Don’t let the old-time
pass you by!

Alex Caton & Pete Winne fly in from Virginia to play Bird & Beckett Sunday, Feb. 20, at 4:30 pm on the final day of this year’s Bluegrass & Old-Time Festival.

Fiddle, banjo, guitar & sublime Appalachian vocal harmonies bring old-time and sacred tunes to life.

From Bird & Beckett, hop BART to Freight & Salvage in Berkeley to catch the Festival’s closing show: SF’s own, sublimely wonderful Crooked Jades, backed by Portland’s Water Tower Bucket Boys, following Central Valley young’un & old soul Frank Fairfield .

Here at Bird & Beckett, we hosted Seattle-based Cahalen Morrison & Eli West last weekend, and it was a smash success. Cahalen’s an amazing songwriter and their vocal & instrumental blend is heartstoppingly gorgeous. And Monday, we caught San Francisco’s own Emily Bonn & the Vivants at Amnesia, and were floored by their classic country spunk.

We’re hosting Alex & Pete on the final day of the Festival Sunday, February 20, but there’s much not to miss all week long. A monumental “Roots Review” holds forth at Freight & Salvage Wednesday; B&B heroes Misisipi Rider are at Cafe du Nord Thursday on a terrific bill, with The Whisky Richards, Lady A and Her Heel Draggers and The West Nile Ramblers.  Last chance to hear both Misisipi Rider and the Whisky Richards for the foreseeable future as other opportunities are opening up for band members. Two raging bands out of the Pacific Northwest, the Water Tower Bucket Boys and Jackstraw, join local Brothers Comatose at St. Cyprian’s on Friday. And on Saturday there are workshops galore (including one by Alex & Pete on southern Appalachian gospel singing) at the Swedish American Hall, capped by a Square Dance Extravaganza with the Knuckle Knockers, the Foghorn Stringband and caller Bill Martin.

Sunday, the 20th, the whole Festival comes to its glorious conclusion. After you catch our show (4:30 to 6:30), hop a freight, or BART, to Berkeley’s Freight & Salvage, where The Crooked Jades will headline the Festival’s closing show.  Founding Jades Jeff Kazor, Lisa Berman and Erik Pearson are bringing on a full complement of players to produce that huge haunting sound they’ve trademarked, which only deepens and expands every time you hear it.

And you’ll be primed for their music by opener Frank Fairfield, a young old soul from the Central Valley who will be a very tough act to follow, or so we hear! You’d better get your tickets in advance for the Jades/Fairfield show!

Old-time is not a crime. It’s a soul satisfying experience that makes us shudder with delight and grin like holy fools. Don’t let the freight pass you by!