You might know the three women of Sometymes Why as singers with one of their other bands. Aoife O'Donovan (Crooked Still), Kristin Andreassen (Uncle Earl) and Ruth Ungar Merenda (The Mammals) have been at the center of a creative revolution in the acoustic stringband scene for the past few years.

With Sometymes Why, Aoife, Kristin & Ruth create music that moves past the "stringband" label entirely. They sing their own songs and back each other up on Wurlitzer, glockenspiel, high hat & tambourine. They appeal to a part of their audience (and a part of themselves) that's more aligned with Feist, Joni Mitchell, and Bessie Smith than by Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys.

Their home-made debut album (a set of rehearsal recordings which they ultimately released) "became a hot item among fans of all three women's regular bands, and not just for its racy semi-novelty track 'Too Repressed'," says No Depression (referring to O'Donovan's ballad in which she fantasizes about a blue eyed singer in a bluegrass band).

But the band is best heard live. "There's an instantly appealing quality to the trio-harmony blend of their voices, and in live performance they relate to each other with a charm and ease that radiates to the audience," said No Depression, which claimed that Sometymes Why's impromptu Sunday morning set in a parking lot at North Carolina's epic festival Merlefest "stole the show".

Since their first show at the Sidewalk Café in New York City in 2005, Sometymes Why has played in the northeast, toured across Ireland, and joined their friend Chris Thile (Nickel Creek, Punch Brothers), as the opener on two sold out tours.

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Aoife O’Donovan (first name pronounced "EEF-uh") has been dubbed the “voice of the new tradition” by Performer magazine. USA Today calls her "the newest darling of the Americana set." Since graduating from the New England Conservatory in 2003, Aoife has toured with her band, the alternative bluegrass group Crooked Still as well as guest appearances as lead singer with The Duhks, Solas, the Boston Pops, and the Utah Symphony.

Ruth Ungar Merenda has been called the “Hill-billie Holiday of song.” Her first musical influences were her parents (fiddler Jay Ungar and folksinger Lyn Hardy). Ruth is a founding member of the indie stringband quintet The Mammals (along with Tao Rodriguez-Seeger and her husband Michael Merenda). After touring the US, Canada, Australia and Denmark for the past seven years, Ruth & The Mammals are taking a break to focus on Sometymes Why, the Mike & Ruthy band (whose newly-released CD The Honeymoon Agenda No Depression calls “low key and lovely”) and their new baby boy.

Kristin Andreassen plays with the “all g’Earl” stringband Uncle Earl, which toured internationally throughout 2007 in support of their album Waterloo, Tennessee. They appeared last year at Bonnaroo with the album’s producer, Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. Kristin’s solo album Kiss Me Hello made Performing Songwriter’s Top 12 DIY Albums of 2007, and her song “Crayola Doesn’t Make a Color for Your Eyes” won Best Children’s Song of 2007 in the John Lennon Song Contest. She started her stage career as a clogger with Maryland’s Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble.