Yarn Yarn is a relatively new band out of the New York City area fronted by Blake Christiana, a classically trained guitarist who also handles vocals and songwriting duties on their debut release Yarn. He had previously run a rock band called Blake & the Family Dog in NYC. Apparently he wanted to head into a more country type sound when he met up with mandolin player Andrew Hendryx and started writing acoustic based songs. They would try out the songs during a steady Monday night gig at a place called Kenny's in New York. The tunes eventually became Yarn tunes and after playing with a number of musicians, they settled on Jay Frederick on drums, Rick Bugel on bass and Trevor MacArthur on rhythm guitar and backing vocals. The band also includes Shane Spaulding who does not play, but co-wrote many of the songs with Christiana.

The result of all this is a very enjoyable album from start to finish. The songs are bluegrass influenced acoustic gems. Christiana's love of the country-side of the Grateful Dead is quite evident on this record, with several songs reminiscent of the Jerry Garcia-David Grissman collaborations. Andrew Hendryx's mandolin playing truly anchors the band's sound, along with the smooth vocals/lyrics of Blake, who claims to use Gram Parsons as his songwriting measuring stick.

Check out Yarn's music video "Angel in Woodstock" HERE.