PRESS

At The Festival: Girls Just Wanna Weekend 6

The Marshgrass Mamas were up first at the pool stage, and though they formed all the way back in 2001, they may have been made for Girls Just Wanna Weekend. Their website bio even ends: “If “girls’ weekend” was a band…it’d be the Mamas.” The Mamas are seven South Carolinian mothers, including one you might be familiar with: Shovels and Rope singer/songwriter Cary Ann Hearst. But the rest of the Mamas bring their own talents, resulting in an Appalachian-inspired sound and a unique songwriting mix of humor and sincerity.

Charleston City Paper • 2018 Bluegrass Band of the Year: Marshgrass Mamas

If there’s any such thing as a Charleston supergroup, Marshgrass Mamas fit the bill. The eight-piece band features Cary Ann Hearst (Shovels & Rope), Kristen Meierer (YeeHaw Junction), Caitlin Cahill Pape, Dee Payne, Rayne and Gina Perez (Cane Creek String Band), Chandler Marburg, and Lauren Cahill (The Lowhills). Of course, the downside of having such busy musicians in one band is that they don’t get to play together all that…

Johns Island Living • A Quarter Century of Music, Fun, & Friendship

Founding member of the Marshgrass Mamas, Gina Perez, remembers New Year's Eve 2001, as being the moment the group's earliest incarnation was inspired.
"There were a lot of pickers at Kristen's house and we went outside to sit on the dock."
Kristen Meierer recalled that same night.
"It was one of the jam sessions where there were actually too many people playing and they were mostly all guys. I said to Gina, ‘Why don't we start a girl band?’”