Fri 2/16 @ 8PM
Singer/guitarist/mandolin player Ethan Robbins, a committed Deadhead as a teenager, discovered his passion for bluegrass while he was at Oberlin College (class of 2009). While he didn’t studied music officially, it became his major extracurricular activity when he formed a band called the Outhouse Troubadours with a classmate. He and another classmate moved to Boston after graduation and it was there that they met percussionist/guitarist/vocalist Ariel Bernstein and formed Cold Chocolate, now a duo of Robbins and Bernstein.
While the band still has bluegrass roots, it’s stretched beyond them to encompass a variety of Americana and folk sounds, topped by close harmonies. The productive band just released its fifth full-length album, Now That’s What I Call Cold Chocolate Vol. 1, last October. And while the bulk of their repertoire is originals, this one features a wide-ranging mix of covers from artists such as Hall and Oates, Prince, The Main Ingredient, Wilson Phillips, Beck, Aerosmith, Aretha Franklin and Nick Drake — the majority of them well-known tracks or hits, giving them grist for reinvention
Cold Chocolate will be at Pensinula’s G.A.R. Hall Friday February 16. Get tickets here.
Peninsula, OH 44264