Bio:
Dial Painters are an acoustic songwriting trio based in Santa Cruz, California formed by father-and-son musicians Don Mackessy on banjo and Leland Mackessy on guitar, they are joined by Jeff Kissell on upright bass.
They perform original compositions with carefully crafted lyrics and melodic sensibilities drawing from the bluegrass tradition. Their poetry carries themes of love and loss shaped by personal experience and cultural observation. The band name references both Frank Zappa’s quote that, “(music) is a game - you have a piece of time that you get to decorate,” and the tendency of industry to blind itself to the suffering of those artisans laboring to turn it's gears.
The Dial Painters play live throughout California.