Laura Cortese’s Acoustic Evening IV, met Eliza Carthy, Jake Blount & Sarah Kate Morgan (usa-eng-uk)

American songwriter and fiddler Laura Cortese (The Dance Cards, Bright Light Sessions) starts from roots music and keeps searching for gems of sound, groove and melody. She emigrated from the US to Belgium and tours extensively in both the US and Europe, building a strong network of musician friends along the way. For her Acoustic Evenings she brings together four of the most sought-after and prolific songwriters from both sides of the Atlantic for a unique collaboration. Over a few days, these four well-known solo performers build a one-off programme in which they support one another and spontaneously breathe magic into each other's songs. Then they set off on a mini-tour of Flanders. In 2026 Laura Cortese’s Acoustic Evenings won the Flanders Folk Award Horizon prize.

For the 2027 edition the guests are an established name in the English folk tradition (Eliza Carthy) and two rising stars of the American folk tradition:

• Sarah Kate Morgan plays captivating, honest acoustic music rooted in her Appalachian musical family tree.
• Jake Blount creates an Afrofuturist world that blurs the lines between acoustic and electric music, and between ancestor and descendant, making genre labels irrelevant.
• Eliza Carthy is a legendary voice of English folk who will enchant you with her singing and virtuoso fiddle playing.

Laura Cortese. Laura's concerts and recordings have been praised by the BBC, fRoots, No Depression, the Boston Globe, the Denver Post and the Bluegrass Situation, among others. Her band, the Dance Cards, was twice selected as cultural ambassadors for the US Department of State, performing, teaching workshops and collaborating with musicians in India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Estonia, Montenegro and Greece. She grew up in San Francisco and moved to Boston to study at Berklee College of Music. There she built a busy touring and studio career, including concerts with Band of Horses at Carnegie Hall and with Pete Seeger at Newport Folk Festival. In 2018 Laura moved to Ghent and learned Dutch.

Eliza Carthy. If one musician embodies the energy and vitality of today's English folk revival, it is Eliza Carthy. The daughter of folk legends Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson, she grew up immersed in traditional music and was praised at a young age by John Peel, Andy Kershaw and Billy Bragg. Whether she performs solo or leads a big band, sings a centuries-old ballad or a song of her own, her powerful, nuanced voice, fierce fiddle playing and spellbinding performances have influenced a whole generation of young musicians. She has twice been nominated for the Mercury Prize and has performed and recorded with Paul Weller, Rufus & Martha Wainwright, Patrick Wolf and Jarvis Cocker, among others.

Jake Blount is an award-winning musician from Providence, Rhode Island, who connects traditional Black folk music with modern styles and an Afrofuturist vision. With banjo, fiddle and guitar he creates a unique world of sound in which centuries-old songs come to life again.

Sarah Kate Morgan was born in Tennessee and grew up with the sound of the Appalachian dulcimer her grandfather built. On that instrument she developed a fresh playing style, both to accompany her singing and to play tunes. She lives in Hindman, Kentucky, and is devoted to the living tradition of her region: square dancing, group singing and music workshops.