This just in from the good folks over at Carolina in the Fall Music and Food Festival:
The fourth annual Carolina in the Fall Music and Food Festival set for Sept. 21-22, 2018, in downtown Wilkesboro, North Carolina, has expanded its powerful lineup of entertainment to include The Secret Sisters, Jim Lauderdale, Front Country and Humming House, among others. These artists will join festival hosts The Kruger Brothers and The Steel Wheels, The Roosevelts, Fireside Collective, The Contenders, Snyder Family Band, The Arcadian Wild, Nikki Talley and more than 100 other musicians, chefs, vintners and craft beer brewers from the region.
The complete lineup is available online at www.carolinainthefall.org.
The Secret Sisters
The Secret Sisters, a singer-songwriter duo from Alabama, went from touring with Bob Dylan to losing their label, purging their team, and filing bankruptcy. But sisters Laura and Lydia Rogers kept moving forward, receiving a Grammy nomination for their biting and beautiful third LP, produced by Brandi Carlile, “You Don’t Own Me Anymore.” The sisters found themselves in a more creative and honest space than ever. They poured themselves into songwriting, with their experiences flowing and morphing into collective tales of triumph, rage and the indefatigable human spirit. The resulting songs are as poetic as they are confessional – soulful, gospel grooves anchored by the timeless, crystalline ring of Laura and Lydia’s voices in sweet unison.
In the beginning, before that darkness moved in, things were a little like rainbows and roses for the sisters. An open audition in Nashville in 2009 lead them to a major label deal and a debut record produced by T. Bone Burnett and Dave Cobb, followed by a tour with Levon Helm and Ray LaMontagne, a feat for any artist. From there, they opened for the likes of Dylan, Willie Nelson and Paul Simon, appeared on numerous late night shows and released a second album with Burnett. But the tides turned quickly – things can change in an instant, both for the good and the bad. And when the clouds started to lift, Carlile was there to help usher in the sunshine shining brightly on The Secret Sisters.
Jim Lauderdale
The successful career of renowned singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Jim Lauderdale cannot be summed up in a few simple words. The Troutman, North Carolina, native is a household name in the Americana world but is equally at home performing bluegrass, traditional country, honkytonk, soul, rock, R&B and swing. As a solo artist, since 1986 up until now, he has created a body work spanning 29 albums of imaginative roots music. A seven-time Grammy Award nominee, Jim won Best Bluegrass Album Grammy Awards in 2002 for his album “Lost in the Lonesome Pines” with Dr. Ralph Stanley and again in 2007 for “The Bluegrass Diaries.” He won Artist of the Year and Song of the Year in 2002 from the Americana Music Association. And, Jim received the WagonMaster Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, presented by county music legend George Strait, and he was inducted into the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame in 2011 and the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2017.
Also known as a “songwriter’s songwriter,” Jim has written/co-written many modern classics for iconic artists George Strait (nine hits), Patty Loveless, the Dixie Chicks, Elvis Costello, Blake Shelton, Mark Chesnutt, Gary Allan, Lee Ann Womack, Vince Gill and others. Jim often collaborates with the North Mississippi All-Stars, Donna the Buffalo, Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter and Buddy Miller.
Front Country
The West Coast acoustic band Front Country cut its teeth in progressive bluegrass jams in San Francisco’s Mission District and rehearsed across the bay in Oakland, fashioning a unique take on roots music and Indie Folk. A mandolinist with a degree in composition and classical guitar. A guitarist trained in rock and world music. A bassist equally versed in jazz and “newgrass.” A violinist with technique that could seamlessly hop between honkytonk and electropop. And, a female lead singer with grit and soul that was also a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. In a wood-paneled country dive bar in the shadow of the San Francisco skyline, Front Country forged a sound hell bent on merging the musical past with the future. The result lies somewhere between Indie Folk and Americana.
This group of friends – Adam Roszkiewicz (mandolin, banjo, vocals), Jacob Groopman (guitar, rezo guitar, mandolin, vocals), Jeremy Darrow (bass), Leif Karlstrom (five-string violin) and Melody Walker (vocals, guitar, percussion) – played a monthly gig until 2012 and 2013 when it won first prize in two prestigious band contests. In 2012, the band won the Rockygrass band competition in Colorado followed by a 2013 win at Telluride, becoming the third band in history to win both contests. The contest wins bolstered their confidence in their unique mix of original songwriting, vocal harmonies and instrumental virtuosity, steeling their resolve to take a leap of faith and become a full-time touring band.
Humming House
Humming House is Justin Wade Tam, Bobby Chase, Joshua Wolak and Benjamin Jones. The band formed organically out of jam sessions that Tam held in his living room in East Nashville-evidence that some of the best projects come from spontaneous collaboration and the subsequent seeing it through. Now, three albums and six years later, Humming House continues to embody what is best about the Nashville each transplant chooses to call home.
What Humming House does so well is paint sonic landscapes that are at once compelling and honest, even in the most rollicking of songs. Humming House maintains a sense of intimacy that derives from making music with friends altogether in the same room. It is fun combined with substance. With Tam’s sincerity, Jones’ groove, and Chase and Wolak’s charm, their live shows extend the invitation to participate. It becomes an exchange between artist and audience that includes the elements of hope, partnership and joy.
The band’s newest album, “Companion,” begins with Tam’s unmistakable voice intoning, “I want to be your companion.” It is an appropriate beginning for a band who has built itself on complex musicianship and careful collaboration. In the spirit of experimentation, band members threw out the constraining rule that they would only write with acoustic instruments. While those sounds still center the creative impulses of the songs, the added electric experimentation and expanded instrumentation imbue the new songs with a dynamism that is irresistible.
Fifteen additional artists join the performance lineup:
Wayne Henderson & Friends
Madison Elmore with Luke Morris
musicreporterblog 
September 21, 2018 at 1:42 pm
Reblogged this on musicreporterblog and commented:
It’s looking like a beautiful weekend for The Kruger Brothers’ festival, Carolina in the Fall, featuring a fabulous lineup of some of my personal favorites — Jim Lauderdale, Front Country, Humming House, The Kruger Brothers, The Steel Wheels, Fireside Collective, Hank, Pattie and the Current and Will Easter — so make sure you get on out there and check it out!