Jeff Tweedy-Produced, NPR Tiny Desk Alumns Kacy & Clayton; and “Mesmerizing” (Rolling Stone) Kaia Kater Confirmed
Spotify playlist of artists playing Meadowlark.
Meadowlark graphics and video.
YouTube playlist of artists playing Meadowlark.
WHO: DeVotchka, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Chris Smither, Kacy and Clayton, Kaia Kater, Quintron & Miss Pussycat, Jolie Holland, Chris Staples, Ryan Lee Crosby, Babehoven, Lizzie No, beccs, Cloudbelly, circus arts by Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, video art by Preston Spurlock
WHAT: New music festival and farm benefit Meadowlark, presented by Modrocker Productions
WHEN: September 8-10, 2023
WHERE: Stone Ridge Orchard & Farmers Market, 3012 NY-213, Stone Ridge, NY 12484
TICKETS: https://meadowlarkfest.com
Meadowlark will also feature local artisans, food trucks, and more with more details to be announced. Less than two hours north of New York City and a twenty-minute car ride from the Kingston Metro North railroad station, Stone Ridge Orchard and Farmers Market in the scenic Roundout Valley is situated between the Shawangunk Ridge and the Catskill mountain range in the Hudson Valley region. Meadowlark producer and Modrocker Productions, LLC founder Daniel Leslie hails from Hopewell Junction, graduated from Vassar College, and now resides in Brooklyn.
Meadowlark has committed to donate a portion of the proceeds from Meadowlark 2023 to organizations that support farmers in the Hudson Valley and nationally, and who are aligned with our values of promoting food security and advocacy for local farms. These organizations include:
* Farm Aid
* Roundout Valley Growers Association (RVGA)
* Stone Ridge Permaculture Fund
Elizabeth Ryan, the owner of Stone Ridge Orchard and founding farmer of Breezy Hill Orchard, has been honored as a Farmer Hero by Farm Aid and recognized for her leadership in agriculture by the Rondout Valley Growers Association. Meadowlark is proud to be affiliated with Stone Ridge Orchard and these organizations who are playing a critical role in advocating for farmers in the Hudson Valley region and around the country. Elizabeth was recently awarded the prestigious Apple Advocate Award, a lifetime achievement prize from the American Cider Association.
Photo of Elizabeth from Times Union article linked above.
About Kacy and Clayton
Of Kacy and Clayton, Jeff Tweedy said, “I think they’re a truly great band.” The music they make is inextricable from where they grew up. They sing about the kind of people you’d find in Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan (population very few). The hills, barns, and remoteness of the area are in these songs, with a bittersweet acknowledgement that this music has taken them far from home.
Kacy Anderson and Clayton Linthicum’s new album Carrying On follows the international acclaim for their previous records Strange Country (which Q magazine called, “A beautiful album that nudges a classic past into a brave future.”) and 2017’s The Siren’s Song (described by Uncut as “Ageless and beguiling. A classic record for this or any other time.”) The album was produced once again by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco and Uncle Tupelo fame, at his Loft studio in Chicago.
Their sound is equal parts homespun, coming from a family and community where playing music is an ever present part of social gatherings, and the rare country, blues and English folk rock these second cousins obsess over and collect. For Carrying On, Clayton cites as influences: Bobbie Gentry’s The Delta Sweete, Hoyt Axton’s My Griffin Is Gone, Cajun fiddle music, and the steel guitar of Ralph Mooney who played on many of the records that defined the Bakersfield country music scene of the 1950s. Sixties psych has also woven its way into these new songs; Kacy enjoys telling people that they live 250km from the mental hospital that coined the term ‘psychedelic’.
The result is a sharpening of what Mojo magazine summed up as “A beautiful mix of Kacy’s crystalline vocals and Clayton’s inventive, deep-groove country guitar.”
About Kaia Kater
Grenadian-Canadian Kaia Kater’s jazz-fueled voice and deft songcraft have garnered acclaim from NPR, Rolling Stone and No Depression. On ‘Grenades’ (2018), Kaia leaned into a wide array of topics, notably her Caribbean ancestry. Recent projects include “Parallels” (2021) and songwriting for ‘The Porter’ (CBC/BET+) TV series, for which she won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Original Song. She is currently recording an album for release in 2023.
About Bindlestiff Family Cirkus
Bindlestiff Family Variety Arts, Inc., founded by Keith Nelson and Stephanie Monseu in 1995, prides itself on being an integral part of America’s outstanding folk traditions of circus, sideshow, and vaudeville. Bindlestiff’s activities fall into three main areas. First, we produce original shows, festivals, and public events. Over the decades, Bindlestiff has presented nearly 600 of the world’s top artists in the circus and variety fields. Shows in our home regions of NYC and the Hudson Valley, as well as national touring in the United States, have engaged audiences in the hundreds of thousands, with performances in theaters, Spiegeltents, big tops, cruise ships, fairs and festivals, including 2017’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival, celebrating the cultural heritage of the American circus on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
The second area of Bindlestiff’s work is support of emerging and professional variety artists. The Bindlestiff Open Stage Variety Show is the premiere circus “open mic” night of New York City, presenting acts by over 100 artists every year. Bindlestiff’s yearly First of May Award and Residency offers emerging NYC-based artists financial support and mentorship from Bindlestiff. Twice a year, Bindlestiff’s Cavalcade of Youth, produced in collaboration with Playful Productions, pairs young artists from diverse backgrounds interested in learning the craft and skills of circus and variety with professional mentors in the field, presenting public shows in New York City.
And third, Bindlestiff provides high-quality circus arts education and enrichment opportunities. Free Out-of-School-Time and Elder programs serve people in the Hudson Valley and New York City by using circus arts training as a medium for social justice, community building, and youth development. Circus skill workshops are also offered with touring productions. Bindlestiff yearly develops and expand its educational programs with new partnerships, greater outreach, and continued professional development for instructors.
About Preston Spurlock
Preston Spurlock is a South Florida-born multimedia artist currently living in Brooklyn, NY. Over the years, he’s been an animator, an illustrator, a poster designer, a music video director, an experimental video artist, a collagist, a VJ, and occasionally, a musician.
About Stone Ridge Orchard
The land that is now Stone Ridge Orchard has been a productive, diversified farm for nearly two hundred years. Tucked away in the Roundout River Valley between the Shawangunk Ridge and Catskill Mountains, they raise a wide variety of sustainably-grown gourmet fruits and vegetables on 115 scenic rolling acres.
The performance site will be under the shade of the farm’s iconic nearly 400-year-old oak tree, the jewel of Stone Ridge, next to a stand of some of the oldest apple trees in the region: McIntosh, Cortland, Golden Delicious, and Stayman.
In 2008, Elizabeth Ryan of Breezy Hill Orchard took over management of the orchard at Stone Ridge. Since then, Elizabeth has taken great care to give trees the care they need to produce flavorful, high-quality fruit. Breezy Hill Orchard sells fruit from Stone Ridge Orchard, as well as a large line of artisan baked goods and cider, at more than 20 farmers’ markets in New York.