About
The Shoats are an Alt-Folk group who make music rooted in, and informed by their Appalachian home.
West Virginia native Mary Linscheid, brothers Gus and Huck Tritsch of Millheim, PA, and Alex Heflin of Morgantown, WV, set an alt-folk soundtrack to the strange late-stage capitalist Appalachia they grew up in. Calling on their collective backgrounds in folk songs, honky tonk, and the Appalachian high-lonesome sound, the Shoats reimagine the songs and sounds of their home through haunting original material and well-loved covers. The Shoats won the Appalachian String Band Music Festival’s Neo-Traditional Band Competition in 2023, just a few months after the band’s formation.
Mary Linscheid calls herself a “songwriter, fiddler, and student of Appalachian singing traditions.” She cut her teeth in the Morgantown, WV, music scene as a solo performer and for playing with country and old-time artists Chris Haddox, the WVU Appalachian Ensemble, Half Past Four, and Jesse Milnes.
Brothers Gus and Huck Tritsch are well known in the State College, PA, area for their eclectic duo The Wicked Chicken. Gus has toured internationally with Philadelphia rock band Marah and roots artist/scholar of Black folk music, Jake Blount. Both brothers performed with Jake Blount for his NPR Tiny Desk Concert in January of 2023. Mary released her EP “A Place to Grow Old” in June of 2022—original songs and a fiddle tune that explore her connection with her Appalachian home. Wicked Chicken have opened for Molly Tuttle and have performed widely throughly Central Pennsylvania. Both brothers have won or placed in numerous categories at the Appalachian String Band Music Festival in Clifftop, WV. Alex Heflin, originally from Los Angeles, CA, has recorded music for Klei Entertainment, Disney, Adult Swim, and has had his music featured in Bojack Horseman and Ari Aster’s “Beau is Afraid.”
The Shoats are set to release their debut single at the end of February. Put out on 7 inch vinyl, with the big center hole so it plays on the juke box.
