Bucktown Americana Music Show

Bucktown presents: Newberry & Verch

The Bucktown Americana Music Show is honored to present a very special holiday concert 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5. Joe Newberry, who visited Bucktown last season with “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?” mandolinist Mike Compton, returns with stellar Canadian fiddler (and step dancer!) April Verch. Tickets for Holiday Cheer with Newberry & Verch are now on sale. (This show is not part of the regular subscription season.) 

Holiday Cheer with Newberry & Verch

Music of the Season from Canada to the Ozarks

Growing up, musicians Joe Newberry and April Verch absorbed traditions of home and hearth: his in the Missouri Ozarks, hers in the Ottawa Valley of Canada. The holidays have always been a special time of year for both, with the lure of family and friends, festive decorations, gifts under the tree, and always… music.

So now, each year the duo sets out in a modern-day sleigh (with four-wheel drive) to perform their eagerly anticipated holiday tour. Original songs join timeless hymns. Stories warm the heart and give a twinkle to the eye. Lively fiddle and banjo numbers combine with traditional dance steps to illustrate happy times when people made their own fun at the holidays, and all year long. Make your holiday concert list, and check it twice… Newberry and Verch are coming to town!

Joe Newberry grew up in a family full of singers and dancers. He took up the guitar and banjo as a teenager and learned fiddle tunes from great Missouri fiddlers. 

April Verch grew up listening to her dad's country band play for dances in the Ottawa Valley. She started step dancing at age three and fiddling at age six.

Both Newberry and Verch became masters of their traditions and tour the world with their respective bands and projects. Yet they never forget the roots of their music: that connection to the people in the audience and on the dance floor, and to the community sparked by a good song.

For these veteran performers, who come from distinct traditions and parts of the world, the collaboration is fueled by a kindred passion for bringing people together to celebrate traditional music. Blues and ballads branch into Canadian regional styles and originals. Their voices blend in harmony, their tasteful instrumentals prove these masters have nothing left to prove, and then their feet kick up the dust in perfect rhythm. Together, they make you remember why this music existed in the first place.