Event

Emma Beaton & Nic Gareiss

It is seldom that a young folk duo emerges with so focused a direction and critical regard. After their first show together, Emma Beaton and Nic Gareiss' sound was lauded "delicate and broken and perfectly sweet."

Perhaps it was to be expected considering their respective burgeoning solo careers: Emma, a folk cellist, vocalist, and banjo player originally from Vancouver Island, has performed across North America and Scotland with notable musicians such Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas, Bruce Molsky, Laurie Lewis, Crooked Still, and Back of the Moon. Emma is also the front-woman of the Boston-based modern American stringband Joy Kills Sorrow. Her 2008 solo release, "Pretty Fair Maid" was awarded a Canadian Folk Music Award, naming her the 2008 Young Performer of the Year. Her singing has been described as "gorgeous and clear," the music, "diverse and inventive".
Nic, a dancer, singer, and bouzouki-player from northern Michigan has danced and played across Europe and the states with The Chieftains, Tim O'Brien, Footworks, and Uncle Earl. He has studied and performed music and dance internationally, including a year in Irish Music Performance at the University of Limerick in Ireland, where he is now studying to earn his Masters degree.
Emma and Nic first met at several music camps and began playing together late at night after square dances and evening-long fiddle tunes sessions. The songs they sang became the last music of the night. Today, their music retains a sense of staid nostalgia and quiet, almost secretive intimacy, grounded in Celtic and Americana traditions, but ultimately all their own.

"I fell in love at once, their music reminds me why I listen to folk music in the first place." Cover Lay Down, 2008