New Cats

New Cats formed back in the summer of 2012 when Jordan Blimbaum had the idea of starting a bluegrass band in good old Peoria.

He’d recently moved to Peoria from Atlanta, where he’d started picking the banjo in bluegrass jam circles. As Jordan claims, he "learned the banjo from some dude on a porch in Georgia", and was eager to apply his new trade.

In Peoria, he met guitarist Chris Skierski, mandolin & banjo player Mike Adashek, and bassist Evan Stumpges through their new job. They all started playing music together, which has evolved into an amazing friendship and musical journey that is ever growing and pulling in new memories. 

The band members contribute their various backgrounds from jazz, pop, rock and punk to the bluegrass genre. They fuse a mixture of high energy and uptempo new and traditional bluegrass & folk music, emulating the modern generation of bluegrass powerhouses like Trampled By Turtles, Old Crow Medicine Show and Devil Makes Three.

Over the years the band has gone through a number of lineup changes as Jordan passed on (to California) and have been fortunate to be joined by Karolina Wozny (fiddle/mandolin) and Keith Shank (Dobro/Mandolin).

Since its founding, New Cats has performed over a hundred shows throughout Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan at local festivals, bars, music venues, parks, charity events, weddings and wakes, with many more to come! 

Your friendly neighborhood bluegrass band would love to see you at a show soon!