Banjo

Experience April in March! The Cedar welcomes back sensational Canadian fiddler, singer, songwriter and stepdancer April Verch with her band, bringing their foot-stompin' rendition of classic Ottawa Valley and old time tunes and songs. The twang of the banjo and the driving Franco-Celtic pulse of the fiddle are as ingrained in April as snowbound winters and Saturday dances.

The Cedar is now air-conditioned for your year-round comfort!

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An experimental spoken word bluegrass band turned epic folk and grasscore band. Instead of having a lead singer, the group uses a nonstop orchestration of somewhat unconventional vocals. Expect a lot of three-part harmony singing, group shouting, really dense rhymes and an almost rap-like phrasing. The group features Greg Liszt (Crooked Still), Sam Grisman (son of David Grisman), Mike Barnett (David Grisman), Dominick Leslie (self proclaimed "child prodigy of the mandolin") and Stash Wyslouch (Eric Robertson and the Boston Boys, Blue Moose and the Unbuttoned Zippers).

The Cedar is now air-conditioned for your year-round comfort!

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The Cedar and First Avenue welcome back clawhammer banjo queen and singer Abigail Washburn with multi-instrumentalist Kai Welch. It takes more than deft fingerwork to bridge people and culture, but somehow Abigail finds a common ground in the music of Appalachia, Beijing and beyond, and succeeds in making the world a smaller, more intimate place.

It will be a reunion of sorts tonight too, as opening act Rayna Gellert has a long history of performing alongside Abigail Washburn in Uncle Earl. Rayna is a revered performer in the old time music community for her fine fiddling and songwriting. She has a new album due out in the fall.

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"…a master of building songs from the ground up — from live violin loops to layered singing to beatboxing. His songs are complicated pocket symphonies steeped in classical playing and 21st-century pop… always interesting and full of promise." (Bob Boilen, NPR)

Kishi Bashi is the pseudonym of K Ishibashi, a multi-instrumentalist who released his debut album, 151a, earlier this year through Joyful Noise. 151a is a bright and soaring avant-pop record written primarily on violin - Kishi Bashi's main instrument which has brought him to record and tour with Regina Spector, Sondre Lerche, Alexi Murdoch, of Montreal and more.

The Cedar is now air-conditioned for your year-round comfort!

Ticket options and info Read more »

Join clawhammer banjoista and singer Evie Ladin on a warm summer's night outside on the Cedar patio for an evening of contemporary folk with deep roots. As Mike Marshall says, "She's got a voice that draws you in, a groove on the banjo that won't quit".

Two years after winning a 2010 Grammy in the best traditional folk album category for Genuine Negro Jigs, African-American string band Carolina Chocolate Drops are back on The Cedar stage with a new album Leaving Eden (Nonesuch, Feb 28, 2012). The group has a couple of new members, too, as guitarist, banjo player and singer Hubby Jenkins and New Orleans-based cellist Leyla McCalla are now part of the touring line-up along with founding members Rhiannon Giddens and Dom Flemons. Yet amidst the changes and their newfound prominence, the group's joy in performing classic old-time fiddle and banjo music for an enthusiastic audience remains undimmed. Not to be missed!

The Cedar is now fully air-conditioned for your year-round comfort!

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The Rembrandt of Appalachian fiddle. (Darol Anger, fiddler)

The Cedar welcomes back an old friend: old-time fiddler, guitarist, banjoist and singer Bruce Molsky in a special early evening concert (7pm start time).

Ticket options and info

• On sale date: noon Fri Jan 27
• Phone: 612-338-2674 ext 2 ($1 fee per ticket)
• In person: From a Cedar volunteer in the front lobby during events (no fee; cash, check, credit card), Depth of Field (no fee; cash or check only), or Electric Fetus (small fee)
• Online: Ticketweb (fees apply) (click on red Buy Tickets button at top of this page)
• All Cedar shows are all ages.
• Students with ID may purchase tickets at a discount at the door.

Music from the Missouri Ozarks, performed live by the original musicians from the award-winning film Winter's Bone. Whether you have seen this haunting film or not, tonight's show provides a rare opportunity to hear authentic Ozark mountain folk music outside of the region. Marideth Sisco, Dennis Crider, Bo Brown, Van Colbert, Tedi May & Linda Stoffel, who together make up Blackberry Winter Band, have deep roots in the Ozarks, and will present the complete music from the film.

 Opening tonight will be Minnesota’s own purveyors of fine music from the hill country, The Roe Family Singers, who have recently celebrated the release of their new album The Owl and The Bat and The Bumblebee.

The Cedar is now fully air-conditioned for your year-round comfort!

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If American old-time music is about taking earlier, simpler ways of life and music as one’s model, Abigail Washburn has proven herself to be a bracing revelation to that tradition. A singing, songwriting, Illinois-born, Nashville-based clawhammer banjo player, she is every bit as interested in the present and the future as she is in the past and every bit as attuned to the global as she is to the local. She pairs venerable folk elements with far-flung sounds, and the results feel both strangely familiar and unlike anything anyone has ever heard before. Her new release, City of Refuges, is something completely different, even for her: a sublime marriage of old-time and indie-pop. “This new project incorporates what would’ve in the beginning of my career seemed like an unexpected move, but now feels like a really natural progression of working with people that reach into other genres and other spaces musically.”

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The Cedar's favorite alt-bluegrass stringband returns in the middle of a very busy year touring the globe, including the big festivals in Australia, Celtic Connections, MerleFest, and all over North America. Still traditional in their roots, yet still evolving--and definitely, still deliciously crooked!

Ticket options and info

• On sale date: noon Fri Mar 4
• Phone: 612-338-2674 ext 2 ($1 fee per ticket)
• In person: From a Cedar volunteer in the front lobby before and after shows (no fee), Depth of Field (no fee), or Electric Fetus (small fee)
• Online: Ticketweb (fees apply) (click on red Buy Tickets button at top of this page)
• All Cedar shows are all ages.
• Students with ID may gain discounted admission for tickets at the door.