~ updated 9/03/2013
Will Garrison
Will is the lead singer and songwriter of Spirits of the Red City. He lives and works in
Minneapolis. His passion, his life and breath, is his music. He began singing open mics in Louisville in 2000, moved to Montgomery AL and recorded an early solo album in
2004 while a college student. Two of his first public songs were "Brown Paper Bag," and
"There's No Trouble," which were both written for an independent student film.
Moving to Minneapolis in 2005, Will continued writing and singing with friends. After meeting classical cellist James Waldo, Will and James started experimenting with arrangements and harmonies, then toured as a duo in 2007. By the next year Spirits of the Red City had been formed with an additional 7 musicians, a creation that blended an eclectic musical palette of traditional, folk, classical, and jazz.
Spirits' first full record, Hunter Moon , was mastered in 2008 and in January 2009 the band gave the CD record release show at Bryant Lake Bowl in Minneapolis, with a second demand show at the 7th Street Entry of First Ave in Minneapolis. Two 7-inch releases followed: Serves You Right with Young Girl's Heart , and a collaborative release with Spirits' song, Long Hand Luke .
New recordings are in the works from a studio in San Francisco CA and also one in
Louisville KY. The band loves to perform live, but due to a great spread in geographic locations, tours are often a rare treat. For 2013, a short tour is booked for North and
South Carolina in March, and a late summer tour is being planned for California, Oregon and Washington.
Will continues to write new music with Spirits of the Red City, reaching out to audiences with what, hopefully, is heard as artfully orchestrated and uniquely harmonized, honest renditions of original music, performed with intensity and passion, or tender-sweet with love and longing.
Jason Overby
Jason grew up in Alaska, playing and singing folk and roots music since he could walk.
He leads the Overby family band, "Ode to the Roddes," who sing songs from the 1920s.
Jason became friends in 1999 with Will Garrison when they both lived in Louisville.
Their friendship deepened when they happened to each move to Minneapolis and Jason became part of the newly forming Spirits of the Red City, singing and playing tenor banjo, accordion, ukelele and guitar.

Jason also has a deep interest in theatre and travel. His most recent exotic adventure was spending four months traveling in India, which fed his great interest in world music.
Several years ago, Jason organized the Granite Creek Bluegrass and Old Time Pickers
Retreat in Sutton, Alaska, which is still going strong. In his "spare time" he is also building his own house in Alaska.
Jason's skill as an artist is an important part of Spirits visual media, and he produced
Spirits' first music video, "Mirror," which featured handmade sets and puppets.
James Waldo
James, classical cellist, originally became friends with singer Will Garrison in
2007. They successfully sang and played a Hill and Hollar Tour that summer, and the duo evolved into the full band of Spirits of the Red City.
A professional musician, James lives, performs and teaches cello in New York. He studied at Mannes College, where he received a Masters of Music, as well as a
Professional Studies Diploma in cello performance in the studio of Timothy Eddy.
Recording and performing in New York and throughout the U.S., James and his Russianborn wife, classical pianist Alyona Aksyonova, also tour as the Aksyonova/Waldo Duo.
In addition to professional engagements, James and Alyona also advocate community involvement, recently performing at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in
Manhattan, and the Kittay House retirement center in the Bronx.
James and his younger brother, Benjamin Waldo, also periodically appear in concert as a cello/folk mandolin duo, exploring world folk traditions. James also nurtures an avid love for the viola da gamba, and concertizes with early music groups.
Often found either sight-reading music with his friends, playing chess, or exploring New
York City's parks, James is also known for his remarkable cooking skills, especially on
Spirits of the Red City tours and late night recording sessions.
Anthony Poretti
Anthony is a central figure of Spirits of the Red City as percussionist/drummer. Based in
Detroit, he has been found on the Minneapolis, Chicago and Detroit scenes, with bands folk ensembles and free-jazz improvization projectsas. He has toured extensively throughout California and up the West Coast.
A founding member of Spirits of the Red City, he is known for his great performance energy and control, and the way he, "talks to the drums." His boundless interest in sound might include chains, bells, saucepans, trashcans, tin cans, paper cups, or whatever meets

his fancy at the moment. Anthony offers, by way of example, "If you were to make a guitar out of a car door and one string, that's a big thing to put on the table, but with percussion, it's not so distracting, you can add to other people's sounds." A part of his regular kit is a pot he had used for soup until it fell out of a cupboard and rang with a unique resonance.
With large bands like Spirits of the Red City, Anthony says he feels as though he is part of a conversation that takes place between the performers.
Anthony, with his calm and rich voice, is also a great spokesperson for Spirits in radio interviews and in print, easily explaining the complexity of how the band gets together for a tour, arranges songs and decides whether to play acoustically or electronically in odd performance spaces.
Alyssa Overby
Alyssa and her sister, Rachel, were visiting their brother Jason in Minneapolis in 2008 when they joined the newly formed Spirits of the Red City ensemble.
Alyssa, a primary vocalist in the band, also has a great interest in all kinds of music and music festivals, as well as art, theatre and puppetry. Alyssa, Rachel and Jason often sing shape note hymns and tunes from Southern Harmony (of 1835) and The Sacred Harp songbook.
She enjoys life on the road, all over the U.S., but she always calls Alaska her home and returns there frequently. Alyssa was featured as the shadow character in Spirits' music video, "Mirror," and helped create that production.
Alyssa's art is often part of the Spirits' show flyers and visual media, and she is especially keen on social media and finding its resources. Her great love of vintage clothing, colorful fashion and interesting hats is legendary and can be seen on stage, as well as in daily life.
Rachel Overby
Rachel joined Spirits in 2008, as vocalist and upright string bass player. She loves music as well as theatre and puppetry. She currently lives in both Alaska, where she grew up, and in the Denver CO area where she has a marionette team with Tyler Archuletta, performing delightful shows with handmade puppets and original compositions and singing.
Puppetry fans can watch a story about their puppetry at http://vimeo.com/30520916, or a
Rachel/Alyssa rather unusual homemade youtube video that uses the old nursery rhyme,
"My mother said / that I never should / play with the Gypsies in the woods."

Rachel also has skills in leather work, and recently is working the land on her property in
Alaska. Rachel expresses her wish "to learn as much as I can about being able to create anything, to really understand the old native way of living and to live off of the land, also to create a sense of community. I want to have the balance of having a community and being really self-sufficient."
Rachel loves her secondhand store "finds" and wonderful vintage or unusual clothes. She has been known for a unique talent of using what nature provides by making clothing from "road kill."
Ben Waldo
Ben, the brother of cellist James Waldo, plays viola and folk mandolin as often as possible on Spirits performances since 2008 and recently joined Spirits for their new CD recording sessions. He and James also concertize upon occasion as a cello/folk mandolin duo, with an interest in world folk music. Ben began playing violin at age three, then switched to viola. By age 13, he was teaching himself to play mandolin, and today does a fair amount of songwriting (folky blues-ey stuff).
Until recently Ben has been a full-time urban designer, working in Minneapolis for a small firm, Community Design Group, whose focus is making it easier for people to choose walking and biking as their modes of transportation--especially relative to the fact that he loves riding his bicycle, even in Minnesota winters. He studied architecture and urban studies at the University of Minnesota, and kept up with his musical passion via
Spirits of the Red City. He has now begun pursuing a master's degree in landscape architecture at Berkeley, which came about as a result of the deep and spiritual connection he has always felt for the Minnesota landscape.
He loves to go on walks and sketch the city, spending as much time outside as possible.
He also loves to cook (fried chicken, strawberry rhubarb pie and huevos rancheros, ...), as well as read comic books and keep up a comic book correspondence/exchange with his brother James.
One childhood claim to fame was drawing space battles and the like while sitting in the pew during a church service, rather than paying proper attention to the sermon. Now, he uses ink as his favorite medium for art, as well as watercolor, and makes unconventional, artistic maps.
Tyler Archuletta
Tyler, a trombonist with an especially smooth and gentle sound, plays and sings for
Spirits of the Red City since 2011. He and Rachel Overby have recently been living in
Colorado and Alaska, and they created a marionette team called Royally Out. Their recent interview video about a show at the open market in Boulder CO can be seen at: http://vimeo.com/30520916.

They are working on a piece of land in Alaska where they are adapting ecosophical and permicultural ideas and ideals, with great interest in the connection and reverence of craftsmanship, work, food, and the role of those elements in feeding the human spirit and creativity. Both Rachel and Tyler have great love for animals and continue to establish a foundation for future husbandry goals.
Tyler also has skills which include carpentry, working with leather, jewelry and metal work, welding and blacksmithing, working on bicycles, and an interest in stone sculpture.
He is known for his kind spirit and sunny personality, and recently filmed a fun home video of the band on 12-12-2012 at 12:12 a.m.
Danah Olivetree
Danah was raised on quartets and orchestral music but now plays cello with a number of bands and singer/songwriters. She's usually either on tour or booking a tour while teaching music.
When she's not busy playing music, Danah enjoys playing with food, playing in water, and playing games.
Performing on Jula album: Will, Jason, James, Anthony, Alyssa, Rachel, Ben, Tyler
Performing on 2013 West Coast Tour: Will, Jason, James, Alyssa, Rachel, Danah
Contact:
Sharon W. Moulds
Assistant for Spirits of the Red City
(828) 423-8317 swmoulds@attglobal.net