Banjo player, singer, songwriter, percussive-dancer, choreographer and square-dance caller, Oakland, CA-based Evie Ladin grew up steeped in traditional folk music/dance on the East Coast, and brings a contemporary vision to her compositions and choreography while holding fast to the roots. Her performances, recordings and teaching reconnect Appalachian music/dance with other African-Diaspora traditions, and have been heard from A Prairie Home Companion to Lincoln Center, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass to Celtic Connections, Brazil to Bali. She has shared the stage with innumerable luminaries, such as Alice Gerrard, Laurie Lewis, Ralph Stanley and John McKuen, and many contemporaries.
Evie currently tours internationally with her Evie Ladin Band, and as a duo with Keith Terry. In the trad world, she teaches clawhammer banjo privately and online at Peghead Nation with over 350 students, and numerous camps and festivals. In the percussive dance world, she directs the moving choir MoToR/dance, co-founded the International Body Music Festival, does educational outreach with the multicultural Crosspulse, and is an ace freestyle flatfooter. In the songwriter world, she writes clever, poignant and funny songs, subtitling her band “neo-trad kinetic folk.” In 2024 she released two CDs, celebrating both of her musical sides: a live album of originals from her Evie Ladin Band, recorded at the esteemed Freight & Salvage, and the second totally trad fiddle/banjo duets with 17 different fiddlers, Riding the Rooster Two. A highly entertaining performer, Evie enjoys facilitating arts learning in diverse communities, always connecting the music with the dance, and educating people about traditional Appalachian culture and history.
“The best example I have seen of a Neo-Trad band’s sound being authentically anchored in old time music but extending it into new and entertaining directions.”
—Founder, Clifftop Appalachian Stringband Festival