Brendan Weaver:
Singer/Songwriter, Mandolinist, Anthropologist

Kalamazoo, Michigan, once known as the "Celery City," has been a center for roots and acoustic music for generations. Brendan, a fourth-generation Kalamazooan with multi-ethnic roots, now calls Nashville, TN, home. He plays acoustic and electric, and standard and octave, mandolins and accompanies his music with vocals. Singing and writing songs in both English and Spanish, he evokes the pluralism which is at the heart of what it means to be an American.

Brendan’s debut album, Mandocentric, was well received during his release party at Ravenwood Coffee in Kalamazoo in March of 2006. His newest album, Where the Sweet Celery Grows: Songs and Folk Mandolin from Kalamazoo, is an eclectic blend of folk rock, which reflects subtly on environmental and social justice issues and the development of hemispheric understanding. Blending influences from diverse cultures, Brendan illustrates the eccentric heart of his hometown, Kalamazoo.

Currently Brendan is a doctoral student of historical anthropology at Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN). Brendan's research interest is in the archaeology of the colonial period and focuses on labor in the rapidly changing Americas. Over the past few years he has had opportunities to conduct field work both in South America and the Caribbean, particularly Peru, Bolivia, and Barbados. Brendan sees his music and his career as an anthropologist as one in the same, using his music to express his values of social justice, cultural relativism, and understanding.