Doors and Windows, the new Compass Records release from Bearfoot, shows just how far this young band has come in a few years’ time.

Bearfoot consists of Kate Hamre on bass, Mike Mickelson on guitar, Jason Norris on mandolin, Angela Oudean on fiddle, and Odessa Jorgensen on vocals and fiddle. All but Jorgensen have been performing together for some time in the group.

Not long ago, they were Bearfoot Bluegrass, a leading light in Alaska’s small but determined bluegrass music scene. The band served as bluegrass missionaries, hosting music camps for kids in their home state, and performing throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Now, their members are living in Tennessee, California and Colorado as well as Alaska, and they are signed to a major independent label based in Nashville. Their tours take them all over the US where they play to enthusiastic audiences.

You can still hear the schooling they received in bluegrass and old time music on Doors and Windows, but the sound is more modern, with influences from any number of pop and acoustic styles. The band wrote most of the material, which shapes their sound as it does any group who records their own music, and in this case it is Odessa Jorgensen who leaves the biggest stamp on the CD.

Odessa has written 4 out of the 11 songs on the new CD. We had a chance recently to talk with her about the new CD and how she came to be a part of this challenging new band – starting with her musical upbringing.

“I picked up the violin at age four. My family is very musical and I was homeschooled, which gave me the freedom to devote a lot of my time to music. As a kid I was heavily involved in the classical music scene in the Bay Area of California – I was part of a chamber orchestra for several years and played in various quartets. My dad and I (he played guitar) started writing instrumental tunes together when I was about 10 years old. I formed a rootsy Americana/Rock and Roll band when I was 15 with some friends of mine, and it was then that I started branching out and creating original music.

The first time I went to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Fran I was blown away ‚Äì I saw Gillian and Dave, Doc Watson, and Emmylou Harris all for the first time ‚Äì all the greats. I knew then that I wanted to play that sort of music so I finished high school, packed my car, and drove to Nashville. I didn’t know anybody there, but I felt sure that’s where I needed to go for music. I fell in with the most amazing and supportive group of people and I learned so much just being around so many great musicians. I started getting into old time fiddle and writing my own songs on guitar and I played with and learned from anyone who would teach me. (more…)

We got a note recently from progressive banjoist Jake Schepps, letting us know that he and his Expedition Quartet are heading from Boulder, CO to New York City for this week’s Arts Presenters Conference. The annual conference brings together performing artists and buyers in the worlds of music, dance, theater, family programming and comedy.

Jake tells us that a number of acoustic string acts will be showcasing as well this year, including Abigail Washburn’s Sparrow Quartet, Laurie Lewis and the RIght Hands, Bill Evan’s Soul Grass with Sam Bush, Bearfoot, and more.

A full conference schedule can be found online.

This inspriring story was written by the Rev. Belle Mickelson. She is an Episcopal minister who runs Dancing with the Spirit, an organization which teaches bluegrass to youngsters in the native villages of Alaska and Canada – and which could use the support of the wider bluegrass community.

Yesterday was the big Christmas Concert and dinner at Arctic Village School. Kids played fiddles, guitars, mandolins, and banjos and sang Jingle Bells, Silent Night, The First Noel, I Saw the Light, and You Are My Sunshine. Outside, it was 40 below and the moon shone on the snow-covered ground.

Elders Gideon James, the Rev. Trimble Gilbert plus Wilbert Kendi helped my son Mike and I teach music all week. They are from the Athabaskan Indian fiddling tradition of rhythmic foot stomping and dancing. The kids loved it and many stayed after school to play just one more tune!

Arctic Village is the fourth stop in our Christmas tour that began Dec. 1 in Beaver and then continued on to Stevens Village and Tanana—little places along the Yukon River. We flew by small plane—all bundled up just in case we had to make an emergency landing. We usually camped out in schools—that sometimes had the only running water in the village.

The kids were so excited to see us come! It was so great to see their smiles as they picked up guitars or a banjo‚Ķ I loved what one little 7 year-old girl in Beaver told me as I played the fiddle for her. “It talks,” she said, “it talks!” And the kids in Stevens giggled and laughed so much as they tried square dancing by themselves. In Tanana, Pete Peters traveled with us and brought Native drumming and language for a couple songs.

I’m still amazed at how fast all the kids learn. We use color-coding and simple notation. It was our third week-long visit to Arctic Village this year‚Äîand junior high and high school fiddle students can easily play over twenty songs including Amazing Grace, I’ll Fly Away, Liza Jane, Will the Circle be Unbroken, and The best part is the joy they feel‚Äîand the sense of accomplishment. On the guitar, it only takes a few days to learn the chords and start flatpicking. The mandolin is great for little fingers because there are two finger chords. We don’t have a lot of banjos and acoustic basses‚Äîbut hopefully that will happen soon!

This trip is funded by school districts and Dancing with the Spirit—a new bluegrass music program for kids in Native villages in Alaska and Canada. Thru camps and school programs, young people take classes in fiddle, guitar, banjo, mandolin, and bass—plus sing, dance, and form bands. Music can bring success and hope to villages struggling with alcoholism, drugs, and suicide.

The Rev. Trimble Gilbert from Arctic Village says, “In the old days we fought tribal wars with arrowheads. It’s a different type of war now‚Äîagainst drugs and alcohol. I believe we can win with music.” (more…)