Sandy is a singer/songwriter/instrumentalist . She plays the Dobro acoustic steel guitar and accompanies her vocals on standard guitar and sometimes mandolin. Sandy has performed at local and regional festivals, coffee houses, taverns and community events as a featured performer and as an accompanist. Sandy is currently working on some musical changes on several projects some of which are listed below: The Blue Moon Duo is a husband and wife team of acoustic roots musicians , who have played music together for over 30 years. Sandy Bruening Pluta and Paul Pluta have individual and collective experience playing bluegrass, country, folk, blues and rockabilly over the years, now merging these influences into their own style. Using dobro and guitar they achieve a signature sound that is a blend of country and blues music. Interpreting songs that inspire them, along with their own original tunes, they spin tales of love, found and lost, and travels real and imagined. For special occasions, the duo can become the Blue Moon Band adding friends on bass, mandolin or fiddle to give their set a full band treatment. The Blue Moon Band (Americana and Bluegrass) Sandy Pluta (dobro/guitar/mandolin/vocals) Sandy has performed her original songs and rootsy covers at local and regional festivals, coffee houses, taverns and community events as a featured performer. She has been featured as a vocalist and accompanist in The Blue Moon Band, the Barn Swallows, Folkie Dolkies, AKA and Many Rivers. She produced the Barn Swallows eponymous CD. And, for the past 13 years she has volunteered with Musicians on Call, performing for patients and family at Philadelphia-area hospitals. Paul Pluta (guitar/vocals)- For the past ten years Paul has played bass with the well-known blues band, Mike Mettalia and Midnight Shift. That band has recorded recorded three CDs including “Midnight Sun” recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis. Midnight Shift performed at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, numerous blues festivals and theater stages, and has shared the stage with such acts as Shemekia Copeland, Buckwheat Zydeco, Lil’ Ed and Roomful of Blues. Paul has played guitar and bass with wife Sandy in several bands over the years, including Blue Moon, the Folkie Dolkies, and Many Rivers. Paul plays bluegrass rhythm and fingerpick country style guitar. He also brings to the band original songs rooted in the rural country and blues styles he loves. Rich Myers (mandolin/vocals) describes himself as “a child of rock & roll,” having grown up in Los Angeles in the 1960s. He learned to play guitar there while he was in high school. After moving to Philadelphia to attend college, he learned to play traditional music, first on guitar, and in the late 1990s on mandolin. Rich has played in both rock & roll and bluegrass bands. He accompanied the late Godfather of Folk, Mike Miller on many occasions from 2005-2016. Rich hosts a three bluegrass jams and plays in the Americana/bluegrass bands Blue Moon Band and Grip It & Rip It, in addition to playing as a guest in other bands. Jake Crossin (fiddle/vocals) was born in New York City but has always had the country in his blood. HIs earliest musical memory is an old A.M. radio that stuttered and crackled while playing songs by Hank Williams, Ray Price and Ferlin Husky. He picked up the guitar at 13 but then put it down. He took to the fiddle because it was easier to carry than a pedal steel. He is a veteran of the New York City bluegrass scene, and as a recent transplant to Philadelphia, is loving the City of Brotherly Love and its music. Ron Greenstein (upright bass) Ron is a native Philadelphian who has achieved musical prominence outside the City. Ron became a member of the Chad Mitchell Trio in their last iteration. He has accompanied many luminaries in the folk/bluegrass world in concert, including Tom Paxton, Doc Watson, Ralph Stanley, among others. In addition to the Blue Moon Band, Ron plays in the bluegrass bands Magnolia Street String Band, Appalachian Uprising, and the Lewis Brothers. All the member sing so you will often hear 3-4 part harmonies. Collectively the band offers an eclectic, fun variety of music Their different backgrounds and influences create a unique sound of soulful roots music. THE FOLKIE DOKIES ARE AN ACOUSTIC BAND WHO INCORPORATES A FUN MIX OF COUNTRY, BLUES AND OLD TIME SOUNDS AIMED AT KIDS AND FAMILIES. THEY PLAY TRADITIONAL TUNES, COVERS OF FOLK FAVORITES AS WELL AS SOME ORIGINAL SONGS. COMPRISED OF TOM MARKS ON BANJO AND MANDOLIN, SANDY PLUTA ON DOBRO AND PAUL PLUTA ON GUITAR, ALL MEMBERS SING AND HARMONIZE. THE FOLKIE DOKIES FEEL THAT FOLK MUSIC IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF OUR AMERICAN STORY, AND IT HELPS US TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND OUR PAST. THE GROUP SEEKS TO CONVEY THE HUMOR AND IMAGINATION OF OUR FOREFATHERS, AND HELP US LEARN ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMS, ACTIVITIES, INTERESTS AND WISDOM. THE FOLKIE DOKIES FIND THAT CHILDREN DELIGHT IN HEARING AND SINGING FOLK SONGS TODAY, JUST AS THEY DID DECADES OR EVEN CENTURIES AGO. Some samples of their songs can be found on EPK feed www.sonicbids.com/ dobrogirl-the-folkie-dokies MANY RIVERS is a cool work in Progress. Four singer/songwriters (Sandy Pluta, Chris Adams, Jake Michaels and Paul Pluta) who have banded together and embellish each other’s original creations with a variety of cool instruments and vocal arrangements. Recordings. soon to be added to site.