Hog-Eyed Man - Across The Sea (2025) [Hi-Res]

As Hog-eyed Man, Jason Cade and Rob McMaken have developed a compelling approach to the archaic fiddle traditions of the Southern Appalachians. For "Across the Sea," their sixth album (and third release on the Old-Time Tiki Parlour label), the duo is joined by two friends: Tallahassee-based Paddy "Otis" League—a master of both Irish and Greek music—and Michael Starkey, a talented clawhammer banjo player living in the northwest highlands of Scotland who is already making waves in the States.

In an era increasingly defined by rigid boundaries, this project embraces community and curiosity. “Whether you’ve heard our music before or not, this is the best thing we’ve ever done, the thing I’m most proud of,” said McMaken. Cade added, “The melodic approach to the tunes is still old school and traditional, but playing with Paddy and Michael gave us a chance to get a more creative with the arrangements. You can hear how much fun we had exploring the music together.”

Cade, whose fiddling has won the coveted blue ribbon at Clifftop, learned much of his music in Celo, NC from neighbors like Bruce Greene, the legendary fiddler and tune-collector. Cade has lived in Ireland three times, including a year each in Cork and Dublin, where he also developed a great appreciation for that country’s traditional music. McMaken, a north Georgia native who honed his chops busking with a mandolin in New Orleans, is one of today’s leading mountain dulcimer players. They are perfectly paired with their collaborators. Starkey’s engaging clawhammer banjo-playing lands right on that elusive balance of melody and rhythm, while League switches between open-tuned guitar, trichordo bouzouki, and bodhran (the irish frame drum), adding colors and grooves not typically found in modern oldtime music but somehow right at home in this project.

The 13 tunes on Across the Sea chart the many paths that traditional music can follow when it crosses oceans and passes through generations. There are lively burners like 40 Weight of Gingerbread and Wabash Hornpipe. There are haunting tunes that carry all the heft of their immigrant histories, such as Georgia Belles, Wading the Cheat and Polly Put the Kettle On. The album also takes a more reflective turn with the banjo-fiddle duet Ten Steps and an almost chamber-music approach to Sarah’s Ashes. The group reimagines old favorites, breathing new life into classics like Ways of the World, Yell in the Shoats and The Galway Reel. And their voices rise above the instruments on songs like Wolves A Howling and Across the Sea, the latter of which was learned from their friend, the late painter and folk music champion Art Rosenbaum.

The band recorded at home with a stereo pair technique invented in the 1930s by Alan Blumlein, playing around two vertically stacked vintage ribbon microphones in the middle of the room. The resulting vivid recording quality immerses the listener in an intimate kitchen session, where the musicians’ relaxed craft is fully realized.

"Across the Sea" is not just an album; it’s a powerful exploration of the spirit of exchange and connection that has always been at the heart of America’s folk music traditions. And like everyone’s favorite vinyl records, “it has a vibe.”

Together or with other bands, Cade, McMaken, League and Starkey have performed at: the Knitting Factory, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Celtic Colours (Nova Scotia), the Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments (Athens, Greece), Celtic Connections Festival (Glasgow), Morecambe Winter Gardens (England), the Kerrville Folk Festival, Mountain Stage, the Moab Folk Festival, the Minnesota Bluegrass & Old-Time Music Festival, the Santa Barbara Old-Time Fiddlers Festival, the UGA Willson Center’s Humanities Festival, FSU’s Center for Music of the Americas, the Happy Valley Fiddlers Convention (NC), the North Georgia Folk Festival, the Bluff Mountain Festival (NC), Fiddlin’ Fest Between the Rivers (Rome, GA), and many other venues.

Jason Cade - fiddle, vox
Rob McMaken - lap dulcimer, mando, vox
Paddy League - guitar, greek bouzouki, bodhran
Michael Starkey - banjo