Festival spotlights popular local talent

The Sisters Folk Festival draws some of the finest songwriters, musicians and performers from all across North America. The festival also shines its spotlight on some of Sisters' best homegrown talent.

Local favorites The Blue D'Arts and The Haymakers will both take the stage at the main tent on Sunday, September 9.

The D'Arts -- composed of John E. Smorgasbord, Dennis McGregor, and Scott Hersh --serve up a swinging mix of originals and quirky covers that tap the roots of American music, give them a spin and send them rolling into the 21st Century.

The Haymakers bill themselves as "the undisputed Bare-Knuckle Champions of Acoustic Americana."

Stylistically, the band is a multiple-threat outfit, delivering stiff jabs of bluegrass, quick uppercuts of folk and formidable roundhouses of acoustic rock and roll.

It all makes for a high energy stage show. The Haymakers are Scott Harris -- guitar, upright bass, mandolin and vocals; Peter Heithoff -- upright bass, guitar, banjo and vocals -- Patrick Lombardi: guitar, mandolin and vocals; Steve Scott -- fiddle, mandolin, upright bass, vocals.

They will also perform a set at the Bronco Billy's stage on Saturday, September 8.

Brad Tisdel, the director of the festival's Americana Project, will strap on a guitar to offer up his original songs. Twice a finalist in the Sisters Folk Festival Songwriting Contest, Tisdel has established a regional following for his well-crafted tunes and uplifting, spiritually engaged lyrics.

Tisdel will perform on Saturday, September 8, on the Bronco Billy's stage and will introduce the Americana Project at the main tent on the same afternoon.

Daniel Partner will take the audience back to the 19th Century beginnings of American folk music and popular song, playing a banjo designed after those from the pre-Civil War era.

Partner will perform Saturday at the Bronco Billy's stage.

The contemporary "minstrel man" will also conduct a workshop on Saturday morning that will explore the blossoming of American vernacular music in the days before recorded music was available.

Big Eddy will perform Sunday on the Bronco Billy stage. Doug Cavanaugh (guitar, vocals); Katie Boyce (vocals, guitar); Rick Jones (bass); Gary Miller (banjo) and Mike Scherrer (mandolin) offer a mix of bluegrass, originals and some of the finest songs from the classic "Outlaw" movement in country music.

Also performing Sunday at Bronco Billy's, songwriting contest director Jim Cornelius will showcase some of his own originals, mixed with some old-time cowboy songs, outlaw tales and murder ballads.

Tickets are available at Paulina Springs Book Company. For more information about the Sisters Folk Festival, call 549-4979.