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Mountaingrass is truly blessed this year to present instrumentalists of such high calibre as the members of the Tone Rangers getting back to their bluegrass roots.

The Tone Rangers are Toronto’s preeminent bluegrass band. The members of this group of bluegrass, old-time, and string band vets are well-established in the Canadian bluegrass and acoustic scene, everywhere you explore you find them!

Mando maestro Andrew Collins has been at the epicentre of Canada’s acoustic/roots music scene for decades. He didn’t invent it but he's certainly been a contributor, having co-founded seriously noteworthy Canadian bands like the Creaking Tree String Quartet, the Foggy Hogtown Boys, his namesake - Andrew Collins Trio and now, The Tone Rangers - a let's get back to our bluegrass roots band just for the fun of it. This prolific, robust performer is comfortable on mandolin, fiddle, guitar, mandola and mandocello, composes, produces, arranges, writes and teaches across multiple genres, including a popular collision of folk, jazz, bluegrass, celtic, and classical. Andrew Collins has collected innumerable JUNO nominations (5) and Canadian Folk Music Awards (7) won with his various ensembles.

Chris Quinn (banjo) (previously of The Foggy Hogtown Boys and Creaking Tree String Quartet) has been playing bluegrass for decades on banjo and guitar. He has tutored at many Canadian roots music schools including the Northern Lights bluegrass festival and camp. Andrew and Chris are featured in this historic video of the festival https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODiTgBcsCBM

James McEleney (bass & mandocello) has been playing with Andrew Collins for 13 years. As an acclaimed bass player, James has recorded and performed across North America, Europe and Australia performing roots music, jazz, bluegrass. A graduate of the jazz program at York University, he brings a sophistication to any band that is notable and appreciated night after night. Canadian music fans know him as a multi-instrumentalist for acts including The Andrew Collins Trio, Sarah Jane Scouten, The Unseen Strangers and The Sondheim Jazz Project (two time CFMA Instrumental Group of the Year winner for the years 2014 and 2016).

Ben Plotnick (fiddle) is a renowned virtuoso Nashville based Canadian fiddle player who has toured the world and played as a session musician on more than a hundred albums. No stranger to Australian audiences, he played with Ruth Moody (of Wailin’ Jennys fame) at the National Folk Festival earlier this year. Ben has established himself over the last decade as one of North America’s elite fiddle players. With a variety of acts, he has performed at arenas and festivals across the continents with country, folk, Americana and bluegrass bands, and produced 8 records for himself or other collaborative projects. As a fiddler, his fiddle & banjo duo album with Slocan Ramblers’ Frank Evans, (madison archives) was nominated for a Juno award, and won the title of Instrumental album of the year at the CFMAs. Ben and Frank are also involved in James McEleney’ new project band - a band with a leaning towards old-time and celtic music.
[Ben takes Adam Shier's place on this tour.  Adam recently placed second in the US National Flat Picking guitarist award but sadly cannot make this trip.]

The Tone Rangers (CAN)