GEORGE KAHUMOKU JR. lives on Maui with his wife, Nancy, maintaining their 3-acre farm, growing fruit and vegetables, dry-land taro (for his famous home-made poi) and tending goats, chickens, ducks, and miniature horses. With over 25 solo, collaboration, and compilation CDs to his name, George celebrates over 15 years of his famed weekly Slack Key Show on Maui, which produced 4 Grammy-winning CDs. He founded the Hawaiian Music Institute at University of Hawai‘i-Maui College to preserve the legacy of Hawaiian music and to prepare the next generation for careers in music. A renowned storyteller, George collaborated on the book A Hawaiian Life with long-time friend Paul Konwiser to capture his hilarious, entertaining on-stage stories. This project led to his film biography Seeds of Aloha. For the last 15 years, George Kahumoku Jr.’s Annual Maui Slack Key Guitar and ‘Ukulele Workshop creates one of the great musical learning experiences in the Islands today, and embodies George’s belief in sharing, celebrating, and perpetuating the unique music and culture that is Hawai‘i.
Artist Category: Trad
Dolunay
With a musical vision that is at once ethereal and grounded, Dolunay flirts with the soundscape of the ancient Ottomans, tracing its migration through Balkan villages, coaxing it across seas and oceans, and grafting it onto a Brooklyn-based backdrop.
The trio infuses classic and contemporary traditions with an urban grit that can only be found in New York City’s confluence of musical and cultural forces. With an array of original compositions offered alongside renditions of Turkish and Rumeli standards, the music of Dolunay (Turkish for “full moon”) offers listeners an escape from the press of city life. The ensemble consists of Jenny Luna (voice and percussion), Adam Good (oud), Eylem Basaldi (violin).
Çeşni Trio
At turns romantic and elegant, vivacious and playful, the music of Çeşni Trio is grounded in the flavors (çeşniler) of Turkish makam music while remaining deeply personal and contemporary.
The trio guides listeners from dove-tailing contemplative melodies to odd-metered tunes that throw caution to the wind. Tev Stevig (tanbur, oud, fretless guitar and alterna-telli) and Michael K. Harrist (yaylı tanbur, double bass, ney and voice) first met in Istanbul in 2010. Back home in Boston, MA they found themselves playing and studying Ottoman art music together in Orkestra Marhaba. As an idea for a trio began to take hold, the group found kinship with Fabio Pirozzolo (darbuka, riq, bendir, tombak, davul) and Çeşni Trio was born. The ensemble is excited to release its first full length record titled “The Fluid Score” in late April.
Mile Twelve
Mile Twelve is a modern string band from Boston, Massachusetts. Winners of the 2020 IBMA New Artist of the Year award, they have been making waves in the acoustic music community with their seamless blend of expertly-crafted songs, creative arrangements, and virtuosic execution. The band takes their name from the mile marker that sits at Boston’s southern border on Route 93, a road sign they’ve passed countless times while heading out on tour. They’ve found receptive audiences across the globe, touring throughout North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
Their latest full-length album City on a Hill, produced by guitar legend Bryan Sutton and nominated for 2019 IBMA Album of the Year, is centered on the theme of people facing and overcoming challenge. Many of its songs are set in urban landscapes, a significant departure from the often-rural lens of acoustic music. Sutton observes, “I’m a fan of bands who strive for a balance of being musically unique and individualized, while at the same time working to include time-honored traditions found in this music. This blend is not an easy thing to accomplish. Mile Twelve does this with well-honed and refreshingly honest songwriting, along with powerful playing, singing, and performing. Not only did I have the privilege of producing this album, but I also got a chance to know the band better. I’m impressed with how much they bring out the best in each other.”
More recently, the band has released an EP of covers titled Roll the Tapes All Night Long. They draw from a wide array of influences — from Ralph Stanley to Los Lobos, from Darell Scott to Tattletale Saints — demonstrating the surprisingly flexible nature of their instrumentation at every turn. The project features a who’s-who list of special guests: Billy Strings, Chris Eldridge (Punch Brothers), Brittany Haas (Hawktail) and Bruce Molsky. Folk Alley says “Roll the Tapes All Night Long showcases Mile Twelve’s restless creativity, their ability to inhabit a song and turn it inside out to make it their own, even as they preserve the spirit of the original.”
After a busy summer of touring including stops at RockyGrass, IBMA Bluegrass Live! and Milwaukee Irish Fest, the band is gearing up to record its next full-length project in early 2022.
