Canada’s April Verch grew up in the Ottawa Valley, where she started step dancing at age three, fiddling at six, and doing both simultaneously at eight. She steeped herself in Canadian roots music, then extended her interest to encompass the music of her neighbor to the south. “April’s resulting blend of material – from old-time Appalachian mountain music to the driving Franco-Celtic pulse of the long-gone shanties, warming up those long winter nights and adding strength to tired bones – is as natural to her as shoveling snow,” says the website Roots Music Canada. “April and her chosen musicians bring a sense of joy to the music that’s audible and infectious at once.” Those chosen musicians are Cody Walters on bass and clawhammer banjo, and Hayes Griffin on guitar. The band sizzles on traditional classics, the occasional contemporary cover, and April’s originals.

April attended the Berklee College of Music, and was the first woman in history to win the Canadian Grand Masters and the Canadian Open, a pair of events meant to sift out the best talent in the country. She became a full-time professional musician in 2000 and has recorded nine albums, including her latest, released this month, Bright Like Gold. She performed at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in 2010 and is just back from a tour of Belgium. Dirk Powell calls her “a rare mixture of all the technique and super-flashy things, along with the deep soul and tradition that comes from having grown up with the music.”

Visit April Verch's website

Photo by Sandlin Gaither