Mostly Marys

Bluegrass feel, sweetly sung: The Mostly Marys is an acoustic crowd-pleasing East Bay quartet that plays bluegrass, old-time music, and whatever else fits. Together since 2017, they combine rich harmonies with fiddle, guitar, banjo, blues harp, and bass.  The Mostly Marys have an infectious enthusiasm for bringing joy to their audience with a repertoire that includes traditional tunes as well as modern troubadours: Hazel Dickens and John Prine; Bill Monroe and Patti Griffin; Ola Belle Reed and Townes Van Zandt.  At times the listener is blissfully drawn in while at other times foot stomping and dancing can't be helped.

Our website: http://www.mostlymarys.com

Well, it’s true, we did. Some of us met at a Thursday night jam class in Berkeley, California. Our enthusiasm drew us to play with each other, so we decided to start a band. We sometimes have guests along, but the core of the band is:

Mary Cranley, voice, fiddle, and mandolin

It’s not that young Mary C — also called Short-haired Mary — didn’t like learning classical violin, it just never grabbed ahold too tightly. Life went on, and Mary learned to play some guitar, strum a tamboura, and bellow a harmonium. One fateful night she attended a show by the Infamous Stringdusters and that bluegrass fiddle sound grabbed ahold and didn’t let go. She turned her violin into a fiddle, and now plays and sings bluegrass and old-time music to her heart’s content.

Mary Schriner, voice, banjo, and harmonica

When Mary S’s sister cleaned out their mom’s house, she sent Mary the unstrummed, resonator-back banjo their mom had given to her decades before. As banjo started infiltrating her life, the old-time mountain sound possessed her to switch to an open-back model, luring her down the path of clawhammer style ever since. While living in Chicago, long-haired Mary fell in love with blues harmonica and is now known to lean into blue notes and bend air into bluegrass and old-time songs.

Ryan Harlin, voice, guitar

Ryan’s childhood was a series of well-meaning attempts to play old-time music, from the time in the 3rd grade when he lugged his cello to a fiddler’s convention, to his brief tenure as a Philadelphia Mummer because they played banjos. Ultimately he found his way and became a multi-instrumentalist (guitar, banjo, mandolin, voice), music producer, and songwriter. Ryan is the newest member to Mostly Marys and brings a welcomed third voice to the harmonies along with some of his own favorite songs to perform.

Scott Underwood, bass and other, secret things

At a young age, Scott took over his sister’s student acoustic guitar, then as a teen got his first cheap electric guitar and amp from her boyfriend. In his early twenties he discovered electric bass and backed a variety of rock, pop, country, and singer-songwriter artists. A few years back, he finally got an upright bass, through which he discovered a new set of great musicians playing country blues, old-time, and bluegrass tunes