Flower Power

TRIPPING LILY'S fresh spin on roots music is stirring up a lot of fans of modern folk

Tripping Lily is an acoustic quartet that plays jaunty, ear-catching modern folk music with snappy rhythms and smart lyrics. The group includes Alex and Demetrius Brecelis, brothers who share mandolin, guitar and vocals, Monica Ruzzio on fiddle and vocals, and Laird Boles on upright bass. The group's roots began in Nashville, where Demetrius and Monica met while making the rounds of open mics and then moved to Boston, where Alex Brecelis and Laird Boles eventually joined.

The band has made waves in Boston-area acoustic circles, and their questioning song about the end –or not– of a relationship, "Over You," reached #1 on the leading folk radio station. Their debut CD, The Couch Sessions Live, was recorded in the style of old-time bluegrass acts – musicians clustered around a big microphone, successfully capturing the laid-back but upbeat spirit of their performances.

Their sound stems from all the members contributing to the songwriting, says Demetrius Brecelis. "When the four of us got together for the first time to sit down and create, it was instant," he says. "We just knew that this band was worth developing, and we were relieved. It's not processed. It's very organic."

At first listen, many of their songs seem to be about the gray zones in relationships, but as Brecelis says, it's not that simple. "Five Years or More" could be about a couple, but also is about moving on from a place where one has stayed too long – such as Nashville. "A lot of the songs on Couch Sessions have to do with the relationship of us and other people, or us looking around at other people," he says, "but it could be one verse here or just one verse there."

"A lot of people seem to relate to these different songs," he says, whether they are true stories or not. The group sees their shows as conversations with their audience and seems to delight in capturing different moods in their songs. The CD's opening track, "Welcome" is typical of that spirit, but is musically intriguing as well, with acoustic poly-rhythms and catchy dynamic stops. To hear Alex Brecelis, a straight-edged guy, endure a series of woe-is-me mishaps in his song, "Nothing Goes," comes off as a goofy, almost satirical performance. Tripping Lily's version of modern folk music replaces an earlier era's earnestness with raised eyebrows, playful attitude and relaxed but precise picking.

Their best-known and poppiest song, "Over You," is typical of their approach. Written by fiddler-vocalist Monica Rizzio, this upbeat-sounding song asks if a failed relationship is really over. "In that song, you say 'over you' with this confidence, but there's this doubt afterward," Brecelis says. "All songs are about specific thoughts. 'I'm over you. I'm not over you.' But this one leaves it up in the air for whoever is listening to it."

Like much bluegrass-inspired music, Tripping Lily focuses on rhythm and melody as much as they do on story lines. Brecelis said the group all play instruments by Chicago luthier Martin Brunkalla, which he said has shaped the group's sound.

"The instruments we play have everything to do with our sound," he says. "They're very unique. They allow us to be percussive. That's the whole thing with the band. We do not have a drummer. So we have to rely on our own rhythmic abilities to create that rhythmic sound in our band."

And then there's the origin of the group's name. "When this project was first forming, people would ask us, 'What style of music is that?'" Brucelis recounts. "We'd say to them, 'You tell us.' And it seems like a good majority of them would say you guys are tripping over different genres. That's where the 'tripping' came from. As far as 'lily,' if you look at the headstock of all our instruments, the builder actually put an abalone lily design on the headstock, and that's where the name of the band came from – between those two aspects."

— Steven Rosenfeld


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