Members of MilkDrive, the Austin alt-folk-progressive acoustic string band with MILKDRIVE LIVE ’09 released last June, are award-winning musicians, but awards reveal nothing about the musical soul so palpable in the quartet’s sound: a mix of rhythms, tempos, flavors, downbeats and improvisation; with fingers flying at “unbelievable” speed, original tunes that go beyond extraordinary and arrangements described as “impeccable.”

Principal songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Noah Jeffries grew up playing bluegrass and gospel in Idaho and started writing amazing tunes at 14. He moved to Austin and joined up with fiddling champion-mandolin player Dennis Ludiker, a former member of South Austin Jug Band, and multi-instrumentalist Brian Beken, fiddler for South Austin Jug Band and The Gougers, but Jeffries had met the two at fiddle contests in the Northwest when they were kids. Swing/jazz bass player Matt Mefford, also formerly of SAJB, made the trio a quartet.

Noah Jeffries-Guitar
Dennis Ludiker-Mandolin
Brian Beken-Fiddle, Vocals
Matt Mefford-Bass

Some of the band members’ credits include:
*2009 RockyGrass Mandolin Champion
*2009 & 2008 Texas State-Fiddlers Frolics Fiddle Champion
*2004 Texas Flatpick Guitar Champion
*2002 Walnut Valley Music Festival Fiddle Champion
*2001 Washington State Open Fiddle Champion
*2000 Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival Jazz Guitar Champion