If you don’t listen to bluegrass, we’re a bluegrass band. If you do listen to bluegrass, we’re definitely not a bluegrass band. Olympia, Washington-based Briarfinch combine bluegrass, jazz, rock, classical, and Irish music into a tightly woven newgrass machine. Songwriters Cory Briar (mandolin) and Erin Finch (guitar) join forces, providing a variety of carefully constructed original tunes traversing love, identity, doubt, and wonder. Finch’s distinctive rhythmic guitar, a blend of intricate fingerpicking and Irish Bodhran-inspired triplets, breathes a wild sort of life into each tune. Briar’s intuitive sense for musical motifs and proclivity to off-the-beaten-path solos neatly compliments both his and Finch’s songwriting. The virtuosic Josh Grice (5-string violin) adds a technical edge to the band, approaching melody and improvisation with a classical precision. Finally, Tom Roalkvam’s (electric bass) incessant rhythm and groove create a driving feel to every song. Together, the four pack rooms of friends and fans, providing enlivening music full of talented composition, free spirited improvisation, and many surprising musical turns. Briarfinch released their self-titled debut album in August 2025. It features 10 original songs by Briar and Finch, performed by the entire band. The album begins with “Diamond” by Finch, a playful but self-effacing bluegrass ode to a lost love. Briar then contributes the next three tracks. “Casting Shadows” wrestles with ideas of self-identity, then “The Passionate Shepherd to his Love,” with lyrics taken from a poem of the same name by Christoper Marlowe in the 16th century. Next, “Millie,” an instrumental in odd meter written by Briar and former bandmate Corlin Reed (together, Bigfoot and Frodo) in their junior year of high school. Finch returns with the chaotic “Fallacy of the False Self,” based on a COVID-era poem of a friend’s father.
