Solid Gold Stranger is a string band in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. Formed in 2019, the group plays a unique blend of bluegrass, old-time, and original progressive acoustic music. Listeners can expect tight, soaring harmonies, instrumental virtuosity, and dynamic song craft in every set. Amy Kassir is a fiddler and singer from Durham, North Carolina, whose keen melodic sense and dazzling facility on her instrument shine from the sweetest of waltzes to blazing breakdowns. From The City of Action - Riverbank, California - Korey Kassir is a composer, singer, recording engineer, mandolinist, and fiddler with a proclivity for traditional rhythm and avant-garde melody. Ashley Readel hails from Bakersfield, CA, and brings to the band a versatile dobro style that’s equal parts effervescent and driving. Guitarist and singer Joe Readel writes songs for the band about (among other things): dogs, loneliness, and the strange happenings in his hometown of Sonora, CA. Originally from Canandaigua, NY, and now living in San Francisco, Tyler Stegall supplies the band with a bombastic three finger banjo style that’s both rooted in traditional bluegrass and forward-looking.

Though the melodies in Solid Gold Stranger music pull as much from pop as anything else, the band’s drive and instrumental prowess makes them at home on any bluegrass festival stage. They recently released their debut album Closer to the Flame on June 6th, 2024, and were a featured California showcase band in 2024 at the legendary Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival in Grass Valley, CA.