June 27, 2019 – The Discovery Stage at WorldFest 2019 has a new curator, experimental bassist C.J. Boyd. Boyd began working at WorldFest in 2001 as part of the setup crew. His willingness to step in wherever needed over the years has benefited both the festival and his own career as a traveling solo musician. Boyd has been on a perpetual tour for 11 years, playing literally thousands of shows in North America and Europe. He enjoys returning to Grass Valley every summer to work at WorldFest. He views it as an opportunity to switch places in the performing arts space; from performing on stage to working behind the scenes in operations.
This year Boyd was asked to book the Discovery Stage. Boyd has worked on many of the peripheral stages at WorldFest, but he particularly likes the Discovery Stage because it is indoors, smaller, and offers a more intimate setting, where both artist and patron can hear every note and get lost in the music. Booking the artists for the stage is a job Boyd takes to heart. He considers the musicians performing this year as peers or personal friends. He has shared the stage with most them at some point during his ongoing “infini-tour.”
Boyd describes the artists you will hear at the Discovery Stage this year as “people from diverse places that are doing their own thing, not necessarily traditional music.” Among the lineup this year for the Discovery Stage are Eleanor Murray, a gifted singer-songwriter from the Pacific Northwest; Ppoacher Ppoacher, a quirky two-piece band from Santa Fe, New Mexico, featuring banjo and Celtic harp; Tora’Dan, an accomplished musical duo from Iran and Azerbaijan; and the Dead Pan Speakers, a rock band from Tokyo, Japan. Other thought-provoking musicians featured on the Discovery Stage include Amenta Abioto, Eleanor Murray, Lavender Country, Blaine Todd, and Andrew Weathers.
If C.J. Boyd were to perform at WorldFest, it would be on the Discovery Stage. Like the musicians on the roster for 2019, Boyd is doing his own thing. He could be described as a musical explorer who “uses bass loops and voices in order to try and stop time.” One reviewer describes Boyd’s music as, “Equal parts ambient and virtuosic, melancholic and playful, C.J. Boyd’s bass playing melts glaciers, creating a sea of low, flowing rhythms, while also supplying melodies that soar over the ocean to melt the sun itself” (JamBase.com).
Treat yourself this summer to a mind-opening concert on the Discovery Stage at WorldFest 2019, July 11–14. Allow yourself to be transported to another time and place by the original music of eclectic artists from all over the world. The family-friendly festival includes music on seven stages and is filled with activities for kids and adults, workshops and artistic opportunities. For the current list of artists, details about camping and workshops and ticket information can be found online at www.worldfest.net. To learn more about C.J. Boyd and his music, go to www.cjboyd.com.