Four short years ago, a green card was an immigration document - now The
Greencards are an acoustic music phenomenon that has played around the world,
headlined major festivals, won awards, and toured with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson.

They’ve released three fine albums, and their latest release, Viridian, was nominated at the Grammy Awards Ceremony in 2008 for ‘Best Country Instrumental
Performance’.

Their label debut Weather and Water was strong enough to win them
a slot on the Dylan/Nelson tour, but then they had to deliver. Fortunately, The
Greencards have an ability to go out on stage in front of 20,000 strangers, and
magically turn them into friends and fans.

It’s happened at Merlefest, Telluride and Austin City Limits, on both US coasts, Down South and Down Under, and of course many times in Austin Texas, “The Live Music Capital of the World”, city of the band’s chance origins and initial successes. Their respect for bluegrass is very evident, but they also bend their music to include more modern influences such as Patty Griffin and Tim O’Brien, meaning you’re just as likely to find them filed under ‘Americana’ as anything else.

They’re a trio, in case you haven’t met. Carol Young plays bass and sings most of the songs; Kym Warner picks the mandolin and bouzouki, while Eamon McLoughlin plays fiddle and viola. The most conspicuous thing they have in common is that they ‘ain’t American’. McLoughlin is English. Warner and Young are Australians. But all three grew up in households full of honest American roots music - Merle, Lefty, Ricky, Dolly, Loretta to name a few. Honing their talents at jam sessions and gigs in their homelands they eventually took the bold step of moving to the States to find their musical home.

When Kym and Carol met Eamon at a recording session in Austin, the chemistry was there from the outset. Before long, their friendly bluegrass jam turned them into one of the city’s most popular bands. They made fans and friends of scene leaders like Robert Earl Keen and the Bruce Robison/Kelly Willis family, who took them on the road and introduced them to larger audiences.

Their self-released debut album Movin’ On pushed them to create original music, writing and scouting for songs that broke the rules of bluegrass as they began to carve out a niche in the blossoming Americana scene.

Accolades followed. They took ‘Best New Band’ at the Austin Music Awards in 2004.
The Greencards landed a deal with Dualtone in 2005 and released Weather and
Water to great acclaim. Dylan and Nelson tapped them to open their now-famous
U.S. tour of minor league baseball parks in the summer of 2005, 30 dates in all.

Their video for the song Time became one of the most played on GAC and CMT’s Americana shows. They won ‘New/Emerging Artist of the Year’ at the Americana Awards in 2006. They were in the company of Keith Urban when nominated by the ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) for ‘Best Country Album’ of 2007 and in February of 2008 they traveled to Los Angeles for their first ever Grammy nomination!

The Greencards pull all this off with a respect for tradition, and a zest for innovation:
“I think you have to have a level of humility and honesty that we don’t always have,
but that’s what we strive for.” They fit into history on a line that connects New Grass
Revival to Patty Griffin to Hot Rize, but they remain vibrantly independent, mingling
discipline and daring in exquisite balance. On top of all that, they’re genuinely nice
folks who still admire their heroes as much as they did before their heroes admired
them. They’re pretty happy with that.