Blake Christiana, founding member of Yarn, has the music in him. In fact, you could say that Blake is the music and the music is Blake; that’s how deeply he inhabits the songs he writes and plays. You can hear him struggling with his feelings, whether it’s on a skittering country shuffle or on a mid-tempo folk ballad or a straight-ahead rocker. His restless search for the chords and lyrics over the past 20 years has produced a plethora of memorable music, and since 2007 he’s led Yarn, a band that’s evolved from its earliest days as a bar band in New York City to an outstanding roots band that’s shared stages with Dwight Yoakam, Marty Stuart, Alison Krauss, and Leftover Salmon, among many others.
Yarn got their start by playing a weekly residency at Kenny’s Castaways in Greenwich Village in 2007. 17 years and over 10 albums later, Yarn's newest album, Born, Blessed, Grateful & Alive, out July 2024, shows their exuberance shining as bright as ever.
Yarn has definitely brought people together with their music; their devoted followers call themselves the “Yarmy,” and for the last 4 years the band has hosted a three-day music festival, Yarnival, that attracted hundreds of fans to Troy, Virginia. Yarnival is a music and alternative entertainment festival, complete with sword swallowers, burlesque dancers, magicians, freak shows, and of course their favorite hand picked musical acts. Along the way, Yarn has gathered accolades from festivals, The Americana Music Association, landed on the Grammy ballot four times, and placed in the top five of the AMA album charts on more than one occasion.
Yarn keeps spinning their stories, drawing audiences into their vibrant musical web, and delivering clever and resonant lyrics in memorable songs that reverberate and linger in listeners’ hearts and souls.