Growing up, Joe Newberry and April Verch absorbed traditions of home and hearth – Newberry in the Missouri Ozarks and Verch in the Ottawa Valley of Canada. Although they’re on the road much of the year, the two musicians insist that they’re rarely homesick, because they take a bit of home with them in their music wherever they go.
Both musicians boast impressive resumes. Newberry is known as an exceptional clawhammer banjo player, as well as a fine guitarist, singer and songwriter. The Gibson Brothers’ cover of his song, Singing As We Rise, featured guest vocalist Ricky Skaggs and won the 2012 IBMA Gospel Recorded Performance award. He also shared honors for the 2013 IBMA Song of the Year award for They Called It Music. A frequent guest on A Prairie Home Companion, he was a featured singer on the Transatlantic Sessions 2016 tour of the UK with fiddler Aly Bain and dobro master Jerry Douglas, and at the Transatlantic Session’s debut at MerleFest in 2017 with fellow singers James Taylor, Sarah Jarosz, Declan O’Rourke, Karen Matheson, and Maura O’Connell.
For her part, Verch became the first woman to win both the Canadian Grand Masters and Canadian Open Fiddling Championships. In 2000, she formed The April Verch Band, and they’ve toured the world ever since, performing in 18 different countries. She’s released 14 solo recordings and has received multiple JUNO, Canadian Folk Music, and Independent Music nominations and awards. In addition to an instructional stepdance DVD, a book of original fiddle tunes, and a Canadian Fiddle tune teaching method for Mel Bay, she was chosen to be one of six fiddlers sharing Canadian fiddle tradition at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.
Together, Newberry and Verch have toured across North America, Europe, and the UK, including Nova Scotia’s signature festival Celtic Colours International Festival, the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival in New York state, and Celtic Connections in Glasgow, Scotland.
With this, their third album, Blessing on the Wing for Slab Town Records, the pair take a decidedly stripped-down, unassuming approach which finds them not only having a hand in the writing of each of these offerings (save one) and playing all the instruments between them. Naturally, they’re responsible for all the vocals as well, both individually and in tandem. The songs take on the ound of traditional trappings, be it the weary balladry of the medley entitled Heavens In My View/Cardinal, the pair of fiddle-fueled instrumentals, Robin On the Wagon Wheel and The Foxes, the gospel-tinged sound of Where the Songs Come From, the acapella reading of Tune Thy Heart, or the calming country ballad, Neighbors. Still, the heart-felt homily Thankful For You resonates in the midst of the low-key picking and plucking as a measure of gratitude and endearment.
Ultimately, it’s hard not to be swayed by the shared sentiment. Blessing On the Wing is a great gift indeed.
