Tour brings trio of Wyoming bands to Whitefish
The WYOmericana Caravan rolls through Whitefish’s Great Northern Bar & Grille at 9 p.m., Saturday, May 31. Admission is $5.
A traveling concert circus of sorts, the WYOmericana Caravan — featuring Screen Door Porch, The Patti Fiasco and J Shogren Shanghai’d — is a rolling representation of Wyoming’s burgeoning songwriter scene. Artists will rotate performance slots each night, making the headliner/opener scenario unique to each tour stop, with a heap of ad-libbed collaboration among the bands.
The debut 2013 Caravan was such a home run it caught the attention of The New York Times, which sent a writer and photographer to cover the tour for a full-page Sunday feature.
Wyoming’s own Square State Film Co. also put a crew of videographers together, traveling 3,000 miles to craft the documentary film, “WYOMERICANA,” which was released April 1 to YouTube and was a finalist in the Wyoming Short Film Contest. The snowball of outreach and support led to Wyoming’s largest newspaper, Casper Star-Tribune, naming the WYOmericana Caravan Tour a top arts and entertainment event in Wyoming.
For more information, videos and songs, visit WYOMericana.com
Screen Door Porch
Jackson-based quartet Screen Door Porch delivers a Wyoming-grown fusion of soulful Americana, roots-rock and country-blues. The core female/male singer-songwriter combo of Seadar Rose and Aaron Davis offer colorful harmonies as well as varied acoustic and electric instrumentation. The rhythm section includes Tom Davidson (fretless bass) and Andy Peterson (drums, vocals). Screen Door Porch’s two studio albums have been internationally recognized in seven “best albums of the year” lists and climbed into the top 25 of Euro-Americana charts.
ScreenDoorPorch.com
The Patti Fiasco
With proud Wyoming roots, The Patti Fiasco is fresh from a showcase at South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas. The group’s album “Small Town Lights” was a regionally acclaimed 2013 release. The quintet is known for their electric, high-energy live show, original songwriting and unique instrumentation. The Patti Fiasco has shared Colorado’s biggest stages in the past year with national touring acts such as Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite, Justin Townes Earle, Great American Taxi and Cracker.
PattiFiasco.net
J Shogren Shanghai’d
Among the few singer-songwriters who have been party to a Nobel Peace Prize, J Shogren and his long time collaborator multi-instrumentalist Jascha Herdt play hard acoustic music. J Shogren Shanghai’d offers a style of pulp Americana that is an amalgamation of roots, popular, blues, old-timey, folk, country/western, jazz, vaudeville, rockabilly, ballads and polka. Their varied sound has a rawness and vitality reminiscent of 1900s dancehall music filtered through a contemporary transmitter.
JShogren.org