We continue our Paste Studio on the Road tour in Western Massachusetts this week at the sold-out Green River Festival at the Franklin County Fairgrounds. We’ll be filming exclusive four-song sessions from 10 of the fest’s acts, who all seem to be separated by about one degree. Ani DiFranco released Hadestown from Bonny Light Horseman’s Anaïs Mitchell on her Righteous Babe Records. Mitchell’s bandmate Josh Kaufman just produced the new album from bluegrass duo Watchhouse (previously known as Mandolin Orange). Several artists are connected to Western Mass. folk label Signature Sounds, while two newcomers just signed with Rounder.
Thanks to both Green River Fest and our sponsor SweetWater Brewing Company for making these sessions possible. Each of the following sessions will be live-streamed on our Youtube and Facebook channels, as well as right here on PasteMagazine.com, where you’ll be able to go back and listen to all of your favorites whenever you like.
Here’s the lineup (all times EST):
Friday, Aug. 27
3:00pm – Delmhorst & Foucault
5:00pm – The Suitcase Junket
8:15pm – Twisted Pine
Saturday, Aug. 28
2:45pm – Bella White
4:45pm – Charlie Parr
6:30pm – The Ghost of Paul Revere
8:15pm – Rachel Balman
Sunday, Aug. 29
11:15am – Sierra Ferrell
12:45pm – Ani DiFranco
2:25pm – Watchhouse
4:15pm – Bonny Light Horseman
Learn more about each artist and check out the live-streams below:
3pm ET on Aug. 27 – Delmhorst & Foucault
Kris Delmhorst and Jeffrey Foucault are both celebrated singer/songwriters living in Western Massachusetts (you can listen to their Daytrotter sessions here and here). They’re also a married couple performing as a duo this week. Delmhorst released her eighth album last year, and Long Day in the Milky Way was co-produced by her husband. Foucault has ten albums under his Americana belt, including a recent compilation of unreleased studio songs, Deadstock: Uncollected Recordings 2005-2015. We can’t wait to hear the music they make together.
5pm ET on Aug. 27 – The Suitcase Junket
“Doom folk” multi-instrumentalist Matt Lorenz performs as The Suitcase Junket, and his sixth album, last year’s The End is New, was co-produced by Steve Berlin of Los Lobos. It was his first release for Renew Records/BMG.
8:15pm ET on Aug. 27 – Twisted Pine
Boston string band Twisted Pine performed at our Daytrotter studio back in 2018. Last year they released Right Now, further pushing at the walls around bluegrass genre like Nickel Creek before them. The four virtuoso instrumentalists dip into everything from avant jazz to funk to straight-up pop music to create a groovy good time.
2:45pm ET on Aug. 28 – Bella White
Bella White is one of Rounder Records’ newest signings with her debut album Just Like Leaving released just this past spring. The 20-year-old singer/songwriter left her hometown of Calgary, Canada, where she was raised on the music of her bluegrass-playing father, first for Boston before settling in Nashville.
4:45pm ET on Aug. 28 – Charlie Parr
This will be Charlie Parr’s fourth time performing for Paste and Daytrotter, and it comes on the heels of his latest album, Last of the Better Days Ahead, his first on Smithsonian Folkways. The Minnesota-born finger-picking guitarist/banjo-player and singer/songwriter, Parr is still mining his days as an outreach worker for the homeless with the Salvation Army, his songs filled with down-on-their-luck characters who come alive in his stories.
6:30pm ET on Aug. 28 – The Ghost of Paul Revere
Since forming a decade ago, Portland, Maine-based trio The Ghost of Paul Revere have been touring their blend of folk, bluegrass and indie rock across the country, including two previous stops in our studios. Their latest album, Good At Losing Everything was released last year, and their original song “Ballad Of The 20th Maine” became the Official State Ballad of Maine back in 2019.
8:15pm ET on Aug. 28 – Rachel Baiman
Paste’s Robert Ham said of Chicago native Rachel Baiman’s song “Shame”: “The music is a gentle country/folk ramble, anchored by a prickly banjo line and rich bottom end. But Baiman’s lyrics are defiant and pointed, calling out the old white men of the world who ‘look happily onto others from above in the name of sweet religion.’ It’s a potent message from an especially powerful messenger.” Her latest album Cycles was just released by Signature Sounds in June.
11:15am ET on Aug. 29 – Sierra Ferrell
West Virginia native Sierra Ferrell delivered one of my favorite performances for Paste Studio when we were on the road in Nashville earlier this year. Her debut album Why’d Ya Do It was just released last Friday on Rounder Records, but her songs have already garnered millions of plays on YouTube. The album boasts an impressive array of guests, including Billy Strings, Dennis Crouch, Jerry Douglas, Rory Hoffman, Jedd Hughes, Sarah Jarosz, Julie Lee, Justin Moses, Tim O’Brien and Chris Scruggs.
12:45pm ET on Aug. 29 – Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco is a folk legend. She’s released 20 albums from her self-titled debut in 1990 to this year’s Revolutionary Love. She’s also put out more than two dozen albums on her own Righteous Babe Records, including Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown, which would later become a Broadway hit. She’s won countless awards for her music and pioneering spirit, bestowed by everyone from the Grammys to the National Organization for Women to the Southern Center for Human Rights. We’re thrilled to welcome her back to the Paste Studio for the fourth time.
2:25pm ET on Aug. 29 – Watchhouse
Bluegrass duo Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz recorded music as Mandolin Orange for a decade before releasing their latest album under the name Watchhouse. Watchhouse, co-produced by Josh Kaufman (The National, Bonny Light Horseman), debuted at the top of Billboard’s Bluegrass Albums Chart this month. This will be the duo’s third trip to the Paste and Daytrotter studios.
4:15pm ET on Aug. 29 – Bonny Light Horseman
When Bonny Light Horseman’s debut was named one of the Best Folk Albums of 2020 by Paste, Ben Salmon wrote: It’s not just the material that’s timeless on the new self-titled album from folk supergroup Bonny Light Horseman. It’s the voices—of decorated singer/songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and Fruit Bats leader Eric D. Johnson, especially—that make Bonny Light Horseman more than just another rehash of traditional songs. The trio, which also includes multi-instrumentalist Josh Kaufman (The National, Josh Ritter, Watchhouse), came together during two 2018 festivals connected to Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and The National’s Aaron Dessner—Eaux Claires in Wisconsin and the 37d03d Festival in Berlin. There, Mitchell, Johnson and Kaufman zeroed in on their goal: to give ancient songs a contemporary twist, and to surround the timeless feelings expressed in those songs with drop-dead gorgeous string and vocal arrangements.
