Road to Blue Ox with Pert Near Sandstone and Early James

Name: Road to Blue Ox with Pert Near Sandstone and Early James
Start: 2026-06-13T20:00:00-05:00
Location: 603 W College Ave, Appleton, WI, United States, Wisconsin 54911

Schedule

Sat, 13 Jun, 2026 at 08:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

603 W College Ave, Appleton, WI, United States, Wisconsin 54911 | Appleton, WI

7:30 - Doors
8:00 - Early James
9:30 - Pert Near Sandstone
$20 - Advance / $25 Day of
Pert Near Sandstone
Pert Near has always made music their own way. For two decades this multi-voiced group of songwriters has created original music that beguiles their acoustic instrumentation. The bluegrass genre has grown broad since their beginnings in “the heart of the heartland,” as they describe their Minnesota origins. The band continually creates music that's true to their roots while still sonically experimenting in a way that pushes the boundaries of what "old time and bluegrass music" can be. In an industry that discovers and devourers the next pop icon, Pert Near remains steadfast and comfortable in the fringes. Their ethos is more punk than folk, but that shouldn't come to any surprise being that they share a hometown with the likes of The Replacements, Husker Du, and Babes in Toyland. Performing and recording with a determination that keeps the fire lit ‘til morning, they have gracefully become veterans, touring internationally and spreading an influential firebrand–a celebration in every gathering as resistance to modern circumstances.
Side by Side, like the title indicates, is a testimony to their spirit of forming kinship rather than competition. This is shown both within their artistic vision and dedication toward stewardship of the musical community, unifying individuals into a regional collective. This is highly evident with their involvement co-organizing and curating the Blue Ox Music Festival experience for their corner of the North. At this prestigious and long-running event, as well at all their performances, Pert Near genuinely stands side-by-side with their fans both on and off the stage.
Their long standing creative process of combining four individual singer/songwriters into one cohesive project has organically produced a signature style that reaches new heights with this latest recording. There is an emotional intelligence that resonates through these songs courtesy of the diverse writing and vocal stylings. Sometimes playful, at other times raw and unfettered, never trying to trick the listener but instead to entice camaraderie. It’s clear these individual songwriters are at ease making music together.
Pert Near’s steeped catalog continues to bloom in unexpected directions with this ninth studio album, independently recorded and co-produced by Ryan Young of Trampled By Turtles. Ryan’s history with Pert Near as founding member and frequent engineer gives him the unparalleled expertise to help form their ideas into recordings. “Ryan has a wizard’s ear and command of the console to capture what we’re aiming to do in the studio,” reports Nate Sipe. “He has a great instinct for production and what to add to help complete our vision for each song, either by mixing or in musical accoutrement."
While the band's songs are primarily arranged for stage performances, they definitely took creative liberty to push past those constraints in the studio for this record. A great example is the accordion added by Patrick Harrison, aka Patty Buttons, in the title track “Side by Side”. Along with Nate on Irish tenor banjo, this unique arrangement provides a fresh anthem to their repertoire while reaffirming the collective spirit of festivals and friendships. Born from a love of the Irish folk tradition, the message is hopeful, both in a personal and broader societal sense. “It's something I feel very strongly about right now in the divisive world we live in today,” Lenz says. "It’s an anthem about overcoming adversity and looking at the world in a new light as a new day dawns."
The opening track, “Pipe Dream”, speaks of relishing traveling and live performances in the community they conjure. “We are social animals. It feels so good to gather,” says songwriter Justin Bruhn. "Maybe that is reason enough to keep on going. This sets the tone for the rest of the album.” A theme of traveling and longing for comfort weaves throughout.
On “Shooting Star”, songwriter Nate Sipe takes a nostalgic look at the hopefulness of youth. It’s a powerful reflection that still keeps him striving out on the road. It’s a story of faith through celestial contemplation, seeking an auspicious omen, and ultimately trusting the unknown to provide the salvation beyond control, which may or may not become fulfilled. The song emerges from a dynamic instrumental passage to continue the venture forward, hoping for a lucky draw.
In “Quiet Hours”, songwriter Kevin Kniebel is also looking to the stars for signs and guidance, reflecting on what can bring about a more equitable and just world and finding that the drive to become a better person must come from within. “Your heart could burst, but maybe that’s what it takes” Kniebel tenderly sings. This is the first we hear from the lap steel guitar, which adds a richly reverberant texture throughout this album.
Pert Near takes a break from lyrical pondering in the instrumental tune “Chuck Will’s Widow". This composition “first took flight for us around a campfire while the bird that it was named after sang along from the darkness in a far-off tree,” says Nate Sipe. It's a rollicking piece that fits right into the nest of instrumentals that have long showcased the band’s virtuosity.
With “Last Call Man”, songwriter J Lenz states, “This is my attempt at writing a good old country song, with the ever talented Chase Rabideau playing Baritone Guitar. The first line of the chorus was written by a dear friend Joe Haessly, and developed on a couple of barstools, over possibly a few too many drinks.” The song feels like a new watering hole for Pert Near with the electric twang that transports listeners into a late night honky tonk.
“Racin’ to the Grave” captures sentiments of modern life and offers a window into Justin Bruhn’s self described "cynicism regarding the state of the human race. A lament. An apology to those who are younger.” Likewise, “Grace” is Nate Sipe’s “testament to modern America, with concerns for the urban homeless population and future generations adapting to the economic and social realm, along with a plea for tolerance and compassion.”
Kevin Kniebel offers words of wisdom in the inspiring “Rise and Shine” that emerge “from one of my most important influences: eternal optimism in the promise of a new day—not Pollyanna or naive, but cosmic words of encouragement to get up each day and do it all over again.” These are the words that his mother would speak at day break while opening the shades and they provided the inspiration to his refrain in this song that creates a full circle reality.
"Sonny Boy" is named after Pert Near's very own Nate "Sonny Boy" Sipe, who is the reason the band started playing old-time music over two decades ago. J Lenz penned this fiddle tune as a nod to Sonny’s fabled origins. Inspired by various elements of traditional old-time music and light-hearted lyricism, this rousing closer features “Sonny Boy” himself on the fiddle.
The album artwork was painted by renowned Minneapolis painter Dan Mason. Dan's original painting, Water and Stone XIII, was selected to represent the natural beauty that shelters within stark and hostile natural landscapes of the great North. Where lakes reflect by shattering into a million skies; where majestic white pines contain secrets and testimony, tales omitted from books that can spark into wildfire. This is the land that Pert Near Sandstone calls home, where they continue to draw inspiration, craft new songs and help inspire tomorrow’s story.
Early James
Early James recorded his first two Easy Eye Sound albums, Singing For My Supper (2020) and Strange Time To Be Alive (2022), at the studio inside the vaunted label’s Nashville headquarters. But for James’ third release, Medium Raw, producer and Easy Eye Sound label head Dan Auerbach envisioned something quite different for the Alabama-bred singer-songwriter guitarist’s rawboned, sometimes scarifying music.
“Day of the first session, I had my GPS routed to Easy Eye,” James recalls. “We ran into some traffic, and I texted [engineer M.] Allen [Parker] — ‘Hey man, sorry, we’re gonna be about 15 minutes late.’ And he said, ‘It’s OK, we’re still getting set up at the house.’ And I was like, ‘What house?’ ‘We’re recording at this house, it’s really cool.’ It was news to me! It felt unusual in the moment, which I think makes you play the songs differently. But I’m really happy with and proud of the results.”

“I wanted to try to find that power of when I first saw him, when it was just him and his guitar,” Auerbach explains. “After working with him a couple of times in the studio, I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to do it in the same kind of way. The comforts and luxuries of the studio, where you’re able to hear everything and make adjustments and changes, wasn’t right for this project.”
“Some of my favorite albums are those Arhoolie records produced by Chris Strachwitz that were recorded in houses, by Fred McDowell, Lightnin’ Hopkins. I felt like we might get better results if we did it in a house.”

The house in question, known as “Honky Chateau,” was an old Nashville property owned by photographer and artist Buddy Jackson.
“It’s a house with a lot of character,” Auerbach says. “I’ve always loved it. I always felt inspired when I was there. I knew it would be a fun place to do something. It’s over a hundred years old. It’s got the old plaster on the walls, plaster ceilings, old wallpaper. There are big oak floors and an oak stairwell. The first floor has twelve-and-a-half-foot ceilings. It’s pretty awesome. But it’s not a recording studio by any means.”
“We had to drag all the gear in there. We set the little mixing console upstairs — this crazy, wild old ’50s Universal Audio tube console that I’d just gotten and fixed up, which was built by FAME Studios’ Rick Hall for his studio in Memphis — in a spare bedroom, and we ran the wires down the stairs. We set up James and everyone in separate little rooms downstairs. James’ little Princeton amp was right behind him, there were no baffles or anything, and so when he was soloing it was all bleeding into his vocal mic. Adrian Marmolejo, James’ bassist since the beginning, was in the hallway, peeking around the corner. We had these beautiful microphones sucking up the soul of the house. It sounded fucking amazing. When you have headphones on, you can hear that room. You can even see the room when you close your eyes.”
James notes that pretty much everything you hear on Medium Raw was, as its title suggests, cut au naturel.
“There are just two overdubs, on ‘Rag Doll’ and ‘Nothing Surprises Me Anymore,’” he says. “We had intended to get a violin solo on ‘Nothing Surprises Me Anymore,’ and Dan said, ‘Ah, I came up with something.’ On the trio tracks, it was a challenge. Jeff Clemens, who drummed, was two rooms away — I couldn’t see him. We didn’t have in-ear monitors, and it was the first time for him hearing any of those songs. I love his drumming with G. Love [& Special Sauce] and Kenny Vaughan so much. You can hear Jeff kind of tiptoeing through it, and it makes the song move in a really cool way. It’s not hyper-polished, but it has Jeff’s confidence, and you can’t teach that.”
In many ways, the approach harkened back to James’ very first recording, a four-song EP he cut in Birmingham and released in 2017. “Someone said, ‘You should just release an EP,’” he recalls. “So me and Adrian, on his lunch break, recorded those four songs. There was construction outside of the studio, so we had to do it in the console room, which is not unlike this new record. If you listen closely, you can hear power saws next door.”
Like that first quartet of recordings, Medium Raw lives up to its name, presenting its brace of smart, playful, and often fiercely rocking original songs to intimate life with a stunningly vital sound that thrives on its lived-in real-world ambiance.
Beyond seven James originals — six previously unrecorded numbers and the fan favorite “Dig To China,” which dates back to that first EP — the new album includes songs co-written with Auerbach and top Nashville songwriter Pat McLaughlin (“I Got This Problem”); Sheryl Crow’s frequent collaborator Jeff Trott (“Nothing Surprises Me Anymore”); roots singer-songwriter Langhorne Slim (“Go Down Swinging”); Irish songwriter Mick Flannery (“Upside Down Umbrella”); and James’ former Birmingham roommate Ryan Sobb (“Unspeakable Thing”).
The writing continues to display the hallmarks of James’ distinctive, one-of-a-kind style: whip smart wordplay, upended clichés, humor both light and dark, and a deep intelligence that frequently reflects a literary sensibility.
The self-deprecating musician says, “I’m really good about picking up books and getting what I need from ’em. I’m really bad about picking up something and getting what I need and putting them back down again. I am a huge Cormac McCarthy fan. Some of his books are very hard to read, just because of the way they make you feel. I’m working on Blood Meridian now for the third time.”
His musical sensibility has leaned toward the hard stuff from an early age: “I remember getting obsessed with the blues and getting obsessed with old country. My first favorite musician was Hank Williams. There was something about how dark that music was. I could listen to Hank Williams on repeat and never get tired of it. Hank Williams, Jr., lives in my hometown of Troy, Alabama, and he and my dad were hunting buddies. They still run into each other at Julia’s Restaurant in Troy. I listened to a lot of Howlin’ Wolf, and his guitarist Hubert Sumlin — I thought that was Howlin’ Wolf playing the guitar.”