Jared Pool

Trevor had been trying to get Jared on the show for a long time. It was worth the wait.

Grunge first, then Galax

Jared came to guitar through Green Day, Nirvana and Soundgarden. When his parents finally bought him a guitar, he signed up for a Saturday beginners' class through school. The teacher turned out to be a fine bluegrass player. Jared stayed on as his student, learned fiddle tunes, and at about 12 went with his teacher and his dad to the Old Fiddler's Convention in Galax.

By 14 or 15 he was a Galax regular, running into Danny Knicely, Nate Leath, Rex McGee and Larry Keel. Festivals had been part of his childhood in the Tidewater area. He later earned a degree in jazz studies at Christopher Newport University.

The mandolin came by accident. In college, a Richmond band called The Whiskey Rebellion needed a mandolin player at the Maury River Fiddlers' Convention in Buena Vista, Virginia. Jared did the best he could and kept going. He moved to Richmond in 2009 to play with them.

Ten years with Larry Keel

In 2016 Jared took the mandolin chair in the Larry Keel Experience, with Larry on guitar and Jenny Keel on bass. He stayed about ten years, playing in Larry's side projects too. He still plays Electric Larry Land dates when they come up.

The road brought a steady run of pinch-me moments. After the passing of Jeff Austin, the Larry Keel Experience helped carry on the Grateful Ball with the Travelin' McCourys. At Grey Fox, in front of the big screens, Ronnie McCoury leaned over during "Friend of the Devil" and said, "Jared, just play a little Friend of the Devil with me." The two of them played the mandolin intro together.

"Just to know so many of the people I consider heroes on the scene, and they knew who I was."

He has played with Sam Bush, Tyler Childers, the Travelin' McCourys and Steve Earle, and recorded with Rob Ickes, Joan Osborne, Sherman Holmes and the Legendary Ingramettes.

Tuttle, Pool & Greuel

At the Aiken Bluegrass Festival, organizers liked to throw players together in new combinations. One of those sets put Jared with banjo player Kyle Tuttle and guitarist Adam Greuel, and the three hit it off.

In early 2021, Adam had studio time at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, the room where Nirvana made In Utero. The call came with only a few days' notice. The trio flew north in the Minnesota winter and cut Cosmic Nudge in two days, playing some of the songs together for the first time. For one Halloween show they dressed as dogs in knights' helmets. Three Dog Night. Of course they played "Joy to the World."

He would like to do it again. They have talked about it, and as he puts it, they are all keeping the same names, so they can always rely on that.

Singing with Peter Rowan

Jared had backed Peter Rowan a few times with Larry. About a year before the interview, he got a night in the Outer Banks of North Carolina where he and his friends were Rowan's band for the second half of the show. Rowan asked him to sing "In the Pines," then took the tenor himself and left Jared the lead. Jared remembered every verse. They went on to "Walls of Time" and "Midnight Moonlight," then talked for hours after the show.

"He doesn't even really walk, he just floats. It's like a plume of smoke, and it's Peter."

His favorite place to play was the Watermelon Park Festival in Berryville, Virginia, on grounds where Bill Monroe and Patsy Cline once played, with the Shenandoah River bending around the site. The festival has since moved.

"You could feel the sacred energy there."

Wednesdays in Charlottesville

Jared stepped back from full-time road life and now lives in Charlottesville. He plays a Wednesday night gig with the Central Virginia Bluegrass Destroyers, a rotating crew that includes Jay Starling of Leftover Salmon. The band is booked for the 2026 Richmond Folk Festival.

"If it's everyone, it's awesome. If it's half the band, it's awesome too."

The gig keeps him a grasser. Last winter he led the trios that played there, his first real turn as a bandleader. He is thinking about a record of his own, with most of the Destroyers as the band. Mostly he wants to keep playing.

"Just trying to play and just trying to bring people happiness and joy in these troubled times."