Steam Machine + McKain Lakey

Doors 7PM / Show 8PM

$15ADV / $20DOS

Seated Show

“Was great to see this ubertalented old time stringband tear up the stage and wow the crowd. The Midwest has such impressive old time/bluegrass talent and Steam Machine is exhibit A!” - Adventures in Americana, show review, January 2024

Steam Machine is an award winning Minneapolis project formed to explore fiddle/string band traditions from the midwest and beyond that straddle the line between bluegrass and old-time music. Fronted by 2023 Clifftop Old Time Fiddle contest winner AJ Srubas and old time music and dance instigator Rina Rossi on guitar, their sound has been described as both ‘bright and
fresh’ and ‘suspiciously entertaining.’ Centering on the combination of (primarily though not exclusively) midwest & Missouri style melody-strong, long bow old time breakdown fiddling with three finger banjo and bluegrass influenced rhythm back-up, interspersed with songs from old time, bluegrass, and early country traditions, Paul Brown described the project as a band that “seriously honors the old traditions without smothering them.”

Described by What’s Up Magazine as “a time capsule unearthed, fine-tuned and re-imagined”, McKain Lakey draws creative inspiration from far corners of the American folk music tradition. Lakey blurs lines of old and new, referencing musical textures of past eras while unabashedly exploring topics of mental health, family separation, rural identity and queer love.