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For Jodi Jones and Brendan Macie, music is more about torch-bearing than trailblazing. They’re not interested in chasing fame - they’re in the business of opening hearts and eyes one song, one show, one person at a time.
Sugaree String Society is a collaborative effort that eschews the myth of the melting pot by presenting the musical fabric of Appalachia (and more broadly, America) as a patchwork quilt of many different backgrounds, ethnicities, lived experiences, and artistic traditions beautifully transformed by proximity, adaptation, necessity, and working class defiance - each piece distinct as it comes together to form something much greater and more complex than the sum of its parts.
Their original work seeks to preserve a sense of place and context in American roots music, to tell stories that have historically been underrepresented in popular culture, and to give voice to an Appalachia that is not stagnant in the past but alive and breathing, contending with our modern capitalist condition. Presented alongside traditional songs both well-known and recently revived, they place themselves within a long line of artists, poets, and pickers who express themselves through folk culture - emotionally, politically, and intellectually.
They believe there’s a reason our ancestors sang when they worked, when they worshiped, when they mourned, when they celebrated, and when they simply went on living. There’s power in remembering where we come from through this music, utilizing the vernacular tradition to express a contemporary Appalachian identity that roots itself in the past but grows to meet the moment.
In their performances, America’s past, present, and future are portrayed as a subject of awe, a model for intentional living, wildly diverse, a cautionary tale, a failed capitalist project, a reason for hope, and a land much stranger than you think - for Jones and Macie, these contradictory truths co-exist, vividly reflected in their intentional blending of old and new to represent a reborn Americana - one that embraces the past to heal its scars and usher in a brighter, kinder tomorrow.
*PATCHWORK, the duo’s upcoming full-length record is studded with hard-hitting original songwriting and carefully selected traditional pieces from their work as an amateur folklorists and self-styled “hillbilly historians” - true to its title, this record stitches the old together with the new to create something that transcends to become greater than the sum of its parts. Each piece is lovingly chosen, transformed and fashioned into an exploration of the great, existential questions facing us all in this strange, contemporary age.
*COMING LATE 2024
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Debut EP now streaming!
Show Dates
April 11
THE CAVE
CHAPEL HILL, NC
April 12
HURON STAGE
DURHAM, NC
May 26
HURON STAGE
DURHAM, NC
(supporting Merrill Miller)
April 20
HURON STAGE
DURHAM, NC
*Jodi Jones (supporting Jess Klein)