Claflin & Grace Bio:

Brian Claflin and Ellie Grace are songwriting partners, musical collaborators, and old friends whose roots-based Americana shines with stunning two-part harmonies. With long and successful independent performing and recording careers, their debut duo CD will be released in 2017.

Ellie Grace:

Ellie Grace, now based in Kansas City, was born into a deep musical tradition. She has spent her life performing professionally as a singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and dancer who specializes in roots-based Americana and percussive dance. She first took to the stage as a young member of her family band and now tours internationally as a solo artist and a member of several beloved bands and ground-breaking dance companies. Ellie has performed with her sister duo (Leela and Ellie Grace) at prestigious venues across the United States and Canada, ranging from the Winnipeg Folk Festival to the Lincoln Center in New York City to the Summer Solstice Festival in Los Angeles to the National Women’s Music Festival. Ellie is a passionate and devoted teacher, having taught at camps, schools, colleges, and festivals across the country for well over twenty years. In the culmination a lifetime of performing and teaching, Ellie received her Master of Fine Arts in Dance Performance and Choreography from Smith College in May of 2015. She has spent the last three years as a Teaching Fellow and visiting professor, sharing her deep love of percussive and social dance with her inspiring students at Smith College and Mount Holyoke College. She approaches music and dance the same way she approaches life: with an irrepressible spirit, a driving rhythm in her step, a healthy dose of humor, and an undying commitment to building community!

Brian Claflin:

Raised in New England, with eclectic influences as both writer and singer, Brian Claflin coalesces diverse genres to form a rich mix of thoughtful & clever contemporary songwriting, and deeply soulful vocals. Brian rebelled against his hippie upbringing by briefly pursuing a Mad Men career in NYC, only to flee the scene and return to music, moving to Asheville, North Carolina to infuse his smart-ass folk-rock with elements of traditional Appalachian roots music.

With published songwriting credits in collaboration with Nanci Griffith and Adam Duritz, Claflin has performed at venues from The Bitter End and Greenwich Village Folk Festival in NYC, to the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, to the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN, to the Magnetic Theater in Asheville, NC. As solo act, and as a duo with singing & songwriting partner Ellie Grace (and in other collaborations), Claflin has found a new home in the vibrant Asheville music scene.