EVENT: SETH BERNARD and MAY ERLEWINE

VENUE: JAMBALAYA 915 H Street

Arcata, CA 95521

DETAILS: $7, 21+, 8:00pm

CONTACT: Eric Kinnally

EMAIL: [email protected]

Samuel Seth Bernard and May Erlewine are a pair of Michigan-based contemporary folk performers who have recorded and performed extensively both as a duo and as solo artists. Both born and raised in Michigan to musical families with a firm independent streak, Bernard and Erlewine first met in 2003, when he was a performer at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival (using the name Seth Barnard) and she was attending. Both Bernard and Erlewine had a strong background in songwriting and performing and had tastes that ran from folk and blues to rock, and they soon became partners in music (and later a couple). In 2003, Erlewine (as Daisy May, a nickname she'd had since childhood) cut her first album for Earthwork Music, the independent label affiliated with his family's collective farm that had already released two discs by Bernard. In early 2006, they released their first collaborative LP through Earthwork, simply called Seth Bernard and Daisy May, which followed several years of live performances as a duo. Along with other artists affiliated with the Earthwork Collective, Bernard and Erlewine were perennial attractions at the farm's annual Harvest Gathering, a music festival devoted to local independent artists and responsible, earth-friendly activism. Bernard and Erlewine have also been part of the musical and environmental activist community in the Midwest, and have taken their message across the country and beyond the U.S. border, participating in educational workshops with native musicians in Mexico in 2008.

In 2009, Erlewine opted to stop calling herself Daisy May in favor of May Erlewine, and Bernard embraced his birth name, Samuel Seth Bernard, and they used their new/old names for their second collaborative album, Welcome Back. 2010 is proving to be really exciting, releasing new albums this month!

Seth will be releasing his new solo album Is This you?, a companion piece to his album This Here. Is This You takes you on a deep journey enriching the songs from This Here with seven new songs. The album was recorded in Michigan at the heart center studio and features an amazing cast of musicians.

May Erlewine will be releasing her 5th solo project titled golden. The album was recorded at Earthwork Farm in October, 2009. A new collection of songs recorded with her dearest friends at home. Soup was on the stove and the amps were in the kitchen!

Already seasoned songwriters with five solo records each and two duo albums to their names, Seth and May draw from a deep well of American folk, country, blues and soul music. May Erlewine plays guitar and violin and is a songbird reminiscent of Patsy Cline and Patty Griffin. Her songs have been recorded by artists across the country and sung in schools and places of worship. Samuel Seth Bernard has drawn comparisons to Woody Guthrie and Neil Young as a shape shifting folk rocker, community organizer, and communicator of ideas.

They harmonize their voices and instruments beautifully, believing music can bring people together and proving so at every performance. Like all the best folk musicians, they have the ability to get everyone's attention and still a room. With their band, they can captivate and electrify an audience and ignite a dance floor. Seth and May's common belief in music to strengthen communities and to be a part of positive change has led to collaborations with numerous schools, farms and non-profit organizations. They partnered with best selling author and famed environemtalist Bill McKibben and contributed songs to the www.350.org movement for Climate Change action.