Solomon’s Hollow is a five-person jazz-influenced folk band is coming back to Boise from Portland for this year’s Treefort Music Festival.
Nate Agenbroad, lead singer, guitar player and Boise State graduate, spoke to The Arbiter.
Solomon’s Hollow was formed in Boise by Agenbroad in 2008 after he graduated.
He moved to Portland for music but recently came back to Boise and was followed by fellow band member’s Angie Stevens (violin), Kyle Baas (upright bass), Mark Doubleday (cello) and Marcus Orton (percussion).
“We were geared more towards improv section when we were in Portland, and it was fun and we had people to do it with, but eventually we got to a point where we couldn’t really push it any farther,” Agenbroad said. “So we really wanted to go back in the direction of mapping things out and actually transcribing the
arrangements.”
Agenbroad said that the band is jazz-influenced in their phrasing and also have a lot of swing feel in the rhythm, but it is not like a jazz standard.
He said they are trying to avoid writing music that sounds like jazz standards.
Since moving back to Boise in December of 2012, Agenbroad said he believes this is the best group of musicians he has been with.
“In the two months that we have been really working hard and rehearsing,” Agenbroad said. “I feel that I have gotten farther with thias group of musicians than I got with musicians that I have spent a lot more time with in the past.”
The band’s name was made up by Agenbroad a while back and has stuck now.
“It’s kind of a play on the biblical character Solomon,” he said. “We aren’t a Christian band, but some of that imagery I grew up with.”
As of now, Agenbroad said Solomon’s Hollow does not have any more shows lined up after Treefort, but plan to be playing over the summer.
“This is kind of just something to get the ball rolling for now,” he said.
Though described to be “a fictional place that happens to be also real” in their Treefort profile, Solomon’s Hollow will really be playing Sunday March 24 at 8 p.m. at the Crux, an all-ages venue.
