Kick off your weekend at the Festival of Arts with a salute to Americana! This series features some of Southern California’s most talented in the Americana genre, playing a variety of instruments such as banjos, guitars, harmonicas, and more. Experience a fusion of different musical styles including folk, country, blues, and bluegrass, all with a unique American twist.

With their fusion of bluegrass instrumentation and folk-rock amplification, Rose’s Pawn Shop have spent the better part of two decades carving out an Americana sound that’s as diverse as the band’s native Los Angeles. Their past releases offer a melting pot of modern-day roots music, shot through with electric guitar, fiddle, raw percussive stomp, and stacked vocal harmonies. Anchored by the sharp songwriting of frontman Paul Givant, it’s a sound for campfires and car stereos, for front porches and dive bars, for the heart as well as the heartland.

With Punch-Drunk Life, Rose’s Pawn Shop makes a long-awaited return after an eight-year absence from the recording studio. Things have evolved since the group’s previous album, Gravity Well, earned high marks from Rolling Stone (who dubbed the record “a blast of 21st century pickin’-party music”) and GQ (who praised the group’s “knee-slapping bluegrass-y twang”). Bandmates have come and gone. Families have been built. Side projects have been launched. Meanwhile, Rose’s Pawn Shop have continued to expand both their artistry and their audience, thanks to a dedicated touring schedule that’s taken the band from the venues of Southern California to the fishing villages of Alaska to the mountain towns of the American Southwest.

Paul Givant – Lead Vocals, Guitar & Banjo
Zachary Ross – Electric Guitar & Vocals
Tim Weed – Fiddle & Vocals
Stephen Andrews – Upright Bass & Electric Bass
Matt Lesser – Drums & Vocals