Hot Buttered Rum, a souped-up, left-coast string band, is the brainchild of uniquely gifted musicians who weave their love of bluegrass, folk, jazz and soul into a riveting strain of Americana. String bass and five-alarm fiddle merge with guitar, banjo, mandolin, drums and keyboards to frame the voices of its two contrasting writers, fueling a dance party with roots in Appalachia and its branches in California. It’s a sound that’s as tough to describe as it is easy to love. Twenty years into its journey, HBR’s music, dreamed up in the backcountry of the High Sierra and the basements of San Francisco, has found its way into the hearts, minds and bodies of fans nationwide. The band continues to tour year-round in support of its many albums and social causes.

Bryan Horne double bass & vocals

Bryan began his musical adventure at age 10 with the cello. He grew up listening to mostly rock ‘n’ roll groups like Men at Work, Rush, Yes, and Led Zeppelin. It was in the Tamalpais High School Orchestra that he first met Aaron Redner, future fiddler for Hot Buttered Rum.

In college, Bryan began playing electric bass in the jamband Oversoul. While playing in Oversoul, Bryan became more interested in acoustic music; he eventually transitioned from electric to acoustic bass and never turned back. His musical influences include Old and In the Way, Edgar Meyer, Phil Lesh, Stanley Clarke, and Gonzalo Rubalcaba. Coming back to the Bay Area after college, Bryan played in some musical groups with the members of Oversoul, eventually connecting with Nat Keefe and Erik Yates.

Erik Yates
banjos, guitars, woodwinds & vocals

Erik Yates never met a song he didn’t like. “There’s always something to love,” he recently told Paste magazine, “something to learn from.” The Oakland, California-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has spent the last twenty years bringing that love to the world. His wide-open blend of soul, lyrical bluegrass and Americana has garnered him fans nationwide through his solo recordings, his sideman work and his steady contributions to Hot Buttered Rum. Erik has worked all over the US, both with HBR and with other groups including Railroad Earth and Rapidgrass. He’s performed, taught and toured in Canada, Europe and the Caribbean, and was recently honored to travel to central Africa with the band with the American Music Abroad program.

James Stafford
drums & percussion, mandolin

James enjoys bringing spirit and musical support to live  performance and recordings.  He performs on the drum set for Hot Buttered Rum, but he also plays bass guitar, guitar and vocals in a variety of musical settings.  He has lately taken an interest in the mandolin, too.  He has studied music extensively and graduated from California State University Sonoma’s jazz program. An early member of Groundation, he had the pleasure of performing with some wonderful artists including the late Mel Graves, George Marsh, Randy Vincent, Bobby Vega, Phil Lesh and Peter Rowan as well as warming up the stage for Diana Krall and Robben Ford. The lessons he’s learned over the years are exercised at every performance and he always strives to bring high quality musicianship to any project.  James believes that music offers a unique opportunity to convey emotion through sound; providing this experience can foster happiness, inspiration and a rewarding a sense of community.

Ben Andrews 
violin

Ben Andrews discovered his passion for music early on, picking up the violin at the age of three, and he’s been playing and studying music ever since. After attending the New School University’s Jazz school he moved to San Francisco in 2006 and began playing with a number of local Americana and bluegrass bands, including Buxter Hoot’n, Poor Man’s Whiskey and the Jugtown Pirates. In 2012, he returned to Boston to study Contemporary Improvisation at the New England Conservatory. He honed his craft under the tutelage of renowned teachers like Nicholas Kitchen and Joe Morris, studying both classical and free music. While there he formed the group Choro Bastardo which went on to tour the country and give master classes at institutions like MIT and the Elizabeth Gardner Museum. After graduating from the Conservatory, Ben joined The Stone Foxes, playing all over the country and sharing the stage with acts like Wilco, Government Mule, and Social Distortion. He now plays fiddle with Hot Buttered rum and seamlessly brings his rock and roll and classical influences into the band. When he’s not performing Ben lives in Berkeley, California with his wife and daughter and teaches privately.

Jeff Coleman
Hammond B3, Piano, Wurlitzer, Rhodes

Jeff is a soulful player who lives to serve the song, and a skilled and versatile improvisor.

As a band member, Jeff’s touring and studio work includes hundreds of appearances with:

Poor Man’s Whiskey | Big Light | Izabella | The Sleeping Giants

Nat Keefe
guitar & vocals

Nat’s panoramic songwriting and baritone vocals play a defining role in Hot Buttered Rum’s sound. Since founding HBR in 1999, Nat has played thousands of shows all over the world and written hundreds of songs. 

Singing and pickin Bluegrass and Americana music are the center of Nat’s world, but he also moonlights under the tag BeatMower, performing electronic music. Over the Covid lockdown, Saturday night BeatMower dance parties became an online meeting place for many. BeatMower live-mixes multitrack beats and original and cover tunes, occupying a House music context, focusing on African and African diaspora music. Sometimes this centers on collaborations and recordings Nat made in Ghana, Rwanda, or Zambia, and sometimes on Ziggaboo Modeliste, Thomas Mapfumo, California Honeydrops, Justin Jay, LCD Soundsystem, Bassnectar, and Prince. BeatMower plays at festivals, venues, and parties big and small.