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For our next Red Carpet Concert from the 2017 Alaska Folk Fest, we present the Portland musicians Caleb Klauder & Reeb Willms. Returning for their second Red Carpet Concert, we recorded the duo performing their song “Been on the Rocks” at the Alaskan Hotel. They are currently touring with Foghorn Stringband in the UK.

This video was made in collaboration between KTOO Public Media and Justin Smith of Rusty Recordings in Gustavus.

Watch other Red Carpet Concerts with The Quaintrelles, Reeb Willms and Caleb Klauder, as well as  their performance with Foghorn Stringband during the 2016 Alaska Folk Festival.

For our first Red Carpet Concert from the 2017 Alaska Folk Fest, we present Juneau folk-duo The Quaintrelles. We filmed Cameron Brockett and Taylor Vidic performing their song “Rolling Stone” at the Alaskan Hotel. The two are spending their summer at the Red Onion Saloon in Skagway.

This video was made in collaboration between KTOO Public Media and Justin Smith of Rusty Recordings in Gustavus.

Watch other Red Carpet Concerts with Marian Call and Laura Zahasky, as well as last year’s Alaska Folk Festival guest artist The Carper Family.

As the raven flies, Funter Bay is less than twenty miles from downtown Juneau. The bay is nooked into the northwest corner of Admiralty Island–if you’ve traveled by boat to Hoonah or Gustavus you’ve passed it.

But did you know that was where the U.S. Government interned hundreds of Aleuts, or Unangan people, to protect them from Japanese invasion during World War II?

The internees, from St. Paul and St. George in the Pribolof Islands, were moved about 1,300 miles against their will.

People died on the way and in Funter Bay over their two-year internment.

The nonprofit Friends of Admiralty Island organized a trip on Saturday that brought internees, and descendants of internees back to the camp to raise awareness and promote healing.

Over 100 people joined Saturday’s trip including KTOO’s Scott Burton who brings us this audio postcard.

The audio includes the voices of Tara Bourdukofsky, Ginger Bear, Karen Clark, Martin Stepeton, Bishop David, and Jill Merculief Schnabel.

Click here to read a story about the internment camp 50 miles south on Killisnoo Island near Angoon.

This is the Axiom Brass Quintet from at today’s Juneau Jazz and Classics’ lunchtime concert at the State Office Building.

Between songs, members of the group talked to the audience, which included several school groups, about the histories and mechanics of their instruments—two trumpets, a tuba, a French horn, and a trombone.

The quintet plays again tonight at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center at 7 p.m. The group will be joined by several additional instruments, including piano, bass, cello, and violin.

Juneau Jazz and Classics continues Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center. The concert is titled “The Rites of Spring” and will include compositions by Beethoven, Vivaldi and Stravinsky.

The two-week festival concludes on Saturday at Centennial Hall with Richard Thompson. Click here for a full schedule.

The Juneau Jazz and Classics Festival hosts Brooklyn alt-country band The Defibulators on their final stop of a southeast Alaska tour.

The six-piece started playing in New York’s punk bars which inspired their rowdy, high-energy sound. “You know, nothing too delicate,” banjo and guitarist Bug Jennings said.

Expect to  hear lots of fiddle, twangy telecaster guitar, country shuffles and lyrics you wouldn’t expect from classic country.

Jennings says the band attempts to bring a barn dance feel to their more absurd take on classic forms. Their song “Working Class” is about “drinking away a a college education right on into a big pile a student loan debt.”

“We figured there weren’t a lot of songs about student loan debt, so we figured we’d write one up,” Jennings said.

See them Friday, May 12, at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center for their dance party set at 7:30 p.m. as part of the 31st Annual Juneau Jazz and Classics Festival.

Pianist William Ransom and cellist Zuill Bailey packed the State Office Building’s atrium today during Juneau Jazz and Classics’ free lunchtime concert.

Before the musicians played the tune in this video, they asked the kids in the audience to guess what kind of animal is was about.

Guesses from the audience included an owl, a pterodactyl, a pit bull, a big bird, a humming bird, and finally, a bumblebee.

Ransom and Bailey play again tonight with the Vega String Quartet and bassist Janet Clippard at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center at 7:30 p.m.

Sticking with the animal theme, the group of musicians will play Franz Schubert’s Trout Quintet.

The festival continues tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at the JACC with a collection of musicians who will play selections from Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.

Click here to see the festival’s schedule, which runs until May 20.