Britain’s Green Tree makes no secret of their love for bluegrass, and they make it a point not to shed its trappings. The duo — Abbey Thomas on mandolin and vocals and Rory Francis on guitar and vocals — hail from different parts of the UK. Thomas is from the far southwest of Cornwall, near Land’s End, while Francis is from Bristol. The pair travel between each place.
“We first met at a small festival called East Anglian Bluegrass Festival where we were playing with separate bands,” Thomas explains. “We really enjoyed jamming together at the festival, and then not long after that we ended up filling in for a gig together as a duo where the rest of the band had car troubles. We’d never played as a duo before, so we spent the car journey arranging music on the fly, running through harmonies and writing out a quick setlist. From then, we started arranging material together, then writing material together, and we’ve played as a duo ever since!”
The music made on the pair’s eponymous debut EP is flush with delicate designs which lean on a traditional template, and an early Appalachian approach.
“Our sound moves between progressive bluegrass, sounding more modern with our originals and more complex structures, and full-on traditional bluegrass, with a focus on strong harmonies,” Thomas suggests. “Then with little elements of British folk thrown in here and there too.”
The references to bluegrass come as little surprise considering the pair’s indelible influences.
“We both really like traditional bluegrass, and we love more progressive bluegrass, so we’re really inspired by many American acts, including Lonesome River Band, Special Consensus, and Rick Faris,” Thomas explains. “They all have that strong punchy arrangement style that we absolutely love.”
She went on to say that Francis started playing bluegrass guitar after seeing videos of certain players like Molly Tuttle and Bryan Sutton, and that he admires the songwriting of Dan Tyminski and Billy Strings.
“I love the mandolin playing of John Reischman, Joe K Walsh, and Dan Tyminski — three very different players from whom I take inspiration in very different ways,” Thomas continues. “I also love Billy Strings’ songwriting, and the writing of East Nash Grass too, and I’m also influenced by the UK band The Often Herd, whose mandolin player Evan Davies tutored me for several years.”
The band has gigged extensively in Bristol and Cornwall, the areas they call home, and also have plans for further touring this summer. In 2025, they played the main stage at Omagh Bluegrass Festival (NI), which, Thomas says, “was a brilliant festival.” She adds that they look forward to getting out to more bluegrass festivals soon.
“We’re really excited to be opening for some of the UK’s top bluegrass acts in the coming months, including The Often Herd and The Carrivick Sisters,” Thomas continues. “At Omagh Festival, we shared the billing and the stage with some brilliant bands, including Kristy Cox & Grasstime and Cup O’Joe. Both me and Rory toured for years as part of Old Baby Mackerel, and attended many European and UK Festivals with this band as well.”
Happily then, their efforts have paid off. “We’ve received really good feedback from people who’ve enjoyed our music so far, including comments at gigs particularly on our stage energy and our harmonies,” Thomas relates. “Our current focus is on reaching a wider audience with our brand new EP, Green Tree, which was released in November 2025.”
She went on to explain that the band’s repertoire includes both original material as well as covers.
“We love learning the songs and tunes that we love,” Thomas explains. “We recently worked up How Long by Rick Faris, and a lovely instrumental called Cleo Belle by Nick Hornbuckle, a member of John Reischman and the Jaybirds, along with traditional material from the likes of Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, and so on. But it feels like writing and arranging original material is a huge part of our focus. We’re both new at writing lyrics and have really enjoyed digging into those new skills of writing lately. Plus, we both love writing our own instrumental music too. The recently-released EP, for example, is made up entirely of original material.”
So too, Thomas is all too pleased to share her thoughts about why bluegrass enjoys such international appeal.
“We think a lot of its popularity is down to how high-quality the musicianship is in the genre,” she says. “From really technical playing to strongly emotive songwriting, this music encompasses it all, and that makes it widely appealing. The music is full of energy and strong harmonies and ripping solos, and how can you not enjoy that — especially when you hear it live from some of the genres top musicians? The fact that you can attend a festival and be face-to-face with the players you admire the most, hear them play and then meet them and maybe even play some tunes together, is also a really amazing and unique part about bluegrass music. Then there’s also something so attractive about acoustic music and community sessions, especially in this world where everything is so digital and screen-based.”
