From the archaic streets of Jerusalem to the small towns of America and all along the way, music has been the thread and source of strength for Billy Wylder. The band features Avi Salloway from Hey Mama/Avi & Celia joined by a boot kick crew of musical vigilantes. In the heat of the Arab Spring, Avi traveled to Israel and Palestine to work on an ethnographic music and dialogue project with young Arab and Jewish artists. Through his inspiration from the experience, new songs began to take form and the idea of Billy Wylder was born. The band recorded Sand & Gold with the help of The Low Anthem in Providence, RI and is now touring America, building the “Wylder family” of fans from town to town. Billy Wylder, like their peers, the David Wax Museum and Vampire Weekend, bring sounds from around the globe to meld with their American roots, taking the listener on a journey from bayou to borough, desert to dreamland. Wylder’s a rebel on horseback, singing songs with the people he meets, songs of love and adventure, filled with the color of his journey. On “One Hundred Years,” the album’s opener, he sings, “Buried treasure in my bones. I found the salt it was under the stones. I lifted the rock and there you were. The soul of the world brought us here.” Here, Wylder defines his quest to find the real salt of the earth. He recognizes the powerful forces of nature that lead us through light and through darkness. He has a devout trust in love and action and carries this spirit in his songs, sharing the juju through sand and gold. The band has supported the legendary Taj Mahal and toured extensively throughout the northeastern United States. Billy Wylder includes Fred Kosak (mandolin, guitar, vocals), Michael Reese (drums, banjo, vocals), Paul Chase (bass), and Avi Salloway (lead vocals, guitar, harmonica). The members of Billy Wylder are all charismatic artists and educators who have taught and performed in the Middle East, China, the UK, North America and the Caribbean including concerts at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, NY. “[Salloway’s] traveled the globe, teaching in the Middle East and absorbing myriad worldly musical influences. All of which inform his new project, Billy Wylder, which fuses disparate styles, from worldbeat to art rock, with his Americana roots.”–Seven Days