Jacob Joliff with SkilletHead

Jacob Jolliff is one of the world’s premier contemporary mandolinists. In 2011, he graduated from Berklee College of Music, having studied there on a full scholarship. The following year, in 2012, he won the USA’s National Mandolin Championship in Winfield, KS. A fixture of the bluegrass scene, he has performed and collaborated with Béla Fleck, Tony Trischka, Michael Daves, Grant Gordy, Wes Corbett, and Alex Hargreaves, to name a few. Additionally, throughout his 20s, he toured as a member of the groups Joy Kills Sorrow and Yonder Mountain String Band. Currently, his focus is on his own ensemble, The Jacob Jolliff Band—one of the most cutting-edge progressive bluegrass groups on the scene today. They’ve released three albums, the most recent of which, “Instrumentals, Vol. 2: Mandolin Mysteries,” dropped in May 2024. The band plays a combination of complex original instrumental music and vocal repertoire that spans from trad bluegrass to unlikely pop covers. Improvisation and the ensemble interplay are at the forefront.

Setting roots in the high and dry Central Oregon desert, Skillethead calls forth the best of bluegrass old and new. They ground themselves firmly in the bluegrass traditions of driving fiddle tunes, layered harmonies, and single mics, all the while weaving in inspiration and originality gleaned from genres far and wide. You can expect to hear a Stanley Brothers number right alongside a stirring original or a rollicking rock cover done in Skillethead's own unique fashion. The spectrum reaches far and wide, the bluegrass universe is expanding, and Skillethead is on that ride!