Living under spacious skies and in the shadow of the purple mountain majesties, Amber Waves provides an exciting, fast paced mix of both traditional, new, and gospel bluegrass. With a love for God and country, the band pulls their unique sound from historical folk music, old time gospel and hymns, as well as their own original music. A family of musicians singing and playing together. It's a glance into the past, with a vision for the future.
The Costello Family:
Michael – Bass, vocals
Cheryl – Mandolin, Fife, Vocals
Alexandra (age 15) – Guitar, Vocals
Kaitlin (age 15) – Banjo, Vocals
Sean (age 9) – Fiddle, Bass, Vocals
Mary (age 4)– Vocals
Band Bio:
When Katie was asked by her parents if she'd like to play a string instrument, she said, "banjo". Of course, she hardly knew what a banjo was and just wanted to see what her mom would say, but at age 13, with banjo in hand, Katie began studying what would become a passion. In addition to her powerful picking, she also supplies lovely lead and back-up vocals.
Alex walks around all day singing at the top of her lungs. Therefore, she was in need of an instrument to accommodate her walking around and singing at the top of her lungs. The guitar proved to be the perfect companion. Along with some fast flatpicking, Alex provides much of the powerful lead vocals for the group.
When not picking and singing, both can be found writing novels, talking about Narnia, writing more novels, discussing the Lord of the Rings, and oh, yeah, writing novels. They giggle too. A lot.
Sean is the fiddle player for the group and makes up the bulk of the energy too. Starting on Suzuki violin just shy of 5, his mother spent the first couple years of lessons hoping his teacher would see the talent she saw and not kick him out for the constant wiggling and inattentiveness. Thankfully, today he is a fine young violist. In addition to lending fiddle and viola playing to the band, Sean sometimes plays bass, rhythm guitar, and sings both lead and harmony. With his keen ear he is also the family's digital tuner. If seen not playing fiddle, he is probably up to mischief so please direct him back to the fiddle immediately.
Mary strums a yellow Dobro at home, following color stickers to the chords. She occasionally likes to hold her cute little 1/10 size violin to be like her brother, but spends most of her time robustly singing along. She provides her darling voice to a couple of songs already, but is usually found making artwork for random audience members, occasionally begging for help with stickers.
Always wishing to be in a band, Michael and Cheryl figured the best chance they had was to produce their own.
Michael became the mastermind behind the band when he noticed he had three children who individually selected and played bluegrass instruments. With a degree in music education itching to be dusted off, he now adds bass, sings lead and harmony, handles the technology and transportation, as well as sets the bar for individual practice.
After singing in an opera company and years of teaching preschool music, Cheryl has moved all of her musical creativity into singing, playing mandolin, fife, arranging the music, and handling the bookings for the band.
Together they school this rowdy bunch at home, and with a little grace, try to raise up some arrows aimed at Heaven.
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