From America With Music

The second Annual Festival of Traditional American Music opens Thursday with a trio of talented sisters.

By Gillian Bradford

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: March 13, 2013 (Issue # 1750)

FOR SPT The Quebe Sisters Band plays a blend of rollicking country music that harks back to country music’s golden age.

Riding on the success of last year’s sell-out event, the second annual Festival of Traditional American Music is back to wow audiences starting March 14 at the St. Petersburg Jazz Philharmonic Hall. Appearing in nine different cities over a two-month period, the festival, which has been curated by the American Folklore Center at the Library of Congress, aims to introduce Russian audiences to idiomatic American music that highlights different aspects of the American experience.

The lineup includes a wide array of musical genres, ranging from a trio of bluegrass- and country-inspired sisters who play the fiddle to a modern take on Conjunto and Tejano music, and a group of “blues masters,” all of whom are performing in Russia for the first time and who personify the unique style of American music which they play.

Opening the festival this year is The Quebe Sisters Band from Fort Worth, Texas, The fiddle-playing trio play music that harks back to the days of the Carter Family and the beginnings of the Grand Ole Opry — Nashville’s high church of country music. Borrowing inspiration from western swing, bluegrass, country and jazz, the sisters manage at once to pay homage to their roots while creating a sound that is uniquely their own.

This ingenuity has led to multiple awards, including honors for Western Swing Album of the Year in 2008. The sisters started playing together when they were children and went on to perform with the likes of billionaire Warren Buffett, possibly the world's most famous investor, at the annual meeting of his multinational conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, that same year. Joining the sisters on stage and rounding out their sound in St. Petersburg are Joey McKenzie on guitar and Gavin Kelso on upright bass.

The second installment of the festival takes place April 4, with a performance by Modern Blues Masters. A trio of seasoned performers, the group consists of Phil Wiggins, Guy Davis and Samuel James. While Davis is perhaps the most widely recognized of the three, having been an honored guest at the Kennedy Center Awards in the U.S., as well as being viewed as one of the foremost blues musicians of his generation, both Wiggins and James shine brightly as talented blues performers.

Wiggins, who plays the harmonica as well as being a singer and a songwriter, is considered by many to be the best player of blues harmonica in the world, melding both the American and African roots of the genre into a cohesive and delicate whole. James, despite being the youngest of the trio, brings a unique quality to his performances, blending his unique blues style with a talent for storytelling. Playing both guitar and piano, he is generally viewed by fans and critics alike as one of the most promising up-and-coming blues musicians alive.

Finally, on May 11, the St. Petersburg portion of the festival comes to a close with Los Texmaniacs, a Conjunto-influenced band credited with reviving the genre among younger audiences. Conjunto emerged as a musical form in southern Texas following the introduction of the button accordion to the area at the end of the 19th century by German settlers, and is a melding of European dance music with traditional Mexican music.

With Hispanics representing a significant percentage of the American population, the inclusion of Los Texmaniacs on the festival program allows the rich and vibrant musical tradition of Mexican-Americans to reach a wider audience and stimulate interest beyond North America. Led by Max Baca, the band has been performing since 1997 and won a Grammy Award for its 2009 release “Borders Y Bailes,” Baca himself has participated in a number of other Grammy-winning projects, including collaborating with the Rolling Stones on their platinum-selling “Voodoo Lounge” album in 1996.

While each of the musical acts makes stops in St. Petersburg and Moscow, the rest of the tour will see the groups taking to the road across Russia to introduce the strains of cowboy songs, melancholic blues and Tex-Mex dance music to a whole new audience — an audience the founders of the various genres doubtless could never have imagined.

The Quebe Sisters Band appears at The St. Petersburg Jazz Philharmonic on Thursday 14 March. Complete details of the festival are available at www.cecartslink.org