THE BAND

Asher McGlothlin - acoustic guitar and vocals

Sam Sobell - drums, percussion, vocals

Will Finn - bass

Julian Brass - electric guitar, trumpet

Sean Ealy - keys, vocals

Ashwanth Samuel - violin

Asher McGlothlin is a musician based out of New York City, but proud to be from Grundy, Virginia, a small town located in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. Asher grew up playing guitar and singing in the choir at his church on Sundays while also being inspired by the bluegrass and southern rock that played throughout his hometown. All of these genres flow together in his music to create a sonic experience that pays tribute to one of America’s most vibrant music cultures, while taking on a unique life all its own.

Asher’s debut EP Bardo was released on January 9th, 2018. The term bardo is a Buddhist term that means the intermediate state between two lives on earth. The bardo can be pleasant or treacherous, depending on one’s perspective. Asher views the transition from youth to adulthood as being a transitional period similar to the bardo, and view the songs on this EP as telling the story of his own experience in this intermediate state.

Apart from playing music, Asher is an architectural designer with a passion for improving the Central Appalachia region through the power of design.

Sam Sobell began his musical career in Charlotte, North Carolina at the age of eight when his parents signed him up for piano lessons. Averse to learning traditional classical music, he persuaded his reluctant teachers to let him play rock n’ roll. After moving to Houston, Texas and attending a youth music camp there at the age of twelve, he convinced his parents to get him a starter drum set and he began teaching himself to play. Inspired by drummers such as Chad Smith, John Bonham, Aaron Spears, and Dennis Chambers, his playing style is best characterized as a fusion between traditional rock and gospel funk. Sam has spent the last nine years recording and performing with multiple groups such as Third Denial, Boomer & Moose, Joel Hernandez and Asher McGlothlin. Sam began performing with Asher McGlothlin in October 2017 and will graduate from the University of Virginia in May 2019.

Will Finn was exposed to music and rhythm at a young age by his father, a drummer. Beginning at age 12, Will began to learn to play the upright bass in an orchestral context. By the age of 15, the love for music and the instrument led him to pursue jazz with the upright bass and electric bass. Jamming and playing in local bands in his home town of Purcellville, VA became a huge staple of his teenage life. Moving to Charlottesville, VA in 2015, Will began to play gigs with many college artists around town and help carry on the band Boomer and Moose. Will is now playing gigs with multiple groups, including Asher McGlothlin. Will credits much of his bass playing to influential artists such as Flea, Herbie Hancock, Joe Dart, Kevin Parker, Jaco Pastorius and Thundercat.

Julian Brass has been playing music ever since he first plucked a guitar string way back when the first iPhone came out. Since then, he’s played with several bands and ensembles, performing shows all around the mid-Atlantic. He currently likes to rock around Charlottesville with Bofa the Band, who specializes in funky jams. You will also see him pick up the trumpet from time to time with the UVA Jazz Ensemble and any other groups that might require it. He owes most of his musical apprehension to his time in high school, where he studied at the Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk, VA for four years. Bruce Springsteen will always be the inspiration that takes his heart, but it wasn’t until he watched Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes battle on the same stage that he understood the power of the guitar.

Sean Ealy is a keyboard player born and raised in Charlottesville Virginia. Since coming to Uva, he’s played in several bands including Tecumseh and Foxtrot, but his current project is the funk-oriented jam band Bofa The Band. Sean’s strongest musical influences are the several keyboard players for The Grateful Dead, Stevie Wonder, Leon Russell, and Billy Preston.

Ashwanth Samuel started his musical career at the age of four when he begged his parents to enroll him in violin lessons after he saw his older sister play. He quickly began to look for more opportunities to expand his musical horizons and took piano lessons in second grade and later on started playing trombone in the school band. Ashwanth discovered his love for jazz and funk through his high school jazz ensemble and started to try and replicate those jazz sounds on his violin, much to the dismay of his classical instructors. In addition to performing with high school groups, he was a member of the Youth Symphony of Kansas City and earned numerous awards as a 3 year All-State violinist. Ashwanth has spent his time in college performing with the Charlottesville Symphony Orchestra, worship groups, and Radio Music Society, a string quartet group that writes and performs their own covers to pop songs.

PRESS

C-VILLE Weekly “Asher McGlothlin perfectly captures the spirit of his childhood in the Appalachian Mountains, as well as the leap from teenager to adulthood, on his January 2018 debut EP Bardo, which takes its name from the Buddhist term describing the halfway place between death and rebirth. Able to be both chaotic and delightful, McGlothlin takes on this beautiful unbalance in the diversity of his six songs, touching on happy and sad, upbeat and downtrodden, accompanied by rich vocals and soulful instrumentation.”

Bio image by Dee and Claudio Zarpelon

Site background artwork by Tanner Schreiber-May