We've been sitting on some exciting news for a couple of months now...we're proud to announce that we've been selected to receive one of Roanoke's 2022-2023 Art Matters grants!!!
The grants (30 in total) are part of The Year of the Artist, the city’s new initiative to engage local artists in the process of community-building and advancing wellness, justice, inclusion, and the creative spirit. The grants are funded by the National Endowment for the Arts through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and the City of Roanoke.
The Project
So, what are we making? We’re on a mission to pen a collection of Roanoke-themed songs and tunes that embraces the Celtic motif of place—exploring our city, its history, its people, and its stories through traditional music. The project will culminate in a live performance showcasing the new material (exact date and time TBD, but we will keep everyone updated).
We've already done a bunch of research, including chatting with some downtown business owners, reading through old Roanoke Times reports, and taking a stroll through the O. Winston Link museum. A couple of songs are well on their way...in fact, we've already started slipping them into our live sets...
We’re so incredibly thankful to the Roanoke Arts Commission for selecting us to participate in this initiative. We can't wait to dig into this project, and we're going to have a great time documenting the process and sharing it all with you!
What's Next?
We found out that our grant application had been accepted about a month before The Knotted Circle came out. That's why we've waited so long to tell everyone about it...we wanted to give our second album the celebration it deserved before looking forward to new projects!
We're going to continue celebrating The Knotted Circle by releasing music videos and sharing posts that tell the story behind the tracks. We also have plenty of new trad songs that we're working into our repertoire. And, of course, now we're songwriters! We're going to spend the next several months composing original tunes and trying them out in front of audiences, perhaps even bringing them to our local session and seeing if anyone wants to play along.
Follow along with us online and, if you can, come out to a few of our live shows!
~Josh & Julie