The Matt Flinner Trio returns to The Center in Hailey to release its latest CD and play its brand of progressive, acoustic folk and bluegrass music. Flinner is an award-winning Nashville mandolinist whose trio includes world-class guitarist Ross Martin and upright bassist Eric Thorin. The band performs acoustic instrumentals in many genres.
"The unique thing the trio will do at Saturday's performance is music du jour," said Fletcher Brock of Fletcher Block Stringed Instruments and the builder of Flinner's mandolin. "Each member of the band will write a piece the day of the show and the other members will preview it for a short time and then the trio will perform the new tunes. I have seen it before, and it's amazing."
Brock met Flinner though festivals, concerts and mutual friends who play the instruments he builds. Brock builds about 15 instruments per year.
Flinner was a banjo prodigy who played bluegrass festivals in his teens and later started to play the mandolin. He won the National Banjo Competition in Winfield, Kan., in 1990, and won the mandolin award there the following year. Flinner moved to Nashville in 1999 and is now widely considered one of the hottest and most creative mandolin players on the acoustic scene. His two solo albums, "The View from Here" and "Latitude," feature bluegrass stalwarts Todd Phillips, David Grier, Stuart Duncan, Jerry Douglas and Darol Anger. Both albums received high critical acclaim.
Flinner actively tours with Phillips and Grier (in Phillips, Grier and Flinner) and the Modern Mandolin Quartet, as well as with his own Matt Flinner Acoustic Trio and Matt Flinner Quartet, which released the CD "Walking on the Moon" in 2002.
The Center in Hailey is located in the Ezra Pound House at 314 Second Ave S. However, this performance is not affiliated with The Center. Tickets are $18. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. For pre-show tickets, call 720-4363.
Sabina Dana Plasse: splasse@mtexpress.com
Matt Flinner will perform with his trio at The Center in Hailey on Saturday at 8 p.m. Photo by
