Pert Near Sandstone

Winter String Band Gathering

with Bronwyn Keith-Hynes and Feeding Leroy

Information | Tickets

Doors 7:30 pm | Show 8pm | 21+

Pert Near Sandstone

“Our waiting days are finally over,” the title song decries, echoing the sentiment of a community recently pent up and beyond longing. It’s a strikingly different world than when Pert Near Sandstone first began near the sandstone river bluffs of St Paul. The former latchkey kids who grew up together a few Mississippi miles upstream have been performing and recording this past year in earnest, culminating in their eighth studio album.

Waiting Days has all the merit of maturity and the strengths of its four songwriters, offering responses to each other’s compositions through a long camaraderie. After almost twenty years together, their bond has grown to reflect that of a band of brothers. By contrast to tiktoks, reels, and tweets, this album was formed from the wilderness and carved from the heartwood. The band would say their music and sound come about organically, but under the tall oak trees of the Twin Cities, those wooden instruments may have been antennas drawn to the marrow, like a divination wand used to scratch an itch or soothe a wound, they tapped into this latest collection of songs.

As longtime stewards of the modern stringband revival, Pert Near’s songcraft is informed by the American folk tradition in a delivery of acoustic instrumentation. Their studio efforts have gradually strayed from the reliquary of common string band selections. Instead, Pert Near offers another full album of original songs that meditates on this exact present, rich with context and reference. There are songs that reach into a field that isn't always aglow with sunlight, while finding beauty in the tenderness of relationships. There are traveling songs sung by a band that has hit the pavement hard over their time, simultaneously creating a soundtrack for those all night drives that music festival devotees well know.

This isn’t music reaching for the banality of pop hits - this is fresh air for blades of new grass to grow in. At times there is an almost symphonic string section that lifts the melody, while other times the simplicity of banjo and pedal steel indeed helps us believe the genuine intentions of Pert Near Sandstone’s creative resolve. The interplay of mandolin and fiddle carry much of the music across the songs, but it’s the mixture of guest instrumentalists that gives this album a unique tapestry of sounds and texture, opening a deeper space that has become standard in production for Pert Near Sandstone projects. Trampled By Turtles’ fiddler and original Pert Near member, Ryan Young, recorded and mixed the album, along with his fiddle and other accouterments used to bolster the energy of the songs. The intimacy of collaboration is at the heart of this new project, after all, which spanned several of the harshest weeks of a midwestern winter.

Anyone that knows this band is aware of their humor and levity, and that charm is never far from the surface. It is a central component of their expression and shared experience. The connectedness to community is at the core of Pert Near’s music and philosophy as these songs shine a light upon. We are all here together. As the title track declares, “...I want to take you with me when I go.” Let’s get ready. Now is our time. The waiting days are over.

Bronwyn Keith-Hynes

Bronwyn Keith-Hynes has long been renowned as a prolific instrumentalist, earning two IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year awards as well as a Grammy for her work with Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway. But on her latest album I Built a World, the Charlottesville native unlocks an impressive new sound: her voice.

"This is the first album I've ever sung lead on. Singing is something I'd always thought I'd do at some point and in 2020 I had the time and space to finally find my voice," Bronwyn says. Even as the pandemic halted touring and so much else, vocal lessons kept her focused. "It's funny," she jokes of the timing, "you put a mask on me and suddenly I want to sing."

I Built a World marks her first vocal album, but Bronwyn has been a musician since before she can remember. "Apparently, I saw two girls busking on the street playing fiddles when I was three," she explains with a laugh, "and I pointed to them and said, 'I will do that.'"

As a child, music lessons gradually transitioned into public performances, with a particular emphasis on Irish music after her family relocated to Charlottesville, Virginia. And her lifelong musical education continues to shape her work today. A background in dance makes her a captivating and energetic live performer. An on-stage collaboration with fellow Charlottesville native Dave Matthews taught her how a crowd could feed your energy. And attending Berklee during the early years of its American Roots Music program offered inspiration from classmates like Sierra Hull and Alex Hargreaves—as well as an introduction to Tuttle and most of Bronwyn’s Golden Highway bandmates.  "My favorite bluegrass musicians today are the ones who are rooted in traditional music, but don't really see any boundaries," she says. "It's as if they draw from a traditional bluegrass vocabulary, but use it to say what they want to say."

Now, as her own entry in bluegrass history expands from celebrated instrumentalist to bandleader and frontwoman, Bronwyn isn’t just crafting a career in the image of genre greats like Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas; she’s bringing them along for the ride. Both Bush and Douglas are featured as players on I Built a World, and they’re not the only of Bronwyn’s musically-inclined pals and heroes to make an appearance.

Darrell Scott sings on “Angel Island,” a Peter Rowan tune. Country fans may recognize Dierks Bentley singing harmony on “Trip Around the Sun” and Brit Taylor on “Answers”. Longtime pal Tuttle and Bronwyn’s fiance Jason Carter (an accomplished fiddle player himself) also appear as vocalists on multiple tracks. And rounding out the band are Bryan Sutton on guitar; Dominick Leslie, Bronwyn’s Golden Highway bandmate, on mandolin; Wesley Corbett and Scott Vestal on banjo; and Jeff Picker on bass.

Indeed, community is the axis on which I Built a World spins. Long before she tapped talent for the studio, Bronwyn sourced songs for the album from her musical network in Nashville and beyond. "A lot of the songs are gathered from my friend group and community here in Nashville," she says. "I reached out to friends and just people whose music I liked and asked, 'Is there any chance you have anything that you're not planning on recording?'" Many did.

Not all of the songs were new territory, though. In fact, she’d been holding onto the title track for years after hearing it on the radio while driving through Kentucky. She contacted the artist, Matthew Parsons, for his blessing to record it, and the song set the tone for the entire project.

"‘I Built a World’ is about daydreaming, about building worlds in your mind. I was definitely a kid who did a lot of that. But as an adult, I feel like music still can take me to that place," she says. She hopes listeners can take a little bit of that dreaminess with them. “Each song on this album is its own little world, its own story, a space and a place in your mind that you can travel to and explore. Whatever you're needing or wanting to feel, you can go to that place here. I hope you enjoy the journey.”

Feeding Leroy

Sonja and Lee Martin began playing as Feeding Leroy in 2014 when they set off on their first music road trip. Joined by their bandmates, they have been hitting the road hard for the better part of a decade, landing gigs in places like the Joshua Tree Salon, Old Settlers Music Festival, and Midwest Music Fest. Sonja and Lee have been writing and singing since they met in 2008 and recorded two albums under the name Feeding Leroy. It's a nod to cosmic country, an ode to folk music, and a love of vocal harmony that has been their sound. They continue to write and travel and always return home to Duluth, MN on Lake Superior.