Lowertown Roots Music Festival Adds Friday Night Event at McNally Smith College of Music to Kick Off the Annual Festival

SAINT PAUL, Minn., July 16, 2013 Lowertown Roots Music Festival organizers have just announced a great new Kickoff Event at McNally Smith College of Music the day before the third annual festival.

On Friday, July 26, from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. music lovers are invited to McNally Smith College of Music for an evening of free activities. The centerpiece of the Kickoff Event is an old time dance; often called Square Dancing. The caller will be Robin Nelson, who will teach the steps so that everyone will be able to participate, regardless of their experience. The school will also open small rooms for jamming, so that people who bring their instruments can have space to play and sing that evening.

McNally Smith will also have its Sound Bite Café open for snacks and there will be information available about the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old Time Music Association and McNally Smith College of Music, where students earn degrees in performance, music business and audio technology.

Saint Pauls popular Lowertown Roots Music Festival returns to Mears Park on Saturday, July 27. This favorite outdoor venue will come alive with the sounds of Zydeco, Blues, Bluegrass, and Nordic roots music for a full day of free concerts. With a canopy of trees, beautiful flower gardens and a cool winding creek, Mears Park is the perfect setting for the music that has informed, inspired and ultimately defined American music and culture. Grammy award-winning Zydeco master C.J. Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band headline this year's festival. Additional performers include Randy Sabien's Violin Roots Ensemble, The High 48s, Nordic Angst and Paul Dahlin Spelmanslag. We were delighted with the response last year, said festival director Kevin Barnes, and we have more great music coming to Saint Paul for our third year.

Saturday, July 27 ~ Mears Park Stage

2:30 p.m. Paul Dahlin Spelmanslag

4:00 p.m. Nordic Angst

5:30 p.m. The High 48s

7:00 p.m. Randy Sabien's Violin Roots Ensemble

8:30 p.m. C.J. Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band

More Music in Lowertown

Friday, July 26,

The Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar

8:00 p.m. Dreamland Faces http://www.dreamlandfaces.com/

Saturday, July 27,

The Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar

8:00 p.m. Rhizosphere http://blackdogstpaul.com/events/news-343.shtml

10:00 p.m. Mike in the Wilderness http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIavJ3dk82c

Hat Trick Lounge

3:00 p.m. Jeff Rolfzen (solo bluegrass artist)
4:00 p.m. Michael Kac
6:00 p.m. Local Rhythm (electric roots)
9:00 p.m. Scrapegoat

About the Mears Park Performers

Paul Dahlin
Paul Dahlin is heir to a family music tradition that began in this country when his grandfather immigrated to the United States from Sweden. Dahlin took to the fiddle at an early age, playing in harmony with his grandfather and uncle, and later, he taught the instrument at the American Swedish Institute (ASI) in Minneapolis. He developed his class into the ASI Spelmanslag (fiddlers team), and the group performs at special events. The group performing at the Lowertown Roots Music Festival features hand-picked fiddlers expertly playing a repertoire of traditional Swedish folk and dance music. Dahlin is the recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship Award for his achievements with his fiddle group.

Nordic Angst
Not your typical Scandinavian music, Nordic Angst mixes centuries-old Norse ballads with a modern sensibility for a movement that respects the roots of Scandinavian music styles while building a bridge to contemporary music. To Nordic Angst leader Arna Rennan, this means combining her traditional vocals and accordion playing with the energy and texture of electric guitars and bass. Rennan is from Duluth, MN, but has lived in Norway for 15 years where she studied at the Institute for Folk Culture in Rauland, Telemark. There she learned "Kveding" vocal folk music, as well as playing seljefløyte, the overtone flute and langeleik, the Norwegian dulcimer.

The High 48s
The High 48s are making their mark as a bluegrass band that respects the bluegrass form while creating new music within it. Comprised of Rich Casey (bass), Eric Christopher (fiddle and vocals), Chad Johnson (mandolin and vocals), Marty Marrone (guitar and lead vocals) and Anthony Ihrig (banjo), the group plays tunes that are based in southern bluegrass roots while incorporating their own northern traditions. In addition to their latest CD, Up North, the active group has also completed a gospel CD in the last year. Their name, High 48s, comes from railroad slang for boxcars on the fast-moving Hotshot freight train.

Randy Sabiens Violin Roots Ensemble
Jazz violinist Randy Sabien is the real thing, according to premier national Jazz critic Howard Reich. National Public Radios Jazz Profiles dubbed him as The past, present, and future of jazz violin, and Down Beat Magazines annual critics poll voted him as Artist Deserving Wider Recognition. In 1977, at age 20, Sabien enrolled at the renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston. Just one year later he was the founder and chair of their new jazz string department which he headed for the following three years. Randy currently directs the strings department at McNally Smith College of Music in Saint Paul. A jazz violinist who steps outside the boundaries of what many think of as jazz, Sabien forges headlong into the worlds of rock, blues and funk. The resulting sound is swinging, rocking, rhythmic and bluesy with a fiddle that often plays more like a saxophone than a violin.

C.J. Chernier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band
C.J. Chenier, son of the King of Zydeco Clifton Chenier, joined his father's Red-Hot Louisiana Band playing saxophone at the age of 21. After Clifton's death in 1987, C.J. picked up the accordion and took charge of his father's ministry, spreading the word of Zydeco music to the world. Since then, Chenier has mastered the accordion and pushed the genre to new heights with his virtuosity. The Boston Globe has called him "the crown prince of zydeco," and Living Blues magazine hails him as "the best living Zydeco singer and accordionist." His musical style ranges from the traditional Zydeco of his father right on up to modern funk with healthy doses of blues, R&B, swamp pop and even country. As CJ says, you cant come to my show and stay unhappy all night long. Youre going to break a smile and stomp your foot before too long. This is happy music, and it makes you dance.

Festival Sponsors

The Lowertown Roots Music Festival is free thanks to the generous support of our sponsors: Lowertown Future Fund (LRC) of The St. Paul Foundation, the City of Saint Paul Cultural STAR Program, McNally Smith College of Music, MIND*SPARK Creative and KBEM Jazz 88.

Additional information may be found at www.lowertownrootsmusicfestival.com.

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