Brand New Old Time

The Savage Hearts is a bluegrass band founded by Annie Savage and Kevin Slick with not-always-so-traditional bluegrass instrumentation (think harp!) and creative arrangements informed by a range of influences.
Dr. Annie Savage is a multi-instrumentalist on violin, harp, and voice. Savage has performed with artists including Aretha Franklin and Ricky Skaggs. She co-founded and toured the pioneering jamgrass band, The Mayflies, the all-women’s freak folk project, The Awful Purdies, participated in the Turkish EDM movement of the late 1990s, and collaborates with MCs and artists in hip hop and R&B. She is currently a professor at James Madison University.
Kevin Slick has been writing, recording, and performing original music for more than 40 years. He was a founding member of the seminal indie rock band, Neo Pseudo, a dynamic musical force in the late '80s, early '90s East Coast scene, playing regularly at clubs like CBGBs and Philadelphia’s North Star Bar.
Inspired by the writing and playing of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, Roots music has always been an important part of his musical expression. His songwriting work is featured in Rise Again, the second of the Rise Up Singing songbooks published by Hal Leonard.
His song“One New Road” has become a bluegrass jam staple in the southwest.
Annie and Kevin met and started The Savage Hearts in Colorado, but for two artists steeped in American Roots music, it’s perhaps inevitable that they would end up in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where they both reside these days.

“The most wayward prodigal would have trouble resisting the compelling grace that exudes from The Savage Hearts” – Greg Blake.

Their latest release is “Brand New Old Time,” which features new tunes written in the old-time style.
The process is summed up by Kevin: "We are trying to write compelling melodies that are unique and can easily be recognized, hummed, or played along with. While some writers of instrumental music strive for complexity and show off the instrumental pyrotechnics of the players, these tunes strive for simplicity in the style of classic old-time tunes like "Angeline the Baker" or "Soldier's Joy”.
The Savage Hearts have a unique dedication to string education. Their partnership with Turnberry Records and the IBMA Foundation produced the acclaimed Free-Strings.com free online resource for educators, now being licensed by over 400 schools on the East Coast. Most recently, they have arranged new pieces for orchestra so that all students of string instruments can experience the magic of bluegrass and old-time music.
The EP will be released on all streaming platforms on April 9th, which is the anniversary of the surrender at Appomattox.

Stillness At Appomattox

Kevin Slick and Annie Savage collaborate on their original songs in many ways. Sometimes one person writes most of the melody while the other adapts, prompts, or suggests. In this case, Kevin wrote the A part, and Annie wrote the B part of the melody. The title comes from a classic book on the final year of the Civil War by Bruce Catton. Living in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, you can't escape the history of that war, and so while the tune was not written with that history in mind, the title did seem to reflect the melancholy nature of the melody.
This is the first single from the EP and was released in January of 2026.
The tune “Stillness at Appomattox” has also been arranged for string orchestra and had its premiere at James Madison University on January 17th, 2026.

Walking on the 4th of July

This tune began with a suggestion from Annie to write something on mandolin or fiddle that didn’t require using the E string. Kevin got to work on the melody, and Annie adapted and arranged the tune for fiddle.

Way Down East

This tune began on banjo in the “double D” tuning, and as the duo played the melody, it evolved to work on fiddle, banjo, mandolin, or guitar. The title comes from one of Kevin’s favorite movies.

The Raven

This tune began when Kevin took the chords from a song he had written forty years ago with his band Neo Pseudo and started creating a new melody. Annie added to and adapted the tune to better fit the fiddle.

Third Winchester

When Kevin moved to Virginia, he settled in the town of Winchester, and anyone interested in history will quickly learn about the many times the town changed hands during the Civil War, and of course, the multiple battles that took place in and around the town.
As this tune progressed, it became clear that it was essentially a march. During the recording session, Annie’s son Milo was pressed into service with a snare drum to give it a true march feel. The final mix features multiple overdubs of banjos, fiddles, and mandolin along with the bass and drum.