Yarn

Who Are They?

Yarn are an Americana band with a New York accent and a Southern heart. They formed in Brooklyn in 2006 around singer and songwriter Blake Christiana, then gradually became a North Carolina band, which tells you almost everything about the music: city-smart writing, country bones.

They are, above all, a live band, and a genuinely tireless one, known for years of playing up to 170 shows a year. That is not a stat for a press release. It is the whole method. Yarn built their audience one bar, one festival field, and one long drive at a time.

Underneath the mileage is the thing that makes it worth it: Christiana's songs, which are plainspoken, funny, sad, and built to be sung along to by a room full of people who found the band the same hard-touring way the band found them.

The Story

Two decades of records and relentless touring, built on songs and stamina rather than a single breakout.

1. 2006

   The band forms in Brooklyn

   Blake Christiana starts Yarn in Brooklyn, New York, an unlikely birthplace for an Americana band, and begins a residency-and-road grind that never really stops.

2. 2008

   Empty Pockets

   An early record that lays out the whole approach: sharp, plainspoken songwriting played by a road-tested band.

3. 2010

   Come on In

   The band deepens, the writing sharpens, and the touring intensifies. This is the sound of a group learning exactly who they are on stage.

4. 2012

   Almost Home

   Home to "Annie" and some of Christiana's most enduring songs, and a high point of the band's classic run.

5. 2016

   This Is the Year

   A confident, full-band record that shows how far the years on the road had pushed the writing and the playing.

6. 2024

   Born Blessed Grateful & Alive

   A recent record whose title says it plainly. Nearly twenty years in, the band sounds grateful to still be doing it, and it shows.

Start Here

One official video and two live cuts. This is a live band, so the live ones matter.

The Albums 5 to start with

Yarn have recorded a lot of records over two decades. These five are the way in.

Playlists

One curated YouTube Music playlist of Yarn essentials, the songs a longtime crowd already knows by heart.

The Band

Yarn is built around one songwriter and a rhythm section that has logged an enormous number of miles, with a rotating cast of guitarists over the years.

• Blake ChristianaVocals / GuitarThe founder, lead voice, and songwriter; the constant around which everything else turns
• Rick BugelBassThe low-end anchor of the touring band
• Robert BonhommeDrumsThe engine that has driven the relentless live schedule
• Rotating guitaristsGuitarYarn has cycled through a number of players over the years, including Matteo Recchio and Joel Timmons of Sol Driven Train

Influences

Yarn sit squarely in the Americana lineage: the tradition where country songwriting, rock and roll, and the endless American road all meet.

Interviews

Two conversations with Blake Christiana on the songs, the road, and the long climb.

Going Deeper

Yarn reward the same loyalty they give the road. A few ways in deeper.

• The live show. This is the whole point. Catch them at a festival like Yarnival, where the long sets and the crowd singalongs are the real record.
• Blake solo. The stripped-down solo performances show the songs at their source, before the band fills them out.
• The deep catalog. With eleven-plus records, there is a lot past the essentials. The Lucky 13 and Leftovers collections are full of gems.
• The neighbors. Follow the thread to Drive-By Truckers and The Band, the tradition Yarn work inside.

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