(Photo courtesy of Sisters Folk Festival)
Sisters Folk Festival (SFF) continues its 2018 Winter Concert Series featuring fantastic bands, bringing a breadth of Americana music to Sisters this winter. The dates of the next two shows are February 12 and March 14. Tickets are available for the individual concerts and all shows are at the Sisters High School Auditorium.
Monday, February 12 • We Banjo 3
Irish supergroup We Banjo 3, from Galway, Ireland plays a blend of traditional Irish, old time, bluegrass and has pioneered the term “Celtgrass.” The band is composed of two sets of brothers, Enda and Fergal Scahill and Martin and David Howley. The members of the band have been highly successful in the competitive music field with Martin winning seven All Ireland titles on the banjo and Enda capturing the award four times. Fergal and David have also been honored, earning All Ireland titles on the banjo, fiddle, bodhrán and guitar. In 2016, the band was selected to play for President Barack Obama and Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the annual Friends of Ireland luncheon held in Washington, D.C. around Saint Patrick’s Day. President Obama praised the band’s show, calling it, “Great music. Incredible performance.” Earle Hitchner, music-writer for The Wall Street Journal, described their playing as “freshness and finesse bordering on the magical,” and Live Ireland proclaimed them “the hottest group in Irish music…”
Their debut album, Roots of the Banjo Tree, was released in 2012 and was named Traditional Music Album of the Year by The Irish Times. This was followed by the release of Gather the Good in 2014. Siobhan Long, music critic for The Irish Times, writes “We Banjo 3 are a musical Betty Ford Clinic, almost singlehandedly rehabilitating the much-maligned banjo in four short years.” In 2016 the band released their fourth album, String Theory, which debuted at number one on the Billboard charts. They are wildly entertaining and coming back to Sisters after being on the bill for the cancelled 2017 Festival.
Wednesday, March 14 • Darlingside
The final show in the series will feature crowd favorite Darlingside, with Henry Jamison, celebrating their brand-new record, Extralife. The last time Darlingside played Central Oregon, Sisters Folk Festival produced the show at the Tower Theater.
The word “extraordinary” is defined as something beyond, amazing, or incredible. The word “extralife” doesn’t exist. But in the world of Darlingside — another previously non-existent word — it’s all about invention, expansion and elevating everything into the realm of the extraordinary both conceptually and through musical performance.
The band’s new album intensifies the journey begun on its critically acclaimed 2015 album, Birds Say. On that project, Darlingside’s quartet of bassist Dave Senft, guitarist/banjoist Don Mitchell, violinist/mandolinist Auyon Mukharji and cellist/guitarist Harris Paseltiner fused assertions (Go Back), assumptions (God Of Loss), predictions (The Ancestor), projections (Do You Ever Live?) and reflections (White Horses). “We put our heads together and created this collective consciousness about bits and pieces from our past and how we saw the world based upon reminiscences,” explains Paseltiner about that sojourn. Birds Say mastered a musical and lyrical path that led to the more challenging territory explored on Extralife. Mukharji describes the Extralife concept as “…a life beyond where we are now, whether that’s a brand new thing, a rebirth, or just a new version of ourselves as we move forward.” So by abandoning Birds Say’s nostalgia and its tales of “what once was,” Darlingside created its polar opposite with Extralife, the new album exploring “what is now” and “what might be” simultaneously in the brave new world. Darlingside continues to push the boundaries of genre-expanding music with stunning harmonies, progressive, thought-provoking lyrics and intensely creative live shows.
Lottery for Early Bird-Priced Festival Passes
Remember, Early Bird passes for the 2018 Sisters Folk Festival will be sold via lottery. Festival dates are September 7-9.
2018 Festival passes will be priced the same as 2017. Early Bird, discounted passes are $125 and full-price passes are $150. As in years past, 500 Early Bird passes will be sold.
To streamline your purchases from SFF, we’ve moved to Eventbrite as our ticketing platform. Eventbrite is a well-known ticket sales system that many people are familiar with. It will allow you to easily request a refund, transfer your ticket to someone else and receive important reminders and information about the upcoming Festival. There will be a small service charge when you purchase your pass(es), and you will always see the fee and total amount of your sale before you pay.
You can register for the lottery until noon on Friday, December 15. Randomly selected lottery winners will be notified by 5pm on the 15th and will receive a link to purchase up to two discounted passes. You will have until December 31 to purchase your discounted, early bird passes.
If you don’t “hit the jackpot,” you’ll receive an email notifying you and a link to purchase passes at the regular price.
We will not be offering any Early Bird passes for sale in person or over the phone. We hope the lottery system is a better approach and gives everyone a fair shot at those passes.
Once again, thank you to all of you who have been so supportive through the cancellation of the 2017 Festival. We appreciate your patience, generosity and understanding over these last few months.