A WAITING GAME. Co-creators of the Blue Ox Music Festival, Pert Near Sandstone, are releasing their newest album Waiting Days on Oct. 20. (Photo via Facebook)

Blue Ox Music Festival is an extremely popular music festival hosted right in our neck of the woods, held each summer and showcasing the area’s best bluegrass, roots, and Americana music. Instrumental in the creation of the festival was Minneapolis-based band Pert Near Sandstone, who continues to host the festival nine years later. The band – which hasn’t released a new album since 2020 – is gearing up to drop their newest album, Waiting Days, on Oct. 20.

“I would say that this new album kind of has more of a modern feel,” said mandolin and fiddle player of Pert Near Sandstone, Nate Sipe. “A lot of the songs have more of an up-to-date String Band appeal in terms of lyrical content and then some musicality as well.”

The band includes Sipe, Kevin Kniebel on the banjo, J Lenz on acoustic guitar, Justin Bruin on bass, and Matt Cartier on clogs and fiddle, meshing together to create their iconic bluegrass sound. Two of the 11 songs from Waiting Days have already been released as singles, “All Waves Break” and “I’ve Been Traveling”. The band will be releasing another single in the near future as well as a bonus exclusive single that will be released closer to the album release.

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We're very proud of (Blue Ox Music Festival).

We’re really thrilled to be a part of it. It's really ejecting a lot of life into the midwestern acoustic groups. It’s kind of developed a life of its own at this point.

nate sipe

pert near sandstone member

Waiting Days has been in the works since last fall and is a culmination of songs held from their previous albums and a multitude of new pieces. Sipe is particularly ecstatic about the album’s title track, since he’s been shaping it since their last album and has added a steel guitar to its sound.

To celebrate the new album, the band will be touring across the Pacific Northwest, hitting some of their favorite show spots including Portland, Seattle, Denver, Chicago, and wrapping up on First Avenue in Minneapolis on Dec. 2, their hometown show. Have no fear, my Chippewa Valley Pert Near Sandstone lovers! They also plan to perform many of their new songs at next year’s Blue Ox Music Festival – slated for June 27-29, 2024 – where they'll play two sets.

“We're very proud of (Blue Ox Music Festival),” Sipe said. “We’re really thrilled to be a part of it. It's really ejecting a lot of life into the midwestern acoustic groups. It’s kind of developed a life of its own at this point.”

Learn more about Pert Near Sandstone at pertnearsandstone.com.