VICTOR, Idaho. — Sixteen bands over eight weeks, Teton Valley Foundation’s Music on Main will bring the community together under the cottonwoods in Victor City Park on Thursdays. Kicking-off the longest running Teton County concert series is SambaDá with Carly King (June 23) and Joyce from the Future with Batdorf & Brother Wolf (June 30).
For over a decade, SambaDá has been mixing contemporary sounds with the roots of Brazilian culture. Brazilian natives Papiba Godinho and Dandha da Hora bring their profound knowledge and respect for the roots of Afro-Brazilian song and dance, while the entire band has developed a type of samba-reggae-funk with universal appeal. Papiba is a master of Capoeira, an Afro Brazilian martial art form created by Brazilian slaves, which draws on music and acrobatic movements. Dandha was born into the rich Afro Brazilian traditions of Salvador, Bahia and the Carnival Group Ile Aiye, and started her dancing career at age six. SambaDá musically unites the Americas, drawing from percussion based styles of South and Central America, and blends it with that good old funk and reggae back beats so familiar to crowds of North America.
Singer-songwriter Carly King moved to Jackson Hole from Colorado a few years ago, becoming enamored with the beauty of the Tetons. Her lyrics contain natural imagery and feature a distinctive soul-folk vocal tone. King’s debut single in 2020, “Mountains Alone,” was five years in the making. In the summer of 2021, she released her second single “Shake My Tree” with Grammy-winning producer and banjo player Chris Pandolfi of The Infamous Stringdusters.
Indie synth pop band Joyce from the Future (JFTF) brings diversity to past Music on Main lineups. Hailing from Billings, Montana, the quartet is comprised of vocalist-songwriter-producer-instrumentalist Lyric Horton, producer-songwriter-multi-intrumentalist Alex Campbell, saxophonist-keyboardist Konnor Stiles and drummer Josh Reedy. JFTF’s story began in 2018 in a college dorm at the University of Montana when Campbell and Horton decided they wanted to be in a band. Having no idea what they wanted their sound to be, they started producing beats on a gaming laptop in a practice room in the music hall. After months of learning equipment and getting a feel for their sound, they fleshed out their first song: The Sound of Being Alive. JFTF released their debut self-titled EP in October 2020.
Longtime Teton songster Michael Batdorf (guitar/vocals) is the namesake of Batdorf & Brother Wolf, which is self-described as “somewhere between Allman Brothers and Black Keys, along Neil’s Desert Highway, out past JJ’s Cajun Moon.” Brother Wolf also features keyboardist Mike Patton and drummer Andy Peterson.
Teton Valley Foundation presents Music on Main 6-10 p.m. Thursdays in Victor City Park. Free, and all-ages with food vendors, a shuttle service with $2 suggested donation, and a bike valet.
