Alaskan Acoustic Group Bearfoot brings “Bluegrass” to Scripps

Alaskan acoustic group Bearfoot shares their Americana approach to music when they perform September 5, from 5:30-7:00 p.m., on Bowling Green, as part of the popular Levitt on the Lawn concert series at Scripps College. The outdoor concert is free and open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to bring a picnic supper or may purchase dinner for $8.

A mere two years after their initial meeting as camp counselors, Bearfoot earned one of roots music’s most prestigious awards as Telluride Bluegrass Band Champions, an honor they share with artists such as Dixie Chicks and Nickel Creek. Now, after years of national touring at top theaters and festivals, Bearfoot joins these iconic pop peers, with the broad horizon of the Americana frontier in their souls.

Bearfoot is deeply American music. Airy Northern ballads are tempered by back-alley Southern blues, while jazz stomp meets Appalachian breakdown, the whole fused with a signature sexy bluegrass passion. Boasting five distinctive lead voices, the group showcases a remarkable breadth of rich, original songs. Their arrangements soar with smoky, spacious lyricism. The rhythmic bounce and precision of their instrumentation is fiery and inventive, with an earthy focus on blend, harmony, and tone. Bearfoot is sophisticated, vital music—contemporary guitar voicing set against melodic purity; youthful grit encounters harmonic romance.

Bearfoot — the name slyly nods to the wilds of their native Alaska, conjuring images of rural string-band musicians, and, in its simple elegance, elevating the quintet to the top of a cultural mountain where they overlook the past, present, and future of Americana music.

Levitt on the Lawn at Scripps is an offshoot of the Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts in Pasadena and MacArthur Park. Scripps College alumna Elizabeth Levitt Hirsch ’74 sponsors the Scripps concert series to give back to the Scripps community and increase awareness of the summer concerts at the Levitt Pavilions.

For more information, please contact the Malott Commons office at (909) 607-9372.

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