Scott Krueger started working on Psalters as a project in 1993. The first show was in 1997. Psalters play an underground experimental world music style borrowing from the folk and resistance music of the nomadic and displaced communities they work with. They have had a revolving door policy with players, having had over 100 musicians from at least 10 different countries in Psalters at some point.
Psalters are Christian in their outlook but have had Jewish and Muslim players in their lineup over the course of their history. Less about being a band and more about an identity as a transient nomadic group of players, they create and perform worship music as a form of resistance, and spend time working in refugee camps as a way to inform what that resistance should look like. Often there were more people on stage than off... but that didn't stop them from going all out. Many nights there would be more cables, mics, instruments, than eyes and ears. Other times they have played in front of thousands... and have played everywhere. In the Sinai desert for Iraqi bedouins around the fire... and in the Arizona desert just for each other around the fire. They have played in front of the Scientology headquarters, on street corners in Norway, at the beach, at sports bars, at mega churches, anarchist "conferences", and for a party at a champion cock fighting rooster farm in the hills of Tennessee. Psalters have played for about 50 methodists all over 60 in Iowa... for 150 kids all under 10 in Michigan... and thousands at a time at various colleges, festivals, protests etc.
As followers of El Elyon, the Suffering Servant, they seek not to make music for music’s sake, but for God’s sake; through His Grace, for His Glory. They want to be like the temple musicians who first performed the psalms over three thousand years ago. Occasionally scholars refer to these temple musicians as ‘psalters’. They were people intending to glorify God through music. Every time Psalters play, the goal has supposedly been to cry out with prophetic, creative worship to God.
Contact:
scottykrueger@gmail.com
scott@psalters.org
Scott: 734.945.3225
Scott Krueger
2582 Collins St
Philadelphia, PA 19125
Source : http://psalters.org/
