Tag Archives: MerleFest

MerleFest 2018: Rhiannon Giddens

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

It was toward the end of the T Bone Burnett–curated September 2013 Another Day, Another Time concert at New York City’s Town Hall—a celebration of the early ’60s folk revival that had inspired the Joel and Ethan Coen film Inside Llewyn Davis—when singer Rhiannon Giddens indisputably stole the show. Performing Odetta’s “Water Boy” with, as the New York Times put it, “the fervor of a spiritual, the yips of a folk holler, and the sultry insinuation of the blues,” Giddens brought the star-studded audience to its feet. She was the talk of the lobby during intermission as those attendees unfamiliar with her Grammy Award–winning work as a member of African-American folk interpreters Carolina Chocolate Drops wondered who exactly Rhiannon Giddens was, with her elegant bearing, prodigious voice, and fierce spirit.

On her Nonesuch solo debut Tomorrow Is My Turn, Giddens and Burnett revisit “Water Boy,” its Odetta-arranged work-song rhythm serving as both provocation and a statement of power. Giddens delivers an equally thunderous rendition, one made all the more striking when placed between a gentle, ruminative interpretation of Dolly Parton’s “Don’t Let It Trouble Your Mind” and a version of Hank Cochran’s “She’s Got You,” popularized by Patsy Cline, that Giddens imbues with “an old-timey R&B vibe,” abetted by Carolina Chocolate Drops band-mate Hubby Jenkins. The breadth of musical vision on Tomorrow Is My Turn fulfills the promise of that brief but stunning star turn at Town Hall. The album incorporates gospel, jazz, blues, and country, plus a hint of proto-rock and roll, and Giddens displays an emotional range to match her dazzling vocal prowess throughout.

The songs here, says Giddens, “are all facets of the human condition.” Taken together, they answer the question Twyla Tharp posed at the beginning of Giddens’ solo adventure. Tomorrow Is My Turn is a composite portrait of “Ruby,” of America, and of Giddens herself, whose turn is clearly right now.

Bio courtesy of www.rhiannongiddens.com

Make certain you’re on hand for Rhiannon Giddens set on Saturday (April 28) at MerleFest this year!

Saturday, 5:00pm-5:45pm (Watson Stage)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.

MerleFest 2018: Jamey Johnson

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

The Washington Post considers him to be “one of the greatest country singers of our time.”

Since Johnson doesn’t create a set list, no two shows are the same, so the once-in-a-lifetime concerts will be unforgettable. “I don’t know what I’m going to do until I am standing there doing it,” he says. “That is a freedom I have enjoyed ever since I began doing this, the ability to try something new.

For the last decade, Johnson has earned critical and commercial success for his traditional country sound. His 2008 album, That Lonesome Song, was certified platinum for 1 million in sales, and his 2010 double album, The Guitar Song, received a gold certification. He has been nominated for 11 Grammys.

In addition, he is only one of a few writers in history to win two Song of the Year Trophies–for “Give It Away” and “In Color—from both the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association. He has received tremendous praise from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal and other publications.

In 2012, he released the Grammy-nominated Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran. In 2014, he created his own label, Big Gassed Records, to release his own songs and albums as well as the music of other artists.

Tour information provided courtesy of www.jameyjohnson.com

If you’ve never witnessed a Jamey Johnson set live then do not miss Friday (April 27) night’s MerleFest finale. If you have, then you already know to be there.

Friday, 9:45pm-11:00pm (Watson Stage)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.

MerleFest 2018: Robert Earl Keen

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

“The road goes on forever…”

It’s not always easy to sum up a career — let alone a life’s ambition — so succinctly, but those five words from Robert Earl Keen’s calling-card anthem just about do it. You can complete the lyric with the next five words — the ones routinely shouted back at Keen by thousands of fans a night (“and the party never ends!”) — just to punctuate the point with a flourish, but it’s the part about the journey that gets right to the heart of what makes Keen tick. Some people take up a life of playing music with the goal of someday reaching a destination of fame and fortune; but from the get-go, Keen just wanted to write and sing his own songs, and to keep writing and singing them for as long as possible.

“I always thought that I wanted to play music, and I always knew that you had to get some recognition in order to continue to play music,” Keen says. “But I never thought of it in terms of getting to be a big star. I thought of it in terms of having a really, really good career and writing some good songs, and getting onstage and having a really good time.”

Now three-decades on from the release of his debut album — with well over a dozen other records to his name, thousands of shows under his belt and still no end in sight to the road ahead — Keen remains as committed to and inspired by his muse as ever. And as for accruing recognition, well, he’s done alright on that front, too; from his humble beginnings on the Texas folk scene, he’s blazed a peer, critic, and fan-lauded trail that’s earned him living-legend (not to mention pioneer) status in the Americana music world. And though the Houston native has never worn his Texas heart on his sleeve, he’s long been regarded as one of the Lone Star State’s finest (not to mention top-drawing) true singer-songwriters.

He was still a relative unknown in 1989 when his second studio album, West Textures, was released — especially on the triple bill he shared at the time touring with legends Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark — but once fellow Texas icon Joe Ely recorded both “The Road Goes on Forever” and “Whenever Kindness Fails” on his 1993 album, Love and Danger, the secret was out on Keen’s credentials as a songwriter’s songwriter. By the end of the decade, Keen was a veritable household name in Texas, headlining a millennial New Year’s Eve celebration in Austin that drew an estimated 200,000 people. A dozen years later, he was inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame along with the late, great Van Zandt and his old college buddy, Lyle Lovett.

Bio provided courtesy of www.robertearlkeen.com

You will not want to miss Robert Earl Keen on Thursday (April 26) during MerleFest this year.

Thursday, 7:15pm-8:15am (Watson Stage)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.

MerleFest 2018: Gunner and Smith

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

Hope and redemption. Philosophy and folklore. The music of Gunner and Smith has always been a collection of fiery elements, blending searing guitars, brawny rhythms and distinct folk-family vocals to produce tightly-knit rock anthems. But on Byzantium, the group’s second full-length album, the songs simmer and seethe with a newfound brooding energy that looks at the darker sides of love, loss and humanity.

Anchored by the stolid songwriting of frontman Geoff Smith, the ever-shifting nature of the band has once again undergone another evolution, with a talented cadre of musicians joining the frontman at the helm. Featuring an ever-expanding sound that combines indie rock, alt-country and sizzling psych-Americana, Byzantium is borne from a deeper, darker place than the group’s previous material.

Conjured from realms where empire lie in tatters, the story of Byzantium is one of densely layered narratives that weave and wend ominous tales of imaginative and tactile worlds. The album’s namesake, taken from a besieged ancient empire centered in Constantinople—modern day Istanbul—hints at the endless cycles of war and waste that plague humanity. But while the themes are seemingly grim, the music keeps the mood buoyant. Opening the album with a wry, snakey guitar line, Smith’s oft-dark, meticulous visions are rounded out by balladry and brightly melodic guitar-heavy rock.

The mainstay signature element of Gunner and Smith identity has always been built by the overriding concepts behind each individual album. Conjuring a literary amalgamation of decay, faith and ambition – whether it’s the uncertainty of modern life, or the constant life shifts of middle age, Smith’s latest offering is one that exists in a barren world where light ultimately shines through.

Bio provided courtesy of www.gunnerandsmith.com

Catch Gunner and Smith at one of their two sets on Friday (April 27) during MerleFest this year.

Friday, 9:45am-10:15am (Cabin Stage)
Friday, 11:00am-11:15am (Austin Stage)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.

MerleFest 2018: Lindsay Lou

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

Touring behind the release of their most recent record, Ionia, they’ve been featured in the lineup of prestigious affairs such as The Shetland Island Folk Festival and Celtic Connections in Scotland, Stagecoach Music Festival in California boasting around 55,000 attendees, The Bluegrass Jamboree in Germany, and a number of the best acoustic music festivals in the US including: Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado, Merlefest in North Carolina, Wheatland Music Festival in Michigan, GreyFox in New York, Strawberry Music Festival in California, Redwing Roots Festival in Virginia, ROMP in Kentucky, and Pagosa Springs Folk Festival in Colorado. They were named one of NPR Music’s 12 best live performance sessions of 2015 by Mountain Stage with Larry Groce, a program which has featured acts like Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Amos Lee, Joan Baez, Regina Spektor, Norah Jones and PHISH.

Her singing floats over the instrumental mastery and deep groove of her band with dynamics that range from a lullaby to a battle cry. In the words of David Grier, “Lindsay…sings the way you would want to if you could. Phrasing, tone, emotion, it’s all there. Effortless seemingly. Simply mesmerizing. Riveting! Don’t miss the musical force that is Lindsay Lou.” Lindsay’s brand new full-length “Southland” (April 2018) is a collection of songs examining the range of emotions and complex themes of our changing times; delivered with soulfully fierce intensity and tender intimacy that demands your attention.

Bio provided courtesy of www.lindsayloumusic.com

Go see Lindsay Lou at her set on Friday (April 27) during MerleFest this year.

Friday, 11:00am-11:45pm (Hillside Stage)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.

MerleFest 2018: Mike Aiken Band

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

Life on the fringe has its benefits, not the least of which is the perspective from an outsider’s view. Northwind Records is proud to announce the release of Mike Aiken’s seventh studio album, WAYWARD TROUBADOUR. Aiken’s 11song package is the anticipated follow-up to the Grammy nominated Captains & Cowboys (produced by Dan Baird, Georgia Satellites). As the first track’s title indicates, ‘Everything Changed’ with this album. Another conceptualized work that each of us can relate to, WAYWARD TROUBADOUR tells tales of trouble and charm.

It has been five years since Captains & Cowboys made its debut and Aiken says he wasn’t going to stop, not until he achieved what he was after. “I had a very clear sound in my head for this album, one I’ve always wanted to capture and I was not going to settle. At this point in my career I don’t have time for folks who don’t believe in the music 110%. These are the folks I want to write, record and perform with.”

Wayward, by definition, is difficult to control, unpredictable, non-conforming. It took three studios and almost as many years to complete this troubadour’s collection of true north. Tracking began in Austin, Texas late in 2016. Aiken then found his way to Latitude Studio South in Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee. Here is where the magic started, where the wayward musicians could be themselves and Mike could begin to capture what he heard in his head on the vintage equipment.

If anybody has earned the title of WAYWARD TROUBADOUR, Mike Aiken has. He ran away as a kid to play music, he became a licensed USCG Captain, he has sailed over 30,000 bluewater miles on his own sailboat and logged countless miles on the road performing in North American and Europe.

Bio provided courtesy of www.mikeaikenmusic.com

Catch the Mike Aiken Band at one of their two Friday (April 27) sets during MerleFest this year.

Friday, 12:15pm-12:45pm (Cabin Stage)
Friday, 1:30pm-2:00pm (Austin Stage at Alumni Hall)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.

MerleFest 2018: Alison Brown

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

Alison Brown doesn’t play the banjo. Alison Brown plays music on the banjo.

In the instrumental food chain, the five-string banjo is one of the more dominant beasts: loud, brash and very hard to tame. In 1945, Earl Scruggs made the biggest leap in harnessing its raw power, bringing a revolutionary precision of touch and depth of tone.

Thousands of three-finger style banjo players have since made their marks, but none has cut such a path or moved so far along it as has Alison Brown. She’s acclaimed as one of today’s finest progressive banjo players, but you rarely find her in a conventional bluegrass setting. Instead, she’s known for leading an ensemble that successfully marries a broad array of roots-influenced music: folk, jazz, Celtic and Latin.

With her new Compass project, The Song of the Banjo, the 2015 IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award and 2001 GRAMMY Award-winning musician/composer/producer/entrepreneur plants another flag in her ongoing journey of sonic exploration.

“It’s amazing to me how much the banjo changed in the 20th Century,” Brown says. “And here we are in the dawn of the 21st; who knows where it may go?”

For one answer to that question, look no further than The Song of the Banjo.


Bio provided courtesy of Larry Nager at www.alisonbrown.com

Make sure you see Alison Brown perform at one (or all!) of her three sets during MerleFest on Saturday or Sunday (April 28-29).

Saturday, 1:45pm-2:30pm (Hillside Stage)
Saturday, 5:45pm-6:30pm (Walker Center)
Sunday, 11:15am-12:15pm (Watson Stage)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.

MerleFest 2018: Brandy Clark

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

“Ain’t we all the stars playing the leading part in our own soap opera?” Brandy Clark belts out that question to kick off Big Day in a Small Town, positing the premise of not just the opening track (“Soap Opera”), but all 10 songs that follow it. The towns that anchor Clark’s new album may be small enough to warrant only a single blinking light, but the lives lived in them are anything but … and neither are the hopes and dreams that rise from their backroads and bedrooms.

When you grow up in a small town, oftentimes, your dreams are all you have. Whether it’s to become a football star or a father, a homecoming queen or a hairdresser, your dreams might be the only thing that keep you going. For Clark, the dream she harbored in her small hometown of Morton, Washington, was to be a country singer. Sure, once she moved to Nashville, she had successful cuts as a songwriter [The Band Perry’s “Better Dig Two,” Miranda Lambert’s “Mama’s Broken Heart,” and Kacey Musgraves’ “Follow Your Arrow” which won the CMA Song of the Year Award in 2014], but being an artist in her own right was a dream she had stopped dreaming until three years ago when her first album, the stunning 12 Stories, debuted.

Along with Sturgill Simpson, Ashley Monroe, Chris Stapleton, and Kacey Musgraves (who provides guest vocals on “Daughter”), Clark is part of a new vanguard in country music — one that tips a hat to tradition, while not eschewing its evolution. “I see what’s happening right now and I feel this groundswell of people who love… I would say ‘country’ music, but I’ll take it a step further and say ‘real’ music. I feel like there are people who are starved for that,” she says. “The only music I’ve ever made is country music. The only music I’ve ever really listened to consistently is country music. And I want to keep that alive, so there’s a responsibility in that, for me.”

But, for Brandy Clark, that responsibility is a dream come true.

Bio provided courtesy of www.brandyclarkmusic.com

You don’t want to miss seeing Brandy Clark perform during MerleFest on Friday (April 27) afternoon.

Friday, 3:15pm-4:15pm (Watson Stage)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.

MerleFest 2018: Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn present their eponymous debut album as a duo, after many years of prominence as banjo players and composers in their own eclectic avenues. Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn is a front porch banjo and vocal album of new music, Appalachian murder ballads, gospel, chamber and blues; the culmination of a yearlong tour as a duo in 2013, following the birth of their son, Juno.

Béla, an icon and innovator of jazz, classical and world, with more multi-category GRAMMY wins than any other artist (15 total), and Abigail, a formidable talent with triumphs in songwriting, theater, performance, and even Chinese diplomacy by way of banjo, turn out to be quite a fortuitous pairing with a deep, distinct and satisfying outcome. The culmination is an album like no other. The record reveals their astounding chemistry as collaborators, as the two seamlessly stitch together singular banjo sounds (through an assortment of seven banjos spanning the recording) in service to the stories that their songs tell, with no studio gimmickry needed.

According to Béla, “finding a way to make every song have its own unique stamp, yet the whole project having a big cohesive sound – with only two people,” was at the core of their joint vision. Demonstrating seemingly unlimited rhythmic, tonal and melodic capabilities, Fleck and Washburn confirm the banjo’s versatility as the perfect backdrop to the rich lyrical component that Fleck and Washburn offer, “Sometimes when you add other instruments, you take away from the banjo’s being able to show all its colors, which are actually quite beautiful.” Thanks to this album, the musicians’ palette has never been more vivid or pure.

Sure, in the abstract, a banjo duo might seem like a musical concept beset by limitations. But when the banjo players cast in those roles are Abigail Washburn and Béla Fleck—she with the earthy sophistication of a postmodern, old-time singer-songwriter, he with the virtuosic, jazz-to-classical ingenuity of an iconic instrumentalist and composer with bluegrass roots— it’s a different matter entirely. There’s no denying that theirs is a one-of-a-kind pairing, with one-of-a-kind possibilities.


Bio provided courtesy of www.abigailwashburn.com

See Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn perform together during MerleFest on Friday (April 27).

Friday, 8:00pm-9:00pm (Watson Stage)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.

MerleFest 2018: Jim Lauderdale

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

Jim Lauderdale is both a “songwriter’s songwriter,” who’s written/co-written many modern classics for iconic artists, as well as an intuitive sideman, who’s enhanced the music of a bevy of esteemed musicians. As a solo artist, since 1986 up until now, he’s created a body work spanning 29 albums of imaginative roots music, encompassing country, bluegrass, soul, R&B and rock, as well as helping pave the way for the current Americana movement.

A longtime ambassador of the Americana genre, Jim received the WagonMaster Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by George Strait, on Wednesday, September 21, 2016, as part of the 15th annual Americana Honors & Awards.

“I know him mostly as a songwriter; a really, really, really good hit songwriter, and I’ve been very fortunate to cut a lot of his songs over the years,” Strait said in his speech. “Like Porter Wagoner, Jim Lauderdale is a consummate entertainer, a sharp dressed man as well, a terrific songwriter and a great singer.”

Lauderdale has released at least one, and sometimes as many as three, records every years since 1998. He is the second most recorded writer in George Strait’s canon, as well as responsible for country hits for Patty Loveless, George Jones, Mark Chesnutt and the Dixie Chicks. He’s also recorded albums with Dr. Ralph Stanley, the North Mississippi Allstars, Donna the Buffalo, Elvis Presley’s band, Elvis Costello and Buddy Miller, as well as collections written whole albums with long time Grateful Dead collaborator Robert Hunter. He’s the co-hosts a weekly radio show on SiriusXM with Buddy Miller, “The Buddy & Jim Show”. He is also co-host of Music City Roots, the weekly live and radio, podcast and PBS series.

June 30th Lauderdale released his 29th album, London Southern that was recorded in London at Goldtop studios and produced by Neil Brockbank and Robert Trehern. London Southern features co-writes with Dan Penn, Joan Oates, Odie Blackmon and Kendell Marvell alongside six Lauderdale solo compositions and a host of celebrated guest musicians.

Bio provided courtesy of www.jimlauderdale.com

See Jim Lauderdale at one of his many sets during MerleFest on Friday and continuing thru the weekend (April 27-29).

Friday, 2:00pm-3:30pm (Austin Stage at Alumni Hall)
Friday, 6:05pm-6:30pm (Cabin Stage)
Saturday, 11:15am-12:00pm (Hillside Stage)
Saturday, 2:00pm-2:45pm (Walker Center)
Saturday, 9:30pm-10:45pm (Watson Stage)
Saturday, 10:30pm-12:30am (Walker Center)
Sunday, 3:35pm-4:00pm (Cabin Stage)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.