Siri Undlin, known as Humbird, performs live on stage with bass player Pat Keen. Humbird is playing a unique matinee concert on Sunday at Mad Dog Ranch and Studios as part of a benefit for Inspire Aspen. The show starts at 2 p.m.
Ed Baney started the Roaring Fork Sessions in February 2020 with a concert by folk/bluegrass/Americana artist Lindsay Lou at the Harris Concert Hall. She embodied the essence of what Baney was looking to achieve as he sought to create a concert series that highlighted the best music from those aforementioned genres and turn Harris Concert Hall into “a listening room.”
“Harris Concert Hall [on the Aspen Meadows Campus] is a great little room to hear music and it’s really underutilized. I just envisioned it as a great place to host a concert series with an Americana bent,” Baney said.
Since that first show with Lou, the Roaring Fork Sessions has featured the music of The Watkins Family Hour, Sarah Jarosz, Watchhouse, Allison Russell, Sierra Hull and most recently, Bonnie Light Horseman.
Baney is developing a track record for introducing artists on the verge of breaking out. Russell won a Grammy last year and many music insiders are predicting Bonnie Light Horseman will at least be nominated for a Grammy this year and may very well win it.
This Sunday, Baney will venture outside of Harris Concert Hall for a benefit concert at Mad Dog Ranch and Studios with folk/americana artist Siri Undlin, also known as Humbird.
“After a couple of shows, I noticed that [Mad Dog Ranch co-partner] Julie Garside was coming to all the shows and I became interested in what she is doing at Mad Dog Ranch and Studios and I was so impressed with the Inspire Aspen Foundation and Aspen Rocks in which they provide opportunities for young people to play music in front of audiences and learn about the recording studio, I wanted to do a benefit at the studio itself. It’s a magical place that most people don’t know exists. It has an incredible history in that it was owned by both Jimmy Buffet and Glen Frey.”
Humbird and bass player Pat Keen deliver a unique mix of music that combines Celtic sounds, church melodies and modern rock.
Tickets for the show are $58 and are available at aspenshowtix.com. The show starts at 2 p.m. Inspire Aspen participants Tristan Trincado and Gracie Feinberg will perform before Humbird comes on at 3 p.m. The show will be over by 5 p.m.
Humbird was born Siri Undlin in Edina, Minnesota. She grew up playing ice hockey and when she was in a youth program she teamed up with a set of triplets on her team and began playing Celtic music. She also was influenced by the music she was hearing at her family’s Lutheran church.
Alanis Morisette, Avril Lavigne and Michelle Branch were on the radio and Humbird came away with a wide array of musical influences that are evident in her music today.
“My influences are definitely all over the place,” Humbird said in an interview with the Aspen Daily News. “But it’s connected by melody and experimentation. Our music very much combines all of those things. We hint at the Lutheran melodies, and you’ll hear Irish influences and that confessional pop of Alanis Morisette. We try to just swirl it all around in an interesting way that makes for a pretty unique show. And it’s fun for us, too, because it’s different every night.”
Her band includes Pat Keen on bass and Nate LeBrun on drums. Undlin took the name Humbird from a small town in Nebraska (population 67) that she encountered when she was playing with another band. She figured she’d use the name for a side project and it stuck.
They are starting to show up at many different kinds of festivals and gaining a following, as evidenced by the fact that close to 200,000 people are tuning into her on Spotify every month. She recently released her third album, “Right On,” and dropped two Billy Joel covers a few weeks ago. Sunday’s show, with its unique venue, could end up being an “I-saw-Humbird-when” moment.
“I think music is part of our human inheritance,” Humbird said. “I think when it’s happening and there’s magic in the room we all just benefit immensely from it. You can trust that music has this power that has ripple effects that you can’t even really fathom.
“We invite people into it and offer it up for people to make it their own, and to get what they need from it. it’s kind of a choose your own adventure situation.”