Programme 2023

Yodelin' Kik & Rattlesnake Joe. Performers of traditional North American acoustic music, these two acolytes will take you on a journey from the Appalachian mountains to the plains of the Great West, passing through the swamps of the south through a repertoire based on vocal harmonies, guitar and mandolin.

FR.

Sweet Joe Pye & Lucas Henri

Sweet Joe Pye and Lucas Henri explore traditional Appalachian music in dynamic new arrangements.
Fascinated as much by the rich stories of old ballads as by the melodies and pulsations of fiddle tunes, this trio revisits these diverse genres to weave unexpected links. Having traveled old-times and bluegrass scenes in the United States, Canada, France and the Netherlands, Annick, Lucas and Henri take the stage as a trio for the first time at the Festival Herbe Bleue to share their varied repertoire in an original program of arrangements and improvisations.

FR. / USA

Blue Lass

Blue Lass is a group of five musicians (acoustic guitar, fiddle, mandolin, double bass and clawhammer banjo) playing a combination of traditional bluegrass and old songs and instruments. Their music sounds raw and organic and their sets range from high-energy instrumentals to moody songs that transport the listener into their stories.

Their music sounds raw and organic and their sets range from high-energy instrumentals to moody songs that transport the listener into their stories.

Their dynamic performance, each stepping up to the mic to improvise a solo, gives their shows an authentic vintage feel.

UK.

Phil Jamison conference : The American Square Dance: The French Connection

The American square dance has often been portrayed as Anglo-Celtic heritage from the British Isles. These dances, however, are a uniquely American hybrid that developed during the nineteenth century, and like American folk music, they reflect not only the history, but the racial and ethnic diversity of the United States. In this presentation, we will discuss the multicultural roots and historical development of these dances and identify the contributions of earlier British, African, Native American, and most-significantly, French dance forms that combined to make them uniquely American.

USA

Carte blanche to Arianna Monteverdi (feat. Julianne Joe)

Arianna Monteverdi explores through her compositions a folk and Americana repertoire, more rock recently. It is the multicultural richness constitutive of this music, and all the photographic and filmographic imagination which is linked to it, which led her to embrace these influences. About ten years ago, she discovered Old-Time music, and then fell in love with the clawhammer banjo, fascinated by its hypnotic groove, and its melodic complementarity with the fiddle. It was during the Rencontres Old-Time in Auvergne that she met Julianne Joe, another French indie folk-rock singer, and an excellent fiddler. Julianne is a prolific composer and self-taught musician. His voice with moving Celtic accents, and his powerful guitar and banjo playing oscillates between a delicate and airy folk and a more nervous blues-rock which takes us to the side of Ireland and the United States.

FR.

Jurassic Grass is a Bluegrass group born in 2021 in Toulouse invoking the folk and old time inclinations of bluegrass, by making small detours by some compositions in French. Two guitars, a banjo, three voices, give a new place to the pieces and explore folk lands of diminished chords.

FR.

Coproduction with La Roche Bluegrass festival France

THE SLO County Stumblers (for San Luis Obispo, Central Coast California) play energetic, pulsating old-time, more fiddle tunes oriented than ballads or hillbilly blues (for that, see some of the members' superb side-projects). The sound is marked by Tennessee, where the group's fiddler, Casey Meikle, lived and toured a lot, although he is almost the only Californian in the group, the others coming more from the Midwest or West Virginia. In addition to their own musical value, the Stumblers are major movers and shakers on the regional scene, from building violins or banjos to managing micro-labels or organizing the Pozo Old-Time Gathering, where they have seen by day as a house band. »

USA

Camille Moreddu – lecturer

Camille will look back on her meeting 10 years ago in the archives of the Library of Congress with folk music specialist Sidney Robertson, heroine of his book "The Inventors of American Folk Music". She will share her fascination for Sydney's journey and reveal some crisp anecdotes of her adventures on the American roads of the 1930s and her encounter with local musicians: lumberjacks from Wisconsin, workers from Appalachia, Armenian bistros and gold diggers from California. .

FR.

Todd Day Wait is a singer-songwriter, or rather a songster, whose timeless Americana harkens back to before the formalization of bluegrass or the standardization of country, somewhere between old-time and blues, with a clear Midwestern touch. Originally from Missouri, Todd has been on the road since 2009, from the Rockies to Italy, with a long layover in New Orleans. Herbe Bleue will be a rare French date for this singer better known in England and southern Europe.

©Sylvain Garderes

USA

OldTime Ball Phil Jameson w/ House Band

After the theoretical presentation on Thursday, put into practice with the big square dance on Saturday evening. The main caller announcing the figures will of course be the eminent specialist Phil Jamison (US). He will be supported by a solid selection of European callers – Julian Marshall (UK), Annick Odom (NL/US) and Darius Lecharlier (BE) – who will be able to help the newbies get set up. On instruments, “off-duty” callers and the festival House Band led by Thomas Bailey (US) will take turns to keep the rhythm going late into the night

USA

Gospel Hour

Somewhere between thematic open-mike, vocal jam and surprise group, the Sunday morning Gospel session is a signature Herbe Bleue tradition, a relaxed moment where everyone comes together – including, and especially, some of the organizers too otherwise busy appearing on stage.
The session is hosted by Stéphanie Colin (of Dear John and Pig Society, among others), contact her during the festival if you would like to suggest a gospel. Either way, we're counting on the public to join the chorus, brush up on your classics!

FR / DE / USA

Watson Bridge : Isabelle Groll & Jean-Paul Delon: voices, guitars, return to the stage at Herbe Bleue after a first remarkable performance in 2021. Their voices and acoustic guitars have been revisiting music from North American traditions since 2010, at the crossroads of Bluegrass and Folk. The complicity of the duo, the energy, the virtuosity, the choice of repertoire, the search for detailed arrangements and the quality of the vocal harmonies are always at the service of the poetic meaning of each song. The repertoire chosen by Watson Bridge is very eclectic: while giving pride of place to the great folksingers of today, it offers us many musical surprises. Orion, their first album, received rave reviews in the French Bluegrass community.

FR.

Open Stage

The artists will be announced the same day.

Surprises!!!!

In folk, there is never really a separation between audiences and artists. The open stage is the essential opportunity for all festival-goers to take the microphone, to make a jam meeting the previous days a reality, to test a new project, to revive an old one... Registration on site until Saturday afternoon with of reception.

T'Monde

Three remarkably accomplished young musicians come together in T’Monde, the Louisiana phenomenon that Offbeat Magazine has called “a creative fusion of classic country and out-of-the-way Cajun.” With a combined 10 Grammy nominations between members Drew Simon, Megan Constantin, and Kelli Jones, T’Monde brings influences ranging from early Country music to ancient French and Creole ballads to present day Cajun music. Whether it be with their instruments or their voices, these three continue to showcase their unique sound that is unmatched in Cajun music today.

USA