"My friend and I attended
our first 4 Corners Festival this year. We had a wonderful time! All in all your festival is top notch. The facilities and music
were outstanding. The staff was helpful and courteous."
David S., Loveland, CO
Bearfoot - Originally selected from the Anchorage and Cordova music campers as musical representatives, Bearfoot has evolved in the past 7 years to become one of the most in-demand acoustic bands on the circuit.
Their most recent recording, Follow Me, demonstrates a shift in the band’s musical direction. They dropped “bluegrass” from their name and have ventured out into the world of acoustic Americana. Their beginning as a bluegrass band still shows through, however, as they play the fire out of their instruments on up-tempo numbers like the title track, Follow Me. Their voices are the spark that unites the music and shines through in the band’s vibrant arrangements.
The Greencards - The Greencards are an acoustic music phenomenon that's played around the world, headlined major festivals, won awards, and toured with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson. They pull all this off with musical super-conductivity, a whirling dervish attack, a respect for tradition, and a zest for innovation. They fit into history on a line that connects Fairport Convention to New Grass Revival to Patty Griffin, but they remain vibrantly independent, mingling discipline and daring in exquisite balance.
They took Best New Band at the Austin Music Awards in 2004. The Houston Chronicle ranked their live show among the city's top five nights of music of the year. Their video for the song "Time" became one of the most played on GAC and CMT's Americana shows. They were nominated for New/Emerging Artist of the Year at the Americana Awards in 2004 and then won that prize in the fall of 2006. And The Greencards are coming to Pagosa Springs to turn a brand new audience into friends and fans.
Over the Rhine - After more than 15 years making music, it’s obvious that Ohio duo Over The Rhine is in it for the long haul, and for keeps. Over The Rhine may not be a household name, but to call the act’s followers “fanatical” would understate the point, and they’re not shy about converting the curious. Why? For starters, there’s Bergquist’s torchy, devil-may-care voice, brimming with Midwestern soul, unafraid to lay bare every emotional resonance. And again, there’s the life-and-death commitment dripping from her every word.
Their commitment is underscored by their latest, The Trumpet Child, and its opening track, “I Don’t Wanna Waste Your Time,” a manifesto of sorts for the artists recently named to Paste magazine’s list of 100 Best Living Songwriters. Look no further than the lyrics to this track for what animates Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist, the married couple at the heart of Over The Rhine: “I hope this night puts down deep roots / I hope we plant a seed / ‘Cause I don’t wanna waste your time / With music you don’t need.” Detweiler and Bergquist’s evocative, earthy songwriting and impassioned delivery is at its finest in The Trumpet Child. The new record is a collaboration with ultra-talented Nashville producer/arranger Brad Jones (Matthew Sweet, Josh Rouse, Ron Sexsmith, Richard Julian, et. al) and celebrates American music in the most richly imaginative ways.
Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile - The line-up of Punch Brothers—whose name is taken from the Mark Twain short story, Punch, Brothers, Punch!—is formidable. Thile released the first of five solo albums when he was justthirteen and, by the time he was 20, he was attracting a following among pop, country, andalternative-rock audiences as a member of the Grammy Award–winning Nickel Creek. A Washington Post critic recently said Thile “may well be the most virtuosic American ever to playthe mandolin.”
His equally youthful, prodigiously gifted band-mates are among the most in-demand performers in the worlds of bluegrass, folk, and traditional music. Guitarist Chris Eldridge was a founding member of the Infamous Stringdusters and occasionally sits in with his dad Ben’s band, The Seldom Scene; bassist Greg Garrison has played with trumpeter Ron Miles and Leftover Salmon—along with banjo player Noam Pikelny. Pikelny he has performed and recorded as a solo artist and has collaborated with acoustic music heavyweights John Cowan and Tony Trischka. Violinist Gabe Witcher, a life-long friend of Thile’s, is a sought-after session man whose fiddle-playing has been featured on the soundtrack of films ranging from Toy Story to Brokeback Mountain. Witcher also has recorded with a range of artists from Willie Nelson to Beck to Randy Newman and played in dobro master Jerry Douglas’ band for six years.
The Waifs - The road looms large and long in the Waifs' inspirational tale of self-determined international success. It intersected for sisters Donna and Vikki and guitarist Josh in a remote corner of the Western Australian desert some 15 years ago.
Their mobile cottage industry of campfire-crafted songs and independently recorded, gold-selling CDs slowly reached critical mass in Australia between '96 and '00, while their captivating on-stage chemistry spilled into a contagious festival following through Europe and North America.
The Waifs' rainswept radio smash of '02, "London Still," led to a US release deal with Compass Records and ever more touring – with Bob Dylan among others – while their aforementioned watershed album, Up All Night, stormed mainstream and alternative charts back home, and picked up ARIA Awards including Best Independent, and Best Blues And Roots Release.
A live retrospective, A Brief History, was another multi-platinum success in '05. It was also a full-stop of sorts, as Donna and Vikki concentrated on motherhood in their respective homes in Minnesota and Utah.
Now it’s 2008 and the Waifs have a brand new release. Sundirtwater is an album born of time and distance: the geographic space between singer-songwriters Donna Simpson, Vikki Thorn and Josh Cunningham, and the long hiatus since their last studio triumph. The distance created a kind of vacuum that these new songs could hardly wait to fill. Together, they reach a new benchmark of worldly eclecticism, without surrendering one iota of the homegrown and unaffected heart and soul that's made the Waifs one of Australia's most loved and admired musical exports of this century.
The Wilders - “There’s a good maxim in art,” says Ike Sheldon, lead singer and guitarist Kansas City’s hillbilly band, The Wilders. “You shouldn’t really break the rules until you know the rules. Look at Picasso; the dude was absolutely amazing. He could draw anything perfectly, very detailed and realistic. That’s how he could move on to other things. We said ‘If we are gonna play country music, let’s learn what makes it tick.’ And now that we know, we are reaping the benefits; we can throw the rules out the window. If you want straight Hank Williams, we can do it right. But don’t give me any s___ for being just like a rock and roller and totally twisting it around.”
The band’s all-new April 15, 2008 release, Someone’s Got to Pay, is an Americana album progressing around a real life murder trial (or as the lyrics say, “An old murder ballad come to life”) and fleshed out with more original recordings conjuring up small town crazies and wrecked lives. But don’t let the dark subject matter fool you. The Wilders just got wilder and the music is more engaging than ever.
“We’re doing whatever we want and that’s what’s really exciting for us,” adds Ike. “This ain’t sitting on the front porch rocking chair music. We play hillbilly music and we play the s___ out of it.”
