What I love most about the festival is watching you. I love seeing the different folks that come to the festival; all ages, experienced veterans, festival babies, international music fans, couples, families, artists, teenagers – everyone here finding what they love. I love watching you meeting each other and sharing your time, your talents, your interests and helping each other out. I also love to watch you discover new music. The festival’s biggest goal – music-wise – is to make sure to stretch you and your tastes, to take you outside of the norm and remind you how much music and art is out there that’s not always available elsewhere. Here are some bands that I’m excited to watch you discover, mostly because I enjoyed discovering them, myself. I think you’ll enjoy…

Awalom Gebremariam

Our friends at Music Maker Relief Foundation introduced me to this singer and multi-instrumentalist from Eritrea. Gebremariam came to NC. after a lengthy journey from Eritrea to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. In 2007, before leaving his hometown, the Eritrean capital of Asmara, he recorded his album, Desdes. However, over the course of his long, complicated journey, he never received any of the money for his cassette and CD sales, and he never knew how much of a splash his music had made.

Through an interesting turn of events, a traveler friend of the label Awesome Tapes From Africa heard the album on a trip to Eritrea (where everyone was playing it), and told them about it. The label liked it so much, they posted a blog about it and a NC agency that aids asylum-seekers – and who knew Awalom – saw the post, and connected the label with the artist. Now they are working together to bring his music to the masses.

We’re looking forward to having him here and continuting the story. Sadly, I couldn’t find any live videos, but here’s something to give you a taste.

Awalom Gebremariam — Eritreana

Darlingside

At first I was calling these guys “our next Mumford & Sons,” but soon realized that while they have some of the folkiness from M&S’s first two albums, and the sweet, earnest lyrics, they are much closer to Simon and Garfunkel or Crosby, Still, Nash & Young. They have great harmonies, they’re what the band is built on, and their songs take you on a journey. You get lost in the a cappella blends, get swept away on a job interview with a sword fighting guy “who looks like Harrison Ford,” and wake up 3 minutes later feeling like a lot more just happened than a song. They’re young, and honestly pretty dorky, in a good, if-you-love-Frodo-Baggins kind of way. It’ll be a perfect way to bring Saturday daylight to a close.

Darlingside – Go Back

Mariachi Flor de Toloache

Latin Grammy Nominee Mariachi Flor de Toloache is the first and only established all female mariachi band in New York City. I first saw them in a Tiny Desk Concert video after they approached the festival about playing. Seemed perfect for us. Women-powered, culture-filled roots music, I was in!

As their website states: “They coalesce as would a band of sisters, with a grace and vibrant beauty that casts a spell over their audiences not unlike the legendary Toloache flower still being used in Mexico as a love potion. While working to preserve centuries old traditions of Mariachi, their melange of the traditional and the modern pushes the boundaries of the genre and brings Mariachi music to new audiences.”

So, you should probably just go see them in the Grove on Thursday night….

Mariachi Flor de Toloache – Guadalajara

Have so much fun, I hope to see you out there!

Love & Peace,
Sara Waters
Co-Coordinator
Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance

The warmth and beauty of a fire has been the heart and gathering place of humans since before recorded time. It works at any time of day, in any weather condition, no power or wi-fi needed. Fire is universal and it is familiar, and powerful. Sometimes it is sought out in desperation, sometimes just for its glow and mystique.

I think of campfires and their tendency to draw songs and tall tales. Of stoves and their ability to transform food into feasts. Of a forge, melting metal into tools, useful for survival. I think too of how fire can be a source of comfort, but it can also consume much of what means anything to us. It, like its sister water, can sustain and calm us or destroy us with its power. Love too, is similar in that way.

I remember some of my first days here, working in the house alone over the winter. I didn’t even know how to build a fire in a wood stove! But folks here taught me, sometimes built a fire before I arrived. My best days though, were when I started to build it, got frustrated, thought it would never catch, but then by afternoon having a blazing burn and not even remembering how cold it was when I had begun.

The gathering we do at the festival, the warmth and sustenance that this place provides, has that feeling of hearth and heart like fire itself. We come back to it, not only because it’s pretty, and dazzling, and unpredictable, but also because it warms and comforts us. It feels like home. It provides us with warmth, feasts, many a tune and a tale! We work to build a fire, gathering wood, chopping it, with patience and care, piling twigs and brush and then larger kindling and logs. It is the same with Shakori Hills. It starts with a gathering, day by day we work to build it up, and soon it blazes toward the heavens. Drawing others to it – full of light, life, and surrounded by music.

There are other fires. Some rage and consume whatever is in their path without distinction of value. Some anger (caused by fear?) starts small and then grows with no good understanding of why and without stopping to think through consequences. There is blame, there are lies, there is misunderstanding without communication – they consume until there is nothing left but charred remains. Black and silent.

I would like to invite you to gather around this GrassRoots fire with your friends, invite the strangers in close, sing and pick, laugh and remember. Let it inspire you to help build the fires we need – the sustaining, transforming, feeding kind – and teach others to build them as well, sometimes building them for others, helping them to understand how essential and how precious they are. Together, we have the power to keep the fire going.

Love and warmth,

Sara Waters

Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival Co-coordinator

In my college days and for a few years after, one of my major hobbies was making mix cds for people. I even did a crowd-funding project (before it was a thing) to get myself a cd burner so I could make cds for people of the music I loved. People actually helped to fund it too! So, it’s fun to remember that while helping to select the bands for the Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival. It’s basically the same thing, just on a much bigger level. Getting to share music I love with people I care about is one of the greatest things about my life. Watching festival people fall in love with bands is the best reward I could receive for the work I do. Here are some bands that you may not have heard of that are playing with us this spring…check them out now and love them at the festival!

Rebekah Todd & The Odyssey

If you’re looking for a new favorite local band, do yourself a favor and find Rebekah Todd & The Odyssey. When she was first introduced to me, I thought she was a talented singer-songwriter with a soothing voice and sweet songs. We knew she had a good amount of fans and thought she’d be a great local band to put on the bill. THEN I saw her live! That girl has SOUL! And on top of that, she’s just a good soul and loves doing what she does, and it shows. Rebekah Todd plays with her band, The Odyssey, on Sunday in the Grove at 11am.

Sarah Potenza

Ok, guilty pleasure alert, I watch The Voice. Amid a lot of “talent” shows on tv, it actually seems that this one really cares about the artists. Plus, it’s fun to watch singers and musicians come into their own because of a bit of a confidence builder. My favorite act on the show so far has been Sarah Potenza, so when we found out she had some GrassRoots connections, we knew it was fate to have her with us. Sarah’s got soul too, some say she’s like a country Janice. Her hard work in Nashville has paid off, and Blake Shelton hasn’t been the only one to notice her. See Sarah and her husband Ian Crossman on Saturday in the Grove at 9:30pm and Sunday in the Meadow at 1:45pm.

Danay Suarez

Danay was supposed to be with us last fall but her plans changed, so we had to delay our excitement about sharing her with our NC friends. She’s been with us twice in Miami, and is a pretty magical experience. From Havana, Suarez definitely brings the breezy island sound with her, with a great voice and beautiful, sultry presence. Her traditional Cuban sound blends seamlessly with her socially conscious and poetic lyrics. It’s somewhat rare to hear hop-hop at GrassRoots, but it’s also rare you hear hip-hop like this.

 

DISHOOM, Birdgherl, & Bless Your Heart

If it’s a dance party you’re looking for, this is the festival for you! We’ve got some great folks visiting us from the Bull City (Durham) who will be in the Cabaret Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Thursday & Friday nights are STACKED Dance Parties featuring Bless Your Heart both nights, joined by Birdgherl on Friday. Stacked is a Triangle-based dance party series where proceeds from each event go to support organizations working in social and food justice in our community. Check out the organization and some amazing beats, and be prepared to get close and sweaty! On Saturday night we bring back the international dance party of DISHOOM. Learn moves you didn’t’ even know you could do and dance to new worlds with Bollywood, Bhangra, electro, hip-hop, trap, dancehall, house, reggaeton and more alongside live drums and amazing visuals.

A Taste of Miami…

This Spring, we have such a huge Miami presence. Miami possesses a rich musical scene and we’ve been extremely lucky to get to know some of its greatest examples and share not only music, but the festival itself, with some talented, amazing people. Do not miss out on our Miami friends’ sets, they’ll make you dance, for sure, and they might make you come visit them at home with us next February! They include Locos Por Juana (Dance Tent, Thu 11:45pm & Fri, Meadow 8:15pm), Tamboka (Meadow, Thu 6:30pm; Carson’s Grove, Sat 5:30pm; & Dance Tent, Sun 4:30), FABI (Dance Tent, Sat 9:30pm & Meadow, Sun 4pm), Uma Galera (Carson’s Grove, Fri 11:30pm & Meadow, Sat 2:15pm), Cortadito & Friends (Dance Tent, Sun noon), Nag Champayons (Dance Tent, Sat 6:45pm & Meadow Stage, Sun 5:45pm).

Here’s a video from Tamboka to get you excited…

Happy Shakori, y’all!

Love & Peace,
Sara

Sara Waters
Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance Co-Coordinator