Événement

Madison Folk Music Society presents APRIL VERCH BAND

Throw down the plywood and let April and her boys do the rest. Canada's Ottawa Valley meets Old-Time Appalachia: crack fiddling, electric step dancing, sweet singing. JUNO Award nominee April Verch has never sounded more comfortable in her skin than she does now, in the second decade of her career as an internationally touring fiddler, step dancer, singer, and songwriter. The April Verch Bandrounded out by bassist and clawhammer banjo player Cody Walters and guitarist Hayes Griffin, is an energetic, virtuosic, tradition-celebrating outfit.

April Verch has never sounded more comfortable in her skin than she does now, in the second decade of her career as an internationally touring Canadian fiddler, step dancer and singer-songwriter. Her ninth album, Bright Like Gold, captures a woman who's fleshed out her identity and is in full command of her gifts,DSC_8521 a woman who's grown from a prodigy into an enduring artistone of music's most unforgiving public transitionswith grace and grit to spare.

By the time Verch graduated high school, she'd won the Canadian Open Old Time Fiddle Championship and released a pair of albums, followed by a year at Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music and a win at the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Competition, which made her the first woman ever to take both of her country's two top contests. From there she dove into a full-time music career, signing with Rounder Records for a trio of albumsproduced by the likes of Bruce Molsky and Dirk Powellstarting to put her delicate soprano to use and experimenting with a more contemporary palette.

It's a wonder to behold Verch pulling off those pristine double-time triplets with her feet, and the myriad other ways she's made good on the promise she showed at a tender age by becoming an artist in touch with roots and in her element. She won't be the one to mention her championship titles to you, or even the fact that she represented her country/tradition by performing in the Opening Ceremonies at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. "The accolades are important and noteworthy and special to me," she says, "but what I think is most impressive to me is that I've been doing this full time since 2000. We make a living playing music that we love and it touches other people. I feel like we're extremely lucky to do that, but also I work really hard, not just at the music, but at every aspect of our career, to make that happen. That we find a way to make it work, and have had that kind of longevity, that's impressive to me."

And rightfully so. Verch has perfected the art of winning fans for life.