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Dobro and banjo player Ivan Rosenberg has released 4 CDs of mostly-original instrumentals and an instructional DVD. According to Bluegrass Unlimited magazine, "It is only a matter of time until Ivan Rosenberg becomes universally recognized as one of the more prolific masters of the resonator guitar," and in his review, Banjo Newsletter editor Donald Nitchie wrote that Ivan's latest CD Clawhammer and Dobro was one of the best instrumental recordings of the year.


photo by Kari Gogol

photo by Patrick Satterfield 		Ivan currently plays select festivals and concerts with the Vancouver, BC-based alt. bluegrass band The Breakmen and with the old time/world music quartet Mighty Squirrel out of Washington State. Ivan has also performed and/or recorded with many top musicians including Billy Cardine and Mary Lucey of The Biscuit Burners, Chris Stuart & Backcountry, Chad Manning, Hit & Run, Jake Schepps, Julie Elkins & David Thompson, Ben Winship, and Mike Grigoni.
Ivan has taught dobro at the Sore Fingers Week bluegrass workshop in the UK (2004), the British Columbia Bluegrass Workshop (BCBW) in Canada (2003, '04, '05, and '06), and the California Bluegrass Association music camp in California (2004, 2005), and he also instructed a clawhammer banjo class at the BCBW in 2006. This year's workshops include The Puget Sound Guitar Workshop and the BCBW, for which Ivan is also the new program director.

Ivan’s original music has appeared in several film and television scores including Jerry Bruckheimer/Warner Brothers Films' Kangaroo Jack (2003), HBO's Making Deadwood: The Show Behind the Show (2004), Comedy Central's The Daily Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and High Plains Films' acclaimed documentary Libby, Montana (2004).

TV/Film Score Highlights and Discography

Performance/Workshop Highlights:

  • Beanblossom "Uncle Pen Days" Bluegrass Festival, Beanblossom, IN (2006)
  • Blueberry Bluegrass Festival, Edmonton AB (2006)
  • Wintergrass (Reso-Mania) (2006)
  • Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival (2005)
  • RockyGrass, Lyons, CO (2005)
  • Chilliwack Bluegrass Festival, BC (2005, 2006)
  • British Columbia Bluegrass Workshop (2003-2006)
  • Vancouver Island Music Festival (2005)
  • California Bluegrass Association Music Camp and Father's Day Festival (2004, 2005)
  • IBMA official showcase, Louisville, KY (2004)
  • Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival, NJ (2004)
  • Sore Fingers Week Bluegrass School in England (2004)
  • Darrington Bluegrass Festival, WA (2004)
  • Sisters Folk Festival, OR (2004)
  • Blythe Bluegrass Festival, CA (2004)
  • Tri-State Festival, Kendalville, IN (2004)
  • Bluegrass on the River Festival, AZ (2004)
  • 2nd Place at Telluride Band Contest with Nine Pound Hammer (2000); 4th Place with The Crazy Water String Band (1996)
REVIEWS & QUOTES:

CLAWHAMMER AND DOBRO review - Dec. '06 Banjo Newsletter
One of the best instrumental recordings I've heard this year is Ivan Rosenberg's Clawhammer and Dobro. Ivan is a banjo and resonator guitar player who writes simply irresistable tunes in that wide-open, almost-no-man's-land between contemporary bluegrass and old time, similar to Mark Johnson and Mark Schatz...

While I'm assuming that Ivan is mostly a dobro player, his clawhammer playing and the tunes he writes for clawhammer will inspire and delight those who are interested in where clawhammer will be going next. If that sounds like you, get this cd.
--Donald Nitchie

CLAWHAMMER AND DOBRO review, California Bluegrass Association Newsletter
Ivan Rosenberg is an accomplished master of resophonic guitar and clawhammer banjo and while the two instruments are seldom paired together, he’s managed to marry the sounds of the two into a happy and fruitful union. Ivan’s banjo playing has a strong melodic flavor and his resophonic guitar happily bends and turns and fills the musical pools with sustained melodies. Mason Tuttle’s guitar and mandolin add rhythms and contrasts to many of the songs. The songs range from fast-paced, bluegrass inspired tunes to melodic minor key excursions like the “The Creptid Mule.” “Pig Shack” has a call and response response melody with the dobro and mandolin that has all the energy of a pile of pigs jockeying for top porker. Even without Ivan’s colorful titles, the wonderful blends of the instruments have a fun flavor that makes the songs good listening and a great stress reliever at the end of a long day.

CLAWHAMMER AND DOBRO December '06 Review by Bluegrass Unlimited:
For his latest recording project, Ivan has merged two diverse traditional instruments to create a highly effective and thoroughly enjoyable production. This mostly instrumental package features Ivan on both clawhammer banjo and resonator guitar, supported by several guest artists including fiddler Chad Manning and Jon Stickley (mandolin). The ten selections include original pieces with catchy names such as "Fly Up The River," "Skunk Ate The Mothballs," and "Rope-A-Dope." Ivan also takes the lead on the disc's lone vocal, "Poor Ellen Smith." Once again, Ivan Rosenberg has created a musical delight with "Clawhammer And Dobro," a welcomed variation from the ordinary.

CLAWHAMMER AND DOBRO Review from the Montana Rockies Bluegrass Association Newsletter:

If you’ve ever seen Ivan play, you know what an innovative musician he is, but hearing this steady-moving and unusual album will convince you that Rosenberg was, indeed, beamed to this planet by someone or something that had a higher place in mind for the resonator guitar and the banjo... All 10 tracks are complete bliss to listen to, it won’t leave your CD player alone!

--Caroline Keys

ASHES AND COALS REVIEW: THE MISSOULIAN 2/9/06
Only a performer of the rarest talent can get away with releasing an album featuring just himself playing a single instrument. Former Missoulian Ivan Rosenberg’s mastery of the resophonic guitar, or Dobro, and his wellspring of melodies allow him to do more than just get away with it—he moves his instrument’s long tradition forward on Ashes and Coals, his third release.... Rosenberg takes listeners on a stripped-down and affecting instrumental journey. The result is rip-your-heart-out beautiful.

ASHES AND COALS REVIEW: California Bluegrass Association:
Ivan Rosenberg was a mainstay in Chris Stuart’s Backcountry band and his dobro was a plaintive voice that wove in and out of the vocals and a powerhouse on the band’s driving instrumentals. Ivan’s solo album features his guitar and dobro playing and the mood is often quiet and has sweet, flowing melody lines that evoke mountain streams and long drives in the summer night. “ashes and coals” has flickering spurts of melody that echo embers, and “miles back” has sliding dobro trills that are like the bumps on a long highway. “low voices” is a tune that belongs in one of the classic French movies and might make an interesting MTV music video! Ivan coaxes great tone from his Clinesmith, and he has mastered the lyrical, mood-sustaining power of the resonator guitar.
4/10/03: BACK TO THE PASTURE review by Bill Yates – Roots 66
Ivan Rosenberg has followed up his very good album "The Lost Coast" with this effort, proving he is not a one-hit wonder. "Back to the Pasture" is another excellent collection of original Rosenberg compositions (eight of them) and two well-arranged covers... His playing is impeccable. His compositions are original yet are comforatbly at home in the bluegrass genre...

Ivan Rosenberg is someone to keep an eye on and an ear tuned to in this field. He is both an excellent instrumentalist and a very good composer. He has the good sense to surround himself with other good musicians whom he respects and gives them their turn in the spotlight. This is a fine recording and is a valuable addition to your bluegrass library, especially for resonator guitar fans. This is just plain good music. Recommended.

BACK TO THE PASTURE review by Les McIntyre, Bluegrass Unlimited, Nov. 2002:
Resonator guitarist Ivan Rosenberg ... has amassed an impressive supporting cast to create a mostly instrumental package featuring such original numbers as "Pepperwood Hollow," "Devil's Chute," Soda Springs," and "Late Night Ramble." However there are a couple of impressive vocal entries including Eric Uglum's interpretation of "Somebody Loves You Darling" and Lost Highway's Ken Orrick gliding through the Bee Gees classic "I've Gotta Get a Message to You." From the contents of "Back To The Pasture," it is only a matter of time until Ivan Rosenberg becomes universally recognized as one of the more prolific masters of the resonator guitar.

BACK TO THE PASTURE liner notes excerpt by Dave Higgs:
Along with the fiddle, the resonator guitar, or Dobro®, is perhaps the most expressive of all the bluegrass instruments... In the right hands, the resonator guitar is eminently capable of duplicating a myriad of emotions - from a jubilant, euphoric shout all the way to a primeval, gut-wrenching moan. In the right hands, it becomes an instrument of impassioned feeling, dark mystery and great beauty. Ivan Rosenberg has those "right hands."

"Back to the Pasture" spotlights the resonator guitar's storied past and paints a vivid portrait of its future. And in the multi-talented hands of Ivan Rosenberg, that future looks bright indeed.

Dave Higgs -- Nashville Public Radio