Nefesh Mountain is the place where American Bluegrass and Old-time Music meet with Jewish Heritage and tradition. Band leaders, genre-pioneers, and husband and wife Doni Zasloff and Eric Lindberg are the heart of this eclectic offering, and share their love for American music, their own cultural heritage, and each other with audiences throughout the world. The result of this unexpected and beautiful mix is staggering; and while complete with the kind of adept string virtuosity and through composed arrangements one would hope for from a newgrass band with influences from Bluegrass, Old-Time, Celtic, and Jazz, they also play and sing songs of the heart creating music with a sense of diversity, oneness, and purpose for our world today.
Their newest and most adventurous recording to date called “Beneath The Open Sky” was a tour de force for the band, featuring friends and bluegrass luminaries Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Tony Trischka And David Grier, along with their own band members Alan Grubner and Tim Kiah. The album’s 11 songs collectively weave together a groundbreaking and beautiful patchwork of new American music, being called “refreshingly eclectic” by Rolling Stone, and “One of the finest, wholly bluegrass records one will hear in not only 2018 but as a touchstone moving forward” by No Depression magazine.
Currently the Nefesh Mountain touring band/quintet plays over 150 dates worldwide with performances all throughout the US, Canada, Israel, England, and Australia. Their mission whether at a concert hall, festival, workshop, school, camp, or synagogue, is to spread the joy and magic of American Roots Music and help to champion and reinforce the powerful messages of diversity, wholeness, and harmony for our ever changing times.
The multi award winning singer, songwriter and author Doni Zasloff is a beloved presence on stage throughout the country and is regarded as among the most influential Jewish Performers in the twenty-first century. In just the past decade Doni has been awards three Parents Choice Awards, received the Simcha Award from the International Jewish Music Festival in Amsterdam, Holland, has produced over 10 albums and written 2 books, all while touring extensively throughout the United States, Canada, England, Australia, and Israel. Her unique backgrounds in singing, musical theatre and Judaism make her one of the most in demand and unique artists today, and she brings these multi-faceted talents directly to the world of Nefesh Mountain where she continues to enchant audiences all over the world with her voice and unlimited spirit, her words, melodies, and music.
Award winning multi-instrumentalist, composer, and cultural innovator Eric Lindberg brings his musical background in Jazz and Classical forms to the acoustic world of American Roots music. Eric graduated with honors from Mason Gross School Of The Arts with a Jazz performance degree under guitarist and mentor Vic Juris and since has toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Israel and the Middle East, all the while cultivating his skillset and deep love for the Banjo, Mandolin, and Dobro as well as Guitar. His influential work as a composer, singer, guitarist, and banjoist with his wife Doni Zasloff in Nefesh Mountain are known widely in Roots/Bluegrass and Jewish worlds today and together they have recorded and shared the stage with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Tony Trischka, David Grier, Bryan Sutton, Aubrey Haynie, Mark Schatz, Scott Vestal, Rob Ickes, Byron House, Jeff Taylor, And Chris Brown among many others.
Alan Grubner graduated Summa Cum Laude from Dartmouth College where he received both the 1998 MacDonald-Smith Music Prize for High Achievement in Musical Performance and the Heiman-Rosenthal Ensembles Award for High Achievement in the Creative Arts. He continued graduate studies in jazz performance at Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory. Some of Alan’s more recent work on fiddle is featured throughout the groundbreaking film, Beasts of the Southern Wild, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival. His work on violin and viola is also featured on multiple episodes of the Emmy Award-winning TV series, Louie, starring Grammy Award-winning comedian, Louis C.K. In 2010 Mr. Grubner released his debut album, Long Road Home, and represented the U.S.A. as a featured soloist at the World Expo in Shanghai, China.
David Goldenberg is a mandolin player who’s singular approach blurs the lines between the adventurous sounds he hears in his head and the earthy fundamentals of traditional music. As one of the first mandolin graduates of the Berklee College of Music, he went on to win a variety of contests including: The National Mandolin Contest, Telluride Bluegrass Band Contest, Rockygrass Mandolin Contest and Utah State Mandolin Contest. Teaching has always been a central theme in Goldenberg’s desire to connect with people and he has consistently maintained a healthy roster of students for over ten years.
Harvesting the wild energy and joy of free jazz and bluegrass, bassist and composer Max Johnson approaches his music with love and authenticity. “Johnson is an intrepid composer, architect of sound and beast of the bass…” (Brad Cohan, New York City Jazz Record). Max Johnson has worked with legendary figures in jazz and improvised music, like John Zorn, Anthony Braxton, William Parker and Muhal Richard Abrams; masters of the bluegrass world David Grisman, Sam Bush, the Travelin McCourys, and Darol Anger; and has had his music performed throughout the US, Scotland, Germany, Denmark, France and the Netherlands. With a non-stop touring schedule at top festivals and performing arts centers such as Lincoln Center, the United Nations, Lollapalooza, Rockygrass, Edmonton Folk Festival, Bern Jazz Festival, Max also has a prolific recording history, having released nine albums under his own name, and has played on over thirty records to date. In 2012 and 2014 was voted No.2 Bassist of the Year and No. 5 Musician of the Year in El Intruso’s International Critics Poll, and has been reviewed and profiled in the New York Times, the Chicago Reader, Downbeat Magazine, and JazzTimes. Most recently his bass playing has been heard in Spike Lee’s Academy Award winning film “the BlacKkKlansman”.
