John McCauley from Deer Tick joins us for a rare performance.

This show is old out!

John McCauley from Deer Tick joins us for a rare performance.

Walsh / Jordan / Wilson is an utterly unique musical project, and one that has been a long time in the making. Mandolinist Joe K. Walsh and pianist Jed Wilson first met over twenty years ago when both were making their bones on the Boston scene. Wilson came from a background in jazz, Walsh from bluegrass, but each recognized in the other a fellow traveler on the path of improvisation and musical discovery. A collaboration wasn’t yet in the cards, as each was busy with other pursuits: Walsh with Joy Kills Sorrow, The Gibson Brothers, Darol Anger, and then his own projects; Wilson with Heather Masse, Aoife O’Donovan, and various jazz ensembles. The two crossed paths again several years later in Maine, where each had relocated by happenstance. In the meantime, both had expanded their musical palettes considerably, crossing borders and expanding horizons, in search of the ineffable magic that can be found equally in a great folk song or down some uncanny improvisational byroad. Additionally, each had developed a unique compositional voice. When Walsh and Wilson finally decided to put together a band, there was no question who to call. Both immediately thought of Ella Jordan, the remarkable fiddler best known for her work with the progressive bluegrass band Mile Twelve. When the three finally got together, there was no doubt that something special was in the offing. Primarily a vessel for Walsh and Wilson’s original songs, the trio breathes new life into the folk tradition with fresh melodies that somehow feel timeless.

JOE K. WALSH

Hailed by David Grisman as a “wonderful mandolin player”, and by Darol Anger as “one of the best mandolinists I’ve ever played with”, Portland, Maine-based musician Joe K. Walsh is known for his exceptional tone and taste, and his years of collaborations and recordings with acoustic music luminaries including Darol Anger, Brittany Haas, Grant Gordy, Mike Block, Danny Barnes, Scott Nygaard, and pop/grass darlings Joy Kills Sorrow, a band he co-founded. He’s played with everyone from John Scofield to Molly Tuttle to Tony Trischka, and performed at festivals, club and theaters all over North America and Europe. After a number of award-winning years with bluegrass stars the Gibson Brothers, Joe currently splits his time between an inventive string band called Mr Sun (featuring Darol Anger, Grant Gordy and Aidan O’Donnell), the Mike Block Trio, a project with Celia Woodsmith, and his own band. His most recent solo record “If Not Now, Who?” was released in 2023 on Adhyaropa Records. An avid educator, Joe is an associate professor at the Berklee College of Music. He teaches regularly at music camps and workshops all over, and teaches online through Peghead Nation.

ELLA JORDAN:

Ella Jordan is a fiddler and singer who grew up homeschooled on a farm outside of Austin, Texas. She got her start playing twin fiddles with her sister Minnie at country music oprys all across Texas, and is now forging a sound all her own within C&W, bluegrass, and contemporary stringband music. Ella was the youngest ever winner of the Old Settlers youth music contest, was a recipient of the Daniel Pearl Memorial violin, was selected as a participant of the 2020 Acoustic Music Seminar, and has performed and taught at countless festivals and camps across the country. She was also awarded the Fletcher Bright scholarship during her time at Berklee College of Music, where she graduated while still in her teens. You can find her on tour with the Boston-based progressive bluegrass band Mile Twelve, which she joined in late 2021.

JED WILSON:

A traveler of diverse roads of musical expression, Maine-based pianist and composer Jed Wilson is active in the worlds of folk, jazz, free improvisation, and more. Perhaps best known for his collaboration with singer-songwriter Heather Masse, Wilson’s engagement with the Americana tradition has also included performances with Aoife O’Donovan and Rushad Eggleston. In the realm of jazz and free improvisation, he has released several recordings on the Elusive Object label, with another to follow in summer 2023 (a trio outing with Allan Chase and Tony Falco entitled Embodied /Ephemeral). Wilson’s most recent project, a trio with mandolinist Joe K. Walsh and fiddler Ella Jordan, brings together his love for folk music and improvisation while also providing an avenue for his talents as a composer and songwriter. He can be heard regularly in performance throughout New England and beyond.

About Palymyra:

Established in the Shenandoah Valley, Palmyra explores the fusion of traditional folk string instruments, three part harmonies and foot percussion. In 2022, Palmyra made their Newport Folk Festival debut, were named the FloydFest 2022 On The Rise Winner, and performed over 200 tour dates on acclaimed stages up and down the East Coast. The trio captures the collective spirit of three Virginia natives, Teddy (he/him), Manoa (he/him), and Sasha (they/them). Palmyra’s songs are intimate and contemplative, with arrangements that allow them to create the illusion of a full, larger-than-three ensemble. The trio’s sound is a nod to Appalachia and Midwestern Americana, apparent through their stirring craftsmanship and dedication to a folk-driven, innovative experience throughout each live performance.

About Jobi Riccio:

Born and raised in Morrison, Colorado - a tourist town in the foothills outside of Denver that’s home to Red Rocks Amphitheater - Jobi Riccio grew up surrounded by music and found inspiration in artists ranging from Sheryl Crow to Joni Mitchell. Sonically, Jobi’s music exist between worlds, melding the classic craftsmanship of her songwriting with modern indie-leaning production to forge a lush, expansive sound that feels traditional and experimental all at once. She has received acclaim for her songwriting, including winning the 2019 NewSong Music Competition, performing at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, receiving the 2019 Lee Villiare Scholarship from her alma mater Berklee College of Music, and being named a finalist in the 2018 Rocky Mountain Folks Festival Songwriters Showcase. In 2023 Jobi was awarded the Newport Folk Festival John Prine Fellowship.Her previous release, EP "Strawberry Wine" (2019), is an ode to the women of classic country and bluegrass she grew up learning to sing from. Her debut album, "Whiplash"(out September 2023 on Yep Roc), follows in similar footsteps but introduces influences from a variety of genres, while still holding space for Riccio's love for all decades of country and americana music.

It’s The Heavy Heavy!

Tickets Here - join the waitlist

The Heavy Heavy create the kind of unfettered rock-and-roll that warps time and place, immediately pulling the audience into a euphoric fugue state with its own sun-soaked atmosphere. Led by lifelong musicians Will Turner and Georgie Fuller, the Brighton, UK-based band began with a shared ambition of “making records that sound like our favorite records ever,” and soon arrived at a reverb-drenched collision of psychedelia and blues, acid rock and sunshine pop. As revealed on their gloriously hazy debut EP Life and Life Only, The Heavy Heavy breathe an incandescent new energy into sounds from decades ago, transcending eras with a hypnotic ease.

Shane Guerette Opens

WILLI CARLISLE is a poet and a folk singer for the people, but his extraordinary gift for turning a phrase isn't about high falutin' pontificatin'; it's about looking out for one another and connecting through our shared human condition. Born and raised on the Midwestern plains, Carlisle is a product of the punk to folk music pipeline that's long fueled frustrated young men looking to resist. After falling for the rich ballads and tunes of the Ozarks, where he now lives, he began examining the full spectrum of American musical history. This insatiable stylistic diversity is obvious in his wildly raucous live performances, where songs range from sardonic trucker-ballads like "Vanlife" to the heartbreaking queer waltz "Life on the Fence," to an existential talkin' blues about a panic attack in Walmart's aisle five. With guitar, fiddle, button-box, banjo, harmonicas, rhythm-bones, and Willi's booming baritone, this is bonafide populist folk music in the tradition of cowboys, frontier fiddlers, and tall-tale tellers. Carlisle recognizes that the only thing holding us back from greatness is each other. With a quick wit and big sing-alongs, these folksongs bring us a step closer to breaking down our divides.

"Willi Carlisle is an absolute force of nature. From the moment he walks on stage you can't take your eyes off of him and the minute he opens his mouth you can't help but hang on every word. Even if the songs weren't there, the showmanship alone would be worth the price of admission, but the scary part is the songs are just as good as the stories." -- BJ Barham

"Willi Carlisle speaks his truth"

-NPR Music

"Willi Carlisle is just the kind of artist that Americana music needs"

-Paste Magazine

"Willi Carlisle's latest is good for what ails ya, whatever ails ya."

-Arkansas Times

""Tulsa's Last Magician" is a poignant biography of a tragic figure, questioning the hypocrisies of the morals we are raised with. It's an ode to anyone who feels like an outsider."

-The Boot

"I'll be damned if the heartstrings don't get a firm tug."

-Music Mecca

"A cowboy for this generation"

-SiriusXM The Village

"A rave-up raconteur and a seasoned troubadour in the vein of Ramblin' Jack Elliott or Utah Phillips, Carlisle sings big, feels everything, spins yarns and takes you to the heart of American characters"

-WMOT -- Best of AmericanaFest 2022

Pete Bernhard is the main singer and songwriter for the band The Devil Makes Three. After Covid 19 put a hold on the bands touring schedule Pete started exploring playing solo and released a record on Kahn Records, the label owned and operated by The Devil Makes Three.

He hails from a small community in southern Vermont with a family rife with musicians. His father was a singer and songwriter, his brother attended Berklee School of Music, and his aunt was a local folk musician. Immersed in music at a young age, he was drawn to older, traditional finger picking blues and folk music.

In 2001, Pete headed to Washington State, where he formed a duo with a childhood friend Cooper McBean and began touring the west coast. When they broke down in Santa Cruz, California, they stayed with a fellow Vermonter Lucia Turino who was attending college at the University Of Santa Cruz and the band– The Devil Makes Three was born. Pete has three solo records released on his own label Kahn Records and many more with The Devil Makes Three.

MorganEve Swain uses only her voice and arsenal of stringed instruments to create music from experience. Informed not only by the loss of her husband and musical partner, Dave Lamb, to leukemia in April 2014 but also by their life together, Swain pulls from the Lamb/Swain duo Brown Bird’s pool of influence, determined to uphold a legacy while creating new music which she hopes is strong and universal.

The Huntress and Holder of Hands relies simply on guitar and lyrics to conjure the memories, determination and love that invisibly link us together.

Caitlin Canty is an American singer/songwriter whose music carves a line through folk, blues, and country ballads. Her voice was called “casually devastating” by the San Francisco Chronicle and NPR Music describes her songs as having a “haunting urgency.” 

Motel Bouquet, Canty’s third record, features ten original songs that hold her darkly radiant voice firmly in the spotlight. Produced by GRAMMY-winning Noam Pikelny (Punch Brothers) and recorded live over three days in Nashville, the album boasts a band of some of finest musicians in roots music, including fiddler Stuart Duncan and vocalist Aoife O’Donovan. Rolling Stone hails Motel Bouquet as “dreamy and daring” with “poetic lyrics and haunting melodies.” 

“Dreamy and daring”

— ROLLING STONE

Since the release of her critically-acclaimed Reckless Skyline in 2015, Canty has put thousands of miles on her songs, circling through the U.S. and Europe. She warmed up stages for Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Milk Carton Kids and Josh Ritter and recorded with longtime collaborators Darlingside and with Down Like Silver, her duo with Peter Bradley Adams. She won the Troubadour songwriting competition at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and her song, “Get Up,” was nominated for Song of the Year in the Folk Alliance International Music Awards. Canty’s original recordings have recently appeared on CBS’s Code Black and on the Netflix original series House of Cards.

Raised in small-town Vermont, the daughter of a school teacher and a house painter, Canty earned her degree in biology in the Berkshires and subsequently moved to New York City. She spent her days in the city working as an environmental sustainability consultant and her nights making music at Lower East Side music halls and bars. In 2009, she quit her job and set out to make music full time. In 2015, she packed up her house plants and her 1939 Recording King guitar and drove to Nashville, TN, which she now calls home.

Best-known as the co-founder and frontman for shape-shifting heartland indie rockers Delta Spirit, Matthew Logan Vasquez's fiery delivery and thought-provoking lyrics draw from a huge and versatile well of influences, including Kurt Cobain, Neil Young, Violent Femmes, and ELO.

As a solo artist, he juggles elements of indie rock, folk, electronic, R&B, and punk, flirting with despondency, but ultimately succumbing to beatitude. Growing up Matthew ping-ponged his way back and forth between Austin, Texas and Dana Point, CA. Through the Delta Spirit years he resided in Long Beach, Ca, then Greenpoint Brooklyn, only to make his way home back to Central Texas.

Tickets on sale Friday, May 20th at 10AM

Tickets on sale Friday, May 20th at 10AM

Emma Swift is an Australian-born songwriter, currently residing in Nashville, TN. A gifted singer inspired by Joni Mitchell, Marianne Faithfull, Linda Ronstadt and Sandy Denny, Emma’s sound is a blend of classic folk, Americana and indie rock.

In August 2020 she released the critically-acclaimed Blonde on the Tracks, an inspired reimagining of some of her favourite Bob Dylan tunes on Tiny Ghost Records. Produced by Pat Sansone (WILCO), the album received Best of 2020 accolades from Rolling Stone, Nashville Scene, No Depression, The Guardian and more. The album charted in the Australian Top 10, as well as in the UK, US and European Americana Charts.

In 2021, Rolling Stone Magazine named her version of Bob Dylan’s “Queen Jane Approximately” as #17 in their list of the 80 Best Dylan covers of all-time.

In addition to making music, Emma loves surrealist art, collage animation and travel. She counts visual artists Dora Maar and Dorothea Tanning among her heroes, as well as the poets Mary Oliver and Louis MacNeice. She is married to British alternative songwriter Robyn Hitchcock and the pair frequently perform live together.

Her current tour is performing the Blonde on the Tracks album in an intimate and stripped back acoustic setting.

Nicole Atkins put out one of the best summertime records of 2020. Italian Ice was like a postcard from the Jersey Shore in the 1970s - full of warmth, vivid color and a tilt-a-whirl variety of musical grooves wrapped around Atkins' wonder of a voice.

You'd be forgiven if you missed it, as there was a bit of competition from world events. But now there's a second helping served up in Memphis Ice, a cabaret deluxe style reimagining of the songs.

“Italian Ice was one of the first feel-good records that I've made,” Atkins says, “and people needed to feel good last year. But of course, like everybody else, I couldn't go out and play it live.”

Resilient and resourceful, Atkins started hosting a variety show from her attic, distributed through Patreon. It was so well-received that Amazon soon picked it up and funded more expansive episodes, shot at Asbury Park's Paramount Theater, and featuring special guests like Ween and Kurt Vile. Atkins says, “Initially, I thought, 'We've got to figure out a way to keep playing, make some money and give ourselves something to look forward to.' But the variety show ended up saving our lives.”

It also reminded Atkins of where she came from as a singer. “I was doing a song on the show called 'A Night of Serious Drinking,'” she recalls. “It's very Dean Martin, very sparse, and it tells a story. I felt really connected to my singing and the story. Whereas the other songs, I'm caught up in all of the music and rock, rock, rock. So, I thought, 'How can I make my other songs feel like that?' And that's what Memphis Ice did.”

Backed by an ace trio of Dan Chen (piano), Laura Epling (violin) and Maggie Chaffee (cello), Atkins cut the album live in one day at Memphis Magnetic studio, simultaneously filming the performance with painterly shadow and light. The stripped-down, smoky style of both not only brings new emotional vistas to standout songs like “Domino,” “The Captain” and “Forever,” but opens the door even wider to where Atkins would like to go next as a singer.

“I always thought about my Judy Garland or Liza Minnelli moment coming later in life,” she says with a laugh. “But after we finished that day of recording, I had so much fun just singing and was so in the moment, I thought, 'I want to do that sooner, I want to do that for my next record.' I want to make a record of standards that are new if that's possible. Songs that make you feel like you're singing 'Stardust,' but you're not. I kept thinking that on my first record, Neptune City, the songs felt old, but they were new. Why can't there be new songs that feel like the old standards?”

And so, what Atkins calls “the happiest of accidents” has turned her pandemic year around with a new album, a film, an upcoming tour, and an exciting vision of a musical future that reconnects her with her beginnings. “I love rock music, but the way I really like to sing is long notes,” she says. “And you can really only do that over pianos and more orchestral-type arrangements. I can try all these different styles and put on different outfits with production. But at the end of the day, it comes back to me and my voice.”

Traditional music is not static; it shifts with the times, uncovering new meanings in old words, new ways of talking about the communal pathways that led us to where we are today. For master musicians Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves, traditional stringband music is a way to interpret our uncertain times, to draw artistic inspiration and power from the sources of meaning in their lives. History, family, literature, live performance, and environmental instability all manifest in the sounds, feelings, and sensations that permeate their new album, Hurricane Clarice (coming March 25 from Free Dirt Records). Recording last year in the midst of a global pandemic and during an unprecedented heat wave that saw the city of Portland, Oregon burning under 120 degree heat, these two master musicians found themselves turning to their own communities, to their families, to bring that support into the music. In fact, it was producer Phil Cook (Megafaun, Hiss Golden Messenger) who suggested the two weave their own family histories into the project by including audio recordings of each of their own grandmothers. The album became a direct infusion of centuries of matrilineal folk wisdom, a fiery breath of apocalyptic grandmother energy. And yet the beauty of Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves’ music is that they’re using these old sounds to speak to something new, to speak to a dying world.

If Hurricane Clarice has the incendiary fire of a red hot live performance, that was very much the plan for de Groot, Hargreaves, and Cook. “We love performing live together so much,” says de Groot. “We were talking to Phil about that, how do you capture that energy and intimacy of a performance without being too aware that you’re recording in a studio? Phil’s idea was to just play it like it’s a show.” They worked out the innovative idea of rehearsing and recording the music as performance “sets” about one hour long, rather than going over and over each track in the studio. “We had two sets and we would play them front to back and back to front,” says Hargreaves. “We did that for four days in the studio and never listened back to any of the recordings until the last day.” This creative method enabled de Groot & Hargreaves to capture some of that rare lightning that you hear at the duo’s concerts. Ultimately, only a few overdubs were needed with both agreeing they didn’t want it to get overly polished. “We aren't perfect and we don't want our album to sound perfect,” says Hargreaves. In juxtaposition to these live, unedited recordings, sound engineer Adam McDaniel of Drop of Sun Studios brought the idea of sending sampled fragments of the duo’s banjo and fiddle through filters, sprinkling sonic interludes and overlays throughout the album. Still, it’s the ferocious performance energy that stands out the most from the album. Stringband music is fueled by all-night jam session marathons or three-hour long square dances, but playing full sets in a recording studio still took a lot of work and focus. “It felt really demanding and different from any studio experience I’d ever had,” says Hargreaves.

Musically, both artists are at the absolute top of their game. In addition to the recording innovations, the duo have worked tirelessly to build on their already impressive technique and to find new ways to play live together. In stringband music, nearly every song or tune necessitates a complete retuning of the fiddle and banjo, so set lists have to be carefully built and the best artists develop an intricate knowledge of alternate tunings and modalities. For de Groot & Hargreaves, they wanted their set list to build a narrative that flowed easily and that showcased their abilities as consummate artisans. You can hear this work on the album as they twist and turn in tandem through intricately woven fiddle lines pulsing with circular rhythms, the clawhammer banjo pulsing beneath, matching the speed and ferocity of the fiddle with uncommon grace. At times they push so hard that they near escape velocity. All the same, both bristle at the idea that they’re moving the old-time tradition further or breaking new ground. “I’m tired of the perceived goal being to push the music forward,” de Groot says. “I don’t think that means that much and it’s a capitalist idea; a desired goal but not necessarily a positive thing.” Instead, de Groot & Hargreaves looked to foreground ideals of community and family, filling their recording space with feelings of home, family and community.

The repertoire on Hurricane Clarice comes from rare field recordings, old hymns, and dusty LPs, but it also comes from modern literary sources and original compositions from the two, a delightful mix of the old and the new. Both de Groot and Hargreaves are avid readers, so the Hargreaves-penned title track delves into the surreal world of Brazilian author Clarice Lispector while the Canadian ballad “The Banks of the Miramichi” references the “before times” of a polluted river used as a case study in the environmentalist classic Silent Spring. Hargreaves in particular has worked to incorporate literary traditions and storytelling into the music. Hargreaves in particular has a great love for literary traditions and storytelling. “I feel like playing traditional music is similar to reading science fiction or magical realism.” Hargreaves explains, “We’re taking these traditional components that we’ve learned from a lineage of people passing it down orally. It always changes, someone exaggerates it in a way that fits their storytelling or playing style. It keeps getting weirder and weirder with each telling to match who’s telling it.” Other tunes come from deep dive sources, like Black fiddler Butch James Cage (“Dead and Gone”), or the tune “Nancy Blevins” from fiddler Albert Hash (on further research, the “real” Blevins may have been involved in witchcraft).

Unlike many songs from the bluegrass and old-time traditions, the songs on Hurricane Clarice are not concerned with love. They do wryly tackle topics like seasonal depression (“Each Season Changes You”) and the absurdity of touring (“The Road That’s Walked by Fools”) but if anything was on the duo’s minds while recording it was likely family, either the kind you’re born to or the kind you make yourself. So much of this music is made with intent and meaning without needing words–just swirling dance melodies designed to be played all night–that it seems likely that both Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves were both unknowingly crafting an ode to family as a source of hope in a time of dying.

Proof of full vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test for all patrons age five or older is required to attend all Billsville performances. To be considered fully vaccinated, all patrons ages 12 and older must have received an FDA or WHO-authorized vaccine plus a booster shot. Audience members may display proof of vaccination on a smartphone or by showing a physical copy of the vaccination card or official vaccination record, along with a photo ID, such as a driver’s license or passport.

Lydia Loveless is an Ohio-bred singer-songwriter with five full-length records and numerous B-sides and singles under her purview. The unmistakable voice, an incisive way with melody, and an unrelenting willingness to cast the first stone inward are all hallmarks of Loveless’s songs. Her vocals meld between commanding and brash to delicate and introspective and subject matter entertains everything from broken hearts to messy dreams. Writing straight from the heartland, her brand of rock ranges from classic to alt-country to punk – a genre hard to nail down.

Her breakout release, Somewhere Else (2014) was followed by the critically acclaimed Real (2016). The albums were embraced by critics and listeners alike, with her fanbase growing to even include some of Loveless’ heroes like Lucinda Williams and Jason Isbell. Those luminaries would become tour mates as Loveless and her band lived out of suitcases, working tirelessly in support of these releases. A time filled with many exciting firsts like TV appearances (CBS This Morning: Saturday Sessions) and festivals (Stagecoach, AmericanaFest), broadening her fanbase and introducing her to many new fans. Unfortunately, that momentum would come crashing down as 2020 hit and the world came to a standstill.

In the wake of the pandemic Loveless made the most of her time performing online shows, writing and recording a record and starting her own record label, Honey, You’re Gonna Be Late Records. The first release on it was her fifth full-length Daughter. The album documented a period of personal upheaval, including a divorce and an interstate move away from her longtime home of Ohio. Written with her characteristic candidness and razor-sharp wit, Daughter is a self-aware journey into independence, finding Loveless at her fiery best, exhibiting an even keener insight than ever.

Loveless recently released a digital single “You’re Leaving Me” b/w “Let’s Make Out” (2021) which had the Chicago Reader saying, “Her ace songwriting remind(s) listeners that she’s more than a singer.” As the world begins to unthaw she’s taking 2022 to finally get back to live performances and begin work on her next album.

Mary-Elaine Jenkins is a Brooklyn-based songwriter, singer, and guitarist. A native of the South Carolina Lowcountry, her sound combines manifold influences with a distinctly southern sensibility. After graduating from college in Washington, DC, she spent two years in Madrid, a time that would prove creatively transformative. Upon making her home in NYC, she surrounded herself with a creative network that would eventually include Thom Beemer, who produced and engineered "Hold Still,” her full-length debut.

MEJ has been named among “5 Up-And-Coming Women Musicians You Should Know About” (Bust Magazine), described as "standing righteously above other young pretenders" (Glide Magazine), and her voice has been called "a mix of cloves, sage, ash, thorns, and honey” (The Deli NYC). She is a fixture in the New York music scene, has toured Europe, and has supported artists such as Martha Wainwright, Birds of Chicago, and Courtney Marie Andrews. She and Beemer are currently at work on a new record.

Mile Twelve is a modern string band from Boston, Massachusetts. Winners of the 2020 IBMA New Artist of the Year award, they have been making waves in the acoustic music world with their seamless blend of expertly-crafted songs, creative arrangements, and virtuosic execution. The band takes their name from the mile marker that sits at Boston’s southern border, a road sign they’ve passed countless times while heading out on tour. They’ve found receptive audiences across the globe, touring throughout North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Their latest full-length album City on a Hill, produced by guitar legend Bryan Sutton and nominated for 2019 IBMA Album of the Year, is centered on the theme of people facing and overcoming challenge. Many of its songs are set in urban landscapes, a significant departure from the often-rural lens of acoustic music. Sutton observes, “I’m a fan of bands who strive for a balance of being musically unique and individualized, while at the same time working to include time-honored traditions found in this music. This blend is not an easy thing to accomplish. Mile Twelve does this with well-honed and refreshingly honest songwriting, along with powerful playing, singing, and performing.”

More recently, the band has released an EP of covers titled Roll the Tapes All Night Long. They draw from a wide array of influences — from Ralph Stanley to Los Lobos, from Darell Scott to Tattletale Saints — demonstrating the surprisingly flexible nature of their instrumentation at every turn. The project also features a who’s-who list of special guests: Billy Strings, Chris Eldridge (Punch Brothers), Brittany Haas (Hawktail) and Bruce Molsky. Folk Alley says “Roll the Tapes All Night Long showcases Mile Twelve’s restless creativity, their ability to inhabit a song and turn it inside out to make it their own, even as they preserve the spirit of the original.”

After a busy year of touring including stops at RockyGrass, IBMA Bluegrass Live! and Milwaukee Irish Fest, the band is gearing up to record its next full-length project in early 2022. 

A truly original new voice in songwriting, Bella White creates an undeniable magic by mining the rare duality at the heart of her artistry. Although she hails from the Canadian city of Calgary, the 20-year-old singer/multi-instrumentalist grew up on the classic country and old-time music she first discovered thanks to her father, a Virginia native who played in bluegrass bands all throughout her childhood. On her debut album Just Like Leaving, White balances her old-soul musicality with a lyrical perspective that’s entirely of-the-moment, embracing an intense self-awareness as she documents her coming-of-age in real-time

Blending classic soul power with a folk songwriter lyricism, Ali McGuirk has the rare ability to silence a room with just a few words of a song. With a voice that is raw and sultry and a style rooted in improvisation, her sets are a hypnotic and intimate journey.

“Raw talent is hard to explain, but you often know it when you hear it. That’s true of McGuirk…” Steve Morse, The Boston Globe

“A single listen to ‘Slow Burn’ reveals that McGuirk’s labor of love is full of rewards. The record ranges from ’70s-style quiet storm to ’90s neo-soul to modern alternative R&B.” Boston Herald

“Powerfully stunning vocals… the most outstanding performance of the day.” Glide Magazine, Green River Fest 2021

“When she opens her mouth, people stop and take notice, captivated by her swooping, honeyed voice.” The Improper Bostonian

“The critical praise has been non-stop… and her sound has evolved into a fervent blend of R&B, folk, and classic soul. But she doesn’t let genre get in the way of her creative process.” WGBH

Dylan LeBlanc knows second chances don’t come around often.

But, neither do voices like his.

Overwhelmed by the speed at which his gift took him from Applebee’s server to “the new Neil Young” in a matter of months, he walked away from an unlikely major label deal after releasing two critically acclaimed albums. He slipped into a blur of booze and self-doubt. Exhausted and damaged at just 23-years-old, Dylan came home to Muscle Shoals, Alabama to write a new life for himself.

In between the moments of clarity and a few familiar falls, he also wrote a new album, Cautionary Tale: a collection of shimmering, arresting songs with the same haunting vocals that caught the attention of Lucinda Williams and Bruce Springsteen, now with a sharpened edge honed by hastened maturity.

TICKET PURCHASERS : It’s likely that we will require all attendees to verify that they are vaccinated. This is a outdoor, somewhat distanced, show - but still, it’s what we believe in. If you are unable to unwilling to verity your status please do not purchase tickets for this show.

Della Mae is a GRAMMY-nominated all-woman string band founded by lead vocalist/guitarist Celia Woodsmith and 2-time national champion fiddle player Kimber Ludiker. Rounding out the lineup are guitarist Avril Smith, bassist Vickie Vaughn and mandolinist Maddie Witler. 

 Hailing from across North America, and reared in diverse musical styles, Della Mae is one of the most charismatic and engaging roots bands touring today. They have traveled to over 30 countries spreading peace and understanding through music. Their mission as a band is to showcase top female musicians, and to improve opportunities for women and girls through advocacy, mentorship, programming, and performance.

Pete Bernhard (Devil Makes Three) will open the show

Outdoor show at “The Billsville Bowl”

Note that this is an outdoor show. That said, if weather threatens we may move inside. Based on what we feel is comfortable the capacity will be reduced and we will provide indoor tickets up to our new capacity based on first come, first served. In other words, buy quickly!

This link will go live on Friday, July 16th at 10AM

You can likely imagine how thrilled we are to have Hiss Golden Messenger back in town. The newly released "Quietly Blowing It" continues a multi-year stretch of excellence that we are thrilled to celebrate with our community.

“I went looking for peace,” says songwriter M.C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger about his new album Quietly Blowing It, out June 25, 2021, on Merge Records. “It’s not exactly a record about the state of the world—or my world—in 2020, but more a retrospective of the past five years of my life painted in sort of impressionistic hues. Maybe I had the presence of mind when I was writing Quietly Blowing It to know that this was the time to go as deep as I needed to in order to make a record like this. And I got the time required in order to do that.” He pauses and laughs ruefully. “I got way more time than I needed, actually.

Quietly Blowing It was written and arranged by Taylor in his home studio—his 8’ × 10’ sanctuary packed floor to ceiling with books, records, and old guitars—as he watched the chaotic world spin outside his window. “Writing became a daily routine,” he explains, “and that was a ballast for me. Having spent so much time on the road over the past ten years, where writing consistently with any kind of flow can be tricky, it felt refreshing. And being in my studio, which is both isolated from and totally connected to the life of my family, felt appropriate for these songs.” Between March and June, Taylor wrote and recorded upwards of two dozen songs—in most cases playing all of the instruments himself—before winnowing the collection down and bringing them to the Hiss band. In July, the group of musicians, with Taylor in the production seat, went into Overdub Lane in Durham, NC for a week, where they recorded Quietly Blowing It as an organic unit honed to a fine edge from their years together on the road. “We all needed to be making that music together,” he recalls. “We’ve all spent so many years traveling all over the world, but in that moment, it felt cathartic to be recording those particular songs with each other in our own small hometown.”

Surrounding himself with a trusted cast of collaborators that includes Miller, songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov, songwriter and Tony Award-winning playwright Anaïs Mitchell, multi-instrumentalist Josh Kaufman, Dawes’ brothers Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith, and his oldest musical confidant Scott Hirsch, Taylor has made his most audacious and hopeful work yet with Quietly Blowing It; it’s an album that speaks personal truth to this moment in which the old models of being feel broken and everything feels at stake. “I don’t know that the peace that I crave when I’m far from home exists, actually,” says Taylor. “It’s more complicated. I still don’t know what peace means for me, because I can be sitting on the couch watching a movie with my family and be completely tangled up in my head. But if I keep on doing my own personal work on myself—writing records like Quietly Blowing It—I have to think that I’m getting closer.”

$1 from every ticket goes to support the Durham Public Schools Foundation whose mission is to foster community support for public schools and invest in our students, educators, and families to ensure success and equity for every student.

Outdoor show at “The Billsville Bowl”

This link will go live on Friday, July 16th at 10AM

Note that this is an outdoor show. That said, if weather threatens we may move inside. Based on what we feel is comfortable the capacity will be reduced and we will provide indoor tickets up to our new capacity based on first come, first served. In other words, buy quickly!

You can likely imagine how thrilled we are to have Hiss Golden Messenger back in town. The newly released "Quietly Blowing It" continues a multi-year stretch of excellence that we are thrilled to celebrate with our community.

“I went looking for peace,” says songwriter M.C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger about his new album Quietly Blowing It, out June 25, 2021, on Merge Records. “It’s not exactly a record about the state of the world—or my world—in 2020, but more a retrospective of the past five years of my life painted in sort of impressionistic hues. Maybe I had the presence of mind when I was writing Quietly Blowing It to know that this was the time to go as deep as I needed to in order to make a record like this. And I got the time required in order to do that.” He pauses and laughs ruefully. “I got way more time than I needed, actually.

Quietly Blowing It was written and arranged by Taylor in his home studio—his 8’ × 10’ sanctuary packed floor to ceiling with books, records, and old guitars—as he watched the chaotic world spin outside his window. “Writing became a daily routine,” he explains, “and that was a ballast for me. Having spent so much time on the road over the past ten years, where writing consistently with any kind of flow can be tricky, it felt refreshing. And being in my studio, which is both isolated from and totally connected to the life of my family, felt appropriate for these songs.” Between March and June, Taylor wrote and recorded upwards of two dozen songs—in most cases playing all of the instruments himself—before winnowing the collection down and bringing them to the Hiss band. In July, the group of musicians, with Taylor in the production seat, went into Overdub Lane in Durham, NC for a week, where they recorded Quietly Blowing It as an organic unit honed to a fine edge from their years together on the road. “We all needed to be making that music together,” he recalls. “We’ve all spent so many years traveling all over the world, but in that moment, it felt cathartic to be recording those particular songs with each other in our own small hometown.”

Surrounding himself with a trusted cast of collaborators that includes Miller, songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov, songwriter and Tony Award-winning playwright Anaïs Mitchell, multi-instrumentalist Josh Kaufman, Dawes’ brothers Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith, and his oldest musical confidant Scott Hirsch, Taylor has made his most audacious and hopeful work yet with Quietly Blowing It; it’s an album that speaks personal truth to this moment in which the old models of being feel broken and everything feels at stake. “I don’t know that the peace that I crave when I’m far from home exists, actually,” says Taylor. “It’s more complicated. I still don’t know what peace means for me, because I can be sitting on the couch watching a movie with my family and be completely tangled up in my head. But if I keep on doing my own personal work on myself—writing records like Quietly Blowing It—I have to think that I’m getting closer.”

$1 from every ticket goes to support the Durham Public Schools Foundation whose mission is to foster community support for public schools and invest in our students, educators, and families to ensure success and equity for every student.

Tickets to this show are $20 minimum, the link is preset to suggest $25 which has been our standard show price for a few years now. You can change the price back to $20 (hey, no judgement) or continue to pay AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE FOR A TICKET. The extra money will go toward things like portable toilets, housing the band and the exorbitant cost of hummus.

We will be working with a new ticketing platform called Side Door. Side Door was founded by Dan Mangan (a Billsville alum) and Laura Simpson and is built on the simple idea that isn't possible to fairly support independent musicians and independent venues and still run a business. While the platform (like all ticketing platforms) needs to charge fees to operate theirs are clear, open and fair. We'll be asking you to pay approximately 10 - 15 % in fees. Last time I checked many venues were charging as much as 35% on top of the ticket price. So, a $20 ticket may cost $23 but that's all in and the musicians are still getting the $20. Side Door will allow you to share a ticket with friends if you can't make a show and they're busy building new features every day. Bear with us if we run into initial snafus but we're confident that this is a great way forward.

Eleanor Buckland (Lula Wiles) opens

As a storm made its way to shore on an otherwise still and perfect evening in August, I sat on the porch of a beach house letting my fingers dance around the moment in complete awe. The sky above was filled with stars, each one nestled in mystery, while the storm cloud continued to surge toward me. Lightning flashed and I counted the seconds between it and the rolling thunder, attempting to gauge the distance. An untouchable sky above me and an unavoidable sky in front. Both captivating and devastating. In that instant I began writing ‘Stormy Point’,and what would become Fable and Fire.

2020 left us no time to count the seconds before the thunder boomed overhead. We felt the glow on our faces, we closed our eyes on the realization that life as we knew it was coming to a screeching halt, and the thunder shook our core in the same moment. The storm was upon us. Like a child reaching for the covers I folded in on myself. My body became a shield, my mind a vessel. I began reaching for melodies and found them to be readily available. Like gazing at a star and finding yourself instantly in its orbit. For weeks, I was gathering various parts of myself and putting them to melody.

I spent one evening around a fire thinking of my late mother’s hands. I have struggled off and on with her memory and hating myself for not spending hours just taking in her entire being when she was here. That cold fall night, sitting around the fire pit, her hands hovered above the coals. I remembered the passion she had for playing piano. I remembered her effortlessness. I remembered her tone and her timing. I wrote the song ‘Fable and Fire’ that night with my mother’s hands. I felt her presence and her embrace as though she were teaching it to me and simultaneously encouraging me to keep writing.

If ever there was a spray of ether in the imagination’s carburetor it’s an entire year spent day in and day out with a toddler. The wonder of words and the relevance in the ridiculous is abundant and revelatory. Plainly spoken, it’s magical. My tendency towards self-loathing and cynicism is constantly thwarted by her earnestness. As I read to her I am often transfixed by her complete absorption in the story. One particular story is called Ox-cart Man. It’s a tale of a man in pre-industrial times who, alongside his two kids and wife, spends a year making and harvesting all sorts of things on their farm. The story is literally just an account of everything they made and harvested, like an inventory list with pictures. But it was a favorite around the house and my daughter learned how to say embroidery needle. Magic. I used the title, ‘Ox-cart Man’, for one of my songs because it reminded me of how much meaning can be found in the mundane.

I could go on but I won’t. It’s time to pull back the covers and journey over to the recording part of the story where we find the flesh and bones of all this music. I needed my friends and I needed to play with them. Christian Sedelmyer, the Erie fiddler himself, played fiddle. When Christian joins me on a melody, the chemistry between the mandolin and the fiddle seems to push the pair into a single elevated form. This symbiosis has come to serve as a fundamental part of my instrumental writing. On bass is Clint Mullican. If music is a flood, Clint is an ark. On guitar, banjo, and piano, is Josh Oliver. Josh is the human equivalent of spice level—probably the most dynamic player I have ever heard or met. On guitar and bouzouki is Jordan Tice. Jordan never met a moment that didn’t deserve deliberation and dedication. On cello is Nat Smith who seems to know every song even when he doesn’t. Nat is intuition’s man and we can all only hope to learn how he does what he does.

We recorded this record at Echo Mountain Studios in Asheville, NC. Over the course of three days we let the intimate moments that bore these tunes resurface as the melodies took shape and form. It’s difficult to explain how magical it felt to play these tunes with this band and luckily I don’t have to because the music is all right there for folks to hear. On the last day of recording we did a quick mix of every tune so that we would have something to listen to, and it is those mixes that became the finished record. Those rough mixes, in all their imperfections, captured the music perfectly.

Amidst global trauma, it’s difficult to feel like your own experience is unique and relevant. Fable and Fire is a sonic account of how the journey within has no destination. It’s like looking at the stars and knowing you’ll never touch them, or believing in magic and seeing it for what it isn’t.

It’s the bones of emotion dug up and rearranged in the shape of sanctuary. It’s the much needed eye contact from a friend in a wordless moment. This is my most honest work to date and without saying anything it somehow says it all.

These shows are sold out!

There are a lot of heartbreak albums out there. Heartbreak is maybe the biggest and most enduring inspiration when it comes to songwriting, but it's rare to hear heartbreak dealt with as much nuance as Courtney Marie Andrews gives it. The Nashville-based, Phoenix-born singer-songwriter spent a large part of the past nine years — almost her entire 20s — in a relationship, and when that relationship ended, she came out as a different person. But instead of looking back with resentment or anger, Courtney Marie Andrews looks back on what she lost with love.

On her upcoming album, Old Flowers, out July 24, she preserves the memories of those formative years, as well as the emotions that come with loss. It's not unlike the way you might preserve old flowers by pressing them in a book. These moments, this person you were, that relationship you had: These flowers are gone, but you can still appreciate just how beautiful they were when they were in full bloom.