The Hot Seats

For 22 years, The Hot Seats have gained and burnished the reputation as the carriers of an important and overlooked tradition of American and international folk music - social commentator, satirist, and entertainer. Homer and Jethro, The Skillet Likkers, The Hoosier Hot Shots, Harry Reser, Woodie Guthrie, Gus Cannon, Phil Ochs, Tommy Jarrell, Arthur Smith, Uncle Dave Macon, Frank Zappa – these are pools in which The Hot Seats swim. Formed in 2002 by a group of like-minded friends for a weekly bar gig, the band’s live shows quickly became well known for on stage antics, one-act plays, and Dada-esque humor, underpinned by a foundation in hard-driving bluegrass, old time, ragtime, jug blues, and early country music. We refer to our sound under the catchall of “Stringband music” as we find it tedious to get into whether it’s old time, bluegrass, ragtime, country, or general freakout music. Between 2005-2018, The Hot Seats toured extensively in the US and UK, performing in nearly the full spectrum of venue size and situation: living room to dive bar; square dance to theatre).