Bobby Yang
With deft renditions of guitar solos that rival the masters of rock history, Bobby Yang revolutionizes the violin with an unorthodox style that defies the notion of the violin as solely a pristine and symphonic instrument. Yang’s guitar-inspired technique relies on vigorous intonation, innovative bowing, inimitable instincts, and experimental sounding points, the point at which the bow meets the string. The technique produces a sound that vacillates between the passion of a violin and the rawness of a guitar; it is a performance that leaves audiences proclaiming that they have never heard a violin create such a sound.
They have never seen such a show either as Yang delivers impassioned performances. Unlike his contemporaries and classical predecessors, Yang incorporates movement and drama into his live shows. Forsaking the classic violin stance, he bends at the waist at a song’s climax, jumps around the stage, places a defiant foot on a monitor or falls to his knees in a lone spotlight. His performance is evocative and superb, a collage of memorable music and scenes. He has earned the admiration of rock musicians and has been invited to perform at Philips Arena, The Bowery Ballroom, Music Midtown, The Variety Playhouse, The Mercury Lounge, and the Atlanta Grammy Heroes Awards.
The same artists that admire his showmanship invite him into studios where he crafts poignant string arrangements for tomorrow’s Top 40 tracks. He has worked closely with Butch Walker crafting string arrangements for several songs on Walker’s album Letters. His work with Walker has earned him the opportunity to record with Avril Lavigne, Collective Soul and Default. Most recently, he went to New York to work with acclaimed 311 and Tool producer Ron Saint-Germain.
Luke Bulla
Luke Bulla has been singing and playing music most of his life. He started touring and singing with his family band at the age of four and took up the fiddle at seven. Over the next few years, he won the National Fiddle Contest in Weiser, Idaho, six times in his respective age categories, with a seventh win in the Grand Champion division at age sixteen — the youngest ever to have earned the title at the time. Luke was also the youngest to make the top ten at the Grand Masters fiddle contest in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of ten.
In the spring of 1999, Luke moved to Nashville and began working as a full time musician. His first couple of years were spent as a member of Ricky Skaggs’ band, Kentucky Thunder. After that, he joined the John Cowan Band. Recently, Luke has performed and/or recorded with Jim Lauderdale, Darrell Scott, Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Sean Watkins, Tony Rice, Kevin Costner and Modern West, Sara Watkins, John Paul Jones, Glen Phillips, Earl Scruggs, Rodney Crowell, Bruce Hornsby, and many more. Luke is also a regular instructor at Mark O’Connor’s fiddle camps. Luke and long-time friend, Casey Driessen, started the band Wisechild, which toured briefly with John Mayer and Counting Crows. Luke also plays guitar, sings and writes songs and is currently working on material for a solo project. Luke is the most recent full-time member of the Jerry Douglas Band.
