(10 photos) East of jazz, north of Celtic, 30 miles from here

Searchmont Ski Resort was alive with the enlightened music of The Creaking Tree String Quartet Saturday afternoon.

Their distinctive sound warmed the busy skiers and boarders better than any fireplace and kept the hill relatively bare for the duration of their performance.

Violinist John Showman, guitarist Brad Keller, mandolinist Andrew Collins and bassist Brian Kobayakawa were perfectly aware and took advantage of their surroundings.

Although they may be be serious, classically trained musicians, the boys showed that a sense of humour is also important by dubbing many of their traditional tunes with ski hill related titles.

"This next tune is called Wax That Board Up Good So It's Nice And Slick," announced Collins.

Falling slightly east of jazz, a shade north of Celtic and a tad bit west of bluegrass, the music of Creaking Tree while encompassing many genres, remains faithful to none and virtually defies definition.

And they do what they like no others, combining their varied backgrounds and training with unmatched ability.

As Tim Perlich wrote in Now Magazine: "a number of virtuoso artists are adding their own twists to the traditional repertoire, but unlike the Creaking Tree, relatively few can boast inventive new compositions to match their chops."

Creaking Tree's 2003 debut album was nominated for a Juno and their 2005 follow-up Side Two won the Pushing the Boundaries trophy at the Canadian Folk Music Awards as well as Album of the Year at the Indie Acoustic Project Awards.

Recorded in Nashville and produced by Grammy Award winner Bil VornDick, their third album is set for release shortly.