Hi. I wish I had a job selling squirrels. They're so furry, and give you toothy grins. Unless they're rabid, in which case they will eat your face off and then find the rest of your family. That's not so good, I guess.
Abigail Lapell sounds like Canada: all encompassing yet intimate, vast
amounts of sound and emotion funneled through a plaintive, lonesome
voice. She's been exploring bigger, widescreen moments on her most
recent album, 2019's Getaway, but for this recorded performance, she's
alone on a piano that has been through some things. This performance of
"Leningrad" is so intimate you can hear the piano pedals thunk as
Lapell pours her heart and soul into her hands and feet. Presented by
Dogtown Studio in association with Earthwork Harvest Gathering. https://www.abigaillapell.com/ https://abigaillapell.bandcamp.com/
Audra Kubat has been bringing her keen and intelligent intensity, carved
into songs like water wearing away canyon walls, to audiences for 20
years. Educator, composer, activist: but for this performance, she
just sits right down on the dusty attic floor to play her guitar and
sing you a song. "Old Radio" summons the sensation of tuning in
forbidden frequencies when you should be sleeping, or working, or doing
something other than dreaming. But you must dream. Presented by
Dogtown Studio in association with Earthwork Harvest Gathering. https://audrakubatmusic.com/ https://audrakubat.bandcamp.com/
Beaver Xing is an impish duo from the wilds of Comstock Park, and you
have seen them, and they have seen you. Enthusiasm is the word: Stacy
Noonan and Jonathan Beaver attend every festival (in healthy times),
haunt every show, darken every door, and they delight in popping up
ready to play any time, night or day. "Murder of Crows" is a murder
ballad doing a big exaggerated wink. This performance was filmed at the
bonfire in the heart of Harvest, right behind the barn, at the center
of everything, which is where you will usually find Beaver Xing.
Presented by Dogtown Studio in association with Earthwork Harvest
Gathering. https://www.facebook.com/beaverxing/ https://www.reverbnation.com/beaverxing
Laurel Premo is a serious musicologist, on a serious mission: to
preserve the American folk traditions she grew up with in the western
Upper Peninsula, but also to advance them, to take them through the lens
of Scandinavia, or polyrhythms, or a really big electric guitar amp.
But sometimes it's ok to just have a little fun, too. Master of the
fiddle, the clawhammer banjo, and the electric guitar, here in this
performance of "Yew Piney Mountain" Laurel powers through a knotty tune
in the Harvest barn, accompanied by her Red Tail Ring partner Michael
Beauchamp-Cohen on acoustic guitar. There is joy in getting it right. Presented by Dogtown Studio in association with Earthwork Harvest Gathering.
Max Lockwood still believes in rock and roll. With a plaintive
voice reminiscent of Tom Petty, and a generous open spirit of sound,
"Light Arrives" comes to us from the Little House near the Hill Stage,
with a timeless chime of intertwining guitars. Accompanied by Justin
Dore, Max's partner of over a decade in Big Dudee Roo, with a choice
weeping solo, and Eric O'Daly, skilled multi-instrumentalist from the
Appleseed Collective, on a bright sunshiny day at the Gathering where
troubles seem few...when you look into the light. Sing it out.
Presented by Dogtown Studio in association with Earthwork Harvest
Gathering.
Michael Waite has been doing this a long time. He's
a natural outgrowth of the wild Upper Peninsula: craggy, genuine, warm
as a Franklin stove, cool as a wind off Lake Superior. He writes about
the intangible: natural wonder, familial love, concerns of the
spirit. And Erica Waite, dancer by training, provides charming
toe-tapped percussion on this rendition of "Bird Feeder Blues," filmed
in the meadow near the Hill Stage. Give these two a guitar and a piece
of plywood, and you have a heck of a show.
Presented by Dogtown Studio in association with Earthwork Harvest
Gathering.
Folk music is a grand tradition with many branches...and they don't
all fit the stereotype of earnestly strummed guitars. Shani Womack
uses beats, samples, and the power of her commanding voice to tell tales
of triumph, tragedy, faith, and Flint: often within the same song.
This late night performance of "Superman" from the little house on the
hill captures Shani's fervent belief, her outstanding vocal chops, and
her sheer joy at being here and alive and singing. Presented by Dogtown
Studio in association with Earthwork Harvest Gathering.
Sierra Skye Baker is an experience. Ethereal vocals
and delicate guitar float toward you on gossamer wings of melody,
emanating from an unusually accomplished and poised young performer.
She sees the beauty in the world and lets you rediscover it with your
own eyes and ears. She can deliver a trusty standard, or make up a new
song on the spot (seen it happen). This performance of "Fireflies" from
the Harvest Gathering yurt is full of sunshine and happy chattering
background noise: the perfect festival immersion. Set em free, let em
be. Presented by Dogtown Studio in association with Earthwork Harvest
Gathering.
Van Lente rewards patience. Van Lente is quiet, and persistent,
and full of layers of sound and meaning conveyed with just a hushed
voice and guitar. Van Lente is Muskegon's Gabrielle Schaub, and she has
often played in the barn in the wee hours at Earthwork Harvest
Gathering, as a comedown feast for weary revellers. This performance of
"If You Knew Him" comes from inside Zeek's Magic Bus, an appropriate
oasis of color and shade in the middle of a busy knot of humanity.
(They also sell vintage clothes.) Listen carefully: This placid
performance contains violence and anger. No one is simple.
Presented by Dogtown Studio in association with Earthwork Harvest
Gathering.
Sometimes folk music really IS just people gathered in a room with
ancient instruments and twining harmonies, and that is more than okay,
it's amazing. Whistler is a traditional trio from Bloomington, Indiana,
with telepathic rapport and a long history of individual credits that
come together for a heck of a hootenanny. Donald Bradley, Kelly
Bosworth, and Micah Ling filmed their rehearsal in the house on the hill
for Dogtown Studio at Earthwork Harvest Gathering 2019.
Wildlife Freeway is like nothing you've ever seen or heard. From Joshua
Tree, California, Adriana Atema travels in, relying on strangers to
help her tote her spinet piano, and then she plays, and sings, and
you're not quite sure what you're hearing, but you want to hear more.
This is challenge music: get past the dissonant elements to hear the
harmony of the spheres. "Always Arriving" was captured in the house on
the hill by Dogtown Studio cameras at the 2019 Earthwork Harvest
Gathering. https://wildlifefreeway.bandcamp.com/ http://www.adrianaatema.com/
