The New Boston Tea Party was set up in 2009 by legendary double bass player, David Hatfield and three other highly regarded bluegrass musicians. All four members of the band are based in the west country, two in Somerset and two in Dorset. The band plays regularly at pubs, private parties and festivals and is available for most functions.

Anyone interested in booking the band is welcome to call David on 07970 711 368 or email on gnaughtygnome@googlemail.com.

The original Boston Tea Party was a direct action against the British Government by colonists in Boston, a coastal town in the British colony of Massachusetts, in the North East of America. On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbour. The incident remains an iconic event of American history, and has often been referenced in other political protests.

The New Boston Tea Party was founded 236 years later in 2009 with similarly seditious sentiments. Our protest is about the attitude of the current Government to live music in Britain where, instead of supporting it, they have made it increasingly difficult. The number of pubs which have closed over the last ten years is nothing less than a scandal. But more than this we wish to make a stand for real music played by real musicians. The world is replete with non-music manufactured by machines and suitable to be heard only by machines.

We play bluegrass music. This is the traditional folk music brought to the Americas in the nineteenth century by the Irish and Scottish settlers. The term "bluegrass" originates from a band formed in 1929 called Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys. Since this time hundreds of virtuoso players have emerged including Earl Scruggs, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, Mark O'Connor, David Grisman and many others. Following the success of the film, Oh, Brother where art thou? names like Alison Krauss, Norman Blake and the Carter Family have become known to many who hitherto had no knowledge of this genre.

Some might question what we are doing playing American folk music. If so, they would be missing the point. This is music which originated in the Celtic and Western parts of Britain and Ireland and we are simply bringing it home.

David is the leader of the band and has been one of the UK’s most sought after bass players for around forty years. He began playing bluegrass in 1967 with the Morris Boys and became the resident double bassist on several BBC Radio Shows and the Cambridge Folk Festival from 1977 to 1995.

He has played and toured with an extraordinary number of genuine bluegrass legends including: Mac Wiseman, Jerry Douglas, Mark O’Connor, Bill Keith, Jim Rooney, Peter Rowan, Flaco Jimenez, Arlo Guthrie, Tex Logan, Greg Douglas, Gordon Titcomb, Rose Maddox, Don Stover, Bill Clifton, Orrin Star, Pete Sayers, Jim Couza, Ben Waters, Diz Watson, Pete Stanley, Ced Thorose, Roger Knowles, Malcolm Price, Brian Golbey and the Kursaal Flyers.

In 1979 he set up Waterfront Music, releasing several bluegrass LP’s as well as playing sessions for Flying Fish Records and Transatlantic Records. He has also played on numerous television and radio shows. In the 1990’s he formed Three Tuns o’ Grass with banjoist Johnny Butten and mandolin player, Jeremy Cozens. He is in constant demand as a double bass player and, amongst others, plays regularly with Chris Jagger.

Jeremy Cozens
(mandolin and vocals)

Jeremy’s first instrument was the guitar, which he taught himself at school. He discovered bluegrass in the early 1970’s when visiting the Cambridge Folk Festival and was inspired both by the instruments and vocal harmonies. He was soon playing with many folk bands. Initially, not bluegrass, he played bouzouki in a band comprising Roger Burridge (fiddle) and John Skelton (flute) and they played at various festivals.

He moved to the mandolin in the 1990's and has since played with several bands, most notably Bluegrass legend Peter Rowan, The Dorset Folk Orchestra, The Shoestring Band, No Mean Feet, Jiggery Polkery and The Reel Thing. Before joining The New Boston Tea Party, Jeremy played with Three Tuns o’ Grass, having been an early member along with David Hatfield and banjo player, Johnny Butten.

In keeping with traditional bluegrass bands, Jeremy, as the mandolin player, is the tenor voice in the band. Apart from music, Jeremy is a family man, chartered surveyor and a private pilot, which enabled him a few years ago to make the only air arrival at the Didmarton Bluegrass Festival held on Kemble Airfield.

Joff Lowson
(banjo, guitar and vocals)

Joff Lowson was born in Alabama and learnt American folk songs from an early age. Relocating to Glastonbury he spent his teenage years playing in barn dances and folk clubs with ace singer Dave Lush and guesting with the Stawfolk. Moving to Leicester in 1990 he formed the Highfield Boys with Martin Hoyal. Working five or six nights a week they built a strong reputation in the East Midlands and were in constant demand to play as far afield as London and Bristol. They also did live sessions on local radio, culminating in a BBC Pebble Mill session with an audience of 8 million and a Greater London Radio session with an audience of 3 millions.

The Highfield Boys split up in 1994. Joff moved to Bristol where he was immediately offered a job writing for Total Guitar magazine. He was also in demand as a session musician and produced music for several TV programmes, mostly broadcast in the USA. He toured the UK, Germany and Holland with the Coal Porters, appearing in live sessions on MTV, CMTV and BBC Radio 1.

Since then he’s toured France several times with Laurent Chatourel and Matt Thompson, played Glastonbury Festival main stage with the Blue Aeroplanes and done recording sessions with Geoff Barrow of Portishead and Ronnie Rogers of T’ Pau.

Charlie Boston
(guitar, dobro and vocals)

Charlie started playing gigs in the early 1970’s and played at the Edinburgh Festival in 1977 & 1978.  A member of the PRS, his musical interests have always been in song writing and in 1999 he formed the record label, Lara Natural Music. This enabled him to produce the first CD of his own songs, Truths & Fantasies, which was met with critical acclaim.

He has since recorded two more CDs of his own songs: Driftwood and Dogwood Place, which both received ecstatic reviews. The latter CD, which was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, won UK Country Radio Awards in two successive years. He has recorded on various other CDs including Diamond Back by Ced Thorose and About Time by Martin Groák and has tracks on two compilation albums distributed in Germany by ZYX Music.

Other notable musicians he has played with include Rhonda Vincent, Wayne Benson, Alison Brown, Jim Hurst, Missy Raines, Charlie Cushman, Ced Thorose, Nick Pynn, Chris Comac, Laurie Harper and Pete Stanley. Apart from music, he is a chartered surveyor and has had three titles published on the valuation of leases by legal publishers, Sweet & Maxwell.