Album Notes

Where the Sweet Celery Grows...
Songs and Folk Mandolin from Kalamazoo

Kalamazoo, Michigan, once known as the Celery City, has been a center for roots and acoustic music for generations. Weaver, a fourth-generation Kalamazooan with multi-ethnic roots, creates an eclectic blend of folk rock, which reflects subtly on environmental and social justice issues and the development of hemispheric understanding. Using American folk, Andean, and Irish-octave mandolins, he blends influences from diverse cultures which illustrate the eccentric heart of Kalamazoo.


About Brendan Weaver:
Now a resident of Nashville, TN, Brendan has a strong history in music, studying piano from a very young age. He plays acoustic and electric, and standard and octave, mandolins and accompanies his music with vocals. Singing on several tracks in both English and Spanish, he evokes the pluralism which is at the heart of what it means to be an American. Brendan’s debut album, Mandocentric, was well received during his release party at Ravenwood Coffee in Kalamazoo in March of 2006.

Currently Brendan is a graduate student of historical anthropology at Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN). Brendan also holds an MA and BA in anthropology from Western Michigan University. His research interest is in the archaeology of the early colonial period and focuses on labor in the rapidly changing Americas. Over the past few years he has had opportunities to conduct field work both in South America and the Caribbean, particularly Peru, Bolivia, and Barbados. Brendan sees his music and his career as an anthropologist as one in the same - using his music to express his values of social justice and cultural relativism and understanding.