MicroGrass Band

Catherine Teutsch

From childhood, Catherine played the family piano, located in a nice warm living room...an instrument choice she made after seeing her sister's violin practice banished to a dusty, dark storeroom. In addition to playing piano, she took up accordion and melodeon as an adult and has lived under the threat of eviction ever since, both from home and from MicroGrass. She shared the stage with Good Company Band at the Cove, a club at which Joe Walsh frequently performed during his Kent State days. On multiple occasions, Catherine has enjoyed the stage with Harry Tuft, father of folk music in Denver and founder of Swallow Hill Music and the Denver Folklore Center, as well as local favorites, Rocky Mountain Jewgrass and the Penguin Rodeo Band.

Tom Connole

Tom started playing banjo in college but switched to guitar when, like Catherine, his roommates threatened to evict him. He's been jamming with local folk, bluegrass, and Irish groups and is well known as the "Jam Master" of Denver. Tom leads twice-weekly Denver Retrograss jam sessions at the historic Cameron Church and other locations around town. He also plays with and arranges music for the Celtic band, Lots O' Irish.

Paul Marino

Paul Marino played guitar and banjo back east with Desperado, who performed with Country Cooking, Commander Cody, Orleans, Aztec Two Step, Outlaws, Livingston Taylor, and Pure Prairie League, among others. He continued to play with Lone Rangers and Blue Skies, and was a sometime studio bassist at Fingerlakes Recording before moving to Denver. Paul still dabbles in guitar, banjo, and blues harp when the mood strikes, although he is, at heart, a bassman.

Jeff Bird

Jeff took organ lessions as a kid but didn't discover his passion for performing music unitl he picked up guitar and harmonica. The guitar didn't stick, but the harmonica did. Jeff's early playing was influenced by Bob Dylan and Neil Young, and he soon turned to blues harp through the inspirations of Sonny Boy Williamson, Jimmy Reed, and other blues greats. He has continued to refine his skills while working with the renowned Clay Kirkland, and adds the sweet sounds of the harp to the MicroGrass Band fabric.

Chris Harden

Chris is a mathematician and philosopher who grew up in Florida. He dropped out of high school in the tenth grade to go on tour and still ended up with more education than the average bear. In 2000, he took a break from his fourteen years of college to take up the mandolin. Heavily influenced by the diversity of Florida, he holds a strong passion for Cuban and Caribbean styles of music. Chris moved to Colorado after finishing Graduate School at FSU in 2010, where he then played upright bass with Rough Sewn Timber. He headlined the first ever Rapidgrass Festival in 2011 with Red Clay Revival, a Tuscaloosa band he played with over the next several summers. Chris played backup for Colonel Bruce Hampton in Atlanta just a few years before he passed. He then played with Local Folk for a several years. He has recently come out of his hermit period up in St. Mary's Glacier to teach math to high school students and melt faces at local bluegrass jams.

Friends who join us now and then...