April Verch "Steal The Blue" (Rounder)

April Verch

Canadian fiddler April Verch’s new release, Steal The Blue on Slab Town Records, is chalk full of bluegrass artists.

Her seventh CD, Steal The Blue, is the first to feature her touring band and includes several familiar names, including Tim Stafford, Steve Gulley, Craig Market, Larry Cordle, Ron Block, Melonie Cannon, and Patty Mitchell among the songwriters and harmony vocalists.

On one track, she’s backed by Scott Vestal and co-producers Stephen Mougin and Jon Weisberger.

Born, raised and now living in Pembroke, Ontario, where her family has lived for generations, Verch grew up in an area with a rich, distinctive musical and stepdancing tradition that was shaped by the diverse roots of the immigrants drawn to the region’s lumber camps.

Emulating her older sister, April Verch began taking stepdancing lessons when she was three, but right from the start, she was drawn to the fiddle. But her parents made her wait for three years before giving her a fiddle for her sixth birthday. Her talents in both arenas quickly became evident, as she began winning fiddle and dance contests on her own, and performing with her sister and the Pilatzke Brothers as a member of the Dueling Dancers, a troupe that earned regional and national attention for its blend of innovative and traditional Ottawa Valley stepdancing.

Verch is still an acclaimed step-dancer and incorporates that talent into her shows.

She maintains her own Web site at www.aprilverch.com and has videos post on YouTube and her MySpace page, http://www.myspace.com/aprilverch.