Thursday, November 30, 8 p.m.
The Redstone Room, 129 Main Street, Davenport IA
Described by legendary A Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor as “a force on the Minnesota roots music scene and beyond,” the five-piece roots and bluegrass ensemble Pert Near Sandstone plays Davenport's Redstone Room on November 30, with their most recent album Discovery of Honey lauded by CountryStandardTime.com as “a set of songs that's as rousing and robust as any countrified collective on a banner marquee.”
Formed at the century's start by four friends from Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, Pert Near Sandstone began – as is stated on the group's Web-site biography – so the musician friends could “meet over weekly, whiskey-fueled picking sessions in an old house in St. Paul.” Word of their talents, though, quickly led to bookings at Minneapolis venues including First Avenue, the Cedar Cultural Center, and the historic Orpheum Theater, and after the 2005 recording Live: Just Outside of Sandstone, the band produced its first studio release in 2007's Up & Down the River.
That acclaimed album caught the attention of Keillor, who booked Pert Near Sandstone on A Prairie Home Companion in 2008, and soon after, the bluegrass artists began sharing stages with the likes of Wilco, Yonder Mountain Stringband, and comedian/musician Steve Martin. With seven albums currently to its credit, Pert Near Sandstone had a chart-topping hit with the group's cover of the Beatles' “I Am the Walrus,” but is routinely, widely praised for its originals, with TomorrowsVerse.com saying, “the songwriting delivers, offering unique and soulful songs that don’t often lean on bluegrass clichés – or any clichés, for that matter.”
Pert Near Sandstone performs locally with an opening set by Miles Over Mountains, tickets are $12-15, and more information and reservations are available by calling (563)326-1333 or visiting RiverMusicExperience.org.
