain Billy and Dr. Z along to round out the band.
In September 2010 things took a left turn when Lyon moved from MA to Austin, TX and the band reinvented itself as a quartet. Twin Guitar Swing brings the classic sounds of steel guitar music to the masses. With a repertoire ranging from Bob Wills to Thelonious Monk and a stylistic range from western swing to bebop to Hawaiian, Twin Guitar Swing is neither a typical country band or a typical jazz combo. It's just great music, whatever you choose to call it.
Rose Sinclair (steel guitar)
VIDEO: Rose at the 2011 Steel Guitar Convention in Dallas TX
"Jersey Bounce"
Rose left her home state of Michigan and hit the road to pick apples and banjos, later dropping the apples and picking up various accordions, stringbass and tap shoes. Eventually Rose saw the honkytonk light and an electrical outlet and then found a steel guitar hiding down in her knapsack. Rose plays a vintage Fender double-neck 8-string non-pedal steel guitar and loves the A6 tuning. She was a founding member of the Heartbeats Rhythm Quartet (with Tara Nevins, Beverly Smith and June Drucker), playing button accordion and banjo in the influential alt-trad band that toured extensively in the
U.S., Canada and Europe from 1986-96, and was featured on A Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, E-Town and Voice of America. Rose also performs with the MA based honky-tonk quintet Girl Howdy of which she is a founding member. Rose has also had the pleasure of touring as a multi-instrumentalist with Robin & Linda Williams, James Leva and Memory Theater, Rani Arbo &
Daisy Mayhem, Martha Scanlan, and the Crooked Jades.
Doctor Z (guitar)
What can we say about Dr. Z? A lifelong resident of the Framingham, MA area, he has been playing guitar in various bands for years. Currently he's working with singer/songwriter Sarah Levecque. When he signed up for TGS it was as rhythm guitarist but when Lyon headed off to TX, the good Dr. stepped up to the plate as lead guitarist and immediately made a profound impact on the sound of the band. He has brought much hazarai to the music and for that we will be forever grateful.
Captain Billy (drums) and Hubcap Brian (string bass)
Born in Waterbury, CT and Worcester, MA respectively Hubcap Brian and Captain Billy have been working as a rhythm section since they were recruited by Bob Jordan in the 1980s to record and tour with folksinger Michael Hurley. They since have worked on many other musical projects with Bob including the long-running Bob Dylan Birthday Bash held every May in Worcester, MA. It was bluesman Big Jon Short who named the pair during a now-legendary period of Sunday nights with the trio playing the blues, drinking, fighting and wild squirrel chasing at Vincent's in Worcester, MA. Since then the pair became the rhythm section for Girl Howdy where they met Rose which led to the founding of Twin Guitar Swing.
