Tin Hat Trio: A Ride into the Unknown

One band member sways slowly, eyes closed and meditative as she bows her violin. The other taps his foot with assurance as he breathes through his accordion. The last of the trio holds an ear against the strings of his guitar.

The song vaguely resembles old-time country, shaken with short beats that add suspense, and a moment later it turns into bluegrass, with the accordion making bass.

The music as a whole is reminiscent of a dark and epic fairy tale that belongs in the dreams of a child. In addition to playing accordion and harmonica, Rob Burger alternates between tapping a professional piano and a small toy piano, which adds to the eerie childlike quality of the music.

Tin Hat Trio’s music has been described by critics as indescribable.

“On my father’s side, my grandfather’s family, were Hungarian musicians,” violinist Carla Kihlstedt said, adding that researching the folk traditions of her heritage has inspired her talent.

Guitarist Mark Orton said the music has Eastern European influences combined with a multitude of other sounds.
“We’re not doing it legit Old World,” he said, relaxing in a front-row seat at the PAC concert hall after the show. “We have developed our own version of that.”

Kihlstedt said, although the music contains a balance between improvisation and memorization, she sometimes becomes bored with playing the same songs through the years.

“It’s like a spiritual challenge to keep it fresh, even the stuff that’s oldest for us,” she said. “Even the stuff that has no improvisation.”

The Tin Hat Trio formed in 1996 and released its debut album, “Memory is an Elephant,” in 1999. They released “Helium” only a year later. Their most recent release, Book of Silk, was released in 2004.

Harpist Zeena Parkins has accompanied such musicians as Don Byron, Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, and most recently Bjork, contributed her talent to the Tin Hat Trio’s performance at the Performing Arts Center At Western Washington University in Bellingham, where I had the pleasure of meeting the band. Parkins also contributed to The Rodeo Eroded (2002).

“I’m slowly beginning to feel out the dynamic of the various relationships interacting with each other, because my playing is somewhat percussive,” Parkins said, standing beside the acoustic harp she played earlier. “So it’s pushing that aspect, that quality in the music.”

Tin Hat Trio is also performing musical compositions they have created to accompany the animations of silent filmmaker Ladislaw Starewicz (1982-1965). They performed live with a showing of Starewicz’s stop-motion animations that involve dead insects, at the Pickford Dream Space at 1218 Bay St. in Bellingham. Orton said band members hope to release a collection of the films following completion of their accompanying music.

Asked whether she prefers to play for a large crowd or small audience, Kihlstedt says, consistent with the genre-blending tradition of the band, “They’re really different. I like them both.”