CityFolk Festival

Of Monsters and Men

Arny Margret has spent the last year making waves, not only in her Icelandic hometown but across Europe and the US, touring extensively, supporting Leif Vollebekk, Passenger, Blake Mills and more, as well as playing the likes of Newport Folk Festival, Reykjavik Calling and Iceland Airwaves. She’s now released her gorgeous sophomore album, ‘I Miss You, I Do’ on One Little Independent Records.

Musically she draws inspiration from folk and blues roots, utilizing a less-is-more approach to convey openness, choosing to rely mostly on the delicate strumming of acoustics and her dulcet voice. She cites influences from the likes of Andy Shauf, Phoebe Bridgers, Bon Iver, and Gregory Alan Isakov. Born and raised in a small town called Ísafjörður, she attended music school from the age of 6 learning to play the piano and gradually taught herself guitar. She recorded the album at studio Hljóðriti in Hafnarfjörður and will continue to make her mark globally with her intimate and affecting live performances.

Angus & Julia Stone

Angus & Julia Stone’s music seems to float on its own dreamy wavelength. Maybe that effect comes from the enigmatic bond of a shared history between brother and sister — or maybe it’s something deeper, something in their DNA that comes through so often in the music of family bands. The duo released their first EP, Chocolates and Cigarettes, before moving to London in 2006, where they recorded Heart Full of Wine and their debut album, A Book Like This. Released in 2007, A Book Like This charted Top 10 in Australia. Two years later they returned with Down the Way — a breakthrough record that earned them their first number one album, five ARIA Awards, and Australia’s Hottest 100 with “Big Jet Plane,” while introducing their music to a global audience. In 2014, they released the Rick Rubin–produced Angus & Julia Stone, followed by the critically acclaimed Snow (2017), the first album they wrote and recorded entirely themselves. Their most recent album, Cape Forestier (2024), was recorded at Sugarcane Mountain Studios and released ahead of one of their biggest global tours to date.

Pokey Lafarge

Pokey LaFarge was ready to move forward.

In March 2020, the veteran singer-songwriter packed up and left his Los Angeles abode behind, putting his belongings in storage in anticipation of spending extensive time on the road in support of his then-forthcoming album, Rock Bottom Rhapsody. He couldn’t wait to head down to Austin a few weeks later to showcase those songs and launch the album with his band at South-by-Southwest. Then the pandemic hit and all of LaFarge’s well-laid plans went into thin air.

Stuck in East Austin with nowhere to go, LaFarge did what he does best: he got to work. Throughout his career, nine albums to date including a stint on Jack White’s Third Man Records, the singer-songwriter has never been one to look back in anger or disappointment. LaFarge used the sudden change in plans to his advantage, having perhaps his greatest period of personal growth in the midst of this crippling pandemic.

It came as no surprise that the songs instantly started to flow out of him. LaFarge is an artist who refuses to rest on his laurels and compromise. He’s always motivated and ready to create — and when he’s at peace in isolation like he was here, the results can be magical. Looking in, inspired by the deep soul not just from these shores, but from distant geographical places like Africa or South America, LaFarge set out to create a body of work that paired emotional lyrics with a killer groove and grabby melodies.

Written by LaFarge and co-produced with Chris Seefried, the album is one of LaFarge’s strongest and most mature lyrical efforts to date. The album’s title, In the Blossom of Their Shade, is taken from a lyric in the stunning, yet dusty “Mi Ideal.” That song sonically draws influences from the Southwest, South America and Caribbean. The distant warmth of the music, especially rhythmically, adeptly coincides with the longing that's expressed in the lyrics.

Unlike its melancholy predecessor, In the Blossom of Their Shade showcases the positivity of coming out of the darkness and into the light. The record was nearly titled Siesta Love since it captures the thematic notion of being the perfect summer afternoon soundtrack...the type of music you want to listen to while having a cocktail with your significant other. It makes sense musically as well — LaFarge intentionally crafted songs that created space and have melodies that can glide throughout a composition that’s a far cry from the swing and blues-infused songs of his earlier work.

LaFarge’s rigorous work ethic powered him through this potentially challenging creative period. As days became a couple months, songs blossomed from embryonic ideas into full-formed ones and he was ready to move on, which typified his mindset as a working artist.

After he left Austin, he headed up north to Chicago for two-and-a-half months to record In the Blossom of Their Shade. At home in the city two hours north of where he grew up and became a die-hard Chicago Cubs fan, LaFarge rigorously and meticulously recorded the songs (half of which he wrote with his best friend Nick Africano over FaceTime) in the Windy City.

Thematically, LaFarge, in a way only he can, tackles a wide gamut of emotions. On “Rotterdam,” it’s easy to hear how the dreamy song encapsulates a notion of a Shangri-La even in the most unusual of places.

Look no further than album closer, the twangy “Goodnight, Goodbye (Hope Not Forever).” The song neatly ties the past year along with a universal longing that brighter days are on the horizon, even if it doesn’t seem so right now.

Pokey LaFarge never wanted to be an artist that had one gigantic record and was then lost to the annals of history. As for now? He’s back to where the whole odyssey began over a year ago: Los Angeles. Even with In The Blossom of Their Shade on the horizon, LaFarge hasn’t put down his pen. You can’t keep a great songwriter idle.

Jobi Riccio

Born and raised in Morrison, Colorado - a tourist town in the foothills outside of Denver that’s home to Red Rocks Amphitheater - Jobi Riccio grew up surrounded by music and found inspiration in artists ranging from Sheryl Crow to Joni Mitchell. Sonically, Jobi’s music exists between worlds, melding the classic craftsmanship of her songwriting with modern indie-leaning production to forge a lush, expansive sound that feels traditional and experimental all at once. She has received acclaim for her songwriting, including winning the 2019 NewSong Music Competition, performing at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, receiving the 2019 Lee Villiare Scholarship from her alma mater Berklee College of Music, and being named a finalist in the 2018 Rocky Mountain Folks Festival Songwriters Showcase. In 2023 Jobi was awarded the Newport Folk Festival John Prine Fellowship.

Her debut album, "Whiplash" (out September 2023 on Yep Roc) introduces influences from a variety of genres, while still holding space for Riccio's love for all decades of country and americana music.

CityFolk Festival

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