The Mammals w/opener Brendan Daniel

The Mammals are folksingers Ruth Ungar, Mike Merenda, and a cohort of compelling collaborators who form a touring quintet on the fiddle, banjo, guitar, organ, bass, and drums. Over the past 20 years they have quietly composed a canon of original songs (“Some of the best songwriting of their generation” – LA Times) that both reflect our culture and offer a vision of how the world might yet be. “These days we sing about what we’re for over what we’re against,” says singer/songwriter, Mike Merenda, and what they’re for is “nothing short of sublime” according to (Americana UK).

A rough and tumble decade in the 00’s forged The Mammals identity as “subversive acoustic traditionalists” (Boston Globe) or a “party band with a conscience.” Re-emerging in 2017 from a hibernation period during-which the band’s founders explored new songwriting terrain as the duo Mike + Ruthy, The Mammals “don’t suffer from multiple genre syndrome, they celebrate it as if gleefully aware that the sound barriers separating old-timey music, vintage pop and contemporary folk are as permeable as cotton” (Washington Post). Their latest album, Nonet, “marshalls the defiant spirit needed to heal a damaged world” (No Depression).

In 2023 they released a series of singles recorded at their own Humble Abode Music, as well as issuing bonus material from 2020’s landmark album Nonet. A new album is expected in 2025.

You can catch The Mammals semi-annually at The Hoot, a folk festival they curate and produce at The Ashokan Center in Olivebridge, NY.

Ruth is the daughter of legendary fiddler, Jay Ungar, composer of the storied “Ashokan Farewell.”