Appearing on the Main Stage at 2:45 p.m.

Tangleweed is a band of four forward-looking musical reactionaries from Chicago. They play acoustic Americana music. Songs range from classic bluegrass to old-time country to Irish tunes with up-tempo rockers, hot jazz, and mountain music tossed in for good measure. While the band’s instrumentation is standard bluegrass, their music is anything but. With a repertoire both broad and deep, one listener described them as sounding like “a band playing on a pirate ship off the coast of New Orleans in the 1920s.” Their three CDs have garnered critical praise and worldwide airplay, earning the band invitations to appear at major festivals and high-profile venues around the country, as well as a showcase at the Folk Alliance International Conference.

Tangleweed formed in the summer of 2004, with Paul Wargaski on bass, Billy Oh on fiddle, and mandolinist Kenneth Rainey; Rainey in turn brought in his Logan Square neighbor Scott Judd on guitar to complete the group. Over the years they’ve added erhu, autoharp, tenor guitar, and accordion to their instrumentation. Their recording of Ola Belle Reed’s “High On a Mountain” appeared on the soundtrack for the PBS series Roadtrip Nation. While based in Chicago, they have traveled as far afield as Hawaii with their always expanding repertoire.

The band has been hailed in reviews worldwide as a welcome breath of fresh air for lovers of stomping string band music and high lonesome harmonies. They have a special connection to Woodstock with their “Tangleweed Saves Groundhog Day” coloring book. Their fourth record is due out this year.

Visit Tangleweed at Tangleweed.org.