Jami Lynn and Dylan James

Black Hills duo Jami Lynn & Dylan James met on the street in the summer of 2012. Their fortuitous meeting not only revealed their shared love of folk, bluegrass, and jazz, but marked the beginning of an ambitious duo project harnessing Jami’s powerful vocals and Dylan’s first rate flat-picking skills. After a few weeks of working up material, their hearts were set on a full length album featuring songs written by each. Lynn’s vocal prowess, delicate finger picking, and West Virginia style claw-hammer banjo blend seamlessly with James’s ringing tenor, driving guitar, and old-time fiddling. Their diverse instrumentation as well as their unique arrangements of traditional American folk songs and jazz numbers sets them on the edge of each genre. Both are native South Dakotans and are currently based out of Rapid City, SD.

Self-taught flat picker and singer/songwriter Dylan James grew up in a small mining town in the northern Black Hills of South Dakota. Though his mother was a classically trained piano virtuoso, Dylan didn’t take music seriously until his late teens, when he discovered the picking and singing of Doc Watson and fell in love. After a brief time of playing with the bluegrass band, Six Mile Road, he started his own bluegrass band, The Fancy Creek Jumpers. The hard driving three-piece drew on the music of Django Reinhart and eastern European jazz, drawing rave reviews from music lovers across the Black Hills. These days, Dylan makes up one half of a folk and jazz duo with Rapid City singer/songwriter Jami Lynn. The two have a new album in the works, and anticipate releasing and touring behind it in early 2013.