Biography

*CONTACT:

April Verch
aprilverchmusic@gmail.com * 315-480-8447


*ABOUT THE ALBUM:

Growing up, Joe Newberry and April Verch absorbed traditions of home and hearth - in his Missouri Ozarks and her Ottawa Valley of Canada. The holidays have always been a special time of year for both, with family and friends, festive decorations, gifts under the tree, and always, music. The duo’s new release, “On This Christmas Day,” on Slab Town Records, underscores that warmth, and will make a fine addition to any stocking, gathering, or celebration.

The holiday album, releasing digitally on December 3, 2021 was inspired by Newberry & Verch’s annual “Holiday Cheer” tour. Each year, the duo heads out in a modern day sleigh (with four-wheel drive) to perform for delighted audiences. Original songs join timeless hymns. Stories warm the heart and give a twinkle to the eye. Lively fiddle and banjo numbers inspire dance steps to illustrate happy times when people made their own fun at the holidays, and all year long.

“From our very first ‘Holiday Cheer’ tour in 2016, Joe and I heard this question from audience members…. ‘Where is the recording?’,” Verch said.

Verch continues, “We had a week between online shows and camps this summer, and we got together to record at Joe’s house in Raleigh, N.C.” The project was recorded by Verch, produced by the duo, and mixed and mastered by Chris Rosser at Hollow Reed Studio, in Asheville, N.C.

Newberry said that, like many things over the past couple of years, this project involved some thinking outside the box to be born. “April and I made the decision, for right now, to not create a physical CD, but instead worked with Memphis artist Martha Kelly (marthakellyart.com) to create a beautiful, frameable winter scene, with information about the project and a download code on the back. April continues, “We will even have frames available for sale, so our fans can have a framed piece of art for the wall, or to give as a present.”


*CREDITS:

Joe Newberry: Banjo, guitar, lead & harmony vocals
April Verch: Fiddle, lead & harmony vocals
Produced By: Joe Newberry & April Verch
Recorded By: April Verch, June 2021
Mixed & Mastered By Chris Rosser at Hollow Reed Studio, Asheville, N.C., July 2021
Original Artwork By: Martha Kelly, marthakellyart.com
Project Design By: April Verch


*TRACK NOTES:

Della and Jim - O. Henry’s timeless short story, “The Gift of the Magi,” was the inspiration for this Joe Newberry original. Joe and April love to sing this one all year long because they feel that the message is too big for just one season. “Oh all who love and who believe, they are the wisest ones. Those who give, and who receive, the Magi they become.”

Round the Christmas Tree - April and her friend Lynda Dawson drew upon memories of holidays with their families to write this evergreen tribute to hearth and home. “Get out the star, get out the lights. We’re going to trim the tree tonight. Deck her out in memories… Come gather round the Christmas tree.”

On This Christmas Day - Joe wrote “On This Christmas Day” on a snowy December day, after sound check in a beautiful restored church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It passed muster with his late sister Amy Newberry Fauquet, a Lutheran pastor, which definitely made him breathe a sigh of relief!

Christmas Eve - Oklahoma fiddler Dick Hutchison (1897-1986) is the source for this lively fiddle and banjo duet. Known to everyone as “Uncle Dick,” his playing influenced fiddlers all around the area where Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, and Kansas come together, and far beyond.

Uncle John and the Christmas Miracle - The old tale of animals in the barn kneeling down at midnight and welcoming the Christ Child always made Joe curious to see for himself. He never could stay awake for it. Not even once. But, he was able to write a poem about it, set here to a beautiful fiddle tune composed by April.

Little Baby in a Manger - Joe wrote this song in the car driving back to his home in Raleigh, N.C., from a show in Charlotte, N.C. He always says that one of his favorite things to do is to try and tell an old story in a new way, and this acapella duet does just that.

A Yodel for Christmas - What do you get a man who has everything for Christmas? This bit of silliness from Joe’s pen attempts to answer that very question.

Breaking Up Christmas - In the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and Virginia, the tradition of Breaking Up Christmas was observed with parties and music gatherings from December 25 all the way to Old Christmas, or the Epiphany, 12 days later. This good old tune is a joy to play on the fiddle and the banjo. “Hooray Jake, and Hooray John. Breaking Up Christmas all night long.”

Martin Luther’s Tree - This song by April and Lynda Dawson was inspired by various accounts of Martin Luther bringing in the first Christmas tree for his children, and is a lovely reminder of the importance of holiday traditions to parents and children. The chorus is a direct link to Martin Luther, and is almost word for word to what the Great Reformer wrote nearly 500 years ago in 1531.

Christmas in the Trenches - John McCutcheon’s classic ballad, “Christmas in the Trenches,” tells of the Christmas Truce of 1914 between British and German troops on the Western Front in World War I. Although the song’s narrator, Francis Tolliver, is fictional, the story is true. Joe and April are honored to share this story, and are grateful to John for his gracious permission to record it.

First Day of the Year - While Joe has written lots of Christmas songs over the years, he had never attempted a New Year’s song. With the help of traditions like music on the first day, and eating black-eyed peas for luck and collards for wealth in the new year, this song was born. The melody is Stephen Foster’s “Nelly Bly.” Joe explains that he set the song to that melody temporarily until he could come up with a better melody. Joe goes on to explain that he kept it, because, as he says, “there is no better melody.”


*NEWBERRY & VERCH BIOGRAPHY

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


Joe Newberry is a Missouri native and North Carolina transplant who has played music most of his life. A frequent guest on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, Joe performs in a duo with Mike Compton, and also performs with guitarist Jon Shain. Another special side project pairs Joe with old-time music legends Bill Hicks, Mike Craver, and Jim Watson. He was recently a featured singer on the Transatlantic Sessions tour of the United Kingdom with fiddler Aly Bain and Dobro master Jerry Douglas, along with an all-star band and fellow singers Rhiannon Giddens, the Milk Carton Kids, Carla Dillon, and Karen Matheson.

A noted teacher of traditional music and song, Joe has taught at numerous camps and festivals, including Ashokan, Pinewoods Camp, Vocal Week and Old-Time Week at the Augusta Heritage Center, the Australia National Folk Festival, the Blue Ridge Old-Time Music Week, and the Bluff Country Gathering. He was for many years the coordinator of Old-Time Week at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, WV.

He won the songwriting prize for Gospel Recorded Performance at the 2012 IBMA Awards for his song Singing As We Rise, and was co-writer, with Eric Gibson, of the 2013 IBMA Song of the Year for They Called It Music.

Joe came to North Carolina as a young man and quickly became an anchor of the incredible music scene in the state. Still going strong more than 30 years later, he writes songs that consistently show up on Bluegrass charts, does solo and studio work, and plays and teaches at festivals and workshops in North America and abroad.

Fiddler, singer, and stepdancer April Verch knows how relevant an old tune can be. She grew up surrounded by living, breathing roots music and decided early she wanted to be a professional musician.

She took that leap, and has been quietly leaping into new, nuanced places for more than two decades. Moving from exuberant stepdancer to fiddle wunderkind and silver-voiced singer. Verch keeps the community-fired celebratory side of her music at the forefront, honing a keen awareness of how to engage contemporary listeners.

With countless awards, fourteen solo albums and over 2 decades of touring under her belt with “The April Verch Band”, Verch has moved from upstart prodigy to mature and reflective songwriter, interpreter, and storyteller. She has performed around the world, including festival, theatre and performing arts centre appearances in Canada, USA, China, Australia, United Kingdom, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Germany, Austria, France, Czech Republic and the United Arab Emirates. Passionate about giving back, she makes master classes, workshops and camps a regular part of her touring activity. Verch was one of 6 fiddlers who represented the Canadian fiddle tradition to the world at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, as part of a segment called "Fiddle Nation.”