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Røki Kilroy

Carrying the listener on a roving, soulful journey, Røki Kilroy’s Americana songs paint a connection to the natural world, the magic and fickle, triumph and struggle. The influence of her Western, Arctic and Irish roots, lead way to a unique sound where the wild vastness of the American west, frozen solitude of Arctic fjords, and moody mist of Celtic sea shades meet in balance through ethereal vocals, eerie cadences, intricate fingerstyle guitar and warm bass tones.

Chosen as #1 Best New Band in America, the Boston Phoenix describes the Montana artist’s sound as “having the softness of Alison Krauss’s Americana roots folk with the deep bass and drums of Depeche Mode and the brooding emotion of a Bach Fugue, creating something awesome that ‘electroacoustic’ simply can’t define.” Bluesman, Guy Davis describes her sound as “beautiful and pure, it takes me somewhere deep and way back”. Røki’s sound has been compared to Joni Mitchell, EmmyLou Harris, Mazzy Star, Bat For Lashes and others.

A long time rock climber and field recordist, Røki incorporates field recordings of natural sounds into her live performances and film score compositions, the most recent recordings captured while climbing El Capitan in Yosemite. Kilroy’s experimentation with sound has lead her to work on various award winning films. Through such work, she hopes to spark people’s love for these wild places.

Hailing from North Western Montana, Kilroy’s modest upbringing sparked her love for music at a young age. Growing up in a cabin without electricity in Kootenai forest, it was easy to get lost in the sounds of wildlife and songwriting, escaping the hardships of poverty through music and connection with her small community. Working ranches, fire crews, mountain guiding and playing hootenannies, Kilroy embraced life on the road and made ends meet while living out of a beat up 1989 Toyota Celica.

Kilroy’s talent was noticed by Grammy Award winner, Skip Ewing who referred to her as “a 21st Century EmmyLou Harris”. After watching her perform at a Wyoming hootenanny, the country hit writer invited her to perform at the legendary Bluebird Cafe in Nashville with Pat Flynn and Viktor Krauss. Encouraged by Flynn, Røki began competing in songwriting competitions where she earned awards in the bluegrass and western genres. Between odd jobs and fire seasons, she couch surfed through Music Row, co-writing with a host of Nashville’s best for artists in the country western world.

Weary of the limits imposed while writing for others, Kilroy headed back to Montana, started an experimental folk project (Pterodactyl Plains) and began creating songs for the simple sake of creating music with unhindered expression.

With a tour history of 30+ countries, Røki has performed solo and with talents such as Califone, Allison Russell, Charlie Parr, Bill Callahan, Elephant Revival, Guy Davis, Lukas Nelson, Izaak Opatz, Yonder Mountain String Band, The Devil Makes Three, Infamous Stringdusters, Ben Bullington, Darrell Scott, String Cheese Incident, Greensky Bluegrass, Railroad Earth, Trampled By Turtles and others. Roki has shared the stage with greats such as Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Kostas, Little Feat, John Prine, EmmyLou Harris, Robert Earl Keen, Bill Kreutzmann, Del McCoury, Darol Angor, Sam Bush, Don McLean, Richie Havens, Doc Watson and others.

MINOR GOLD – Americana/Folk Duo (AUS)

Minor Gold are ARIA nominated artists Tracy McNeil & Dan Parsons. Canadian and Australian respectively, this Trans-Pacific duo echo 70’s cosmic Americana with an easy charm and potent honesty.  The strength of the songwriting and the indeterminate perfection of how these two artists’ voices lock in together hit right where the emotions live inside us.  With dynamics ranging from the intense restraint of campfire intimacy through to open throttle abandon, Minor Gold delight and enthral as they weave masterful harmonies and deft guitar playing around unforgettable, stripped back performances.

Since the release of their acclaimed debut album in August 2023, Minor Gold have been making waves in the Americana/Folk scene internationally. With extensive national tours in AUS and the U.S, including major festival appearances and Official Showcases at major conferences AmericanaFEST in Nashville, TN and Folk Alliance International in Kansas City; Minor Gold were also the support for The Teskey Brothers in the U.S and have recently taken home the ‘Folk Award’ in the 2024 Queensland Music Awards.

I have heard so much about these guys since booking them.  Telluride and IBMA winners……….plus local band Blue Point, a big night of full-on bluegrass.

For the past 16 years, Michigan based bluegrass band, Full Cord has been making a name for themselves blending traditional bluegrass music in which they are deeply rooted with jazz, western swing, and classic rock n’ roll while keeping the traditional bluegrass feel alive and well. These influences make every performance memorable and unique.

Following a ‘22 win at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival competition and the ‘22 IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) Momentum Band of The Year, this band has been hot on the touring trail nationwide and love to bring their style of bluegrass back home to Michigan.

Hold on to your hats when these folks hit the stage – they are bringing their version of the bluegrass train full steam ahead.

• 2024 WYCE Album of The Year: Cambium

• 2024 Artist feature in February 2024 issue of Bluegrass Unlimited

• 2022 Telluride Bluegrass Festival Band Competition winners

• 2022 IBMA Momentum Band of The Year

• Winner of WYCE’s 2019 Jammie Award for ‘Best Album by a  New Artist for Choreomania

• Winner of the 2021 ROMP band contest

• Picked up by Dark Shadow Recording (Stephen Mougin) following our performance at ROMP

• Selected for the 2021 IBMA Songwriter showcase for our song  by Brian Oberlin – “Downtown”

• Artist Feature in August 2021 issue of Bluegrass Unlimited

• 2022 IBMA Showcase artists

• Hindsight released in May of 2021 in top 20 albums reported for airplay on Roots Music Report for over a year

• Seen & Heard at: Hoxeyville, ROMP, IBMA Showcase band, Charlotte BG Fest, Milan BG Fest, Kendalville BG fest. Cervantes, Telluride, Podunk, Pagosa Folk N’ Bluegrass, Wheatland Music Festival, Frankfort BG Fest & more!

Quick quotes from reviews of the band, performances and albums from notable sources.

• First-tier players who bring life and energy to the music – Don Stiernberg

• Full Cord is a bluegrass band that can hold its own with any of the subgenres (bluegrass, newgrass, jamgrass) out there today – Don Stiernberg

• This music makes me smile! – Missy Armstrong

The Rattlers are back…….

Jamie Drysdale -A class act guitarist with on-point bluegrass runs. Naturally entertaining the crowd with his quick, witty humor. He is always writing unique and ear-catching originals. Also known for his touring/songwriting with the Jackson Hole band “The Random Canyon Growlers”

Jesse Brown -A violinist who has genre hopped many bands and instruments. He is known for his years spent with “The Lil’ Smokies” both touring and writing music. You can also catch him playing with legendary Montana band “Mission Mountain Wood Band”.

Dave McMeekin -Guitar plater turned banjo player who finally settled on the mandolin. He writes tunes the way they oughta be written with three chords, three verses and one chorus. Bringing in that high tenor harmony that every bluegrass song needs!

Dillon Johns -A graduate of the music program at The University of Montana. He now teaches elementary school music, passing on his extensive knowledge of music to the next generation. You may have heard doghouse bass, but you haven’t heard it like this! One thing you’ll get a Timber show is proper dose of delicious bass solos.

Caleb Dostal – A prodigy in the field of contemporary banjo. Caleb has been playing since he was 11. He first heard the banjo on some old CD’s around the house and fell in love with the sound, and from then on has had an almost inhuman drive to improve his ability and discover more of the possibilities that the banjo holds.

Local artist, Ro Myra has attended shows at Longstaff House and will be appearing on June 27th.

“I spent most of my life running away from it, and now I’m right back where I started.”

Nowhere, Nebraska, Myra’s extraordinary debut, is more than just a musical homecoming, though. Recorded over the last few years in Denver, Nashville, and Austin, the album is a complex reckoning with the past, a nuanced, literate reexamination of small-town life in the shadow of heartbreak, self-destruction, and second chances. While the arrangements here are broad and sweeping, Myra’s storytelling is sharply focused and firmly rooted, offering up rich, detailed character studies with keen insight and deep empathy. She writes with a novelist’s eye, isolating moments and emotions with surgical precision, and she sings with a weathered grace that makes the hard truths go down easy. The result is a warm embrace of an album all about memory and forgiveness, growth and pain, freedom and fate, a collection that calls to mind everything from Lucinda Williams to Bruce Springsteen to Lori McKenna to Brandi Carlile to Sheryl Crow as it makes peace with the past in order to more fully inhabit the present.

“This album was born out of an intention to become more of an observer in my daily life,” Myra explains. “I wanted to go back to this childlike state, to this honest, authentic space where I could try to understand the people and the places that shaped me, and maybe come to a better understanding of myself in the process.”

https://www.teamwass.com/music/artists/melissa-carper

Melissa Carper is in the area for the Red Ants Pants Festival and is coming with her band to play Longstaff House.  Please check out her music.    This is beautiful, sincere country music, closer to bluegrass or mountain music that is coming from Nashville today.  Anyone inspired by Ralph Stanley is welcome here any day.

“I don’t think you can get this sound unless it’s borned in ya,” said bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, when asked about what he called “old-time mountain music.” When Melissa Carper heard those words, something jumped inside her. While staying in the country with a friend, she found an old DVD of Down From the Mountain, the documentary and concert film of the “O, Brother Where Art Thou” soundtrack that featured this particular Stanley interview. She immediately jotted down “borned in ya” on a piece of paper. “I knew I had to write that song,” she recalls.

I have this guy in the class with Ry Cooder or Tim O’Brien.

How about this:

• “Tony Furtado is a major musical force without a doubt. He has his black belt in voice, bottleneck guitar and his banjo playing scares the crap out of me.” – David Lindley

Very few musicians of any stripe so personify a musical genre as completely as Tony Furtado embodies Americana roots music.

Tony is an evocative and soulful singer, a wide-ranging songwriter and a virtuoso multi-instrumentalist adept on banjo, cello-banjo, slide guitar and baritone ukulele who mixes and matches sounds and styles with the flair of a master chef (he’s also an accomplished sculptor, but that’s another story). All of the music of America is in Tony’s music. Relix hit the nail on the head when writing of Tony: “True talent doesn’t need categories.

”A native of Pleasanton, California, who now makes his home in Portland, Oregon, Tony Furtado took up the banjo at age 12, inspired by the Beverly Hillbillies television show and a sixth-grade music report. He first attracted national attention in 1987, when he won the National Bluegrass Banjo Championship in Winfield, Kansas. Not long after that, Tony opted for the life of a full-time professional musician, joining Laurie Lewis & Grant Street. A second victory at Winfield, in 1991, bookended his years with Grant Street.

In 1990, Tony signed a recording deal with Rounder Records, one of the country’s preeminent independent record companies. Beginning with Swamped in 1990, he recorded six critically acclaimed albums for the label, collaborating with such master musicians as Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Tim O’Brien, Stuart Duncan, Kelly Joe Phelps and Mike Marshall. During this period, Tony also performed and recorded with the band SugarBeat and the Rounder Banjo Extravaganza with Tony Trischka and Tom Adams.

Beginning in the late 1990s – influenced by such musical heroes as Ry Cooder, David Lindley and Taj Mahal – Tony added slide guitar, singing and songwriting to his musical toolbox and began leading his own band. He is a tireless road musician who performs in a dizzying variety of formats: solo, in a duo or trio or with his full five-person band. He especially values the opportunities he has had to tour with such legendary musicians as Gregg Allman and with such esteemed slide guitarists as David Lindley, Derek Trucks and Sonny Landreth.

Tony has performed throughout the world at top venues and appeared at such prestigious music festivals as the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, High Sierra Music Festival, Jazz Aspen, Kerrville Folk Festival, Strawberry Music Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival, Sisters Folk Festival, San Jose Jazz Festival and countless others.

Owen brings his local trio of  players plus Lhanna Writesel on sax for a night of jazz.

Owen Ross is a jazz guitarist, composer, and producer whose music is imbued with influences
of hard bop, modern jazz, funk, and R&B. His music effortlessly blends traditional jazz elements
with contemporary influences, creating a unique voice that resonates with listeners of all
backgrounds. Ross has captivated audiences around the world with his soulful playing and
compositions, both as a solo artist, sideman, and with his organ trio, Diplomats of Funk. Based
in Montana and New England, Ross serves as a faculty member at the University of Montana
School of Music, and as an in-house engineer and arranger at Oak Hill Music and Studio
Metronome in New Hampshire.

STURTZ’S MUSIC STANDS OUT FOR ITS DISTINCTIVE, SOOTHING INSTRUMENTAL AND VOCAL HARMONIES.

The acoustic quartet – Andrew Sturtz [vocals, guitar], Jim Herlihy [banjo], Courtlyn Carpenter [cello, and Will Kuepper [bass]– falls somewhere at the intersection of folk and soul, with lead singer Andrew Sturtz’s melodic vocals soaring over the lower string instrumentals. Sturtz is based in Boulder, CO, and has toured across the U.S. opening for groups like the Eli Young Band, Trout Steak Revival, Lillie Mae, and Smooth Hound Smith. NPR’s All Songs Considered described the band as “a reassuring breath of fresh air that pulls me back to simpler times” in their April 2020 blog. Sturtz released their debut album You’ve Done this Before in August 2021, and now they are hard at work touring on this album and writing songs for their next album. When they’re not playing music, you’ll probably find them milling flour, farming, laying in a creek, or eating native foliage.