The Salt Wives began in Providence, RI in 2009 as a trio consisting of accordionist/singer/composer David Symons, euphoniumist/singer Lydia Stein, and violinist Jonathan Cannon. The band was then re-invented when Symons and Stein moved to New Orleans in January of 2012. Initially a duo, street-corner-belting songs about sailors, pimps, whores, revolutionaries, whiskey bars, and earthquakes in French, Spanish, Yiddish, German, and English, the band was eventually joined by bassist Cody Ruth, clarinetist Byron Asher, and violinist Dr. Sick. The Salt Wives repertoire combines French chanson, South American and Eastern European revolutionary songs, German theater songs, Bessarabian klezmer horas and freylachs, and tango, all performed with grit, virtuousity, and a tragic sense of life.
