Finnders & Youngberg – Bluegrass from Colorado

For decades now, Colorado has been a wellspring for American roots music, combining the traditional Appalachian old-time and honky-tonk strains of the East with the spirit of adventure and openness of the West. Colorado has served as a magnet for musicians looking to find themselves, and it’s become a place for musical kindred spirits to commune and create. FY5 –Finnders & Youngberg– represent this pioneering spirit, and with their latest effort, Eat the Moon, we can hear a newfound maturity and purpose that comes with steady gigging, dedication, and a renewed sense of purpose. Bluegrass harmonies, crisp as a mountain stream, meld with virtuosic picking and fiddling and the kind of honest acknowledgment of the tough realities of life that’s best found in traditional honky-tonk. “We’re proud to have come from the traditional folk and bluegrass school,” says bandleader Mike Finders, “yet we put all that aside and do our best to build the songs honestly, creatively, with no predetermined agenda to play this or that kind of music.” With Eat the Moon, FY5 brings us a self-assured vision of American music, rooted in tradition, but pointing to new creative directions that make it vital and relevant in today’s modern world.

Finnders & Youngberg will play the 2016 Sugar Maple Traditional Music Festival on Saturday August 6.

BREAKING NEWS: Jay Farrar, American songwriter and musician, will be our Saturday headliner!!!

Farrar is an alternative country artist based in St. Louis, Missouri. Before going solo in 2001, he was a member of critically acclaimed music groups Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt, and helped popularize the alt country movement in the 1990s. “Trace” was Son Volt’s acclaimed debut album, with all but one song written by Farrar.

While solo, Farrar collaborated with various artists including Varnaline’s Anders Parker and Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard. Farrar has established talents in songwriting, singing, guitar, the harmonica and the piano.

Farrar is celebrating the 20th anniversary of “Trace” with tour dates featuring original pedal steel player, Eric Heywood, along with multi-instrumentalist, Gary Hunt.
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We are very excited to be welcoming him to our stage this summer!

Jesse Legé, Ed Poullard and Charlie Terr are confirmed to be performing as a Cajun trio at the fest this summer, so everyone is guaranteed to be met with some bonafide Louisiana tunes.

Legé and Poullard have accurately been called “living legends of authentic Louisiana Cajun and Creole music”. Both musicians were raised surrounded by Cajun Music in Louisiana and Eastern Texas, hearing the music long before they tried to play it themselves. Legé has won numerous Cajun French Music Association awards, including Accordion Player and Male Vocalist of the Year. Poullard is as authentic as it gets, coming from a long line of Creole musicians. He even started building accordions on his own in 2000. Charlie Terr is an accomplished Cajun accordionist, guitar, fiddle and bass player who leads the Chicago Cajun Aces band. By profession he is a Chicago piano tuner and rebuilder, but became fascinated with Cajun music in the 70s and has been going back and forth to Louisiana ever since.

Poullard and Legé represent distinct but related musical traditions. Cajuns are descended from the Acadians who came to Louisiana from French-speaking Canada, bringing their fiddle-based music and later adopting the German accordion into this dance paced music. The Creoles or black southwest Louisianans with French heritage, played similar music with differences that are likely to be described in scheduled workshops and music jams led by these two musicians at the Sugar Maple festival.

We are thrilled to welcome these artists for a joint performance filled with a deep Cajun passion.

Jesse Legé, Ed Poullard and Charlie Terr

The Chicago-based trio of Big Sadie formed in 2014 and boasts an impressive repertoire of bluegrass, old-time, early country, and original music in three-part harmony. Big Sadie’s uplifting performance invites audiences to share in a centuries-old tradition of unified experience between listener and performer.

The band’s roots span from the north of Milwaukee to the heart of Appalachia. Chicago native Elise Bergman grew up surrounded by music. She brings a solid blues influence to the band and owns a subtle lyrical twang that is easily received. Collin Moore grew up in the hills of East Tennessee, where he began learning tunes at an early age from his mother, an accomplished fiddler and ballad singer. Jess McIntosh hails from Southeast Wisconsin and teaches fiddle at the Old Town School of Folk Music. A lifelong and uniquely versatile musician, she comfortably moves between genres of traditional American music, as well as classical and contemporary styles.

Prepare to become a part of their world at the Sugar Maple fest.

Chicago-based trio Big Sadie

“Just when people think the old country blues of the Mid-Atlantic has faded away, along come the wonderful husband and wife duo of Valerie and Ben Turner who are the heirs to the Piedmont blues tradition.” – Frank Matheis, Editor/Publisher of thecountryblues

The Piedmont Bluz acoustic duo is dedicated to the preservation of Country Blues and the Piedmont style and their mission is to help keep this rural, east coast tradition alive by educating audiences about this unique aspect of African American culture through musical entertainment. The husband and wife duo of Valerie and Ben Turner feel that “there are stories to tell, people to remember, and things that must be said” so, in addition to tickling your ears with delightful music, they weave a bit of history into the presentation of each song.

The Turners will play the festival main stage and present at the Roots & Reason stage on Saturday, August 6, 2016.

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