Mumford & Sons
"Timshel," "Dust Bowl Dance," "Rose of Sharon": these titles link the songwriting of Mumford & Sons to East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath and the writing of John Steinbeck. On September 18, 2019, the festival-headlining, Grammy Award-winning band (Ted Dwane, Ben Lovett, Winston Marshall, Marcus Mumford) became the first collective recipient of the Steinbeck Award, paying homage to the author with a phenomenal evening of music and conversation at Bing Concert Hall, on the campus of Stanford University, to highlight the 100th anniversary of Steinbeck's enrollment at Stanford. Proceeds from the sold-out event served as funding for the Steinbeck / Gentlemen of the Road Service Fellowship, a program to honor Steinbeck and Mumford & Sons, by sending select students from San Jose State and Stanford universities to mentor the children of farm workers in the Salinas-Monterey area, the heart of Steinbeck Country.
Read Marcus Mumford’s speech about Steinbeck’s influence on the band.
