HEADLINERS
WATKINS FAMILY HOUR
Saturday, April 2, 8:00 PM
from the Tucson Folk Festival Plaza Stage!
Photo Credit: Jacob Boll
Alternating on lead, the pair’s vocals remain a model of sibling harmony, while the interplay between Sean’s intricate guitar picking and Sara’s elegant fiddle is similarly impressive.
– THE GUARDIAN –
Moving from one landscape to the next – literally and musically — is nothing new to Sean and Sara Watkins, who have performed separately and together for nearly their whole lives. As young adults, they (along with mandolinist Chris Thile) broke out nationally as Nickel Creek, an acoustic ensemble that sold millions of albums, won a Grammy, and toured the world.
With Nickel Creek on hiatus, Sean and Sara released multiple solo albums and pursued other collaborations, most recently with Sara’s involvement in I’m With Her. Recently, the siblings gravitated toward the idea of another Watkins Family Hour album after realizing that their calendars afforded them a rare opportunity to write, record, and tour together. The resulting brother sister is a duo-centric record – yet one that feels bigger than just two people.
TISH HINOJOSA
Sunday, April 3, 6:00PM
from the Tucson Folk Festival Plaza Stage!
Photo Credit: Natalie Rhea
Tish Hinojosa is a Mexican-American Singer Songwriter whose songs blend the genres of country, folk and Hispanic music in a way that can only be described as a musical melting pot; unique and insightful. Her songs have been covered by other artists; she has written and worked with, Peter Rowan, Joan Baez, Chris Hillman, Booker T. Jones, Kris Kristofferson and Pete Seeger.
She has played at the White House for President and Mrs. Bill Clinton and at The Texas Governor’s mansion for then Governor George W. Bush. She sings and writes in Spanish and English and has many bilingual songs, including a full album of children’s songs that has often been used by teachers as a tool for teaching the Spanish language. The Chicago Tribune put it succinctly: “Simply put, Hinojosa is a first-class songwriter.
VANCE GILBERT
Saturday, April 2, 7:00PM
from the Tucson Folk Festival Plaza Stage!
Considered by many to be an integral part of the national folk scene, Vance Gilbert’s approach to the acoustic singer-songwriter idiom is significant. Gilbert’s compositions, while frequently employing sophisticated melodies and harmonies that attest to his jazz roots, remain sublime attestations to the storyteller’s craft.
His remarkable rapport with his audiences and his free spirited performances inspired one critic to hail him as “a folkie trapped in a vaudevillian body,” with “a voice that could have been on the opera stage, a wit that could have been on a comedy stage and a songwriting talent that’s thrust him on the folk stage for decades.”
FAMILY SHOW HEADLINER
RED YARN
Photo Credit: Jason Quigley
Performing at the Tucson Folk Festival!
Red Yarn (aka Andy Furgeson) is a Texas-born, Oregon-based family performer who weaves folksongs and puppetry into high-energy shows for all ages. With his engaging performances, lush folk-rock recordings, and playful music videos, this red-bearded bard reinvigorates American folklore for younger generations.
With traditional and original songs that apply an indie aesthetic to folk, rockabilly, country and blues, Red Yarn’s sound is both rooted and modern. Whether performing solo, with his wife and singing partner Jessie, or with a full band, Red Yarn’s shows are a raucous, inclusive celebration of the multicultural musical heritage of the USA. As Red rambles through the landscapes of American folklore, from the Deep Woods to the Old Barn, he introduces his “critter” friends – lovable, handmade puppets – along the way.
BIRDS AND ARROWS
Saturday, April 2, 2:00PM
from the Tucson Folk Festival Plaza Stage!
Andrea and Pete Connolly of Birds and Arrows have been making music together for more than 15 years, and this familiarity and cohesion certainly shows. Their sound and art direction make them seem much larger than a duo, churning out music that can jump from personal ballads to massive jams that threaten to swallow the performers up. Their tight harmonies and melody driven songs make them span many genres from rock to folk to pop. Their music is contemplative and a little psychedelic, just like the desert itself.
CARY MORIN
Saturday, April 2, 5:00PM
from the Tucson Folk Festival Plaza Stage!
Described as “one of the best acoustic pickers on the scene today,” Cary Morin brings together the great musical traditions of America and beyond like no other. With deft fingerstyle guitar and vocals that alternately convey melodic elation and gritty world-weariness, Morin crafts an inimitable style often characterized as acoustic Native Americana with qualities of blues, bluegrass, jazz, jam, reggae, and dance.
CHRIS BRASHEAR & PETER MCLAUGHLIN
Saturday, April 2, 3:00PM
from the Tucson Folk Festival Plaza Stage!
Chris Brashear and Peter McLaughlin are prolific songwriters, having performed and recorded together for over twenty years. Their previous duet recordings, Canyoneers (2003) and So Long Arizona (2008), established them as leading performance artists and creative lyricists with a particular interest in celebrating, chronicling and lamenting, the joys, sorrows and historic significance of the Southwest.
CURLEY TAYLOR & ZYDECO TROUBLE
Sunday, April 3, 7:00PM
from the Tucson Folk Festival Plaza Stage!
Louisiana native Curley Taylor’s bluesy, soulful vocals and the band’s hard driving Zydeco beat blend to create high-energy dance music for all audiences. Curley’s music is true to its roots in Zydeco and Blues, but contemporary enough to appeal to a broad range of music lovers. Offbeat Magazine calls the group “part of the movement ushering in a new era of zydeco. It’s not even close to your father’s zydeco, but Taylor aims to be your zydeco daddy”.
EL MARIACHI TAPATIO DE TUCSON
Saturday, April 2, 12:00PM
from the Tucson Folk Festival Plaza Stage!
El Mariachi Tapatio, founded in 1991 by Alberto Ranjel Jr, is dedicated to the highest level of musicianship while balancing their professionalism as educators to communicate their heritage and cultural identity. El Mariachi Tapatio has enjoyed a touring history that spans both oceans and have participated in the Tucson and Las Cruces International Mariachi Conferences as both guest artists and instructors. With a number of professional educators performing with the ensemble, the promotion of music education is also a principle objective alongside the simple joy of providing joyful music to the community.
FREDDY & FRANCINE
Sunday, April 3, 5:00PM
from the Tucson Folk Festival Plaza Stage!
Hindsight is 20/20, they say, but foresight is even better. And Nashville’s powerful husband/wife duo Freddy & Francine had just that, while writing their new album I Am Afraid to Die! in the beginning of 2020. They couldn’t have known it then, but by the time the album would be ready for release, the world would be in the grip of a global pandemic – and they would have already painted its picture, song by song. I Am Afraid to Die!, the duo’s seventh album, was recorded in Nashville after a successful $25,000 Kickstarter campaign and released in September 2020.
GABRIEL NAÏM AMOR & ELIZABETH GOODFELLOW
Sunday, April 3, 2:00PM
from the Tucson Folk Festival Plaza Stage!
French-born, Parisian musician Gabriel Naïm Amor is a chameleon of a musician whose solo albums outline a constellation of artistic innovation, from 2005’s ‘Sanguine’ produced by Joey Burns of Calexico, to 2020’s ‘Correspondents’ recorded remotely with drummer John Convertino.
It was 2018’s ‘Hear The Walls’ that grabbed the attention of Los Angeles-based drummer/singer-songwriter Elizabeth Goodfellow (Iron and Wine, Madison Cunningham, Allison Russell). She reached out to Naïm to collaborate in January 2021, bringing her marimba to Naïm’s studio in Tucson where the two worked on the song “Winter Flowers”, a blend of Goodfellow’s marimba and Naïm’s guitar, their combined vocals. Their collaborative efforts create a uniquely fresh sound.
JC & LANEY
Saturday, April 2, 1:00PM
from the Tucson Folk Festival Plaza Stage!
JC & Laney are seasoned high energy Acoustic Folk Rock Balladeers. Since 2009 they are well known for their trademark harmonies, playful banter, memorable toe tapping & heart throbbing original songs. JC is an accomplished acoustic guitar player, vocalist & songwriter and Laney will steal your heart away with her amazing vocals. With 7 CD releases; they were chosen for the 1st round of the 2016 Grammy Awards.
JOHN COINMAN
Sunday, April 3, 1:00PM
from the Tucson Folk Festival Plaza Stage!
John Coinman is an award-winning singer-songwriter who grew up on the Kiowa Grasslands in Clayton, New Mexico. He has recorded five solo albums and had numerous songs in films and on television. John is the bandleader for Kevin Costner & Modern West (KCMW) and he was the Music Supervisor for the film Dances With Wolves.
LIZ & PETE
Sunday, April 3, 3:00PM
from the Tucson Folk Festival Plaza Stage!
She’s Liz, he’s Pete, they are Liz & Pete. Liz Cerepanya and Peter Dalton Ronstadt join musical forces to explore material old and new. Liz’s heartfelt voice with Pete’s haunting harmonies and rich guitar arrangements are sure to tug at the heart.
RAYE ZARAGOZA
Sunday, April 3, 4:00PM
from the Tucson Folk Festival Plaza Stage!
Photo Credit: Jimmy Himes
Called “One of the most fresh and compelling voices in folk music today” by NPR, Raye Zaragoza is a galvanizing presence, a self-assured artist making music to fight for, represent, and celebrate those left too long outside the spotlight. Known for tenacious feminist anthems and fearless protest folk, her stage presence teems with determined morale.
As a Japanese-American, Mexican, Indigenous woman, Zaragoza spent much of her early life trying to assimilate with the world around her, to meet punishing standards of beauty synonymous with just one color of skin—and not her own. She has come a long way from that youthful pain, proclaiming “I am proud to be a multicultural brown woman with insecurities and a vibrant intersectional identity that I continue to grapple with. I hope young girls of today will know that the “It Girl” is whatever the hell they want to be.”
RYANHOOD
Sunday, April 3, 12:00PM
from the Tucson Folk Festival Plaza Stage!
Ryanhood’s cross-generational sound has been equally at home in colleges, coffeehouses, concert halls, and festivals. Cameron Hood’s rich and folky lead vocals, Ryan Green’s explosive guitar & mandolin riffs, and their airtight vocal harmonies prompted the Arizona Daily Star to call the acoustic do, “a match made in radio heaven.”
STILLHOUSE JUNKIES
Saturday, April 2, 4:00PM
from the Tucson Folk Festival Plaza Stage!
Born in a distillery in Durango, CO, Stillhouse Junkies play a delirious, head-spinning mixture of original roots, blues, funk, swing, and bluegrass music. With all three band members sharing lead vocal and songwriting duties, the Junkies conjure a wide range of landscapes that pay tribute to the iconic sounds of Gillian Welch, the Allman Brothers, Tim O’Brien, the Wood Brothers, John Hiatt, and countless others while breaking new musical ground with their genre-bending original material.
Stillhouse Junkies are proud to be Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival showcase artists, two-time Telluride Bluegrass Band Contest finalists, 2020 & 2021 IBMA World of Bluegrass showcase artists, and 2021 IBMA Momentum award winners.