American roots music from the early 20th century is ramshackle, rambunctious, and radical. This fevered period of music is what inspires Northwest roots music duo Ben Hunter and Joe Seamons, first place winners of the 2016 International Blues Challenge in Memphis. Their sound is a unique mixture of pre-blues a cappella field hollers, fiddle & banjo breakdowns, and duet distillations of early jazz. Not sure what that would sound like? Come and find out! Whatever you want to call it, Hunter and Seamons make American music that hews to the rough-and-tumble collisions of musical inspirations from the early 1900s; the strains that paved the way for many of the contemporary genres we enjoy today. A statement on their website says (in part): “Blues and folk songs do not need preserving—they are preserving us. Our mission is to spread the glory and whimsy of traditional song.”
