'Littlest Birds' to close out 2014 courtyard concerts
By Martial Haprov
EDITOR
The town will bid farewell to the September 2014 Concerts in the Courtyard series on Thursday as folk duo The Littlest Birds plays the crowd out.
The nationally touring act from the eastern California Sierra mountains features David Huebner on cello and Sharon Martinson on clawhammer banjo. The duo has been performing together since 2010 across 34 states and in Canada including such festivals as the Vancouver Folk Music Festival in British Columbia, the Oregon Country Fair in Veneta, the California Bluegrass Association’s Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival in Grass Valley and the Beartrap Summer Festival in Casper, Wyoming, to name a few.
“We play music that feels timeless,” Martinson said by phone last week as the duo was on the road between San Diego and Los Angeles, headed to a weekend festival, having just come from one the weekend prior. “There’s something about there being, in a classic sense, music that’s never out of style. Music that might be 100 or 200 years old versus something we wrote yesterday that just makes people feel good, happy or evokes emotion — there’s no other music for me that does that. That’s sort of why we’re drawn to it.”
According to the group’s website, the two began their performing act somewhat unexpectedly after Huebner and Martinson got together without their usual group of local musician friends and played some tunes together for a few days. They’d both been performing with other bands but had known each other for a couple of years. After those few days, they were surprised in hearing the unique sound of the cello and banjo together, along with finding that their voices blended well on top of the music.
More of what they call a fortunate accident, the duo says they continue to bring a humble, down-home vibe to their music from the biggest to the smallest stages across the country.
At age 12, Huebner was principal cellist of the Disney Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra, which included a performance at the Hollywood Bowl.
Martinson, on the other hand, played French horn in the chamber orchestra at Dartmouth College, where she studied southern pine beetle ecology while earning at doctorate.
Along the way they’ve performed with bands such as Elephant Revival, Rushad Eggleston, Joe Craven, Melvin Seals JGB, The Brothers Comatose, Pharis and Jason Romero, Carolina Story, Jim Hurst, Mary McCaslin, Marty O’Reilly & The Old Soul Orchestra, Run Boy Run, The Blackberry Bushes, Blind Boy Paxton, Scott Miller and Reyna Gellert and more.
“(Concert goers will) hear a whole lot of banjo and cello — an uncommon duo,” Martinson said. “We’ve fallen in love with that dynamic that our two instruments bring versus a full band. When it’s just these instruments they’re fully expressed, they don’t overlap, and we can really do whatever we want on each instrument.
“It’s really freeing and really fun. From plain, traditional songs to those songs that have been done a hundred times, we make it sound fresh.”
Thursday’s concert begins at 6 p.m. at courtyard at Apple Valley Commons on the northwest corner of Highway 18 and Dale Evans Parkway. Pick up dinner or a snack at one of the shopping center eateries including Subway, Round Table Pizza, Rainbow Frozen Yogurt, Fresh Wok, Carl’s Jr., Del Taco, Starbucks and Panda Express.
Those attending are encouraged to bring chairs.
For more information, go to www.AppleValleyEvents