Jay Starling

He grew up around many of the leading players in bluegrass and studied at the Berklee College of Music. He was a founding member of the Charlottesville cover band Love Canon, in which he played resonator guitar, and he worked as a sideman with other jamgrass and alt-bluegrass acts.

For a few years he sat in with Leftover Salmon as a rotating sixth member, alongside Bill Payne and Erik Deutsch. When Deutsch took another job during the pandemic, Vince Herman asked Starling to play some shows, and he came in as a guest for a run of concerts in July 2021. In May 2022 the band announced him as a full member, on Dobro, keyboards and lap steel, with Herman on guitar, Drew Emmitt on mandolin, Andy Thorn on banjo, Greg Garrison on bass and Alwyn Robinson on drums. He kept living in Charlottesville and traveling to meet the band. He played Dobro on every track of Grass Roots (Compass, 2023), including the Delmore Brothers’ “Blue Railroad Train” with Billy Strings as guest, and on the singles “Simple Twist of Faith” (2023) and “Powder Day” (2024).