WFHB FireHouse Broadcasting

~ To be held at Upland Brewing Company on Saturday, May 14

WFHB announces the fourth annual Acoustic Roots Festival, to be held on Saturday, May 14th, hosted by Upland Brewing Company at 350 West 11th in Bloomington. Festival gates will open at 2pm, with music from 3pm-10pm.

WFHB’s Acoustic Roots Festival is a fundraiser for Bloomington Community Radio, focusing on the rich heritage of American acoustic roots music. The festival is a showcase for local and regional acoustic roots artists, along with a touring headliner.

Indiana artists featured on the 2011 Acoustic Roots Festival line up are Tim Grimm, White Lightning Boys, Bobbie Lancaster, Blue Cut, Davy Jay Sparrow and His Well-Known Famous Drovers, The Calumet Reel, Jennie Devoe and The Millbranch String Theory.

Headlining the festival will be Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys – IU alum Leverett joining forces with other stars of klezmer and bluegrass to explore the shared musical spirit of two genres originally formed worlds apart.

In Klezmer Mountain Boys music, Appalachian and southern fiddle tunes by Bill Monroe meet klezmer melodies from pre-war Russia and Eastern Europe. The resulting medleys and improvisations are at once raw, funny, soulful and foot-stomping. Their latest release Second Avenue Square Dance features guest artists Jorma Kaukonen and Hazel Dickens.

Margot Leverett is one of the foremost clarinetists of the klezmer revival and a founding member of the Klezmatics in 1985. Classically trained at Indiana University School of Music, Leverett was involved in avant-garde music when she first heard klezmer, the dynamic East European music traditionally played at Jewish weddings.

Admission to the 4th Annual WFHB Acoustic Roots Festival is ten dollars, with all proceeds after expenses supporting WFHB. Advance tickets are on sale at WFHB, Landlocked Music, Buskirk-Chumley Box Office, the Bloomington Convention & Visitors Bureau and Upland Brewing Company beginning April 19.

No coolers, please – Upland beer and food will be available on site.

More information about WFHB’s Acoustic Roots Festival is available from Jim Manion, WFHB Music Director at 812-323-1200 or music @wfhb.org.

Additional information online:
www.wfhb.org
www.uplandbeer.com
www.klezmermountainboys.com
www.timgrimm.com
www.myspace.com/whitelightningboys
www.bobbielancaster.com
www.myspace.com/bluecutroots
www.davyjaysparrow.com
www.myspace.com/thecalumetreel
www.jenniedevoe.com

WFHB would like to thank the following sponsors of the festival: Upland Brewing Company, Nature’s Way Landscaping, Downtown Bloomington, Inc. & the Bloomington Convention & Visitors Bureau.