DENVER, COLO. (4/15/09) — Swallow Hill Music is proud to present the first WineFest 2009. A fundraising event, WineFest showcases five Colorado wineries, as well as local cheese and appetizers made with Colorado-grown ingredients. Musical guests FOMA* and Kantankerous Bluegrass Band will round up the appropriate environment for a relaxed Sunday afternoon.

Attendees will have the opportunity to unlimited sampling of the best wines made from Colorado grapes by wineries such as Alfred Eames Cellars, Augustina’s Winery, Settembre Cellars, Turquoise Mesa Winery and Snowy Peaks Winery. The Georgio Loews Tuscany restaurant will provide delicious appetizers and MuoCo Cheese Company will bring their best products. Proceeds from ticket sales will support Swallow Hill’s mission to keep roots and folk music alive in our community.

Local band FOMA*‘s sonic palette combines a blend of rock-alternative, funk, blues, and is lightly peppered with a pinch of country twang. Winners of Alice 105.3 FM’s Almost Famous contest, FOMA* “finds a way to take you to sonic places you haven’t been yet, but yet make your memory bank feel like you’ve been there before.” (Colorado Music Buzz). Kantankerous Bluegrass Band is Eric Grace, Warren Roberts, Marte Meyer, Joel Denman and Kenny Pabst.

DENVER, COLO. (4/14/09) — Swallow Hill is pleased to present Wovenhand, featuring David Eugene Edwards of 16 Horsepower, for an exclusive, intimate acoustic performance on their Daniels Hall stage on Friday, May 29 at 8 p.m.

Treble describes Wovenhand as: “…like Nick Cave and Johnny Cash in a shootout in Deadwood…” while Paste declares it: “a pure distillation of his (Edwards’) ethos as an artist.” Indeed, the roots of American folk music are taken into new territory by Edwards, whose dark and intense prophetical dreamscape has been capturing critical acclaim as well as a vast fan base. This one-and-only unplugged show for Wovenhand will no doubt be a great showcase for fans old and new.

Joining Wovenhand are friends Kal Cahoone (Tarantella) and Elin Palmer (Munly and The Lee Lewis Harlots, DevotchKa).

DENVER, COLO. (4/9/09) — Swallow Hill is thrilled to host “Hillbilly Renaissance Man” Chuck Mead as he comes to Colorado as a solo artist to unveil his very first hot-off-the-press solo album, Journeyman’s Wager, on Friday, May 22 at 8 p.m.

A co-founder of the three-time Grammy nominated BR549, the honky-tonk heroes who almost single-handedly lit and carried the blowtorch for the mid-’90s alternative country explosion, Mead has with more than a decade under his belt as one of the most uncompromising and consistent talents in the American roots music movement.

With Journeyman’s Wager, he throws down the gauntlet with an album that defies all sonic expectations while re-defining his position as one of the hardest-working artists in the business. “I respect the term ‘journeyman’ because that’s I what consider myself,” he says. “I’ve been living by my wits musically for more than 20 years now, going from job to job and doing them all pretty well. Certainly there’s a hustle to what I do, but there’s always been a gambling aspect to it, too. With this album, it’s finally all me going all-in. It’s a record that challenges listeners in a good way. Best of all, I’ve challenged myself.”

Produced by Grammy winner Ray Kennedy, the 11 tracks on Journeyman’s Wager embody not only the core of country music, but also the pulse of pop, R&B, hillbilly rock, gospel and beyond. “This album is all me, doing what comes naturally. I mean everything I say on this album,” Mead says. “You can tell it with a wink and a smile, but it’s still the truth. And the truth is thatJourneyman’s Wager is the culmination of everything I’ve learned. These are my decisions. This is my music.”

DENVER, COLO. (4/7/09) — Lucy Kaplansky returns to Swallow Hill with a rootsy, alt-country album, Over the Hills, on Friday, May 15 at 8 p.m. with special guest Antje Duvekot.

The New Yorker hails Kaplansky as “a truly gifted performer with a bag full of enchanting songs” while the Boston Globe has dubbed her “the troubadour laureate of modern city folk.” She’s been a favorite singing partner of a who’s who in the scene, from Shawn Colvin to John Gorka, from Nanci Griffith to Richard Shindell. She teamed with Dar Williams and Richard Shindell to form supergroup Cry Cry Cry, releasing a self-titled album and embarking on a national tour of sold-out concerts.

Over the Hills explores universal themes of love, joy, loss and dreams for the future, through reflections on family. Produced by Ben Wittman (Roseanne Cash, Paul Simon), she reinvents Bryan Ferry’s “More than This” as a pedal-steel soaked ballad, rocks out on Ian Tyson’s “Someday Soon,” and June Carter Cash’s “Ring of Fire,” performs a winning country duet with Buddy Miller on Julie Miller’s “Somewhere Trouble Don’t Go,” and romps joyously through Loudon Wainwright’s “Swimming Song.” From the New York skyline to the hills beyond, Kaplansky’s latest album is pure Americana, wonderfully raw and rich with heartache and hope.

One of Boston’s brightest singer/songwriters, Antje Duvekot, will open the show. She returns with a second studio album produced by fellow songwriter and friend, Richard Shindell, calledThe Near Demise of the High Wire Dancer.

DENVER, COLO. (4/2/09) — Swallow Hill is thrilled to welcome back one of the most revered songstresses in folk rock, Patty Larkin, to their Daniels Hall stage with special guest Judith Owen on Saturday, May 9 at 8 p.m.

Patty Larkin is a rare combination of talents. Over her 10-album history, she has honed a reputation as a “musician’s musician,” working with some of the brightest talents in American music. Long a favorite with critics, Larkin possesses a unique level of artistic sophistication that her audiences have come to appreciate and her new fans will love.

Her latest offering, Watch the Sky, finds the ever-evolving artist searching for a new voice, a fresh palate. She wrote, produced, engineered and edited the album, and she wrote and recorded much of the material as it came to her, assembling tracks and sounds as she went. The result is a raw, intimate, gorgeous sound that is all her own. She experimented with a kaleidoscope of sounds, from her “slapsteel” guitar (lap steel detuned, played with drumstick and hand) to the “baribow,” an organic take on a string section, played on electric baritone guitar with a child’s violin bow.

Things take off with a hip hop-tinged piece, sung in the voice of a ghost walking the house with a wailing electric blues guitar part, to intimate acoustic guitar with orchestral underpinnings and vocals in the style of Nick Drake. The concept of combining acoustic instruments with modern technology has always intrigued Larkin and she accomplishes this feat gracefully onWatch the Sky.

Opening the show for Larkin is Judith Owen, about whom The New York Times says has “…the kind of wailing folk-jazz voice that slices away surfaces to touch vulnerable emotional nerve endings and leave you quivering.” (Consequently, an interesting factoid: Owen is married to Harry Shearer.)

DENVER, COLO. (4/2/09) — Swallow Hill is thrilled to welcome back one of the most revered songstresses in folk rock, Patty Larkin, to their Daniels Hall stage with special guest Judith Owen on Saturday, May 9 at 8 p.m.

Patty Larkin is a rare combination of talents. Over her 10-album history, she has honed a reputation as a “musician’s musician,” working with some of the brightest talents in American music. Long a favorite with critics, Larkin possesses a unique level of artistic sophistication that her audiences have come to appreciate and her new fans will love.

Her latest offering, Watch the Sky, finds the ever-evolving artist searching for a new voice, a fresh palate. She wrote, produced, engineered and edited the album, and she wrote and recorded much of the material as it came to her, assembling tracks and sounds as she went. The result is a raw, intimate, gorgeous sound that is all her own. She experimented with a kaleidoscope of sounds, from her “slapsteel” guitar (lap steel detuned, played with drumstick and hand) to the “baribow,” an organic take on a string section, played on electric baritone guitar with a child’s violin bow.

Things take off with a hip hop-tinged piece, sung in the voice of a ghost walking the house with a wailing electric blues guitar part, to intimate acoustic guitar with orchestral underpinnings and vocals in the style of Nick Drake. The concept of combining acoustic instruments with modern technology has always intrigued Larkin and she accomplishes this feat gracefully onWatch the Sky.

Opening the show for Larkin is Judith Owen, about whom The New York Times says has “…the kind of wailing folk-jazz voice that slices away surfaces to touch vulnerable emotional nerve endings and leave you quivering.” (Consequently, an interesting factoid: Owen is married to Harry Shearer.)