The Custer Beacon welcomes back midwestern bluegrass legends: Pert Near Sandstone featuring an opening set from local songsmiths: Humbletown!
Join us for an evening of levity, song and raucous stringband energy, Thursday, April 3rd.
Tickets $15 ADV / $20 Day-of
Crossing Old-time instrumentation with contemporary sensibilities, Pert Near Sandstone emerged twenty years ago from the Minnesota acoustic music scene. With infectious energy and collaborative spirit, they have established themselves as standard-bearers for the vitality of the Midwestern roots music scene and alongside Minnesota brethren Trampled By Turtles and Charlie Parr. They have toured extensively and performed onstage with the likes of Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas, earning dates along the way with everyone from Yonder Mountain String Band to Steve Martin. NPR's Mountain Stage praised the band for putting a "Midwestern stamp on Appalachian [sounds]," while A Prairie Home Companion described Pert Near Sandstone as “a force on the Minnesota roots music scene and beyond,” and The Current praised their live performances as "a frenzied string shredding spree that takes audiences under its spell." As festival favorites in both the US and Europe, the band helped to launch the Blue Ox Music Festival in 2015, which they continue to host and curate each June in Eau Claire, WI. For the past decade, the now prestigious music festival has helped bring into the local community a great many nationally treasured artists such as Bela Fleck, Billy Strings, Tyler Childers, Jerry Douglas, Margo Price, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Charlie Crockett, The Infamous Stringdusters, Jason Isbell, Greensky Bluegrass, The Drive By Truckers, and so many more.
Formed in the humble prairie town of Vermillion, South Dakota, Humbletown has emerged as a powerful multi-genre bluegrass-inspired ensemble. Now based out of the Black Hills, the band is inspired by the quiet beauty of pine-filled forests, with original songs inspired by their home and travels, intricately performed on clawhammer banjo, flatpick guitar, and upright bass. With music that combines influences of bluegrass, old time, hot club swing, Americana, and classic country, Humbletown will take you on a musical journey that stretches across time and space.
Their 2022 debut album “The Path I Chose to Walk” received international acclaim. Americana UK’s review described the album: “The first impression on listening to these songs around virtuosos on clawhammer banjo and flat-picking guitar is that this entire collection must have been something discovered nearly a century ago by the great ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax.” Their album’s title track video “Vines” was premiered by Bluegrass Situation and Americana Highways described their album as “A little old-time country, folk & bluegrass. The musicianship is stellar, with fingerpicking on acoustic guitar & banjo. The mix of male & female vocals balances the material impressively.”
Humbletown has toured nationally and regionally and has shared the stage with such acts as Wood Belly, Charlie Parr, Damn Tall Buildings, Reverend Payton's Big Damn Band, Songs from the Road Band, and many more.
