Third Annual Festival Supports Farmers, with Proceeds Benefiting Rondout Valley Growers Association, Hudson Valley Center for Food, Culture & Agriculture
“Dynamic” (Stereogum) indie rock band Sunflower Bean, who deliver a “masterclass in rock” (Paste);
Songwriter Haley Heynderickx, who has 1.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify;
The “expressive songwriter” (Pitchfork) Cut Worms’ “pop essentialism” (NPR Music);
NPR Tiny Desk Concert, Newport Folk Fest, and Bonnaroo alums River Whyless;
Daptone Records’ The Mystery Lights, who are “as good as it gets” (NME UK);
the Hudson Valley’s Camp Saint Helene, who have had a song covered by Angel Olsen and who have been a KEXP Song of the Day;
Daughter of the Vine, new project by Margaret Garrett of Mr. Airplane Man;
favorites of the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, macabre duo Charming Disaster, whose “woozy folk-pop plays around the edges of the Gothic” (Paste Magazine);
Ryan Lee Crosby, who “brings influences from Africa and India to the Bentonia [Mississippi] sound” (Smithsonian Magazine);
Driftwood Soldier, whose music brings to mind “a bluesy version of Nick Cave with a nod to Tom Waits” (WXPN);
NYC singer-storyteller and trained Shakespearean actress Emily Jeanne Brown;
Hudson Valley folk-rock group Ongoing;
And Kendra McKinley, who paints on her clothes and makes music for smoking weed with your bra off.
Playlist of Meadowlark Festival performers.
Photos of Meadowlark Festival performers, venue, and logos.
Above: Sunflower Bean
Meadowlark 2024 tickets were on sale on the festival website (meadowlarkfest.org) starting at 10:00AM ET on Thursday, May 8, and are priced as follows:
Meadowlark supports organizations that advocate for 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 Rondout Valley Growers Association (RVGA), and Hudson Valley Center For Food, Culture & Agriculture. The festival takes place at Stone Ridge Orchard & Farmers Market, a 200-year-old working farm on 115 acres.
About Mystery Lights
The roots of the Mystery Lights can be traced back to Salinas, California, where guitarists Mike Brandon and Luis “L.A.” Solano formed the band while still in high school. Crafting their own distinctive take on a Nuggets-era ’60s sound, they played around their home turf for several years, frequently revising their lineup and eventually releasing their debut LP, Teenage Catgirls & the Mystery Lightshow, in 2009. By 2012, Brandon and Solano had each made the leap to New York, settling in Brooklyn and recruiting new members Alex Amini on bass and Nick Pillot on drums. Further honing their mid-’60s Kinks and Easybeats-inspired sound and adding spacy psych elements, they began gigging around the city, recording a handful of EPs and singles before getting picked up by Daptone’s rock imprint Wick Records in 2015. Their first release for the label was the 7″ single Too Many Girls/Too Tough to Bear, followed in 2016 by a self-titled full-length LP. A second album for Wick, Too Much Tension!, was released in May 2019; by this time, Nick Pillot had left the group and Zach Butler had taken his place on drums, with Lily “Lilcifer” Rogers joining on farfisa.
About Haley Heynderickx
Oregon-based singer/songwriter Haley Heynderickx draws from a wide array of influences, citing her religious Filipino-American upbringing, the folk music of the 1960s and ’70s, jazz radio, and the idiosyncratic acoustic guitar styles of Leo Kottke and John Fahey. All of those ingredients find their way into her music, which pairs deft fingerpicking with lyrics that flirt with levity but hew toward introspection. Her first album I Need to Start a Garden saw release in 2018 on Mama Bird Recording Co.
About River Whyless
River Whyless is Halli Anderson, Daniel Shearin, Ryan O’Keefe and Alex McWalters Here’s what you need to know about River Whyless: they’re a band from Asheville, North Carolina whose music sits somewhere between folk, indie and something harder to define. Known for their festival appearances (Newport Folk, Bonnaroo) and for their performances on platforms like NPR’s Tiny Desk, their sound has earned them a reputation for thoughtful songwriting and surprising arrangements. Their latest album, Monflora, feels like a conversation—between four distinct voices, between tradition and experimentation, and between the familiar and the unexpected. A return to their roots as well as a leap forward, the album blends lush harmonies with a raw, unfiltered energy.
About Sunflower Bean
New York trio Sunflower Bean—vocalist and bassist Julia Cumming (she/her), guitarist and vocalist Nick Kivlen (he/him), and drummer Olive Faber (she/her)— have made a name for themselves as one of the city’s quintessential indie rock bands over the past decade since forming in 2013. What started as a project of three high schoolers soon turned into a band with chart-topping releases, sold-out tour dates, international festival slots, wide-spread critical acclaim, and three remarkable full-length albums under their belt.
Known for their improvisational live performances the band has toured the world extensively, as both headliners and as support for artists such as Beck, The Strokes, Cage the Elephant, Interpol, Courtney Barnett, The Pixies, The Kills, DIIV, Courtney Barnett, Wolf Alice and more. They have also performed at major festivals like Glastonbury, Governors Ball, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Reading & Leeds, and Summer Sonic.
Mortal Primetime, the band’s forthcoming fourth album, was written and produced by Sunflower Bean, mixed by Caesar Edmunds (The Killers, Wet Leg), recorded in Los Angeles and NYC, and engineered by Sarah Tudzin (Illuminati Hotties, Boy Genius) and band.
About Cut Worms
Max Clarke is the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and musician presently known as Cut Worms. Cut Worm’s new Self Titled album continues Clarke’s exploration of what he calls “pop essentialism”. Mining the golden hits of yesteryear for a timeless sound, he contemplates age-old questions through a modern lens. Here, he leaves behind the legendary studio and sought-after producers for a more homegrown approach, working with a cast of gifted friends and collaborators. The result is a compact collection of daydream anthems that live between the summer’s hopeful beginnings and the season’s fleeting end.
Cut Worm’s Self Titled LP broke out of the gates in 2023, landing Clarke on the Billboard charts for the first time ever. Receiving praise from Paste Magazine as “Clarke’s brightest entry yet, one of the best rock ‘n’ roll records of 2023.” Cut Worms will continue touring and touting his newest album throughout 2024.
About Camp Saint Helene
For Camp Saint Helene, the concept of otherworldliness is neither strange nor complex, but alluring and holy. Created by Elizabeth Celeste Ibarra, Dylan Nowik, Wesley Harper and Alex Wernquest, they approach their craft akin to a ritual, leaning into the notion that art and expression are sacred experiences on an overstimulated planet. Often informed by the spirit of a defunct Christian-summer camp turned arts-colony deep within the mountains of New York, their music searches for shimmers of hope amidst hints of doom.
In 2024, they were featured on a compilation record, Cosmic Waves Volume 1., released by Angel Olsen via somethingscosmic / Jagjaguwar. This compilation included their single, “Wonder Now“ as well as their song, “Farfisa Song” , covered by Angel Olsen. In 2023, they were commissioned by NADA x Foreland to present a live performance and installation piece titled “Into the Garden” for Upstate Art Weekend in Catskill, NY. “Farfisa Song,” off their debut record Mother (2019), was named KEXP’s Song of the Day and added to KEXP Music that Matters Vol. 683 by Cheryl Waters. She describes Camp Saint Helene as “..call[ing] to mind the ’60s California folk scene with their gentle, waltz-like pastoral sound”. Additionally, “Farfisa Song” was featured predominantly both in the teen horror drama, “I Know What You Did Last Summer” (2022) and Zoe Lister-Jones’ series SLIP (2023). Mother was named by Bandcamp as a New and Notable record of 2019, describing it as “Occult-folk in the 70’s U.K. tradition that further affirms the link between Appalachian and British folk songs.”
About Charming Disaster
Brooklyn-based musical duo Charming Disaster was formed in 2012 by Ellia Bisker (of Sweet Soubrette and Funkrust Brass Band) and Jeff Morris (of Kotorino). Inspired by the gothic humor of Edward Gorey, Charles Addams, and Tim Burton, the murder ballads of the Americana tradition, and the dramatic flair of the cabaret, they write songs that tell stories about death, crime, myth, magic, science, and the occult. Charming Disaster’s music has been featured on the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, they have toured the United States and Europe, and have opened for Rasputina, Aurelio Voltaire, and The Dresden Dolls. Recent appearances include Dragon Con, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theatre in NYC, the Rochester Fringe Festival, and the Coney Island Sideshow stage.
Their critically acclaimed albums include Love, Crime & Other Trouble (2015), Cautionary Tales (2017), Spells + Rituals (2019), Our Lady of Radium (2022), Super Natural History (2023), and the singles collection Time Ghost (2024).
About Ryan Lee Crosby
Ryan Lee Crosby is a singer, guitarist, and songwriter whose music bridges generations through the deep-rooted language of the blues. Drawing from the haunting Bentonia style, Crosby’s sound blends entrancing rhythms, dynamic vocals, hypnotic guitar and raw emotional honesty. His approach is grounded in apprenticeship and real relationships with blues elders, including Grammy-nominated artist Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, who is the last living link to the Bentonia tradition and a longtime mentor.
Crosby’s upcoming album, “At the Blue Front,” was recorded live at Mississippi’s historic Blue Front Cafe—the oldest juke joint still in operation. The sessions were highly improvised and captured on reel-to-reel tape, creating a spontaneous and reverent atmosphere. With contributions from Holmes, percussionist Grant Smith, and harmonica player Jay Scheffler, the album honors tradition while breathing new life into it.
More than just a style, blues for Crosby is a way of being—a spiritual and meditative practice rooted in sincerity, presence, and connection. His music invites listeners to slow down, tune in, and feel what’s true.
About Driftwood Soldier
Driftwood Soldier isn’t your average mandolin-bass foot-stomping gutter-folk duo.
Growling and crooning, muttering about lost love, brimstone, and the glorious view from the underside of a rusty world-order, Owen holds the rhythm on mandolin and foot percussion. Bobby takes the opportunity to stretch bass notes into lyrical vines that vibrate somewhere north of your liver and flower unexpectedly at night.
In February 2015 they released Scavenger’s Joy followed by the Blessings & Blasphemy EP in March 2017. Their second full-length album, Stay Ahead of the Wolf, was produced with Erin McKeown, mixed by Grammy winner Ted Hutt and is set for release October 18, 2019. Listen to the first single, a revisionist retelling of the ballad of ‘John Henry’ and look for Driftwood Soldier in a bar, living room, alleyway, or rooftop near you.
About Daughter of the Vine
Daughter of the Vine is the latest mystical musical endeavor, by Boston area singer / guitarist, Margaret Garrett (formerly of Mr. Airplane Man), guitarist / singer, Gregg Porter (The Concerns), drummer Kurt Davis (formerly of The Konks), singer / keyboardist Abigail Taylor (The Concerns), and bass, Chris Lohring. Daughter has an ethereal, atmospheric, reverb-laden, transcendent sound. Drawing on the reflective energy of January’s Wolf Moon, Boston’s psychotropic sonic evangelists Daughter of the Vine howl at their pack with the “official” release of their MYSTIC VALLEY PKWY L.P. This is an expanded version with 4 new previously unreleased recordings, done in the basement lair of Dead Moon Audio in Somerville, MA. Part tremolo, part improvisation, with a sprinkle of Transcendentalism, see yourself through the Cosmic Eye! Enter geometric time and get yourself aligned!!!
About Emily Jeanne Brown
A lifelong singer trained as a Shakespearean actor, Emily Jeanne Brown began her foray into recording in 2020, with a minimal but visceral cover of Springsteen’s i’m on fire, which quickly garnered tens of thousands of streams. Since then, she has released a string of original singles that are “a natural fit with the current movement of women in indie-folk pop [boygenius, Maggie Rogers, Fiona Apple, HAIM, Phoebe Bridgers, Sharon Van Etten or even Taylor Swift’s latest work]” (Aptly Journal). Her 2024 3-song EP, Nina, was released through YouTooCanWoo’s singer/songwriter label imprint, Sunken Living Room, co-produced by Deidre Muro (Deidre and the Dark, Violet Sands, Savoir Adore).
Brown has toured the greater New York Area, the West Coast and Midwest, sharing stages with talented artists like Julia Easterlin, Marty O’Reilly, Brian Dunne (of Fantastic Cat), Katie Martucci (of The Ladles), Chris Trapper, Mary-Elaine Jenkins, Damon Daunno and many more.
She is currently working on her debut full-length record, Coaster, co-produced by Nan Macmillan. Accompanied by a full band of guitars, bass, drums, pedal steel, organ, rhodes and piano, the songs range from esoteric folk to grungy Americana, telling stories about growing up and searching for home.
About Ongoing
Ongoing is a folk-rock group based in the Hudson Valley, NY. The band features lead vocals by Katie Jones, Adam Netsky of Maybird on drums, multi-instrumentalist Braden Bodensteiner and Jonathan Hudack on bass. Their music presents passionately delivered melodies, philosophical lyrics, as well as spirited and wild sonic textures.
About Kendra McKinley
Kendra McKinley paints on her clothes and makes music for smoking weed with your bra off. She’s a conduit of connection with a voice that sounds like tuned honey, creating music that braids sensuality, levity and polish. Whether she’s casting spells with her looping pedal or fronting a dynamic band, her live show is an invitation to swerve and swoon to her yummy grooves.
Born in Santa Cruz, California, into a family of artists, McKinley has been immersed in a spectrum of performance mediums from a young age. Theater, dance, choir, visual art, fashion, and music have shaped this intuitive performer, laying the foundation for a dynamic and multifaceted career in the arts. McKinley’s recorded catalog showcases the vivid depth and range of her artistry. Her most recent LP, WHERE DOES A BODY BEGIN?, blends lush, feminine, and seasoned sensibilities reminiscent of Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark, infused with the undeniable groove of D’Angelo’s Black Messiah. Her upcoming EP, music for smoking weed with your bra off, is a floral, funky, cozy, and cool collection of songs entirely performed and produced by McKinley. Its first two singles, you think you’d notice and never say never, offer a taste of the EP’s velvety vibe.Now based in New York’s Hudson Valley, McKinley has found a vibrant community of fellow artists, where she continues to create and collaborate.
About Keepsake House
Women and Asian American-owned soon-to-be non-profit Keepsake House was founded by musician Jasmine Jang and event manager Hailey Savage with the mission to create a safe, supportive space for artists to share their work and nurture meaningful artist-audience connection. Keepsake House produces and hosts an annual artist residency program, 5-10 roundtable shows per year, and monthly Open Mics. Audiences call their shows “brilliant and powerful,” and one Keepsake House Artist in Residence said, “the feeling after being in a Keepsake show is one of empowerment and purpose.”
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.
