On Saturday, Jan. 18, Old Songs in Voorheesville will be presenting the April Verch Band. The band — rounded out by bassist and clawhammer banjo player Cody Walters and guitarist Hayes Griffin, who has a Masters in jazz improv from the New England Conservatory — is an energetic, virtuosic, tradition-celebrating outfit, not to mention one that’s not soon forgotten when they depart the stage. It doesn’t hurt that the thrilling grand finale involves Verch fiddling and step dancing—and often executing two entirely different intricate rhythmic patterns—at once.
Something else that’s downright impressive is the range of material Verch, Walters and Griffin inhabit on their new album, “Bright Like Gold.”
She’s so fluent in folk traditions — the Canadian ones she was born into and the American ones she later found her way to — that old fiddle tunes like those featured in the Canadian medley “Dusty Miller,” “Fiddle Fingers” and “Grizzly Bear” and the Appalachian medley “Edward in the Treetop,” “Yellow Jacket” and “Quit That Tickling Me” sound positively reinvigorated. Originals like her instrumental waltz “Morris & Boris” and country courting number “The Only One” are clearly made to last. More information is available at aprilverch.com.
Old Songs will present the April Verch Band, on Saturday, Jan. 18 at 8 p.m. The concert will be held at 37 South Main St., Voorheesville. Tickets are $23 for adults and $5 for children 12 and under and may be purchased at aprilverch.ticketderby.com or by calling Old Songs at 765-2815.