Liz Carroll, Nic Gareiss and Allison de Groot

Liz Carroll

Liz Carroll is an Irish fiddler, composer, and recording artist. She is the first Irish-American trad musician to be nominated for a Grammy, and the first American-born composer honored with the Cumadóir TG4, Ireland’s most significant traditional music recognition. She has toured as a solo artist and with The Green Fields of America, Trian, John Doyle, and the String Sisters. Featured on fourteen albums and appearing on many more, Liz was born in Chicago, Illinois, of Irish parents. She is a proud recipient of both an Ethnic and Folk Arts Fellowship Award by the State of Illinois and a NEA National Heritage Fellowship.

Nic Gareiss and Allison de Groot

Featured as a duo on NPR’s “Best Roots Music of 2022” list, Nic Gareiss and Allison de Groot sound and move together, engaging tunes and gestures from Appalachia, Ireland, and beyond through banjo, voice, and percussive dance. Nic Gareiss has been hailed by the New York Times for his “dexterous melding of Irish and Appalachian dance” and called “the most inventive and expressive step dancer on the scene” by the Boston Herald. A resident of Lansing, Michigan, Nic received the 2021 Michigan Heritage Award, the state’s highest honor bestowed on traditional artists and was named “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine. Allison de Groot has performed at the Newport Folk Festival, Celtic Connections, Rockygrass, Hardly Strictly, Winnipeg Folk Festival, and Tønder Festival. Shaped by the music scene in her hometown of Winnipeg, Canada, Allison also holds a Bachelor of Music in Performance from Berklee College of Music in Boston and has been awarded the Joseph S. Stauffer Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Eisenson Family Prize for Excellence in American Roots Music. Her album with Tatiana Hargreaves won Best Bluegrass Album from the Independent Music Awards and was nominated for Liner Notes of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association.

After a decade of performance collaborations, Nic Gareiss and Allison de Groot released The Thrill, a visual album inspired by the music of Appalachian musician Hobart Smith, in October 2022. The duo spent concentrated time immersing themselves in archival recordings of Smith (1897-1965) to create The Thrill. “We listened in hopes of having a conversation with his music,” Gareiss says, “not attempting to replicate – which would be impossible! – but hoping for a discourse, a tiff, a dialogue with his music.” The title itself comes from a quote from Hobart, “music fills you with a thrill you just can’t express.” The Thrill can be purchased, viewed, and streamed on the platform Bandcamp. Fifty percent of the proceeds benefit Lonesome Pine Mutual Aid, an Appalachian organization which distributes flood relief including food, drinking water, and other community care across southwest Virginia where Hobart Smith lived and learned his music. The Thrill was named “Best Roots Music of 2022” by NPR and can be experienced here: www.nicandallison.bandcamp.com

www.lizcarroll.com
www.allisondegroot.com
www.nicgareiss.com