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Wednesday, June 21, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Sisters Folk Festival to host free concerts at park
Sisters Folk Festival will
serve up a tasty — and var-
ied — menu of free music this
summer at Fir Street Park.
The three-show series, all
on Thursday evenings at 6:30
p.m., will include:
• July 13, Joan Soriano
from the Dominican Republic
performing with his band an
authentic brand of “bachata”
music.
• July 27, the Tennessee
bluegrass quartet The Bare-
foot Movement.
• August 10, the Colorado
honkytonk band Halden Wof-
ford & the Hi Beams.
Sisters Folk Festival
received a Southern Arts
Exposure Grant through the
National Endowment for the
Arts and Mid Atlantic Arts
Foundation to bring Joan
Soriano (pronounced Jho-
Ahn) and his band to Central
Oregon.
As part of the grant, the
concert will also feature a
dance workshop to teach tradi-
tional dance of the Dominican
Republic and bachata music.
The Afro-infused rhythm that
permeates Soriano’s music
has made him a favorite
among dancers. The workshop
is scheduled for 5 p.m. on the
day of the show.
Born in the rural country-
side near Santo Domingo, the
Dominican Republic, Joan
Soriano fashioned his first
guitar from a tin can and fish-
ing line, and has never looked
back.
Bachata is guitar-based
music born in poor neigh-
borhoods and is essential to
Dominican culture, drawing
upon a variety of influences
from Africa, Europe, Latin
America and the Caribbean.
Soriano’s clean, feathery gui-
tar sound — which punches
out rhythmic lines — is a
bachata signature.
He began to get work as
a session player in Santo
Domingo at the age of 13,
but his charisma and talent
threatened to upstage the stars
he accompanied, so it was
only a matter of time before
the talented youngster seized
the limelight. Joan preserves
bachata’s roots and expands
on them in a rare combina-
tion of new and authentic,
and he plays guitar with equal
parts romance and grit. Joan
is the star of Adam Taub’s
new documentary, “The Duke
of Bachata.” The album “El
Duque de la Bachata” won
the Best World Beat Album
of 2011 at the Indie Acous-
tic Project Awards. He has
performed throughout North
America and Europe.
On July 27, the bluegrass
quartet The Barefoot Move-
ment will perform.
The Barefoot Movement
is as down-to-earth as their
intention for members of
their audience: sit back, relax,
take your shoes off, and stay
a while. All the worries and
frustrations of the world melt
away as this acoustic band
takes listeners back to a sim-
pler place and time. Whether
you’re seeking emotional
ballads or rip-roaring barn-
burners, you can expect a col-
lection of music that offers
something for everyone.
In September 2014, they
received a Momentum Award,
naming them Band of the Year
by the International Bluegrass
Music Association.
The “movement” can be
traced back to the teen years of
singer-songwriter and fiddler
Noah Wall, of Oxford, NC.
Just as she had begun penning
her first compositions, she
met mandolin-player Tommy
Norris during their senior
year of high school. With the
addition of versatile guitarist
and singer Alex Conerly in
2013, and most recently, Katie
Blomarz on the upright bass,
the lineup was complete with
all the elements that make
up the Barefoot sound: lush
harmonies, thoughtful instru-
mentation, and memorable
melodies.
They have been selected
as showcase artists at both
the International Bluegrass
Music Association and the
Americana Music Association
conferences and were first
runner-up at the 2013 Tellu-
ride Bluegrass Festival’s New
Band Competition
On August 10 the series
concludes with the return of
Colorado honkytonk rock-
ers Halden Wofford and the
Hi Beams. Veterans of the
Sisters Folk Festival, Halden
and band performed twice in
Sisters to rousing applause,
with their hard-driving, rock-
ing approach to great original
music. Halden Wofford &
the Hi Beams ride out from
the cutting-edge cow-town
of Denver, Colorado. Rootsy
and real, neither revivalist nor
retro, the Hi Beams’ brand of
country music is as boundless
and electrifying as America
itself. Equal parts Hank Wil-
liams and Johnny Depp,
front-man Halden Wofford
pours forth a potent mix of
rocked-up honkytonk, West-
ern swing, Dylanesque origi-
nals and spaghetti-western
epics.
There is no creative limit
to the songwriter, illustrator,
author, storyteller and singer.
But Halden has met his match
in the Hi Beams. Each outra-
geous tale he spins is met by
the whine and wail of the steel
guitar, the furious double-neck
electric guitar and mandolin,
and the relentless thump of the
upright bass and drums.
From Red Rocks to rodeos,
the Fillmore Auditorium to the
back of a flatbed truck, Prairie
Home Companion to perform-
ing arts centers, Halden Wof-
ford & the Hi Beams deliver
an unforgettable and original
night of American music.
For summer concert series
and artist information, visit
sistersfolkfestival.org. SFF
encourages patrons to bring
blankets and low-back chairs,
as seating is not provided. All
shows start at 6:30 p.m., are
free and open to the public,
and picnics are encouraged.
Fir Street Park is located in
downtown Sisters at 150 N.
Fir St.
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