Formed in summer of 2017, Holy Locust is a five piece acoustic folk band, seamlessly blending the raw energy and ideals of punk music with refined folk traditions from around the world. Far flung from home and steeped in the myriad of their worldly adventures, Holy Locust, in sound, is the embodiment of chaos tamed. Anywhere from street corners in Mexico to pubs in Ireland, they bring a riveting collaboration of acoustic punk, New Orleans jazz, and traditional folk music, carrying with them the folk tradition of resistance and equality.
The DiTrani Brothers play original and traditional tunes drawing influence from Western & Eastern-European Folk Music, Roma Swing, and early American Jazz & Ragtime, delivering raucous performances that allude to past traditions with a contemporary sentiment.
Morgan O'Kane plays the banjo as if his life depended on it, (as it has on many occasion) with an intensity that evokes a redeeming kind of sadness that will resonate with anyone ready to give it the space. Songs of heart break, hard traveling, and the love of friends, songs about the on going war humans wage against themselves and the earth. Originally from Virginia Morgan fell in love with playing music while living in nyc as a means to channel and express long years of travel and loss, fine tuning his unique style on the streets and subways. Ezekiel Healy (the bogs) joined Morgan whilst making his first album 9 lives in 2009, bringing his unique style of slide guitar to accompany and enrich the one man band sound. Healy, also from Virginia, self tought with a history of street performing, plays a national slide guitar more akin to Indian ragas then to blues, but with no less soul, adding an other world quality to the already out of this world sound of O'kane's banjo, howling, and drum. Currently Morgan O'Kane performs most often solo or with Ezekiel Healy, and on occasion with Mississippi fiddler Ferd Moyes ( hackensaw boys, Ferd band) who has accompanied him from the beginning, recording on all three albums. The trio have toured extensively around the world over the past decade, at times joined by J.R. Hankins on flugelhorn, Liam Crill on spoons, Hayden Cummings on base, and Leyla McCalla on cello.