“Rebecca Roudman, founder and leader of the blues, folk, and bluegrass Dirty Cello band, who can’t resist veering into Bach cello suites or rock-and-roll classics if requested by someone in an audience, is a member of the Oakland Symphony and the Santa Rosa Symphony,” writes Lou Fancher in last Tuesday’s (5/15) San Francisco Classical Voice. The other two band members are guitarist Jason Eckl, Roudman’s husband, and drummer Anthony Petrocchi. “Despite a fan base and record sales that mean Roudman could … depend entirely on Dirty Cello for a livable income, she doesn’t—nor will she ever—abandon her classical musical roots. ‘I still dig classical music and hanging out with the orchestra,’ … she says…. ‘A blues band usually has a guitar lead, not a cello…. When I started improvising, I thought people would hate it, but they liked it because it was half-accessible, the cello playing pretty music, but also weird.’ … Roudman’s carbon-fiber cello is acoustic but amplified. She favors it … because she can play it standing up using a custom stand that, she says, ‘would crack and split my wooden cello.’ And on airline trips, it can be checked as baggage for $50.”
Posted May 22, 2018
