Fireside Collective has been a frequent guest on PineCone stages. They helped PineCone restart post-pandemic shows as a part of the 2021 Down Home Series.
The Asheville-based quintet features Joe Cicero on guitar, Alex Genoga on banjo, Jesse Iaquinto on mandolin, Tommy Maher on resophonic guitar (dobro) and Carson White on upright bass.
The band is equally at home at IBMA, bluegrass festivals or rock clubs like Lincoln Theater, Cat’s Cradle or The Pour House. Mandolinist Jesse Iaquinto says the band loves to play for wide-ranging audiences. “Depending on where you come from and your experience with folk music you may think we’re very traditional, or on the other hand, consider us a progressive act.”
Bluegrass Situation praised the band saying their 2020 album Elements “…bursts from the speakers with the intensity and feeling of the stage monitors pounding into your chest front row center on a hot Saturday night at the Grey Eagle (in Asheville).”
Fireside Collective won the 2016 band contest at Merlefest and was nominated for a Momentum Award at IBMA in Raleigh. They say they’ve learned a lot playing festivals like World of Bluegrass in Raleigh where they get to hear and play with all kinds of string bands.
“I think it’s good to see the crosscurrents where bluegrass and popular music have borrowed from one another,” said Fireside’s mandolinist and vocalist Jesse Iaquinto during an online PineCone Workshop. “I love where it’s at right now. I love seeing that there are so many people that are enthusiastic about bluegrass. It wasn’t that way 15 years ago.”
Fireside Collective has three albums to its name. They were nominated for IBMA New Artist of the Year at the 2022 IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards Show in Raleigh.
