Ocrafolk Festival (40 Days Away) ~ Performer Profiles (Cane Mill Road/Shana Tucker)

TICKETS / VOLUNTEER / SPONSOR 40 Days To Go . . .Ocrafolk Festival 2018!

Hey Ocrafolk friends! Taking a moment here to introduce you to two of our performers this year, Cane Mill Road & Shana Tucker. Also wanted to let you know that we are close to finalizing our T-shirt styles (for all those Sponsors out there who will be selecting them before the big weekend). See ya soon! Thanks! Ocrafolk Festival Staff

Billboard-charting artists Cane Mill Road grew up just down the road from Doc Watson in Deep Gap, North Carolina. Honoring the past the band strikes a balance between preserving the bluegrass mountain sound they were raised on and boldly rocking progressive interpretations of that same sound tackling not only complex original music, but classic covers of the Beatles, Dylan, and more. Audiences love Cane Mill Road’s high-energy performances, easy going rapport both on and off stage, and the eclectic mix of originals and standards in the show. Touring internationally in Argentina and stateside from New York to Alabama to Missouri to Pennsylvania to Kentucky to Tennessee to Virginia and the Carolinas, the band is proud to be sponsored by Deering Banjos, GHS Strings, Shubb Capos, Sorensen Mandolin & Guitar Company, Kogut Violins, and MiniFlex Microphones.  The band’s debut album "Five Speed" hit #9 on Billboard’s Bluegrass Album chart and was produced by 2-time GRAMMY winner Cathy Fink, and by Tom Mindte of Patuxent Studios in Maryland. IBMA selected Cane Mill Road from hundreds of applicants as one of 30 bands to showcase during its 2017 conference/festival as the future of bluegrass. The band represented the United States of America in 2015 at a United Nations World Music Festival. You've heard them on NPR/PBS, and all over radio with every cut on "Five Speed" getting airplay.

Shana Tucker is a singer-songwriter and cellist who credits her genre-bending ChamberSoul™ journey to her jazz and classical roots, interwoven with 80's & 90's pop music influences, movie soundtracks, and world music. Touted by JazzTimes Magazine as “a jazz talent...whose imprint and vitality has already been quite visible in North Carolina,” Shana’s style and sound as been described as a mash-up of Dianne Reeves, Joni Mitchell, and Tracy Chapman, with an efficient complexity that is reminiscent of Bill Withers. Her self-defined genre of “ChamberSoul” best describes what the listener should expect when experiencing Shana's music. "I’m intrinsically drawn to ‘real’ instruments with resonance, tone and depth that can sound without amplification. Whenever possible, I always try to set a tone of acoustic intimacy with my colleagues on stage -- and also with the audience -- so that sounds and souls feel close and tangible, no matter the size the venue." With collaborations as the cornerstone of her artistry, Shana is currently a featured artist with jazz legend, saxophonist/composer Bennie Maupin's ensemble; Grammy-nominated soul collective, The Foreign Exchange; jazz drummer/composer Shirazette Tinnin's group, Sonic WallPaper; Paperhand Puppet Intervention, a North Carolina-based, socially conscious theatrical organization; and her newest project, Women's Work, a female-led creative collective of musicians and composers representing both east and west coasts. A front-line advocate for arts education, Shana is a teaching artist whose present and past affiliations include The Smith Center for Performing Arts, Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, Mallarme Chamber Players, Playmakers and Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. She devotes a considerable amount of her time to working with students in schools/universities, community centers and summer camps throughout the year as part of her mission to promote arts education programming for students of all ages, incorporating artist residencies, workshops and community outreach opportunities wherever in the world her performances take her.