Brown Chicken Brown Cow String Band embraces history, originality
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One of Maui's most popular bands, Brown Chicken Brown Cow String Band, will team with multi-instrumentalist Tavana for a special "Dia De Los Muertos" mashup Nov. 1 at Mulligan's on the Blue.
"The whole idea of this show is we've been traveling and we keep bumping into Tavana at backstage events," explained Justin Morris, a member of the band. "We keep saying, let's do something, and now we're doing it. It's not just going to be he plays some songs and we play some songs. We're all going to get together and accompany each other and make it like a different thing. I expect there to be some surprises and some unscripted stuff. I have this vision of a bunch of instruments on stage and us sitting around playing."
A super talented ensemble of musicians who all sing and play multiple instruments, Brown Chicken Brown Cow String Band features Xander Hitzig (fiddle, guitar, banjo), Orion Hitzig (mandolin, fiddle), Matt Del Olmo (banjo, bass, guitar) and Morris (guitar, bass, banjo).
"Everybody in the band plays two or three instruments, and we switch instruments during the show," Morris said. "We'll do four or five songs and then we'll switch instruments and then do four or five songs and switch instruments again. It's how we did it back in West Virginia. You sit on the back porch and play for 30 or 40 minutes and then everybody trades instruments."
One of Hawaii's acclaimed musical talents, Tavana typically performs as a one-man band singing soulful, island-inspired rock and blues, using electronic drum triggers with his feet while accompanying himself on guitar, lap steel and ukulele. He most recently performed on Maui with Henry Kapono and The Wave band.
Blending old-time fiddle music with shades of folk, Celtic and bluegrass to deliver a fresh sound, Brown Chicken Brown Cow String Band primarily performs original music.
"We play a lot of original music, and the covers that we do play, we kind of snuck in there from the 1800s," said Morris. "Nobody knows that they are covers and that they come from Civil War stuff."
Having performed together for 20 years, the band was formed in rural West Virginia where Xander and Morris first met.
"His brother, who plays mandolin, was just getting into music, and Matt's from Texas, and moved to West Virginia after college, and we met him there," Morris recalled.
"Everybody grew up in the mountains, and where we're from is like Civil War country," Morris explained. "There were Civil War reenactments going on, and they needed somebody to play authentic period music. We were the guys that could do it. So we learned a bunch of really old music and started doing stuff like that. It really came together on the banks of the Greenbrier River. We would all get off work, and there was a place we used to meet where this old tree had washed out. We would meet and play music until the sun went down."
The musicians first came to Maui in 2008, and eventually made it their home. "We played here and stayed and did nothing but play music," he said. "We just played on the sidewalk, and would make enough money to buy a bunch of groceries. And then we'd go off to Hana and Kipahulu and just play in the jungle. We wrote our second album, 'Gallop On You,' pretty much in the Kipahulu campground."
With six albums released so far, their past work includes "Flying High" and "Live at the Palace Theater."
"We play together all the time, and we're trying to spread it out a little bit," he said. "We just did some shows on the East Coast. We played the Grassfire Festival with Del McCoury and Molly Tuttle and Greensky Bluegrass. Then we went to Salmonfest and played with the Allman Betts Band and The Revivalists and a bunch of other great bands. This will be our first public show on Maui since the spring."
Brown Chicken Brown Cow String Band will perform with Tavana at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 1 at Mulligan's on the Blue. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door. Doors open at 6 p.m. Outdoor tables and seating are first come, first served.
