Maygen & The Birdwatcher and Stillhouse Junkies – MPLS

6PM DOORS // 8PM SHOWTIME // $12 ADVANCE // $15 DAY OF SHOW

Coming off of the successful Oct ’21 release of their “stunning” (Americana UK) debut full-length album, Moonshine, which earned them Midwest Country Music Awards for both Album of the Year and Americana Artist of the Year, Maygen & The Birdwatcher are poised for big things.

The two progenitors of the Minnesota-based group — Maygen Lacey and Noah Neumann — couldn’t be more different. From upbringing and musical taste to the Minneapolis vs Saint Paul debate, there are few things these two agree on. However, the short list of mutual loves includes sarcasm, the great outdoors, quality beer, and having a good ‘ole time, the latter of which is immediately apparent upon listening to the pair’s energetic, genre-bending music.

Described as “an exciting goulash of Kacey Musgraves, Chris Stapleton, Florence + The Machine, and Joe Cocker” (MostlyMinnesota); what began as a duo, quickly grew into a dynamic 6-piece that showcases distinctive songs, fantastic harmonies, and tight musicianship with shared lead vocals and two songwriters. They adventurously blur the sounds of country, bluegrass, folk, and blues – keepin’ it all fresh. With the versatility to play in a number of stage configurations ranging from an intimate duo or trio to their boot-stomping full band setup, Maygen & The Birdwatcher can charm a broad range of audiences. From beauty to grit, sadness to silliness, the common thread is that this group loves music, and playing it together. It shows.

In Feb 2022, the band released a special version of the classic Eagles song “Desperado” which was featured on multiple popular Spotify playlists including Indie Bluegrass and Bluegrass Covers. The rest of 2022 has seen the band perform at several festivals around the country including Blue Ox in Eau Claire, WI, Red Ants Pants in White Sulphur Springs, MT, and Revival in Clarks Grove, MN…and sharing stages with the likes of Travis Tritt, Old Crow Medicine Show, Grace Potter, Paul Cauthen, and many more.

To ensure the full spectrum of their sound is available to listeners, the band will release a 5-song EP Oct 14, 2022 called Bootleggin’ At The Flower Shoppe. They went right back to Flowers Studio (The Jayhawks, Mason Jennings, Soul Asylum, Jeremy Messersmith, Lizzo) with Kris Johnson, who was their engineer on Moonshine, and recorded their more energetic and good-timin’ songs that were written around the same time, but hadn’t gotten the chance to be properly recorded and shared with their fans. They like to think of Bootleggin’ as Moonshine’s companion, a year from each other, with many different things to offer listeners that have grown to look forward to their diverse approach to songwriting. After all, what’s Moonshine without Bootleggin’?

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Stillhouse Junkies is a one-of-a-kind creative project born out of the collective passions of three individuals with very different musical backgrounds. With chops and stylistic leanings ranging from classical to West African, blues, bluegrass, and swing, Fred Kosak, Alissa Wolf, and Cody Tinnin came together around a shared goal of bringing sounds and grooves to their fans that fall outside of easy genre distinctions. With all three band members trading lead vocal, songwriting, and arranging duties, Stillhouse Junkies paint with a rich tonal palette that pays homage to their musical heroes while forging a unique artistic path.

Born out of a long-standing weekly residency at a local distillery in Durango, CO, Stillhouse Junkies have quickly become a staple of Colorado and the Four Corners region’s vibrant music scene and a nationally-recognized touring act, establishing a solid fan base through multi-hour performances that feature soaring group improvisations, novel re-imaginings of covers from the likes of Asia, Caleb Klauder, and Bill Withers, and intimate vocal-driven ballads.

Through their strong writing and creative, intricate arranging, the Junkies have built up an eclectic multi-set catalogue of original music that reflects their diverse interests and creative inclinations. Their songs run the gamut of human emotion and experience: disenchantment with the pace of modern living, confronting adversity in its many forms, mortality and aging, and story songs that imagine reality from the perspective of a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition; a small-town bartender; a lonely miner; an imperiled cattle driver. They pay tribute to the remarkable diversity of both the Four Corners area of the Southwestern US and the country as a whole, probing below the surface of everyday life to find the themes that unite us all as Americans and citizens of the world.

In November 2019, Stillhouse Junkies entered the studio in Austin, TX to record their third album, Calamity, an epic thematic collection of 12 original songs released on March 7th. This effort represented the culmination of over a year of constant writing, gigging, and rehearsing and was to be supported by a dizzying schedule of over 100 planned shows across the US and in the UK.

Stillhouse Junkies are proud to be winners of the 2021 IBMA Momentum Band of the Year award, Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival Showcase Artists, and Showcase Artists at both the 2020 & 2021 IBMA World of Bluegrass.