Tumbling Bones - New Trio Releases 1st EP Today!

Tumbling Bones releases their debut record - 

"Risk Not Your Soul" EP - online today.

The Tumbling Bones are purveyors of traditional American music who value, above all, grit. The twenty-somethings who make up the trio - Peter Winne, Jake Hoffman, and Sam McDougle - have been callousing their hands and pushing their vocal chords for years as they’ve toured, recorded, and breathed folk music. Their raw, though lucid, take on old American music has taken them across the world. The Tumbling Bones used to play in stringband-turned-rock outfit The Powder Kegs, and their time with that band took them from street-performing in Copenhagen and Berlin to venues along the east coast to an acclaimed 2007 performance on NPR’s “A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor” (they played on the show’s “People in Their Twenties Talent Competition” and won first prize).


This January, nearly three years since they had last played together in a band, Winne, Hoffman, and McDougle trekked from their respective homes in Virginia, Philadelphia, and Maine to a basement studio in upstate New York for an impromptu recording session. In one long night of rehearsal and one day of recording the trio rekindled their old rapport and tapped-in to a cohesive sound that can only be cultivated from countless hours spent on stage, in the practice space, and on the road together.

The resulting EP - 'Risk Not Your Soul' - combines fiery American spirituals (“Banks of Jordan”), driving fiddle tunes (“Sally Johnson”), wistful folk ballads (“East VA Blues”), and rusty country blues (“St. Louis Blues”). Peter Winne’s deep baritone lead, Jake Hoffman’s cutting tenor, and Sam McDougle’s fiddle and percussion are faithful to old styles, but the Tumbling Bones can’t help injecting modern sensibilities into their music, however subtly. Taken together, the record showcases the band’s versatility while staying true to their insistence that traditional American music be presented with a strong dose of grit and emotional intensity, even in the 21st century.

The band will be touring the east coast this June.

Track List

1. Banks of Jordan (traditional)
Peter Winne - Guitar, harmonica, lead vocals; Jake Hoffman - banjo, tenor vocals; Sam McDougle - snare drum
Notes: first heard this upbeat spiritual from an early Cooke Duet recording

2. East Virginia Blues (traditional)
Peter Winne - Guitar, lead vocals; Jake Hoffman - tenor vocals; Sam McDougle - snare drum

3. Sally Johnson (traditional)
Peter Winne - Guitar; Jake Hoffman - banjo; Sam McDougle - fiddle

4. What Would You Give In Exchange For Your Soul (Monroe Brothers)
Peter Winne - Guitar, lead vocals; Jake Hoffman - tenor vocals; Sam McDougle - banjo

5. St. Louis Blues (W.C. Handy)
Peter Winne - guitar, lead vocals; Jake Hoffman - banjo; Sam McDougle - fiddle

6. Sandy River (traditional)
Peter Winne - washboard; Jake Hoffman - fiddle sticks; Sam McDougle - fiddle

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