April 19, 2023 — In May, Asheville, North Carolina duo Zoe & Cloyd will release their album, Songs of Our Grandfathers, which weaves together the musical legacies of Natalya Zoe Weinstein and John Cloyd Miller’s families. Both of their grandfathers were hard-working practitioners of musical styles — klezmer and bluegrass — birthed in two different cultures and originally separated by thousands of miles, yet Weinsteinand Miller artfully blend them in exciting and innovative ways.
Ahead of the album release, Zoe & Cloyd have released four singles from the album, and today they share a music video for one, “We’ll Meet Again Sweetheart,” from the rich bluegrass heritage of John Cloyd Miller’s grandfather.
Says Miller, “This classic bluegrass number was one of four sides my grandfatherJim Shumate recorded with Flatt & Scruggs for the Mercury label in 1948. That early lineup of the Foggy Mountain Boys — featuring Jim, Mac Wiseman, Cedric Rainwater and, of course, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs — was a force of nature and set the standard for bluegrass moving forward. We were excited to revisit the energy and tastefulness of that iconic recording.”
It’s a track that will bring a smile to those who know every note of the vintage recording even as it reflects Zoe & Cloyd’s unique creative touches.
Check out the music video below and pre-save/add Songs of Our Grandfathers HERE ahead of its May 19 release.
About Zoe & Cloyd
Klezgrass. This one word may best describe the vast musical world of Asheville, North Carolina duo Zoe & Cloyd. Springing from rich and complementary traditions, the artistic stylings of fiddler/vocalist Natalya Zoe Weinstein and multi-instrumentalist/vocalist John Cloyd Miller fit together in a harmonic dovetail.
Descending from a lineage of klezmer and jazz musicians, Natalya trained classically in her home state of Massachusetts before discovering old-time and bluegrass and moving south in 2004. John, a twelfth generation North Carolinian and grandson of pioneering bluegrass fiddler, Jim Shumate, is a gifted singer and songwriter, placing 1st in the prestigious Chris Austin Songwriting Contest and the Hazel Dickens Songwriting Contest. Long-time fixtures of the Asheville music scene, the pair were founding members of the lauded roots trio, Red June, later shifting to Zoe & Cloyd after the birth of their daughter in 2015. Since that time, the pair has released four acclaimed albums, performed across the US, and appeared in Season 5 of the nationally syndicated PBS show, David Holt’s State of Music in 2021.
In 2022, the band was an official showcase artist at the IBMA World of Bluegrass, featured guest artists for the Davidson College Holiday Gala, as well as hosts of A Swannanoa Solstice at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts. Their fifth studio album, Songs of Our Grandfathers, is set to release in May of 2023 on Organic Records, just before their international debut in Northern Ireland.
Zoe & Cloyd delight audiences with soaring harmonies and heartfelt songwriting, seamlessly combining original bluegrass, klezmer, old-time and folk with sincerity and zeal.