How Kolkata’s Grassy Strings swapped local sounds for global Bluegrass stages
The young musical duo Souvik Hazra and Subhankar Dhar’s ideation behind their band Grassy Strings goes a long way. Ever since their school days, the two friends and now bandmates have been listening to different folk music from across the globe. Lately, one of India’s premiere bassists, Mainak Nag Chowdhury has joined the team and as they finished performing at the 24th Dorrigo Folk and Bluegrass Festival in Australia, they speak at length about the genre, how welcoming it is in the city, and if it is a challenge. Excerpts:
Bluegrass and Appalachian folk aren't genres traditionally associated with Kolkata's rock or classical music landscape. How did you come together to form a band?
Souvik: We started getting access to the internet when we were in 9th standard, and that opened up an entirely new world for us.
Neither of us comes from a musical family or grew up in a particularly musical environment, so we became each other's guides in this journey, constantly introducing one another to new artistes, albums, and sounds. This shared curiosity took us from Bengal's Baul and Bhawaiya traditions to Greek Rembetika, traditional African folk music, Klezmer, Gypsy jazz, and definitely Irish traditional music, and many other forms.
Eventually, a year or two after our musical exploration on the internet led us to the US, where we started listening to a lot of country music. Around that time, we came across a song called The Ballad of St. Anne's Reel. It wasn't written by John Denver, but we discovered his version because, back then, he was one of the most-played artists on our playlist.
We started searching for other renditions of The Ballad of St. Anne's Reel, and found videos of musicians playing together in jam sessions, with different instruments coming together over the same tune — guitar, mandolin, banjo, dobro, fiddle, and upright bass. The sound was so different from anything we had been familiar with, and yet there was something incredibly exciting and inviting about it. That was our first real encounter with bluegrass music. Through that one tune, we stumbled upon an entire musical universe. The mandolin, the flatpicked guitar, the interplay between instruments, and the spontaneity of those jam sessions gradually drew us deeper into the music. What began as curiosity soon became a genuine love, and eventually, the desire to learn these instruments and create music of our own together.
Kolkata has a rich legacy of musical experimentation—from Mohiner Ghoraguli to Bengali rock and Indian classical fusion. Where does Grassy Strings fit into the city’s historic soundscape?
Souvik: Honestly, I don't think I'm the most appropriate person to answer where exactly Grassy Strings fits into Kolkata's rich musical legacy. What we do comes purely from our love for music and, above everything else, our love for bluegrass itself. It's still a relatively obscure form of music in India, especially in Kolkata. But that doesn't mean there haven't been people here who have listened to and explored this music. In fact, there were musicians in our city listening to bluegrass long before we ever started playing it.
So, I really don't know where Grassy Strings will eventually find its place in Kolkata's musical legacy, and perhaps it's not for us to decide.
Mainak, what drew you to join Souvik and Subhankar, and how has your entry evolved the band’s rhythmic backbone and groove?
The duo approached me after a concert at Skinny Mo's Jazz Club. I was playing upright bass that evening with the band, The Big Other, a band that plays gypsy jazz. I was immediately hooked into the idea as it would enable the academic pursuit of a new form of music, Bluegrass.
The bass is a functional rhythm instrument as well as a melody instrument here and I looked up a whole lot of bluegrass artistes. It was great fun. But honestly, getting into the vibe took me months.
From performing at the La Roche Bluegrass Festival in France to the Kathmandu Bluegrass Fest and tours across Australia, how do audiences react when they realise a band from India is picking traditional bluegrass standards?
Subhankar: First of all, the bluegrass community has been incredibly welcoming. In fact, we made friends with people from different parts of the world over the internet long before we ever got our visas to travel abroad. So, in a way, we were already connected to this community even before we got the opportunity to meet everyone in person.
Many of our listeners feel that we sound authentic to the tradition, while they also love the Indian stories we bring into our music, especially when we sing in our regional languages, including Bengali, Hindi, and Nepali.
I think there's something quite astonishing for many audiences about seeing a group of musicians from India playing fast Appalachian Bluegrass on acoustic instruments. For us, it's always wonderful to see that initial surprise turn into curiosity, appreciation, and sometimes even a deeper connection with the music.
Navigating a completely acoustic, non-drum setup requires incredible internal clockwork and dynamic control. How do you maintain that driving, foot-stomping energy live without a traditional percussionist?
Mainak: Yes absolutely. My study of the Carnatic classical tala system widens my window of understanding and interpreting different aspects of music. Then there is style - studying. The bass "is" partly the drums or percussion here, along with the strumming of the guitar and mandolin. Three of us play the tripartite role of creating rhythm without a conventional rhythm instrument.
Is an Indian bluegrass movement quietly taking shape?
Subhankar: When we perform in Kolkata or elsewhere in India, many people hear bluegrass for the very first time. They're often curious about the instruments, the fast picking, and how all these acoustic sounds come together. It's wonderful to see that initial surprise gradually turn into appreciation.
For us, even if someone goes home and looks up a bluegrass artiste after our performance, we feel we've introduced them to something new. We'd love to see more jam sessions and opportunities for young musicians to learn and play together. After all, bluegrass has always grown through community, and if we can help that spirit take root in India, we'll be happy to have played a small part in it.
You’ve presented Bengali songs to international audiences on stages like La Roche. What is the experience like translating Indian melodic sensibilities into an acoustic bluegrass format?
Souvik: Absolutely amazing! The initial idea behind doing this was to connect with our regional audiences while staying connected to the roots we come from. Today, when we perform on international stages, we also feel that we're representing the country in our own little way. So, we wanted to bring the diversity of our land into the music we play, choosing songs from different Indian languages that would naturally fit into the bluegrass form without losing their original character. We even often perform wearing Punjabi-pajamas while picking away at fast-paced bluegrass tunes!
We've performed them not only at La Roche, one of Europe's biggest bluegrass festivals, but also on the main stage at the prestigious 48th Port Fairy Folk Festival in Australia, arguably one of the largest folk music festivals in the Southern Hemisphere.
And the beautiful thing is that people absolutely adore these songs! Even when they don't understand a single word of the lyrics, they connect with the melodies, the rhythm, and the energy of the music.
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