The Down Hill Strugglers (formerly known as the Dust Busters) is an old time string band based out of Brooklyn, NY, playing songs, ballads, fiddle tunes and banjo breakdowns.  They have released an album on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and are featured on the soundtrack to the Coen Brothers film, “Inside Llewyn Davis” produced by T-Bone Burnett.  The Down Hill Strugglers band formed while hanging out at the home of their mutual friend Peter Stampfel of the Holy Modal Rounders, where they also met friend and mentor John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers.

By carrying the music of the old rural America forward with verve and creativity, The Down Hill Strugglers are extending the legacy of the New Lost City Ramblers by bringing archaic sounds into the present.

“They have built their repertoire from some of the best music of the past and they keep it alive and lively.  They have found resonance with the intensity of rural music, while delighting in the nuances that preserve the individual uniqueness of the genre.  This is music that will keep your mind dancing. 

The Down Hill Strugglers are reaching for new musical highs, and they play the kind of music I want to hear.”

– John Cohen, New Lost City Ramblers