Crooked Still

Lore & Background

Crooked Still formed in the summer of 2001 when vocalist Aoife O'Donovan and bassist Corey DiMario, who met at the New England Conservatory of Music, joined with banjo player Gregory Liszt and cellist Rushad Eggleston. The group played various Boston venues while its members finished school, growing in popularity and collecting favorable local press. Their second album, Shaken by a Low Sound, was released on August 22, 2006.

Cellist Rushad Eggleston performed his last show with the band on November 18, 2007, leaving to pursue his own music with Tornado Rider. In January 2008, cellist Tristan Clarridge and fiddler Brittany Haas joined. The band released its first album with the new lineup, Still Crooked, in 2008, followed by a live album in 2009 and Some Strange Country in 2010.

In 2011, for their tenth anniversary, Crooked Still toured the Northeast and Pacific Northwest and released the EP Friends of Fall. After the final show of that tour, the band took a three-year hiatus for members to pursue other projects. They performed at the FreshGrass festival in September 2017. In June 2018, their songs 'Little Sadie' and 'Ecstasy' were featured in the gameplay trailer for The Last of Us Part II, and these songs along with 'Ain't No Grave' appeared in the final game.

Reader's Guide

Crooked Still's significance lies in their innovative approach to the bluegrass tradition, which vocalist Aoife O'Donovan described as the band's 'own sort of continuation' of the style pioneered by Bill Monroe and Jimmy Martin. Their instrumentation—banjo, cello, fiddle, bass, and vocals—was unusual for a string band, and their high-energy, technically skilled performances helped define a progressive bluegrass sound that blended folk-country and Americana. The band's influence extended beyond live performance: their music reached a wider audience through inclusion in the video game The Last of Us Part II and its HBO adaptation. The group's lineup changes, particularly the replacement of founding cellist Rushad Eggleston with Tristan Clarridge and the addition of fiddler Brittany Haas, marked a distinct phase in their career. Their 2011 hiatus and later sporadic appearances reflect the members' pursuit of individual projects, yet Crooked Still remains a notable example of early-21st-century acoustic innovation within the American roots music scene.

Did You Know?

• Crooked Still formed in the summer of 2001 after members met at the New England Conservatory of Music and Berklee College of Music.
• Cellist Rushad Eggleston left the band in November 2007 to pursue his own music with Tornado Rider.
• The band's songs 'Little Sadie' and 'Ecstasy' were featured in the 2017 gameplay trailer for The Last of Us Part II.

Formation in the Boston Music Scene

Crooked Still came together in the spring of 2001 when vocalist Aoife O'Donovan and bassist Corey DiMario crossed paths at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Around the same time, cellist Rushad Eggleston was studying at Berklee College of Music and banjo player Gregory Liszt was a graduate student at MIT. The four musicians connected that summer and immediately began playing together, forming what would become Crooked Still. While each member completed their respective academic programs, the group built a following by performing at Boston-area venues, earning positive attention from local press. Their reputation grew steadily as they expanded their reach, eventually playing concert halls, festivals, coffeehouses, and nightclubs across 23 states and several countries. In August 2006, they solidified their artistic identity with the release of their second album, Shaken by a Low Sound, which showcased the high-energy, technically demanding acoustic sound that would define their career.

The Darol Anger Thread and a New Era

In November 2007, cellist Rushad Eggleston played his final show with Crooked Still at the Iron Horse in Northampton, Massachusetts, choosing to leave and pursue his own project, Tornado Rider. The band welcomed two new members in January 2008: cellist Tristan Clarridge and fiddler Brittany Haas, both of whom had previously toured with Darol Anger's Republic of Strings. The Darol Anger thread runs deeper than one might expect—Eggleston himself had been part of Fiddlers 4 in 2002, meaning the band's cello seat was linked to that world on both sides of the transition. With the refreshed lineup, Crooked Still released Still Crooked in 2008, followed by a live album in 2009 and the studio record Some Strange Country in 2010. To mark their tenth anniversary as a group, they launched a major tour covering the Northeast and Pacific Northwest, capping the year with the seven-song EP Friends of Fall in October 2011.

Hiatus and the Video Game Crossover

After the final concert of their 2011 anniversary tour, Crooked Still stepped away from touring and recording for what was initially planned as a one-year break. That pause stretched to three years as each member pursued individual musical endeavors. The band resurfaced in September 2017, performing at the FreshGrass festival in North Adams, Massachusetts, signaling their return to the live stage. Their most unexpected cultural moment arrived in June 2018, when Sony presented a gameplay trailer for The Last of Us Part II at E3 featuring two Crooked Still tracks, "Little Sadie" and "Ecstasy." The placement proved to be more than a promotional nod: those two songs, along with "Ain't No Grave," were all included in the final game's soundtrack. This crossover introduced the band's distinctive acoustic energy to a massive audience of gamers who might never have encountered progressive bluegrass in a traditional music venue.

Defining a Sound and Carrying a Tradition

Crooked Still's instrumentation—banjo, bass, cello, fiddle, and vocals—sets them apart from conventional string bands, and critics have variously labeled their output progressive bluegrass, folk-country, and Americana. What unites these descriptors is the band's commitment to high energy, technical precision, and an innovative approach to acoustic music. Aoife O'Donovan has framed their work as "its own sort of continuation" of the bluegrass tradition that took root in the United States through pioneers like Bill Monroe and Jimmy Martin. Rather than simply replicating that heritage, the group stretches and reimagines it through unusual pairings and dynamic interplay. In April 2025, the band made a striking appearance in the HBO series adaptation of The Last of Us, credited under the playful name "Brittany and the Jug Boys," a nod that underscores both their fiddle-driven identity and their willingness to engage with popular culture on their own terms.

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