Nic Gareiss and Allison de Groot

December 6th – Nic Gareiss and Allison de Groot sound and move together, engaging tunes and gestures from Appalachia, Ireland, and beyond through banjo, voice, and percussive dance. Named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch,” Nic Gareiss has been hailed by the New York Times for his “dexterous melding of Irish and Appalachian dance” and called “the most inventive and expressive step dancer on the scene” by the Boston Herald. A resident of Lansing, Michigan, Gareiss received the 2021 Michigan Heritage Award, the state’s highest honor bestowed on traditional artists. Allison de Groot has performed at the Newport Folk Festival, Celtic Connections, Rockygrass, Hardly Strictly, Winnipeg Folk Festival, and Tønder Festival. Shaped by the music scene in her hometown of Winnipeg, Canada, Allison also holds a Bachelor of Music in Performance from Berklee College of Music in Boston where she attended on the Slaight Family Scholarship, and has been awarded the Joseph S. Stauffer Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Eisenson Family Prize for Excellence in American Roots Music. Her album with Tatiana Hargreaves won Best Bluegrass Album from the Independent Music Awards and was nominated for Liner Notes of the Year at the International Bluegrass Music Association awards.

After a decade of once-off collaborations, Gareiss and de Groot released The Thrill, a visual album inspired by the music of Appalachian musician Hobart Smith, in October 2022. The duo spent concentrated time immersing themselves in archival recordings of Hobart Smith (1897-1965) to create The Thrill. “We listened in hopes of having a conversation with his music,” Gareiss says, “not attempting to replicate – which would be impossible! – but hoping for a discourse, an argument, a dialogue with his music.” The title itself comes from a quote from Hobart, “music fills you with a thrill you just can’t express.” The Thrill can be purchased, viewed, and streamed on the platform Bandcamp. Fifty percent of the proceeds benefit Lonesome Pine Mutual Aid, a Black, Indigenous, queer- and women-led organization which distributes flood relief including food, drinking water, and other community care across southwest Virginia where Hobart Smith lived and learned his music.

General Admission – 22.00
Bar area opens at 7pm
Doors to Concert Hall opens at 7:30
Music at 8pm