DESCRIPTION:
"Dusty Miller", "Fiddle Fingers" & "Grizzly Bear", performed by The April Verch Band (www.aprilverch.com), at the Institute of Musical Traditions (www.imtfolk.org), Rockville, Maryland, USA on January 14, 2013.

April Verch doesn't just perform music, she exudes it. The internationally renowned Canadian fiddler, singer, songwriter and stepdancer has a passion for performing and her goal is to touch the lives of those who are listening at any given moment. The world is this amazing puzzle that we can't fully understand and music is the joy that pulls it all together and helps us make sense of it, says Verch, with a dynamic excitement and confidence that makes you believe her in a heartbeat.

Dirk Powell, a multi-instrumentalist who's worked with Jack White, Joan Baez, Riverdance and the film Cold Mountain, is awed by April's ability to play any kind of roots music as though it was her native tongue. She's so fluent in the language of music that she never needs to imitate, Powell says. She hears the heart of it and lets that become part of her core. April's just got that, man; she's always speaking the language for real. She is a rare mix of all the technique and super-fashy things, along with the deep soul and tradition that comes from having grown up with the music."

Sound: Dave Eisner, Dave Richardson, Jim Ralph, Charlie Knuth

Camera: Laura Christoplos, Dick Tufts, Emily Whiting, Ralph Lillie

Editing: Ralph Lillie

© 2013, Institute of Musical Traditions