Music Events

Duo Brings Ozarks and Canadian Rhythm to Heyde Center

bluegrass duo Newberry & Verch to perform in the Valley on March 16

Barbara Arnold |

STEP DANCIN' AND TUNES. Newberry & Verch, musical duo, are swinging into the Chippewa Valley for a performance on March 16. (Photos via April Verch website).
STEP DANCIN' AND TUNES. Newberry & Verch, musical duo, are swinging into the Chippewa Valley for a performance on March 16. (Photos via April Verch website).

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day eve, the toe-tapping, bluegrass musical duo Newberry & Verch will be gracing the stage with “their little bit of home” at the Heyde Center for the Arts (3 South High Street, Chippewa Falls) on Thursday, March 16, 2023 at 7:30pm. 

April Verch, a singer, fiddler, and step-dancer, originally from the Ottawa Valley, Canada, is best known for her two decades of international touring with The April Verch Band. Before launching her professional career, Verch was the first woman to win both the Canadian Grand Masters and Canadian Open Fiddling Championships.

Joe Newberry, a singer/song writer and banjo, guitar, and mandolin player, hails from the Ozarks/Appalachia in North Carolina where he is well-known for his claw-hammer style of banjo playing, work with mandolin icon Mike Compton, as well as The Transatlantic Sessions group and frequent appearances on A Prairie Home Companion.

In 2016, the pair performed their first concerts together among which were multiple appearances at the Celtic Colours International Festival across Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. This collaboration and their similar musical styles led to their first album called Going Home, described as a simply gorgeous and intimate expression of musical multiculturalism and an album that "sounds like two old friends who have been playing together for years."

Tickets are $20 for adults, $19 for senior citizens, and $10 for youth.


For more info, visit the Heyde Center's webpage detailing the event.