Back-to-back folk music concerts are coming to the North Anthony Corridor on April 24-25.

The brainchild of Sean Hoffman and Ellen Coplin, April in The Garden will feature two Nashville, Tennessee, acts the opening night: The Rachael Davis Trio and Fort Wayne native Addison Agen. The second night will feature the Scandinavian string trio Northern Resonance and Tall Poppy String Band at The Garden.

Tickets are $20 for each night or you can get a two-night bundle for $35.

Opening night

April in The Garden fell together when a banjo player told Hoffman they would be passing through the area in April and wondered if he could organize a performance. Then, a friend mentioned they were also bringing another musician into town. 

While Hoffman and his wife, Ellen Coplin, had intended for all of the acts to perform the same night, the dates did not work out. From this problem, Hoffman said, came the opportunity for an intimate concert series spread over two spring evenings. 

“Addison had relocated to Nashville a couple of years ago and started to do her music out there,” Coplin said. “It’ll be exciting to have her come back to her hometown with another Nashville musician.”

The music goes on

Hoffman called the second night a “doubleheader with two bands” with a performance from Swedish group Northern Resonance, whose “high-level compositions and playing” are, as Hoffman described, “not something that we would get a chance to hear very often here in the Midwest or even in this country. 

“I just think that being able to come out and see something that we wouldn’t get a chance to experience — I think, for me, that would be a big draw, and I think it would be pretty compelling. “

Hoffman said Northern Resonance will be taking traditional music and writing new arrangements played on instruments that “haven’t really been previously combined … They’re taking traditional music and kind of bringing it into the era with a new composition.

“We kind of got lucky as far as being able to pull them in for a night. They have a brand new album out (Vision of Three). (Their 2020 self-titled debut album) was nominated for a Swedish Grammy.”

Tall Poppy String Band, another group from Nashville, will also perform Thursday.

“Their fiddler is George Jackson, who is living in Nashville — he’s from New Zealand originally,” Hoffman said. “He has been playing with all kinds of really amazing kickers in the bluegrass world and in the old-time music world. He has just sort of come out of nowhere in the last couple of years and has been this fiddling phenomenon.”

Experience it live

In addition to talent that Hoffman described as “some of the best performers in their genres,” Coplin said the small venue where “every seat is like a front seat” only adds to the experience. 

“You’re not going to be more than 30 feet away from really great music that’s just played live in front of you,” Coplin said. “And it’s fun to listen to music and watch YouTube, but man, you see this stuff live, and it’s just really compelling.

“I would say no matter what genre you prefer, this will hit on every genre, you know, because it’s string music that pulls from the roots of jazz, the roots of rock. Folk instruments are sort of like where it all begins. So no matter what genre you’re used to listening to, you’re going to really enjoy this show.”

The concert series, Hoffman said, will cover “a lot of range: from the ‘songwriter night’ to then the more Swedish and traditional American music kind of stuff with fiddle and banjo. It’s roots music at its best.”