Joe Troop & Friends at The Fruit

305 South Dillard Street,Durham NC 27701

16 December, 2021

Description

Joe Troop (Che Apalache) celebrates his new solo album with a series of live musical performances featuring guest musicians and artists. In the midst of a global pandemic, radical folk singer Joe Troop found himself a whole ocean away from the rest of his GRAMMY-nominated band, Che Apalache. So he did what he knows best: bunkered up with his banjo and sang out his heart, and from its depths emerged his debut solo album, Borrowed Time. To prepare for his upcoming tour, he's teamed up with The Fruit to offer weekly performances featuring his touring band, rotating guest musicians, and visual arts. You don't want to miss this. ---- JOE TROOP Joe Troop is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter hailing originally from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The founder of GRAMMY-nominated stringband Che Apalache, Troop’s music is deeply embedded with and inspired by his activism. After spending the last year learning direct action from stalwart progressive organizers, the radical folk singer is now channeling that energy into his first proper solo album Borrowed Time. The record was co-produced with Jason Richmond (The Avett Brothers, Branford Marsalis) and features music luminaries like Béla Fleck (who produced Che Apalache’s GRAMMY-nominated album), Abigail Washburn, Tim O’Brien, and Charlie Hunter, but the visceral songwriting speaks for itself. The worldly songs and instrumentals are influenced both by Troop’s time spent living abroad as well as his upbringing as an openly gay bluegrass musician in rural North Carolina. FRIENDS Joining Joe for the duration of the series will be Omar Ruiz-Lopez, a classically trained violinist/violist born in Panama and raised in Puerto Rico. A longtime resident of Durham, Omar has melded his Caribbean musical heritage and noteworthy virtuosity with Appalachian string band tradition. Joe and Omar will be joined by a rotating cast of local musicians and featured artists. This second installment of the series will feature Tatiana Hargreaves and Reed Stutz for a set of Joe’s original bluegrass songs. Over the past decade, Tatiana Hargreaves has been on the forefront of an up and coming generation of old time, bluegrass and new acoustic musicians. From placing first at the Clifftop Appalachian Fiddle Contest, to her bluegrass fiddling on Laurie Lewis’ GRAMMY-nominated album The Hazel And Alice Sessions, Hargreaves shows a musical fluency that flows between old time and bluegrass worlds with ease. A newer presence in the old time and bluegrass scene, Reed Stutz brings instrumental fluency and a unique voice to stringband music. Growing up as a pop-punk guitarist and songwriter, he shifted gears in 2017 after fiddler Bruce Molsky showed him his first 1920s stringband recording. He quickly dug in, and began developing his unique style as a mandolinist, guitarist and singer — a colorful blend of tradition and personality. Also joining Omar and Joe in the house band is jazz bassist Ramon Garcia. Hailing from Wilmington, NC, Ramon is finishing up his musical studies at UNC Greensboro’s legendary music school. Warehouse complex showing art, music, and theater.