Turn on 102.3 FM KIXP either on your radio or online at kixp.org (and press the play button) to hear Life on Orcas Island with Edee Kulper for an interview tonight at 7 pm with local musical phenoms Tashi and Kaj Litch.
The Litch Brothers – Tashi on mandolin and Kaj on guitar – have been entertaining audiences here and on the mainland since they were young children, and they estimate they’ve done somewhere around 500 shows on the island and around the country in their lives. Not bad for being in their early 20s!
After learning how to play the violin/fiddle from their mother, they branched out to other instruments and began performing as the Crow Valley String Band (mother Rachel on fiddle and father Jim on bass), then became a duo called Brother for Sale, renamed to Brograss, and they now play as The Litch Brothers with Evan Snoey (fiddle) and Ben Lewis (bass). In June they won the 2026 Telluride National Bluegrass Band Contest in Colorado, which is a major competition in the bluegrass world and a long-held dream they made real in their lives.
Not only do Tashi and Kaj excel in music, but in just about everything they pursue. Tashi attended Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he studied music through the Conservatory and earned a Bachelor of Musical Arts. He went on to East Tennessee State University, studying Appalachian/roots music in the very places it was developed. Kaj just finished his degree at Yale in Global Studies and Human Rights and will be continuing his education at Oxford, peppering in 15 upcoming shows through October in Washington, Tennessee, and Maryland with the band.
Tashi and local American roots musicians Caleb Klauder and Reeb Willms co-founded and continue to organize OrcasFest, one of our newer annual festivals here on the island. The first OrcasFest was May 29-June 1, 2025, and the second was this past May. OrcasFest entails a weekend of performances, workshops, dances, and concerts at venues all around Eastsound from musicians who have traveled sometimes far and wide to be here. For more information about it, go to www.orcasfest.com.
You can get tickets at Darvill’s or on litchbrothers.com to see The Litch Brothers here at The Grange on Thursday night before they head off-island again (hurry, as they’re selling out!). You will not regret it. They also happen to be some of the most genuine, polite young men you could ever meet. For more information about them, go to www.litchbrothers.com.
To read posts about them from years ago on this blog, click here and here.
This episode will appear on the Life on Orcas Island with Edee Kulper podcast after it airs on the radio. You can also find each weekly episode online on Amazon Music (tell your Alexa: “play the podcast Life on Orcas Island with Edee Kulper” and the latest episode will begin playing), ApplePodcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Podchaser, BoomPlay, and PodBean.
