Sav Sankaran

Photo by Sandlin Gaither

A resident of Asheville, North Carolina, Sav Sankaran is an upright bass player and vocalist with the bluegrass band Unspoken Tradition.  Previously, he toured with the Dixie Bee-Liners, Kristy Cox and other North Carolina bands.  He is a first-generation American of Indian descent who points to Bob Paisley & Southern Grass as “the gold standard for traditional bluegrass should sound like.”  A classically trained vocalist who sang with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Sav grew up outside of Altoona, Pennsylvania where he spent a lot of time in the mountains and developed a love for fishing, hunting, and bluegrass music.     

In an interview with Acousticult’s Jed Clark, published in September 2020, Sav said, “I was classically trained from a young age and explored a lot of genres, but always held old-time and bluegrass close to my heart and chose to focus on it.  I’m a first-generation American, born into a family of Indian immigrants.  For me, being born and raised in Appalachia and having ownership over its culture is as formative and important to me as my family’s Indian heritage and culture.  I was always trying to balance my parents’ culture with my own.  I think that’s what drew me to bluegrass and old-time music—it was a music of identity, of MY American identity.  By learning it and playing it, I could assert my ownership over my country, and develop a sense of belonging.”