“Well I love that dirty water. Oh, Boston you’re my home!”

Dirty Water Brass Band, a Boston-based undefinable raucous street band, a staunch contributor to the many grooves that make this town tick. Our style is eclectic, a mix of second line, soul, R&B, Motown, rock, jazz and more.

The band has grown from initially 5 members to as many as 10. And we do NOT “have to be in by twelve o’clock!”

To engage with the community at large and bring the highest quality of music we can, with the goal to encourage interaction with all kinds of people. We resist playing on stages, preferring to be on an eye-to-eye level with our found audiences.

We are focused on being involved with the community at large, working to find common ground and provide alternative visions in “mainstream” events like municipal parades, as well as “movement” activities like the recent Womens’ March. Over time we have become aware that delivering a form of cultural diversity in mainstream events provokes further interaction and is in its own way a form of activism.

After playing at HONK! for the past eight years, we find that because we are locally engaged all year long, we are able to attract people to come to the Festival who may not initially respond to the activist aspect of the Festival, but once there, are exposed to the full range of bands that are there. We promote HONK! whenever we can at our gigs, all year round.

Within the past year, we participated in: the Boston Womens’ March, Peace Boston’s Mardi Gras Ball fundraiser in Dorchester (pro-bono); Fat Tuesday fundraiser for Artisan's Asylum in Somerville (pro-bono); Concord's Musketaquid Earth Day parade; Wake Up The Earth in Jamaica Plain; City of Somerville's Memorial Day parade; Arlington's Patriots Day parade; Christmas in the City, Boston (pro-bono). We have also busked to raise funds for the Mass United for Puerto Rico Fund, and also for Christmas in the City. Within the past several years we have played pro-bono for community or arts groups such as Margaret Fuller House (Sweet Soul Supper fundraiser), SomerStreets (Carnaval), Keytar Bear fundraiser at the Middle East, fundraiser for the Nave gallery at PA Lounge, Habitat for Humanity fundraiser in Wayland MA, SuAsCo RiverFest in Framingham, fundraiser for Cambridge Center for Adult Edducation, Boston Gay Pride parade, and busking to benefit Occupy Boston. In addition, at the annual Somerville Porchfest, we pass the hat to support our hosts the Nave Gallery Annex.

Like many diversity-minded groups in Boston, achieving more diversity in the band has been a challenge for us. When we have a vacancy, we recruit for players through Craigslist, and conduct auditions based on musical ability and their eagerness to engage with our audience. We are a relatively small band and do not want to grow too large.

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