PUTNEY — Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present Dustbowl Revival, a Venice, Calif.-based roots collective that merges old-school bluegrass, gospel, jug-band, swamp blues and the hot swing of the 1930s, plus the Vermont-based Americana duo Laura Molinelli and Ben Campbell at Next Stage on Saturday, Jan. 24, at 7:30 p.m.
Known for their inspired live sets, the Dustbowl Revival boldly brings together many styles of traditional American music.
“Some call it string band-brass band mash up. Imagine Old Crow Medicine Show teaming up with Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives and Sevens, or Bob Dylan and The Band jamming with Benny Goodman and his orchestra in 1938,” the concert organizers write. “It's infectious, joyous music - a youthful take on time-worn American traditions.”
Since founder Z. Lupetin came west from Chicago to get the circus started, the group has grown steadily from a small string band playing up and down the West Coast into a traveling mini-orchestra featuring fiddle, mandolin, trombone, clarinet, trumpet, ukulele, drums, tuba, organ, a bass made from a canoe oar, harmonica, and plenty of washboard and kazoo.
Singer/songwriter Laura Molinelli has released five albums, and has shared the stage with the likes of Lucinda Williams, Dar Williams, Lucy Kaplansky, John Gorka, The Band, and NRBQ.
Multi-instrumentalist Ben Campbell toured for two years with Circus Smirkus as a member of its house band and has collaborated with many notable Vermont musicians and groups, including Anais Mitchell.
Molinelli and Campbell are both members of the southern Vermont-based bluegrass band The Bondville Boys.