Sure, Rebecca Roudman plays cello in two symphonies, long considered cellists’ natural habitat. But the cellist, singer and fiddler comes into her own when she’s fronting her eclectic roots band, Dirty Cello. “I love classical music, but I grew up listening to all types of music, and I wanted to play that music on my cello,” she told Strings Magazine. “So I decided to just go for it. I formed Dirty Cello to give me a way to do something different from my other playing.” Dirty Cello will return to The Palms Playhouse, located at 13 Main St. in Winters, on Friday, Feb. 14 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance, $24 at the door and $12 with student ID. From China to Italy to Iceland and across the U.S., Dirty Cello brings the world a high-energy and unique spin on down-home blues with a wailing cello, foot-stompin’ bluegrass and scorching rock. According to the L.A. Times, “The group seamlessly careens from blues to bluegrass and rock in a way that really shouldn’t make sense but somehow does.” Banish the image of a sedate, seated classical cellist from your mind. This band’s vivacious leader plays standing up, her futuristic black carbon-fiber cello supported by a frame while she all but dances with it as she and her band deliver originals and some genre-hopping covers. Lou Fancher of Oakland Magazine described Dirty Cello’s music as being “all over the map: funky, carnival, romantic, sexy, tangled, electric, fiercely rhythmic, and textured, and only occasionally classical.” Not one to be contained by genre or instrument, Roudman occasionally swaps cello for fiddle for half a song when the spirit and the tune move her. In addition to Roudman, Dirty Cello is guitarist Jason Eckl, bassist Colin Williams, drummer Ben Wallace-Ailsworth and ukelele player and pianist Sandy Lindop. The group’s two most recent releases are the album “Bad Ideas Make Great Stories” and the EP “Half-Grassed.” Writing on social media, the band suggested that spending Valentine’s Day evening listening to a “not-typical” cello-fueled band is a good way to mark the day “without the typical nonsense,” promising a fun and casual evening equally well suited to couples or singles. Tickets are available at Pacific Ace Hardware in Winters, Armadillo Music in Davis, Davids’ Broken Note in Woodland, online via The Palms’ website and through Eventbrite, and at the door if the show is not sold out. For more information, visit palmsplayhouse.com or dirtycello.com.]]>
