Schedule:

Thursday July 27, 2023

8:00pm AJ Lee and Blue Summit

AJ Lee and Blue Summit made their first appearance in Santa Cruz in 2015. Led by singer, songwriter, and mandolinist, AJ Lee, the bluegrass band has performed all over the world, but finds home in California’s Bay Area. In 2019, they released their debut album, Like I Used To. Their second full length project, I’ll Come Back, came out August 2021 – with national touring in support of the record ongoing.

Unlike their first record, which featured experimentation with session musicians and electric instruments, the new project is a pure reflection of the live sound of the group, hearkening back to their acoustic roots. Each band member performs at their peak, and the variety of songs on the record caters to their broad fanbase. Certain tracks (“Put Your Head Down,” and “Faithful,”) fall more in the classic bluegrass realm of songwriting, while others (“Lemons and Tangerines,” and “I’ll Come Back,”) fall into that hard-to-define realm of acoustic Americana that blends mesmerizing lyricism and acoustic mastery.

Although falling loosely under the bluegrass label, AJLBS generally plays sans banjo, with Sullivan Tuttle and Scott Gates on steel stringed acoustic guitars, AJ on mandolin, Jan Purat on fiddle, and Chad Bowen on upright bass – a configuration effectively used to create unique space and texture in the arrangements not as commonly found in the music of their peers.  Drawing from influences such as country, soul, swing, rock, and jam music, the band uses the lens of bluegrass as a vessel through which to express and explore the thread that binds and unifies all great music.

4:00pm: Yasmin Williams

We are proud to announce Yasmin Williams as our Artist in Residence who will act as the curator of the Emerging Artist of Color showcase on Thursday July 27th, details coming shortly. Yasmin will also perform at the festival.

Based in Alexandria, VA, Yasmin Williams is an acoustic fingerstyle guitarist with an unorthodox, modern style of playing. She utilizes various techniques including alternate tunings, percussive hits, and lap tapping in her music to great effect. Her “radiant sound and adventitious origins have made her a key figure in a diverse dawn for the solo guitar” (The New York Times). Williams’s music has been described as rich, harmonious, and “in a lot of ways, the joy and possibility she brings to the guitar reminds me more of Eddie Van Halen than any of the other fingerstyle guitarists to whom she’s compared” (NPR Music).

She grew up in northern Virginia where various genres of music from smooth jazz to hip-hop were played in her household. She was introduced to the guitar after playing the video game Guitar Hero 2 and became interested in playing the guitar in 2009. She begged her parents to buy her a real electric guitar and once she received her first guitar and amplifier, she taught herself how to play the guitar by ear. After a few years of playing the electric guitar, she taught herself how to play the bass guitar, 12 string guitar, and classical guitar before eventually deciding to switch her focus to the acoustic guitar because of the instrument’s versatility. While in high school, she released her first EP Serendipity in 2012, which she recorded and mixed herself.

She graduated from New York University with a BM in Music Theory and Composition in December 2017. Her first album, Unwind, was released on May 4, 2018. It charted highly on several Amazon and iTunes charts including top paid albums, including charting at #7 on Amazon’s top paid albums and #1 on iTunes‘s Folk chart, and charted at #15 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart. Her latest album, Urban Driftwood, was released on January 29, 2021 and has received critical acclaim from numerous major publications including The New York Times, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, NPR Music, The Fader, Wallstreet Journal, AllMusic, Paste Magazine, No Depression, and several other outlets.

9:15pm : Big Richard

What began as an all-female festival collab quickly morphed into a serious passion project driven by sisterhood, harmony and humor…along with the shared desire to rage fiddle tunes and smash the patriarchy.

Big Richard is a neo-acoustic super group made up of four well established Colorado musicians: Bonnie Sims on mandolin (Bonnie & Taylor Sims/Everybody Loves An Outlaw/Bonnie & the Clydes), Joy Adams on cello (Nathaniel Rateliff/Darol Anger/Half Pelican), Emma Rose on bass + guitar (Sound of Honey/Daniel Rodriguez/Whippoorwill) and Eve Panning on fiddle (Lonesome Days).

Formed in late 2021, the band gained immediate notoriety for their charismatic stage presence and their vocal/instrumental prowess. After selling out all of their club shows Big Richard quickly started confirming festival appearances across America.

5:00pm: The Bagboys

For over 25 years Boston’s Bagboys have been dazzling music-loving audiences from festival, concert, and nightclub stages all throughout New England with their irresistible, from-the-heart acoustic string music. Founder Harvey Bag anchors the Bagboys with his bass and occasional guitar, and sings with the dusty soul of a cowboy fresh off the cattle drive. Frank Drake, singing and variously displaying his prowess on guitar, mandolin, and bass, is a longtime, well-known Boston music scene stalwart. Both Frank and Harvey keep the band well stocked with their original compositions, all of which are bonafide brand-new-old-time songs and future americana classics. Gretchen Bowder sings and is a respected practitioner of the five-string banjo, and takes her turn on guitar too. Gretchen shares with the Bagboys her love and appreciation of a variety of classic and lesser-known material, ranging from Appalachian melodies to favorites of the great American songbook and bossa nova.Jon Ross brings to the Bagboys his lifetime of wide musical experience, played all around the world. A typical performance keeps Jon busy switching from mandolin to dobro to guitar to bass, and singing, too. Singing, swinging, or taking it down to the old home place, the Bagboys bring warmth, humor, honesty, and musical excellence to each and every show!

Friday July 28, 2023

9:15pm Allison Russell

Allison Russell is a poet, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist and co-founder of Our Native Daughters (with Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla and Amythyst Kiah) and Birds of Chicago (with JT Nero). She unpacks her youth in searing detail on her tour de force debut Outside Child. She sings about deliverance and redemption, about the places and people and realizations that helped her survive and claim her freedom. “It’s an album of strength and affirmation, not victimization,” said The New York Times in their profile on Russell. Outside Child received three Grammy Award nominations including Best Americana Album, Best American Roots Performance, and Best American Roots Song. Outside Child was also nominated for four Canadian Folk Music Awards, the Polaris Music Prize, and two Juno Awards. Russell is the first-ever Black artist to win a Contemporary Roots Album of the Year in Juno history. Russell won Album of the Year at the Americana Music Association Awards alongside her two other nominations that night for Song of the Year and Artist of the Year. Befittingly, the New York Times named Outside Child the #2 Best Album of 2021.

4:00pm: Tres Souls

Beloved Los Angeles trio, Tres Souls has been capturing the hearts of Angelenos, one ballad at a time, (ABC7)
For the last decade Rocio Mendoza, Roberto Carlos, and Jesus Martinez have serenaded audiences in LA and beyond, with their own interpretations of a genre called “Bolero.” They relive the vintage sounds and songs of the 1940s-1960s, stylized during the Golden Era of Mexican Cinema. “Through their expert musicianship and swooning vocals Tres Souls enchants audiences and transports them to a more romantic time.” (The Music Center)

Each member of the trio is an accomplished musician, and each inherited the knowledge and importance of Mexican heritage music through their family and generations before them. In their own way Tres Souls are following in the footsteps of other “Trio Romanticos”, like Eydie Gorme Y Los Panchos, Los Tres Reyes and Los Tres Ases, while interspersing musical influences that can be heard echoing through out the diaspora of Los Angeles.

5:30pm: Michael Cleveland And Flamekeeper

The tension between tradition and innovation is at the core of bluegrass music, and the fiddle playing of Michael Cleveland exemplifies this musical tug of war. As a boy, Cleveland heard a local fiddler play “Orange Blossom Special,” which sparked a lifelong obsession with the tune that mimics that sound of a train. Cleveland’s improvisational versions push the piece’s descriptive tones and percussive bowing to a new level. With an encyclopedic memory for melodies, and an uncanny intuition for improvisation, Cleveland’s music is both rooted in tradition and fueled by his melodic imagination.

From an early age, Cleveland heard old-time and bluegrass music at local jams and festivals near his hometown of Henryville, Indiana. His grandparents hosted regular bluegrass gatherings at the American Legion, and at age four, he began playing the fiddle. He attended the Kentucky School for the Blind in Louisville, where he learned the Suzuki method of violin. While he practiced the violin at school, he played fiddle at home. Traveling with his grandparents to area bluegrass festivals, he heard many legendary players perform at Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Festival in Bean Blossom, Indiana. At the age of nine, Cleveland got to play with Monroe—himself a recipient of the National Heritage Fellowship in the inaugural class of 1982—at the festival. When Cleveland was 12, he met music historian Dave Samuelson, who recognized the young musician’s interest and talent. Samuelson curated several Braille-labeled tapes for the young musician, which served as Cleveland’s essential listening guide to bluegrass music. Cleveland’s repertoire and musicianship grew, and in 1993 he played the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) awards show with the Bluegrass Youth All-Stars.

Cleveland began playing professionally after he graduated from high school, first with Jeff White and later with Dale Ann Bradley and Rhonda Vincent. Since he was young, however, Cleveland had dreamed of leading his own band. In 2006, he formed Flamekeeper, the seven-time recipients of the IBMA’s “Instrumental Group of the Year” award. Flamekeeper includes Josh Richards, Nathan Livers, Jasiah Shrode, and Chris Douglas. In addition to touring with his band, Cleveland has performed with a legendary list of bluegrass greats. Nevertheless, he remains rooted in his local Southern Indiana community, where he continues to play with friends when he is not on tour.

Widely considered the bluegrass fiddler of his generation, Cleveland has been recognized 12 times as the IBMA’s “Fiddler of the Year” and in 2018 was inducted into the National Fiddler’s Hall of Fame. His recording Fiddler’s Dream was nominated in 2018 for a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album, and in 2020, he won a Grammy for his album Tall Fiddler. In 2019, Cleveland’s amazing life of adversity and achievement was featured in the documentary film Flamekeeper: The Michael Cleveland Story. The National Endowment for the Arts named him a Heritage Fellow in 2022.

7:30pm: The Travelin McCourys

2019 Grammy winners, The Traveling McCourys, are an enthralling blend of traditionalists and innovators in bluegrass music. They deliver the historic sound of the genre, while also exploring its elasticity.

The McCoury brothers- Ronnie (mandolin) and Rob (banjo) – were born into the bluegrass tradition. Talk about a source abundant and pure: their father, Del, is among the most influential and successful musicians in the history of the genre. Years on the road with Dad in the Del McCoury Band honed their knife-edge chops, and encouraged the duo to imagine how traditional bluegrass could cut innovative pathways into 21s? t? century music.

“If you put your mind, your skills, and your ability to it, I think you can make just about anything work on bluegrass instruments,” says Ronnie. “That’s a really fun part of this- figuring the new stuff out and surprising the audience.”

With fiddler Jason Carter, bassist Alan Bartram, and latest recruit Cody Kilby on guitar, they assembled a group that could take what they had in their DNA, take what traditions they learned and heard, and push the music forward. In fact, the band became the only group to have each of its members recognized with an International Bluegrass Music Association Award for their instrument at least once. There were peers, too, that could see bluegrass as both historic and progressive. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees The Allman Brothers Band, improv-rock kings Phish, and jamband contemporary Keller Williams were just a few that formed a mutual admiration society with the ensemble. From a source deep, abundant, and pure, the river flows. It’s there on the map, marking place and time. Yet, the river changes as it remains a constant, carving away at the edges, making new pathways, gaining strength as it progresses forward. The Travelin’ McCourys are that river.

3:00pm: AJ Lee and Blue Summit

AJ Lee and Blue Summit made their first appearance in Santa Cruz in 2015. Led by singer, songwriter, and mandolinist, AJ Lee, the bluegrass band has performed all over the world, but finds home in California’s Bay Area. In 2019, they released their debut album, Like I Used To. Their second full length project, I’ll Come Back, came out August 2021 – with national touring in support of the record ongoing.

Unlike their first record, which featured experimentation with session musicians and electric instruments, the new project is a pure reflection of the live sound of the group, hearkening back to their acoustic roots. Each band member performs at their peak, and the variety of songs on the record caters to their broad fanbase. Certain tracks (“Put Your Head Down,” and “Faithful,”) fall more in the classic bluegrass realm of songwriting, while others (“Lemons and Tangerines,” and “I’ll Come Back,”) fall into that hard-to-define realm of acoustic Americana that blends mesmerizing lyricism and acoustic mastery.

Although falling loosely under the bluegrass label, AJLBS generally plays sans banjo, with Sullivan Tuttle and Scott Gates on steel stringed acoustic guitars, AJ on mandolin, Jan Purat on fiddle, and Chad Bowen on upright bass – a configuration effectively used to create unique space and texture in the arrangements not as commonly found in the music of their peers.  Drawing from influences such as country, soul, swing, rock, and jam music, the band uses the lens of bluegrass as a vessel through which to express and explore the thread that binds and unifies all great music.

11:00pm: AJ Lee and Blue Summit

AJ Lee and Blue Summit made their first appearance in Santa Cruz in 2015. Led by singer, songwriter, and mandolinist, AJ Lee, the bluegrass band has performed all over the world, but finds home in California’s Bay Area. In 2019, they released their debut album, Like I Used To. Their second full length project, I’ll Come Back, came out August 2021 – with national touring in support of the record ongoing.

Unlike their first record, which featured experimentation with session musicians and electric instruments, the new project is a pure reflection of the live sound of the group, hearkening back to their acoustic roots. Each band member performs at their peak, and the variety of songs on the record caters to their broad fanbase. Certain tracks (“Put Your Head Down,” and “Faithful,”) fall more in the classic bluegrass realm of songwriting, while others (“Lemons and Tangerines,” and “I’ll Come Back,”) fall into that hard-to-define realm of acoustic Americana that blends mesmerizing lyricism and acoustic mastery.

Although falling loosely under the bluegrass label, AJLBS generally plays sans banjo, with Sullivan Tuttle and Scott Gates on steel stringed acoustic guitars, AJ on mandolin, Jan Purat on fiddle, and Chad Bowen on upright bass – a configuration effectively used to create unique space and texture in the arrangements not as commonly found in the music of their peers.  Drawing from influences such as country, soul, swing, rock, and jam music, the band uses the lens of bluegrass as a vessel through which to express and explore the thread that binds and unifies all great music.

5:00pm: Big Richard

What began as an all-female festival collab quickly morphed into a serious passion project driven by sisterhood, harmony and humor…along with the shared desire to rage fiddle tunes and smash the patriarchy.

Big Richard is a neo-acoustic super group made up of four well established Colorado musicians: Bonnie Sims on mandolin (Bonnie & Taylor Sims/Everybody Loves An Outlaw/Bonnie & the Clydes), Joy Adams on cello (Nathaniel Rateliff/Darol Anger/Half Pelican), Emma Rose on bass + guitar (Sound of Honey/Daniel Rodriguez/Whippoorwill) and Eve Panning on fiddle (Lonesome Days).

Formed in late 2021, the band gained immediate notoriety for their charismatic stage presence and their vocal/instrumental prowess. After selling out all of their club shows Big Richard quickly started confirming festival appearances across America

11:00pm: Big Richard

What began as an all-female festival collab quickly morphed into a serious passion project driven by sisterhood, harmony and humor…along with the shared desire to rage fiddle tunes and smash the patriarchy.

Big Richard is a neo-acoustic super group made up of four well established Colorado musicians: Bonnie Sims on mandolin (Bonnie & Taylor Sims/Everybody Loves An Outlaw/Bonnie & the Clydes), Joy Adams on cello (Nathaniel Rateliff/Darol Anger/Half Pelican), Emma Rose on bass + guitar (Sound of Honey/Daniel Rodriguez/Whippoorwill) and Eve Panning on fiddle (Lonesome Days).

Formed in late 2021, the band gained immediate notoriety for their charismatic stage presence and their vocal/instrumental prowess. After selling out all of their club shows Big Richard quickly started confirming festival appearances across America

4:00pm: Kelly Willis, Brennen Leigh and Melissa Carper

“Together, the three played off each other perfectly, while each proving exceptional in their own right.” –– Austin Chronicle

Kelly Willis, Brennen Leigh and Melissa Carper, all celebrated singer songwriters, have joined forces for a run of shows collaborating on a collection of each of their works. all for one amazing night of music!

Brennen Leigh – “Brennen will carry the torch for REAL American music for her generation, and she’s the best one to do it in my opinion,” says Ray Benson. Brennen’s upcoming release “Obsessed With The West” is set to release May 6th featuring Asleep at the Wheel. The album features 12 original songs that Brennen says, “is my love note to Western Swing; To the rich culture it comes from, as I see it.”

Kelly Willis – “There’s no point in being nostalgic for the generic delineations of the past. We are in the present. That’s where Kelly Willis lives, and it’s there that she sings, as keenly and movingly as any singer in the country or pop or rock present,” says No Depression.

Melissa Carper – “Melissa is one of the greatest classic golden era country singers and composers of this generation,” says Saving Country Music. Melissa’s most recent release “Daddy’s Country Gold” is just that, 12 glittering Carper originals from the country, western swing and jazz variety. Melissa has a new album in the works for release in the fall 2022.

11:00pm:  Kelly Willis, Brennen Leigh and Melissa Carper

“Together, the three played off each other perfectly, while each proving exceptional in their own right.” –– Austin Chronicle

Kelly Willis, Brennen Leigh and Melissa Carper, all celebrated singer songwriters, have joined forces for a run of shows collaborating on a collection of each of their works. all for one amazing night of music!

Brennen Leigh – “Brennen will carry the torch for REAL American music for her generation, and she’s the best one to do it in my opinion,” says Ray Benson. Brennen’s upcoming release “Obsessed With The West” is set to release May 6th featuring Asleep at the Wheel. The album features 12 original songs that Brennen says, “is my love note to Western Swing; To the rich culture it comes from, as I see it.”

Kelly Willis – “There’s no point in being nostalgic for the generic delineations of the past. We are in the present. That’s where Kelly Willis lives, and it’s there that she sings, as keenly and movingly as any singer in the country or pop or rock present,” says No Depression.

Melissa Carper – “Melissa is one of the greatest classic golden era country singers and composers of this generation,” says Saving Country Music. Melissa’s most recent release “Daddy’s Country Gold” is just that, 12 glittering Carper originals from the country, western swing and jazz variety. Melissa has a new album in the works for release in the fall 2022.

1:00pm: Nefesh Mountain

Since their arrival on the scene in 2015, New York based progressive bluegrass band Nefesh Mountain has been hailed as one of today’s formative boundary-pushing groups in American roots music. Their latest album “Songs For the Sparrows” is a true testament to the unbridled imagination and extraordinary grace of their musicianship and creativity, featuring friends and heroes Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas and Bryan Sutton among others. The band, called “A master class in string music” by Rolling Stone, and “arguably some of the best bluegrass ever made” by American Songwriter, embodies the wild nature and unbridled free spirits of its members, bridging compositional prowess and prolific songwriting with deft and exciting instrumentals and jams.

They have recorded and shared the stage with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Bryan Sutton, John Doyle, Noam Pikelny (Punch Brothers), Mark Schatz (Nickel Creek), Mike Gordon (Phish) and Tony Trischka among others. Their music continues to forge new paths in a world all their own, combining elements of everything from Americana and Appalachian bluegrass to Celtic folk and Eastern European melodies with messages of inclusivity, diversity, and hope for our ever changing world today.

Saturday July 29, 2023

8:45pm: California Honeydrops

The California Honeydrops don’t just play music—they throw parties. Led by dynamic vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Lech Wierzynski, the band draws on diverse musical influences including roots, Bay Area R&B, Southern soul, Delta blues, and New Orleans second line to bring vibrant energy to their shows. Assembling their five core members plus two to three more world-class musicians each show, the Honeydrops deliver an eclectic performance and innovative recording style, evident in the seven studio albums, three live albums, and two cover albums the band has released since forming in 2008. They recently released their highly anticipated LP, Soft Spot, with a national tour announced soon after.

The band has come a long way since Wierzynski and Malament started busking in an Oakland, California, subway station, but they’ve stayed true to that organic, street-level feel. Wierzynski was born in Warsaw, Poland, and raised by Polish political refugees. He learned his vocal stylings from contraband American recordings of Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, and Louis Armstrong, and developed them later at Oberlin College and in Oakland’s club circuit. With the additions of Malament on drums, Johnny Bones on tenor sax and clarinet, Lorenzo Loera on keyboards, and Beau Bradbury on bass, the Honeydrops have cultivated a powerful full-band sound to support Wierzynski’s vocals. More like parties than traditional concerts, their shows feature extensive off-stage jamming and crowd interaction. “The whole point is to erase the boundaries between the crowd and us,” Wierzynski says. “We don’t make setlists. We want requests. We want crowd involvement and to make people become a part of the whole thing by dancing along, singing, and generally coming out of their shells.”

5:00pm:  Tres Souls

Beloved Los Angeles trio, Tres Souls has been capturing the hearts of Angelenos, one ballad at a time, (ABC7)
For the last decade Rocio Mendoza, Roberto Carlos, and Jesus Martinez have serenaded audiences in LA and beyond, with their own interpretations of a genre called “Bolero.” They relive the vintage sounds and songs of the 1940s-1960s, stylized during the Golden Era of Mexican Cinema. “Through their expert musicianship and swooning vocals Tres Souls enchants audiences and transports them to a more romantic time.” (The Music Center)

Each member of the trio is an accomplished musician, and each inherited the knowledge and importance of Mexican heritage music through their family and generations before them. In their own way Tres Souls are following in the footsteps of other “Trio Romanticos”, like Eydie Gorme Y Los Panchos, Los Tres Reyes and Los Tres Ases, while interspersing musical influences that can be heard echoing through out the diaspora of Los Angeles.

6:45pm:  Appalachian Road Show

Appalachian Road Show is a visionary acoustic ensemble, bringing new-generation interpretations of traditional Americana, bluegrass and folk songs, as well as offering innovative original music, all presented with a common thread tied directly to the heart of the Appalachian regions of the United States. GRAMMY-nominated banjoist Barry Abernathy, joins forces with GRAMMY-winning fiddler Jim VanCleve, fresh off of his recent stint touring with multi-platinum country artist Josh Turner, as well as esteemed vocalist and mandolinist Darrell Webb, who has recorded and toured with Dolly Parton and Rhonda Vincent, among many others. The group also includes 26-year-old  “old soul” guitarist Zeb Snyder, whose fierce and versatile playing recalls Doc Watson and Norman Blake as readily as it does Duane Allman and Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Appalachian Road Show invites us to come and sit a spell on its porch as the band shares its dynamic musicianship through songs and stories emanating from the mountains and hollers of North Carolina and Virginia, to the coal mines of West Virginia and Kentucky. On its eponymous debut album, the band delivers powerful songs that range from the gospel-esque “I Am Just a Pilgrim” and “Little Black Train,” to the reeling, kick-up-your-heels “Dance, Dance, Dance,” to the ballad of love and loss “Anna Lee.” “All of these songs came from the Appalachian mountains and from the coal mining regions of Appalachia,” says Abernathy. “They confront topics such as logging, coal mining, trains, a sweetheart that took off, and so on. There’s something universal in the music and its expressed themes. There’s something for everyone.”

2:30pm:  Yasmin Williams

We are proud to announce Yasmin Williams as our Artist in Residence who will act as the curator of the Emerging Artist of Color showcase on Thursday July 27th, details coming shortly. Yasmin will also perform at the festival.

Based in Alexandria, VA, Yasmin Williams is an acoustic fingerstyle guitarist with an unorthodox, modern style of playing. She utilizes various techniques including alternate tunings, percussive hits, and lap tapping in her music to great effect. Her “radiant sound and adventitious origins have made her a key figure in a diverse dawn for the solo guitar” (The New York Times). Williams’s music has been described as rich, harmonious, and “in a lot of ways, the joy and possibility she brings to the guitar reminds me more of Eddie Van Halen than any of the other fingerstyle guitarists to whom she’s compared” (NPR Music).

She grew up in northern Virginia where various genres of music from smooth jazz to hip-hop were played in her household. She was introduced to the guitar after playing the video game Guitar Hero 2 and became interested in playing the guitar in 2009. She begged her parents to buy her a real electric guitar and once she received her first guitar and amplifier, she taught herself how to play the guitar by ear. After a few years of playing the electric guitar, she taught herself how to play the bass guitar, 12 string guitar, and classical guitar before eventually deciding to switch her focus to the acoustic guitar because of the instrument’s versatility. While in high school, she released her first EP Serendipity in 2012, which she recorded and mixed herself.

She graduated from New York University with a BM in Music Theory and Composition in December 2017. Her first album, Unwind, was released on May 4, 2018. It charted highly on several Amazon and iTunes charts including top paid albums, including charting at #7 on Amazon’s top paid albums and #1 on iTunes‘s Folk chart, and charted at #15 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart. Her latest album, Urban Driftwood, was released on January 29, 2021 and has received critical acclaim from numerous major publications including The New York Times, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, NPR Music, The Fader, Wallstreet Journal, AllMusic, Paste Magazine, No Depression, and several other outlets.

3:45pm: Twisted Pine

Full of energy and surprise, wit and subtlety, Twisted Pine has quickly become one of the most acclaimed young string bands on the scene. Their soundscape has the sass of zero-gravity pop; the grooves of 2 a.m. funk jams; the astral flute and shoobedoos of 70s radio. “Punch Brothers meets Jean-Luc Ponty and Ian Anderson [Jethro Tull],” writes Folk Alley of the instrumental track “Amadeus Party” — and yet the lyric narratives are packed with the elements of earthling mountain music. Fiddler and lead vocalist Kathleen Park is ethereal and compliments the jazz pop bluegrass fusion of floutist Ahn Phung. Mandolinist Dan Bui is a master of melody and drive, celebrated widely for his dexterous, tasteful picking. And bassist Chris Sartori holds down the low end and a lot more, introducing creative, jazz-inflected cadences that never overwhelm the beat. Moving beyond the standard verse-chorus-solo structure of traditional string bands, Twisted Pine is a multilayered ensemble that brings the enveloping sound and pop hooks of indie music to an acoustic instrumental setting.

11:00pm:  Twisted Pine

Full of energy and surprise, wit and subtlety, Twisted Pine has quickly become one of the most acclaimed young string bands on the scene. Their soundscape has the sass of zero-gravity pop; the grooves of 2 a.m. funk jams; the astral flute and shoobedoos of 70s radio. “Punch Brothers meets Jean-Luc Ponty and Ian Anderson [Jethro Tull],” writes Folk Alley of the instrumental track “Amadeus Party” — and yet the lyric narratives are packed with the elements of earthling mountain music. Fiddler and lead vocalist Kathleen Park is ethereal and compliments the jazz pop bluegrass fusion of floutist Ahn Phung. Mandolinist Dan Bui is a master of melody and drive, celebrated widely for his dexterous, tasteful picking. And bassist Chris Sartori holds down the low end and a lot more, introducing creative, jazz-inflected cadences that never overwhelm the beat. Moving beyond the standard verse-chorus-solo structure of traditional string bands, Twisted Pine is a multilayered ensemble that brings the enveloping sound and pop hooks of indie music to an acoustic instrumental setting.

2:30pm: Della Mae

Della Mae is a GRAMMY-nominated, all-women string band made up of founder and fiddle player Kimber Ludiker, lead vocalist/guitarist Celia Woodsmith, guitarist Avril Smith, and bassist Vickie Vaughn.

Hailing from across North America, and reared in diverse musical styles, they are one of the most charismatic and engaging roots bands touring today. They have traveled to over 30 countries spreading peace and understanding through music.

1:00pm: Corner House

Abiding by a love for adventure, Corner House finds purpose and solace in the beauty of earth and music. Clinging whole heartedly to studied traditions, the Boston based band has tended to write and arrange music liberally comprised of Irish, Scottish, Appalachian stringband, and bluegrass influences. They will be both performing and teaching the Roots and Sprouts program at Ossipee this year. The singular roots music scene of Boston, MA has long been a destination for musicians seeking level footing to build upon. On winter eves most suited for warm tea and blankets, Ethan Hawkins (guitar), Louise Bichan (fiddle), Ethan Setiawan (mandolin), found a musical home in one another. In the fall of 2017, Corner House had debuted at FreshGrass Festival in North Adams, MA and were making preparations to record an EP and tour Scotland, which they did in the summer of the following year. Returning from overseas, the three found the illustrious cellist, Casey Murray, living just down the street and invited the contra-dance influenced player to join the fold.

11:00pm: Tricky Britches

Tricky Britches formed in 2009, when four friends in Portland, Maine, took their fiddle tunes and country songs on the road across the US. Since then they have released three albums of original material: Comin’ in Hot (2016), Good Company (2013), and Hard Fought Day(2011). They have played on stages big and small across the US, Hawaii, and Europe, but at the end of the day, their favorite show is still on a crowded street corner at midnight.

Members:

Jed Bresette: Bass, Vocals

Seth Doyle: Mandolin, Guitar, Vocals

Tyler Lienhardt: Fiddle, Vocals

Richard Bicknell: 5-String Banjo

Sunday July 30, 2023

12:00pm: New Moon Ensemble

New Moon Ensemble members share a love for the music and dance of Guinea, West Africa, the accompanying traditions and the gift of intercultural exchange. As an ensemble family we represent and embrace diverse ethnicities, build community and inspire international study and collaboration through the healing power of music and dance.

New Moon Ensemble’s performances offer uplifting rhythms and dances into the world as prayers for peace and well-being for all. We are available for hire to bring entertainment and joy to festivals, fairs, weddings, graduation ceremonies, baby blessings and more

The schedule for New Moon’s workshops and performances is as follows:

9:00am Djembe Drum workshop with Namory Keita (45-60 minutes)

11:00am Performance: New Moon Ensemble, Dance & Drumming of Guinea West Africa (45-60 minutes)

12:00pm Guinean Dance workshop with Seny Daffe (45-60 minutes)

4:00pm: The Mallett Brothers

The Mallett Brothers Band is an independent rock and roll / Americana / country band from Maine. Their busy tour schedule since forming in 2009 has helped them to build a dedicated fanbase across the U.S. and beyond while still calling the state of Maine their home. With a style that ranges from alt-country to Americana, country, jam and roots rock, theirs is a musical melting pot that’s influenced equally by the singer/songwriter tradition as by harder rock, classic country and psychedelic sounds.

Texas Hill Country Explore Magazine calls them “New England’s wildly eclectic crew of genre rebels.” Bill Copeland Music News says “Combining their authentic roots rock sound with a reflective lyrical style that perceives stories on the level of epic myth, it’s like William Faulkner has been resurrected with an electric guitar in hand..”

The Mallett Brothers Band has performed at some of the country’s top venues and festivals, including Portland, Maine’s State Theatre; Austin, Texas’s famed Continental Club; Alexandria, Virginia’s Birchmere; New Hampshire’s Meadowbrook Pavilion; Nashville’s Bluebird; Denver’s Cervantes’; and Little Rock’s The Rev Room, to name a few. A list of artists for whom the band has provided direct support would include The Turnpike Troubadours, The Outlaws, Blackberry Smoke, Robert Earl Keen, .38 Special, Molly Hatchet, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, and many more.

The band includes:

Vocals, Acoustic & Electric Guitar / Luke Mallett

Vocals, Acoustic & Electric Guitar / Will Mallett

Bass / Nick Leen

Vocals, Fiddle, Mandolin, Guitar / Andrew Martelle

Drums / Brian Higgins

1:00pm: Breakin Strings

Breakin Strings is a bluegrass band from Maine. The band includes Cliff Gelina on mandolin, Corey Bonnevie on lead guitar and vocals, Ed Howe on fiddle, Hunter Webber on Banjo, Brian Durkin on bass. Each musician comes with a strong background in bluegrass and music with decades of experience.

3:00pm: Tricky Britches

Tricky Britches formed in 2009, when four friends in Portland, Maine, took their fiddle tunes and country songs on the road across the US. Since then they have released three albums of original material: Comin’ in Hot (2016), Good Company (2013), and Hard Fought Day(2011). They have played on stages big and small across the US, Hawaii, and Europe, but at the end of the day, their favorite show is still on a crowded street corner at midnight.

Members:

Jed Bresette: Bass, Vocals

Seth Doyle: Mandolin, Guitar, Vocals

Tyler Lienhardt: Fiddle, Vocals

Richard Bicknell: 5-String Banjo

Date: Thursday July 27 - Sunday 30, 2023

Location: Ossipee Valley Fairgrounds - 291 South Hiram Road Hiram, ME 04041

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