Austin & Elliott, Troll 2, and Molly Pinto Madigan

Their third and most recent record, Cradle and Crow (2017), features two voices, acoustic guitar, bass, and hand drum, resulting in a “timeless quality difficult to achieve” (Greg Grant, Online Folk Festival). Cradle and Crow was written, performed, and produced by Austin & Elliott in their home studio. According to Metronome Magazine, “their voices meld together perfectly.”
With an MFA in poetry from Emerson College and a huge vinyl record collection, upstate NY native Chris strums hard on a distinctive handmade Alan Carruth acoustic guitar, which he won in Boston’s WUMB FM Songwriting Contest in 1996. He delights in penning offbeat rhymes and “witty, smart” (Greenfield Recorder) narratives. His musical inspiration ranges from memories of his father singing “Froggie Went a’ Courtin'” to the latest obscure Italian prog or Swedish metal LP.
In the early aughts Chris met his harmonic other half, Lisa Austin, on the mean streets of Cambridge, MA. Lisa Austin was born on the North Shore, raised in the Pioneer Valley, and marinated in the brine of the Atlantic. She was indoctrinated into the raucous world of folk music in the family home in Arlington where she listened to her family sing countless renditions of “Barnacle Bill the Sailor” and “Charlie on the MTA.” A Lilith Fair semi-finalist, Lisa’s bracing harmonies and powerful hand drum elevate the energy of their live shows, praised as “lively” (Recorder) and “memorable” (CBS Boston).

Our story begins some time around 2011 or 2012 in a basement in Jamaica Plain, MA, but we’re not sure exactly when or how.
From somewhere in the gaps between an ill-fated acoustic doom metal band, several unfinished concept albums, and an untold number of pseudonyms scrawled onto open mic sign up sheets (each one filthier than the one before), we suddenly found ourselves in a band together, stuck with the most recent name we had decided to call ourselves by. I assure you, we never meant for any of this to happen. Still, we somehow managed to find our way, and today we play our Bluegrass Soul Punk in basements and bars across Boston and beyond, enlightening people about important social and political issues like climate justice, addiction, carpet bombings, our breakups and alien abduction, while also inspiring mirth and dance. Soon, we hope to see you out there with there with those people, laughing, learning, living, loving, lusting, loathing, looting, loitering…

Hailed for her angelic voice and haunting compositions, Molly Pinto Madigan won first place in WUMB’s Boston Folk Festival Songwriting Contest and was named “Artist of the Year” at Salem State University, her alma mater. Since her debut as the lead singer for the teen bluegrass band Jaded Mandolin, Madigan has submerged herself in the dark, luscious world of ballads, drawn to their magic, and her original songs echo with the whisperings of the American and European traditional music.
Madigan has performed extensively around the Boston area at venues like Club Passim, The Boston Celtic Music Festival, First Night Boston, Cantab Lounge, notloB Parlor Concerts, Campfire Festival, The Lizard Lounge, and The Bull Run, sharing the stage with some big names in folk music, including Claire Lynch, Scott Alarik, Bridget Fitzgerald (of Cherish the Ladies), Robbie O’Connell (of The Clancy Brothers), Susan Cattaneo, Tracy Grammer, and John Carter Cash. Molly has been featured on WUMB’s Local Folk, WATD’s Almost Famous, as well as WBRS’s Off the Beaten Path. She recently won first place in the Family Folk Chorale Songwriting Contest, and was awarded a prestigious Passim Iguana Music Fund for her album, “Wildwood Bride.”

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