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The Atomic Forces play politically conscious punk/country with healthy doses of psychedelic boogie woogie. Led by flamboyant frontman and songwriter Park Doing, the Forces pump out strings of hard hitting hipshakers, interspersed with lilting ballads and cheers. It’s a hipshake revolution!
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Constantly bridging borders, both physical and spiritual, Atsiaktonkie is a master of translation. He translates the traditional stories of his Akwesasne ancestors into modern-day parables, applying ancient wisdom to modern problems. He translates rock and roll into a Native genre, applying modern melodies to ancient rhythms. He translates his own spiritual journey into music, allowing us a glimpse of a different world with each song. |
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Black Castle is an I-Town all-star reggae riot, led by ebullient John Brown’s Body vocalist Elliot Martin. With their deep dub grooves and righteous lyrics, Black Castle pushes reggae forward without forsaking the roots. |
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It’s easy to fall in love with The Blind Spots, and we’re thinking it’s more than just a summer fling. Lush vocals, funky keyboards, bold guitar, and rich, funky rhythms... The love affair is just beginning. |
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Bobby Henrie’s old-school rockabilly will transport you to a different time: one of tail-finned Cadillacs, unfiltered cigarettes tucked into rolled-up shirt sleeves, and really, really red lipstick. You don’t have to be an excellent dancer to enjoy the Goners, but if you are an excellent dancer and you’ve never heard of them, you’ll surely wonder where they’ve been all your life. |
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Come all ye cowgirls and barflies, tragic comedians and lazy poets, all ye disciples, degenerates, and dowagers. If Bronwen Exter hasn’t written a song that speaks right to you yet, it’s time you live a little, darlin’. |
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It’s not often that people even stay friends from their earliest days of youth to their years of full-grown-ness, but it’s even more remarkable when they play together in a band for that long, and it leads to music that runs deeper than water. It’s old-time, for old times’ sake, and it’s wondrous to behold. |
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Devil-filled tales from down the bayou, murder ballads from the darkest corners of Appalachia, and all sorts of weepy things from in between and above and maybe even below, dealt up fresh by Burke, Burke, and their buddy Bone. |
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Rockin’ folks who play folk and rock is a pretty apt description for this stalwart set of musicians, who play a slew of styles that are at once dance-worthy and thought-worthy. Exquisite harmonies and songs of home... there’s beauty here. |
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God and guitars. Steel and soul. My, my... it sure is sweet. With the holy spirit flowing through their veins, out of their fingers, and into their incendiary guitars, the Campbell Brothers are, on Earth as in Heaven, a force to be reckoned with. Ever danced and gotten your soul right at the very same time? If not, now’s your chance. |
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It’s those guys. You know the ones. They’ll pull out their fiddles and banjos and guitars and maybe a bass or a mandolin or two, and in a matter of moments, they’ll have you shimmying and jumping like the floor was on fire. Don’t try to fight it, cuz eventually, they’ll get to you,too. |
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Our old buddy Dirk knows more songs from more cultures than just about anyone we know, plus he plays more instruments and tells better stories and just generally puts the rest of us poor schlubs to shame, but with a grace and wit that always keep us coming back for more. Rumor has it he’ll be bringing his banjo, his fiddle, and (hot damn!) his Cajun accordion along with him, and good times shall surely ensue. |
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Defying definitions for as long as we’ve known them (which is basically forever, since our fates are inextricably entwined), Donna the Buffalo crafts pure joy into melodic form, building cultural and musical bridges everywhere they go. If you add zydeco to reggae to roots rock to bluegrass, plus a hefty dose of the magical x-factor, you’ll have something fr greater than the sum of its parts, because it seems to be that music is just the beautiful foundation, and there’s more here than meets the eyes and ears.
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The Double E is fronted by Amy Puryear, a devotee of the divine in the everyday. Whether writing her own backroad lullabies or quarrying ballads from disparate world traditions, she presents her songs with charm, humor, and an extraordinary might that so few vocalists possess. The Double E adds that extra special touch.
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Driftwood is a serious force on the Upstate NY music scene. Wrapping together all manner of musics that fall under the "Americana" blanket, combining "holy smokes, didja see that?" instrumentalism with "holy smokes, didja hear that?" lyrics, they’re a fast-rising force to be reckoned with! |
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Irish fiddler from the Bronx, well-known as the musical star of Riverdance, Eileen Ivers transcends boundaries: international, cultural, musical, and energetic. She’s a possessor of an extremely clear connection to the spirit of music. Commanding, flawless, never conservative; she’s an explorer who finds and brings back treasures for the lucky audiences who are there to listen. Be one!
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Eilen is a songwriter and singer who writes stark and contemplative bluesy country songs and has a voice from a bygone era. It’s smooth and sleepy, with a touch of dirt-road grit and a twist of honky-tonk that takes you to places you’ve only seen in old pictures.
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Picture for a moment what would happen if you were out on a creek fishin’ and drinkin’ beer on a hot, breezy day, and out of nowhere, someone just out of sight started playing some old-school punk. Mellowed by the summer wind and the sound of water crashing over rocks and the few beers you’ve had by now, but still powerful and raw... you feelin’ it? We’re feelin’ it.
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What is it about Black Southern Gospel music that just makes you feel so good? We don’t know for sure (although we can make some guesses), but we do know that Lloyd Canady and the Flying Clouds are the real deal. Straight out of Plum Branch, South Carolina, they play with every bit of foot-stomping hand-clapping praise- giving goodness that you’d hope for, and more.
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Rooted in the flatfooting and clogging traditions of the Southern Appalachian mountains, Footworks takes a progressive look at body music and incorporates percussive dance traditions from around the world in their funny, creative, live-music-driven show.
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Gravity-defying human sculptures are Galumpha’s oeuvre. Though physical strength and graceful motion are essential elements of any dance, there’s even more here: humor, thought, and a near-impossible emulsion of humanity and motion. Beauty, strength, and sheer hilarity are not, as it turns out, mutually exclusive, and Galumpha’s got the proof.
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We’ll defer to the experts on this one: Garth Brooks says that George Jones is "the greatest voice ever to sing country music." Waylon Jennings said, "If we all sounded the way we wanted, we’d all sound like George Jones." Keith Richards said, "George Jones is a national treasure and should be treated accordingly." Need we say more?
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Feisty and hook-laden rock and roll songs are the name of the game when Go Gone is in charge. With the deep soul of classic rock advising their sassy songwriting, these Ithaca music veterans keep things real.
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Proudly carrying on the musical traditions of their Emerald Isle forefathers and foremothers, the lovely young Gradys will sing, fiddle, and step-dance their way into your hearts, much as they entered ours from the first time we met them.
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Sometimes experiments go so right, they necessarily become traditions. Such is the case with our GrassRoots Chamber Orchestra, a group of the region’s finest classical and classically-trained musicians under the direction of visionary Cayenna Ponchione, who’ve taken to bringing us into a whole new musical dimension on an annual basis. With a program including pieces from both classical composers and modern maestros, we look forward to a Sunday morning filled with the soothing, inspiring, and vibrant sounds of beautiful orchestral music.
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Hip-hop is, at its very finest, a powerful vehicle with which to express pain through poetry, to provide social commentary and inspirational messages to a downtrodden populace. The Gunpoets are indeed hip-hop at its finest, and their biting lyrics and stirring messages of truth and justice, alongside some well-timed secular rhymes, will move you, in all ways possible.
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… and what of the cello? A most beautiful instrument, whose rich, velveteen tones nestle into the calming baritone range, a space that neither squawks nor grumbles, but rather rocks you in its arms, smoothly, gently, invitingly. Hank Roberts is not only a master of the instrument, he is a master of those very sounds. He plays as though the cello is an extension of himself, and as the notes pour out, we all become extensions of the cello... one solid ring: performer, instrument, and audience. Be there, and you will indeed be there.
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These phenomenal deejays play their turntables like instruments: combining, reducing, adding, subtracting, blending, fusing, and holding the dancers on musical strings, connected straight to the sound system. It’s a multi-sensory dance experience, and it will assuredly keep you moving.
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Not all dancing has to involve fancy footwork and counted steps, you know. Some like to shake their hips, some like to shake their heads. Hey, man, that’s cool with us. So long as you’re moving, we’re into it. Hiroshima Vacation are a favorite local purveyor of grindcore, just the sort of thing you can shake your head to.
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Pigeonholers, be damned. Fiddles-’n’- banjos ain’t the bosses of these boys, they’re the bosses of their fiddles- ’n’-banjos, see, and they will play whatever the heck they please on those strings, thank you very much. Whether or not you tap your foot or crack a smile when you hear it, well, that’s up to you, friend, but we think you’ll have an easy time doing both.
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Psychedelic contras and preternatural string-band dance numbers crash against haunting original tunes and unearthly reconstructions of ancient ones... in their alternate musical universe, minor is major, bugs are kings, and equines soar. The Horse Flies hold a special place in our hearts and minds. Have a listen and a dance, and you’ll see why.
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Hubcap is fluent in rock, but with a twangy Ithaca accent and a dark exterior. As is often the case with bands from around here, seeking absolute sonic definitions would require building unnecessary walls between genres, and Hubcap would just go ahead and burn ’em all down again anyway. It’s probably wiser to flip things sideways and look at them in all of their glorious layers, twisting and bending with the seasons.
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Jennie Lowe Stearns infuses indie rock with back-road ballads and wistful waltzes. Her songs are wise little stories, tales of times and places where she was, and sometimes we were, too, but remembered, recollected, and retold in ways that never occurred to us the first time around.
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Loosely based in the Upstate Hampton, Binghamton, now residing across the country, the Jerkhampton Family Band moves their country-jug sounds from their festival home-base behind the RV Corral to an official Grassroots stage. Be prepared for a variety show of acoustic music, be it country-blues, a square-dance, or call and response with the audience. It’s all fair game with the Jerks. While traditional acoustic instruments can be expected, don’t be surprised to hear a trumpet...or even a tuba. With a 13-piece band, there’s bound to be something for everyone.
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Jill Sobule is not just a treasure of American songwriting, but she’s one of our greatest satirists and pop-culture commentators. She’s had hit songs -- 1995’s "I Kissed a Girl" and "Supermodel" -- but she’s better-known among fans for her dark little tragicomic character studies and ironic (and catchy) musical musings on current events and political issues.
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Jimkata rocks. No, but seriously. Combining grungy synthesizers with raunchy guitar lines and smoothing the whole thing over with luscious four-part vocal harmonies, they’re the vanguard for a new modern rock movement in this area, and we’re proud to have them back at GrassRoots.
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They call him “alt.country,” “Americana,” and even “Y’all-ternative.” We don’t know exactly what any of that stuff means, so we mostly just call him “Jim.” (It’s shorter, and he said we could.) In a world where modern country music is roughly as exciting as a warm, flat Bud Light, our buddy Jim stands out like a shot of White Lightning, and we think he’s extraordinary.
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The roots and the outer leaves of reggae are both present in John Brown’s Body’s music... the lyrics are wise and mystical, an homage to the original consciousness of the style. The sound, though, is a step beyond, entering the realms of sonic edginess -- future reggae, if you will. It’s the sound that keeps us moving and the lyrics that keep us mindful, and the tree still grows.
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A dark horse riding high, Johnny Dowd is a little bit dangerous. Crossing every line he approaches, his eerie, incandescent rock songs rattle your nerves just a touch, and it feels great.
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The Jones Benally Family are an internationally acclaimed Navajo (Dine) dance troupe from Big Mesa, Arizona. Jones Benally is an elder, wise in a way that most of us will never be, and he does the traditional hoop dances for both ancient reasons (to cure the ill) and modern reasons (to teach his tribal traditions to a waning Native population and to respectful non-Natives as well). The magic of the hoop dance is real. Be ready for healing.
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