Little Feat

The 2022 Little Feat tour will come thru Berryville on Sept 17 to headline the Festival on Saturday night. With three original members (Bill Payne, Sam Clayton, and Kenny Gradney) from the Waiting for Columbus album, this is a show not to be missed.

In his preface to a recent Little Feat retrospective compilation, the band’s Paul Barrere wrote, “It’s almost 33 years ago exactly since Mr. [Lowell] George came to the front door of the Laurel Canyon house I was livin’ in, with that beautiful white “p” bass in hand, and asked if I wanted to try out as bass player for his new band.

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As most who know the story’s end can tell you, as a bassist I make an excellent guitarist, and 3 years later– when I finally began my stint in Little Feat– I would never have guessed that I would be here writing these liner notes to yet another chapter in the now storied life of a band that has been my life, and a true labor of love.”

Truth is, there really is no story’s end yet, and Little Feat have indeed led a storied life ever since they formed in 1969. From then on, their unconventional signature of earthy, organic appeal and polished, first-rate musicianship wrapped around eclectic and memorable songs–clearly delivered as an authentic labor of love–has been a lasting fixture on the musical landscape. As American as apple pie–and rock ‘n roll itself–Feat’s music transcends boundaries, a freewheeling fusion of California rock and Dixie-inflected funk-boogie. In the mix as well are strains of folk, blues, rockabilly, country and jazz, inventing a hybrid sound that is truly Little Feat’s own.

That story is about to add a major new chapter – the 2008 release of Join the Band, a very special project in Feat’s history. Keyboardist Bill Payne came up with the idea of a CD that included many things, but featured major Little Feat hit songs as played by a band that included Feat and some very special friends. When you have friends like Jimmy Buffett, Dave Matthews, Emmylou Harris, Bob Seger, Bela Fleck, Brooks and Dunn, Chris Robinson (Black Crowes), Vince Gill, Mike Gordon (Phish), and Inara George (band founder Lowell’s daughter) – you have musical treasure in your hands. Join the Band is going to make some noise.

Rhino/Warner Bros. also saluted Little Feat’s accumulated musical history with the comprehensive retrospective Hotcakes & Outtakes: 30 Years of Little Feat, a project initiated and co-produced by Bill Payne and Paul Barrere. Released in 2000, the deluxe 4-CD, 83-track boxed set features hits from all of Little Feat’s classic albums as well as fan favorites, alternate takes and hand-picked rarities from the band’s eventful past.

Time has loved these musical heroes for more than three decades now, as have legions of fans and countless fellow musicians, many of whom they’ve played with over the years. Feat’s fabled collaborators have included Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Beck, Brian Wilson, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Plant, John Lee Hooker, Johnny Lang, and Leftover Salmon (for whom Bill Payne recently produced an album). With the success of Hot Tomato Records, an endeavor powered by an inspired band of musicians continuing to create exciting new material both individually and as a group, Little Feat will no doubt be sailin’ into the future with no end in sight.

 

 The Earls of Leicester feat. Jerry Douglas

Shawn Camp (guitar, lead vocals) – Charlie Cushman (banjo, guitars) – Jerry Douglas (Dobro, vocals) – Johnny Warren (fiddle, bass vocals) – Jeff White (mandolin, vocals)
When the Earls of Leicester formed in 2013, their mission was ambitious but exact: to preserve and promote the legacy of bluegrass legends Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, in hopes of reviving the duo’s music for longtime admirers and introducing a new generation to their genre-defining sound.

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Within a year of releasing their self-titled debut, the Nashville-based six-piece far surpassed their own expectations, winning a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album and earning six awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association. Now, with their first live album, Earls of Leicester offer up a selection of songs that fully capture the pure joy and supreme musicianship that propel their every performance.
Recorded over two nights at Nashville’s CMA Theater, The Earls of Leicester Live at The CMA Theater in The Country Music Hall of Fame bears a boundless vitality that makes songs from over a half-century ago feel irresistibly fresh. Despite the band’s painstaking precision in recreating the catalog of Flatt and Scruggs’s Foggy Mountain Boys, the album unfolds with an easy warmth that honors the essence of traditional bluegrass, which Douglas describes as “music that was meant to be played on back porches.” Earls of Leicester Live is also accompanied by a DVD that shows the complete splendor of their live set: the throwback attire, the off-the-cuff but illuminating between-song banter, the relentless hotfooting required of their stage setup. “Our goal is to go out and reacquaint everybody with the music of Flatt and Scruggs just the way they did it, which means fewer microphones and a good amount of choreography,” says Douglas. “We’re trying to put as much as we can into the music before it even reaches the speakers.”
Made up entirely of songs from 1954 to 1965, Earls of Leicester Live combines classic tunes with more obscure numbers unearthed thanks to the band’s encyclopedic familiarity with Flatt and Scruggs’s body of work. To that end, the setlist includes notorious crowd-pleasers like “Martha White Theme Song” (originally penned as a jingle for Martha White Self-Rising Flour) and “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” (a breakneck-paced, banjo-driven instrumental popularized thanks to its use in Bonnie and Clyde), as well as the harmony-laced “You Can Feel It in Your Soul” and the sweetly crooning “All I Want Is You.” Earls of Leicester Live also serves up several tracks integral to Flatt and Scruggs legend—including “I’m Gonna Sleep with One Eye Open,” a song famously banned from the Grand Ole Opry—along with more oddball offerings like the gracefully sprawling two-part instrumental “Steel Guitar Blues/Spanish Two Step.” And in one of the album’s most poignant moments, the Earls of Leicester deliver the wistfully lilting “Reunion in Heaven”—a song the band performed at Foggy Mountain Boys mandolin player/vocalist Curly Seckler’s gravesite earlier this year, as per Seckler’s personal request.
Throughout Earls of Leicester Live, the band wholeheartedly channels the spirit of Flatt and Scruggs while allowing each member’s distinct charm and singular musicality to shine through. And though their unbridled passion instantly stirs up a freewheeling energy, a closer listen reveals the profound mastery of skill infused into each performance. “This is the result of years and years of trying out different instruments, different string gauges, different techniques to try to create these sounds,” Douglas notes. In that process, he adds, the Earls of Leicester eventually dug up decades-old instruments in order to achieve the ideal texture and tone they were seeking. “Everybody in the band plays something old,” says Douglas. “This music just sounds so much more true to form when it’s played on old instruments.”
For Douglas—a 14-time Grammy Award-winner who founded the Earls of Leicester and produces all their material—that approach builds on a lifelong dedication to studying the music of Flatt and Scruggs. Soon after hearing the Foggy Mountain Boys at age seven, he devoted himself to deconstructing their recordings, paying particular attention to the captivating Dobro work of Josh Graves. “I remember sitting by the record player and trying to figure out what Josh Graves was doing,” he says. “There was no one to teach me, so I just had to listen.”
Douglas attended a number of Flatt and Scruggs concerts as a kid, and later played with each musician on separate occasions. Although his own prolific career as a musician and producer has kept him more than occupied over the years—including appearing on more than 1,600 albums, recording with the likes of Ray Charles, Dolly Parton, and Elvis Costello—Douglas was unable to shake his vision of one day revisiting the music of Flatt and Scruggs. “I probably could have stayed focused on everything else I’ve got going on, but this just haunted me,” he says.
As Douglas points out, the most crucial factor in forming the Earls of Leicester was replicating the lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry that long fueled Flatt and Scruggs. “I looked for years to find the group I needed for the alchemy to work,” he says. In the end, Douglas landed on the lineup of Shawn Camp (Garth Brooks, Blake Shelton), Jeff White (Vince Gill, Loretta Lynn), Charlie Cushman (Jimmy Martin, Mel Tillis), Johnny Warren (son of Foggy Mountain Boys’ Paul Warren), and Barry Bales (Alison Krauss & Union Station)—and found himself beyond floored by their immediate synergy. “I had to stop the band in the middle of the first song, because I was scared to keep going—it felt like Flatt and Scruggs were going to jump right out of the wall,” he says in reflecting on their first meeting. “I’d hoped it was going to be even half that good, and it ended up just taking my breath away.”

 

Larry Sparks

Larry has performed on such world famous venues as the Grand Ole Opry, Austin City Limits television show, and other PBS appearances. Also having toured the United States, Canada and Japan. Larry has been recognized as the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Male Vocalist of the Year.

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Larry also was awarded Album of the Year and Recorded Event of the Year with his album Larry Sparks 40 featuring several artists such as Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, Ralph Stanley, Ricky Skaggs, Tom T. Hall and many more.
Larry received the honor of being inducted into the Bill Monroe Bluegrass Hall of Fame. He has also been inducted into The George D. Hays Hall of fame. Larry has also been nominated for a Grammy Dove award for his Gospel album New Highway.
While Sparks is most definitely a stylist and his approach to the music is more than a style, it is real with no gimmicks and after fifty years in  the spotlight. Larry is still on a roll and creating some of his best music. Larry Sparks is bluegrass music’s Ray Charles, no one can touch him. Sparks style is mature, seasoned and deeply expressive. “He is an absolute original,” says Alison Krauss
Throughout his long career, Larry has stuck with what works. He has followed his vision and he has made an enormous contribution to the music. Larry Sparks has kept his music real.

 Larry Keel Experience

Sponsored by Chip Schutte, Remax Roots
Larry Keel is an award-winning innovative flat picking guitarist and singer/songwriter hailing from Appalachia.  Raised in a musical family steeped in the mountain culture of the region, Keel began from an early age to forge a distinctive sound, taking traditional music and infusing it with modern light.

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With the acoustic guitar Keel has brought the flat picking form to its highest level of sophistication and sonic power with his muscular, yet refined style of playing. As a composer and singer, Keel integrates raw honesty and charming grit to form a unique brand of music he calls ‘experimental folk’, songwriting that is filled with reality, imagination, imagery and mood. He has appeared on over 20 albums, 12 of which he produced, and has written songs that have been recorded and performed by distinguished artists including Grammy-award winners Del McCoury and The Infamous Stringdusters.  Keel has collaborated and continues to merge creative forces with some of the greatest artists in modern roots music such as Tyler Childers, Billy Strings, Al DiMeola, Tony Rice, Keller Williams and Sam Bush, to name a few.
His latest creation is a solo album titled American Dream, whose every component—from the writing and arranging, to the instrumental and vocal performances, to the recording and production—spring straight from the mind, soul, and hands of the Virginia-born artist. Each of the album’s 10 tracks were composed by Keel and serve as an autobiographical overview of his life and career, as well as the influences and episodes that have shaped his personal perspective along the way.

 Scythian

Named after Ukrainian nomads, Scythian (sith-ee-yin) plays roots music from Celtic, Eastern European and Appalachian traditions with thunderous energy, technical prowess, and storytelling songwriting, beckoning crowds into a barn-dance, rock concert experience.

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Nashville’s Music City Roots says Scythian is ‘what happens when rock star charisma meets Celtic dervish fiddling’, and the Washington Post claims “Scythian’s enthusiasm is contagious, and shows seem to end with everyone dancing, jumping around or hoisting glasses.” The foursome made up of Alexander Fedoryka (Vocals, Fiddle, Mandolin, Harmonica), Danylo Fedoryka (Vocals, Guitar, Accordion), Ethan Dean (Vocals, Upright and Electric Bass, Percussion, Guitar) and Johnny Rees (Vocals, Drums, Percussion) brings various influences together to create a conglomerate which is technically precise and steeped in various folk traditions: The classically trained Fedoryka brothers grew up on Ukrainian folk music and bluegrass, while Ethan Dean was raised on the greats of 60’s & 70’s folk-rock. Lafayette LA raised Johnny Rees brings a Cajun backbeat to the Celtic-Americana fusion giving Scythian yet another dimension which keeps audiences entertained and moving. Scythian is coming off its most prolific year in 2020 with over 1,000 hours of live streams during the Covid Lockdowns, release of two new albums (Roots & Stones and Quaranstream: The Album) and four new music videos. You have to catch the live show to understand why The Cammel City Dispatch said of their Merlefest performance: “[Scythian gives] no quarter in their quest to entertain and bring a joy to their music that gives it an irony-free, wide open feel of manic possibility. The playing is technically brilliant, but it is the energy that carries the day.”Rousing and raucous, Scythian (sith-ee-yin) plays roots music from Celtic, Eastern European and Appalachian traditions with thunderous energy, technical prowess, and storytelling songwriting, beckoning crowds into a barn-dance, rock concert experience.  Nashville’s Music City Roots says Scythian is ‘what happens when rock star charisma meets Celtic dervish fiddling’, and the Washington Post says “Scythian’s enthusiasm is contagious, and shows seem to end with everyone dancing, jumping around or hoisting glasses.”
“Scythian’s enthusiasm is contagious, and shows seem to end with everyone dancing, jumping around or hoisting glasses.” —Washington Post
“[Scythian gives] no quarter in their quest to entertain and bring a joy to their music that gives it an irony-free, wide open feel of manic possibility. The playing is technically brilliant, but it is the energy that carries the day.” —Camel City Dispatch (Winston-Salem, North Carolina)
“When Rock Star Charisma Meets Celtic Dervish Fiddling” — Nashville’s Music City Roots
‘Scythian has reinvented folk rock in America’ — iHeart Radio’s Arroe Collin
“For the past 20 years we’ve relied on hip hop to get people on the dance floor, when in reality they just haven’t discovered [Scythian] yet.”—Arroe Collins, iHeartRadio
Scythian has made MerleFest a second home. “These festival favorites are deeply rooted in Gaelic and empowered with their own musical touches. If you stay seated throughout a Scythian set, you may want to check your pulse.”  – McDowell News

Chris Jacobs Band

 Sponsored by: Schutte Wealth Management of Raymond James & Associates

Baltimore’s Cris Jacobs happily tromps a well-worn musical footpath connecting country, bluegrass, blues and funk. After a decade and five records with the jam band The Bridge, Jacobs is out now with his second solo album, Color Where You Are.

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Jacobs and his ace four-piece band stopped by Mountain Stage on Oct. 6, 2019 for a show at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, W.Va. to share his latest tunes with an appreciative audience.
Host Larry Groce said Jacobs was obviously a super talent, as evidenced by the company he keeps; Jacobs has opened tours for Steve Winwood, Sturgill Simpson and just collaborated on an album called Neville Jacobs with iconic New Orleans musician Ivan Neville of The Neville Brothers. “He is in tall timber and rightly so. He can play, he can sing, he can write songs and he has a fantastic band,” Groce said. “Since he got married, he and his wife have had two little girls and his life has changed, as it should, and his songs have just gotten deeper and better.”

Jacobs and his band (Jonathan Sloane on guitar and backing vocals, Todd Herrington on bass and Dusty Simmons on drums and backing vocals) ease into that deep and wide roots stream on the gorgeously swirling country of “Buffalo Girl,” before revving up and unleashing “Rooster Coop,” a swampy, Little Feat-like funk romp with Jacobs and Sloane trading off measure after measure of tasty chicken-picking and slide guitar solos before interlacing their guitars in harmony.
Jacobs’ vulnerability and soulful singing is on full display as the band’s energy cascades down into the harmony-rich rock ballad, “Afterglow.” Grabbing his cigar-box guitar, Jacobs fast-spits lyrics while sliding gritty and sweet tones amidst a pointed social commentary on the blues burner, “Under the Big Top.” Still armed with the three-stringed cigar box, Jacobs and the band all take blistering turns soloing as a smokestack of Southern rock fire on “Bone Digger,” a hypnotic jam from his album Dust To Gold.

“Dust to Gold is his most complete work yet with a mix of cigar box guitar rockers, soulful pop and countrified ballads.” – The Washington Post
“Cris Jacobs is one of those triple threats– singer, songwriter and guitarist– blessed with a deep, soulful voice and able to traverse a number of genres.” – Elmore Magazine
“Jacobs’ music has a warmth that immediately draws you in… It’s country with an R&B groove, and it displays Jacobs’ wide range of talents.” – Wide Open Country

 Miko Marks

Miko Marks refuses to take a break. Her highly anticipated single “Feel Like Going Home” (March 25, 2022) will be released almost exactly one year after Our Country was released and approximately six months following the Race Records EP. The track is one she has been performing live and feels a deep connection to.

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“Whenever we perform it, certain lines just resonate deep in my spirit as I sing them. “Rest for the wanderer who never more shall roam.” I’m the wanderer, and now I feel like I don’t have to roam anymore. “Years that I have wasted feel just like a dream” and “Now the time is coming to reap what I have sown.” Those lines just feel like where I really am. I’ve come back to my true self after trying to figure out who and how to be in the world and in the music industry. Where I am right now, just feels right” Marks says of the song.
While Miko Marks is no newcomer, Our Country (via Redtone Records), was her first album in 13 years, so her name may be fresh to the uninformed. In 2003, Marks made her way to Music City – Nashville, TN – playing CMA fest year after year and fully immersing herself in the country music community. While marks received well-deserved accolades – “Nashville’s hottest new country star” by People Magazine and “Best New Country Artist” by New Music Weekly – her efforts to be fully embraced by the industry in return proved to be elusive. While her crowd of supporters grew year after year, so did efforts from the industry to diminish her success. “In trying to pursue the gates of Nashville, I discovered that there were high fences made of stone,” Marks said of her experience in the early 2000s. She ultimately landed in California and focused on her family, but never gave up on the dream she was devoted to.
Miko Marks proves to be a bonafide maverick that has blazed an unprecedented trail in the music industry. After a long overdue hiatus from music, Marks is eager to spread not only her music, but a message of unity and outspokenness for Black musicians in country music and beyond. She has done much more than just make a splash and now she is ready to make waves. Marks works towards an ever evolving dream of creating art that is not stereotyped or pigeonholed by a specific genre and is created with no borders or boundaries. Our Country was released in march 2021 and garnered praise from NPR, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Billboard, among others. Marks continued to release music via Redtone Records with an EP release, Race Records, which came out in October 2021. Race Records was a compilation of cover songs that pay homage to the blend of genres we now recognize as country music.
In January of 2022, Marks was named to CMT’s “Next Women of Country” class of 2022. The network has pledged to support her throughout the year. Marks is currently on tour supporting Tedeschi Trucks Band and Ron Pope and is playing major festivals throughout the summer.

 Carsie Blanton

Carsie Blanton writes anthems for a world worth saving. Inspired by artists including Nina Simone and John Prine, Carsie delivers every song with an equal dose of moxie and mischief, bringing her audience together in joyful celebration of everything worth fighting for.

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“Carsie Blanton is one of those hardheaded, open hearted protesters that makes revolution sound desirable to your body even if your mind wants to resist it.” – Fresh Air

 Low Water Bridge Band

Born on the banks of the Shenandoah River, the Low Water Bridge Band got their start at a late-night jam. Picking tunes around the campfire, it was clear that a band was in the making.

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We are excited for the return of Low Water Bridge, recently added to Stonefly Entertainment!
Formed in the midst of the Pandemic, Low Water Bridge Band has just begun. They became a band in 2020 and have accomplished more in those two years than any band we have ever been fortunate to represent. A lot to be said about that when they couldn’t tour due to the Pandemic.
Their Debut Release, “Midnight in Virginia,” was a jarring entrance into the scene. We think you will understand why we are excited about Low Water’s longevity in Country and Roots music when you hear the Masterpiece that is, “Midnight in Virginia.”

The band continues to evolve from the Watermelon Park Bluegrass Festival campsite. Adding talented band members and unforgettable original songs, Low Water Bridge Band’s sound shakes the mountains, rumbles through the holler, and fills the river bottoms.

 Furnace Mountain

“the area’s premier acoustic band”
-The Washingtonian
Furnace Mountain consists of Aimee Curl on bass and vocals, Dave Van Deventer on fiddle and vocals, Morgan Morrison on guitar, bouzouki, and vocals, Danny Knicely on mandolin and fiddle. 

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The band creates music that is at times lively and raucous, with spirited fiddle melodies weaving in and around the powerful rhythms of the bass and bouzouki, and other times poignant and poetic, with sublime vocal harmonies beautifully interpreting some of the oldest songs ever written.
Furnace Mountain Band has performed throughout the world, from the Yangtze River in China to the banks of the Shenandoah River, where they are the host band of Watermelon Pickers’ Festival. Furnace Mountain Band plays music from the American Appalachian traditions, as well as original compositions, and songs penned by their favorite song writing friends.

 The Wildmans

The Wildmans come from the hills of Floyd, Virginia, in the heart of the Appalachian mountain music tradition. From campsite jamming at festivals and fiddler’s conventions and a college level music education comes the foundation for musical exploration that sets this group apart, taking the audience on a musical journey that reflects the growth and passion of these talented musicians.

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The band features award winning players:
Eli Wildman, first place winner in mandolin at the Galax Old Fiddler’s Convention, 2018 and 2019, first place winner at the Mount Airy Fiddler’s 2017, 2018, 2019
Aila Wildman, first place winner in Old Time Fiddle and Best All Around Performer at the 83rd annual Galax Old Fiddlers convention in 2018
Victor Furtado, winner of the 2019 Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo, and first place Old Time Banjo at Galax 2015, 2016 and 2019
The group has appeared on stages large and small, performing in festivals such as Red Wing Roots, Chantilly Farm’s Bluegrass and BBQ festival, Grey Fox Bluegrass, Floyd Fest, and The Steep Canyon Rangers’ Mountain Song Festival. They also regularly represent young talent along the Crooked Road in regional fiddler’s conventions.  Having shared the stage with talents such as Bela Fleck, The Steep Canyon Rangers, The Steel Wheels, Danny Knicely, Sammy Shelor, Sierra Hull, Billy Strings, and more., these young musicians are making their way in the American stringband scene.

 The Woodshedders

The Woodshedders are an Indie Roots band boasting four all-original studio albums and performances at hundreds of festivals and shows. The band consists of Dwayne Brooke on guitar and vocals, Fiddlin’ Dave Van Deventer on Fiddle, Jesse Shultazaberger on drums, Will Spalding on Guitar, and Randy Ball on bass. The Woodshedders bring lyricism and musicality to fun, danceable shows that swerve through Honky-Tonk, Gypsy, Appalachian, and Vintage Rock n’ Roll, often in the same song.

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They have shared this unique musical alchemy at venues near and far, including Red Wing Roots Music Festival, Deep Roots Mountain Revival, Bristol Rhythm & Roots Festival, Mountain Stage New Song Fest, Kingman Island Bluegrass Festival, PBS Song of the Mountains, The U.S. State Department’s Fourth of July Picnic, Opera House LIVE!, The Hamilton, Confluence Festival, The State Theatre, The Hippodrome, WAMU’s Capital Americana, The Jefferson Theatre, and at their rowdy monthly residency at Hill Country BBQ in D.C. They are the also the host band of Virginia’s celebrated
 Watermelon Park Fest.
“With their phenomenal improvisations, stellar catalogue of originals, and genre-bending cavalcade of covers, The Woodshedders’ impressive stage work has made them one of the most loved bands in the D.C. area.” –Roots Renaissance

 Jocelyn Pettit and Ellen Gira

From Canada and the US, Jocelyn Pettit & Ellen Gira are a dynamic fiddle & cello duo. Fusing traditional and contemporary influences, they create powerfully uplifting and soulful music, weaving a rhythmically driving and textured sound. They bring life and fire into original tunes and songs, high-
energy repertoire from Scotland, Ireland, North America, and Scandinavia, with lively step dancing.

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Each accomplished musicians in their own right, with extensive performance history and accolades,
Jocelyn & Ellen first joined forces in 2018, in Scotland. Since then, the duo has been gracing stages
and captivating audiences in both North America and the UK. They have performed for HRH Prince

Charles, been featured in live broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, and will be releasing their much-
anticipated debut album, “All It Brings”, in Summer 2022.
“For this concert, Jocelyn & Ellen will be joined by Maryland-based guitarist, Richard
Osban. The trio will present a lively performance of traditional and original tunes and songs.”

 Megan Downes and the City Stompers

Megan Downes grew up dancing in New York City’s traditional Irish music community before moving south to work with one of the best bluegrass bands in the country as a principal dancer with Footworks directed by Eileen Carson and Mark Schatz, with Jon Glik, Danny Knicely, Matt Olwell and Kristin Andreassen. Megan is now the Artistic Director of New York’s City Stompers, calling squares and teaching old-time flatfooting.  

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by Eileen Carson and Mark Schatz, with Jon Glik, Danny Knicely, Matt Olwell and Kristin Andreassen. Megan is now the Artistic Director of New York’s City Stompers, calling squares and teaching old-time flatfooting.

 Dalton Dash

Dalton Dash began as a casual two-piece in 2013 in Richmond, VA and quickly matured into a full ensemble boasting a colossal sound colored by robust musicianship, elegant songwriting, potent guitar playing and thought-provoking lyrical anecdotes.

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Their eclectic background and influences grants them to deliver non-stop surprises including lighthearted folk numbers to hard-hitting Americana & Country rock cuts. Dalton Dash’s experience and creative diversity allows them to craft live performances that are both intimate and wildly entertaining.

The Wilson Springs Hotel

The Wilson Springs Hotel are rooted in folk music and hail from all parts of Virginia; bringing country, folk and bluegrass together. Based in Richmond, VA The Wilson Springs Hotel are set to release a new single fall 2020 stay tuned

 Cassidy Snider and the Wranglers

Cassidy Snider & The Wranglers is a band with roots firmly planted in the riverbank soil of Richmond, Virginia.  Led by the traveling troubadour herself, Cassidy Snider, this folk outlet is a grassy assortment of Cassidy’s wanderlust-filled soul with sounds of the New Orleans bayou, the blue ridge mountains, and every accent between.

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From dive bar corners to venue bright lights, each song kicks dirt off the dance floor with story-filled twang. Blending genres, yet always tinged in Cassidy’s blues, they have developed a unique sound that morphs the musical styles of the American past with a voicing that can only be sung by this band’s bright future.

 Maddi Mae

Brought up among the Blue Ridge Mountains in a bizarre four-person evangelical cult, Maddi Mae found her own salvation in songwriting. She got her start as a five-year-old country gospel guitarist/singer/songwriter and spent a dozen years putting her “God-given gifts” to good use in valley churches.

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Home abuse turned to teenage homelessness, and Maddi spent the next decade in a near constant state of shock, unravelling years of brain-washing and trauma. With no god, no kinfolk, and no answers, she turned back to songwriting. For Maddi, songwriting is prayer – but these prayers answer themselves.
A decade into making her living off of music alone, Maddi Mae has played over 500 shows – solo and as a member of psychedelic and folk rock bands. In September 2020, she released her debut six-song record called Quiet Corners, recorded with Kyle Millers of the band Tow’rs.

 The Fly Birds

 Winners of the 2021 Band Contest. The Fly Birds are a trio made up of sisters Elizabeth Baker and Mary Dunlap of Winchester, VA on banjo and bass, and Sarah Twigg of Ellicott City, MD on the guitar. Their unique vocals as well as original style of folk music is topped off with tasteful songwriting skills and a charming presence on stage and record.

June & the Jets

 June & The Jets groove and rock, rap and jam, with smart originals and creative covers. After spending several years as an artist and session pianist in Philadelphia, June moved to Harpers Ferry, WV shortly after she met and jammed with several of the current band members at a mutual friend’s Halloween party. June & the Jets have a sound that blends the grit of their rock and funk influences (RHCP, Joni Mitchell, Bill Withers) with the soulful openness of Appalachia. The fourpiece rock group has an electric stage presence that captures crowds though intimate ballads and hard-hitting grooves. In just over a year of performing together the band has grown from playing local watering holes to headlining festivals across the east coast.

The Short Hill Mountain Boys

 The Short Hills Mountain Boys play their own blend of Bluegrass, Old Time, Country and Folk music with a rare passion. Their harmony vocals and instrumentation are tight and practiced like the suit and tie bluegrass acts, but imbued with the authenticity, spontaneity and infectious good time of old time mountain music, in which they are well steeped. The Short Hill Mountain Boys’ love of the music and skilled musicianship makes converts of audiences new to the genre and is sure to draw and impress aficionados. 

 line-up and schedule subject to change

 We are excited to share our 18th year of festival magic with you. Sign up for the newsletter for updates. See you again at the Clarke County Fairgrounds in 2022.