Long after the final chords have been played and the last fans made their way home, the sounds and vibes of Treefort Music Fest 2024 remain strong in the hearts and bodies of those who made their way to the annual music festival in Boise, Idaho.

The twelfth incarnation of the, now legendary, cultural experience brought fans and artists from around the world to the multi-venue, five-day festival. From those venturing out to their first Treefort, to those who have experienced it eleven or twelve times, the general consensus was all smiles.

This year’s Treefort Music Fest felt different than in year’s past. Over 400 artists across over 40 venues mixed among the likes of Hack Fort, Ale Fort, Yoga Fort, Kid Fort and others brought their magic as the five-day festival coursed through the veins of Idaho’s capital city. The size and production of the festival has departed the once pieced-together, indie atmosphere. The days of quilting together small venues packed with local and regional artists has been replaced with a production value comparable to those of other big-name, nationally known festivals; at least in structure. Décor around the city and in the parks (up in the trees) brought about an immersive experience even while you were moving between venues, through the crowds. All things considered, as the festival spread into every inch of its existence, Treefort Music Fest lost absolutely no part of its soul in the process.

The growth and elaborate setups that made Treefort Twelve did so while still feeling immensely Treefort Music Festival. From small children and their families enjoying the festival (free areas and stages alike) to intimate coffee shop performances the heart and soul of Treefort music festival remains in the art and the people who love it. The art, at the core, is still about what kickstarted the festival all those years ago with the schedule packed with local and regional artists.

For us, the music experiences came in a wide swath of genres. Whether it was McKenna Esteb rocking out in the sunshine, Dawes & Lucius bringing the crowd together as one, Buddy Crime crafting an unforgettable electronic/throwback set, Blood Lemon demonstrating their tour de force, The Whips bringing Kansas to Boise, Prism B!tch bleeding rock unto the packed crowd, Channel Tres captivating the Main Stage, The Schiophonics melting the faces of all in attendance, Michaela Slinger keeping the crowd warm in the rain, Cimafunk infecting your bones with their beat, Dakha Brakha pouring their culture over a captivated audience, or Dehd lifting everyone up on day five, to name just a few, the experience of the blended sounds made for yet another unforgettable Treefort experience. Plainly put, Treefort recharges the musical soul.

There is no mistaking the production value leap Treefort Music Fest made in 2024. Gone are the days of music lovers putting together a niche festival for likeminded individuals. Treefort Music Fest has stepped into the beast it was always going to become. However, this beast is, at its heart, has not deviated in spirit and drive. It is a passion from everyone involved to bring art, music and experience to their hometown and region. There is absolutely nothing indicating this will ever change. Because of this, Treefort Music Fest is the festival upon which all other music festivals will and should be judged.

See you at Treefort 13 in 2025.

It is with the help of friends Idaho’s own singer/songwriter/blues-slinger Ty Clayton has achieved his album An Animist Hymnal. Make no mistakes, this isn’t just a release, it is an achievement. With contributions from Elliot Kuhlgreen (upright bass), Lindsey Hunt (vocals, violin), Jason Grazian (drums), Neal Goldberg (guitar vocals), Matt Takiff (saxophone), Dave Manion (dobro), Dave Henry (vocals), Ali Knox (vocals), and Scott Tyler (mandolin), Ty Clayton captures a bluesy sense of high desert escape strewn across eight solid tracks.

An Animist Hymnal emerges from a smoldering, almost tent revival-esc call to the record with equal admissions/reflections on the world around us today in “Invocation,” standing firm with “we pretend the world belongs, just to us humans, no wonder so many of us got tears in our eyes.” The Waits-ian delivery carries “No Man’s Land” where Clayton, et al. strikes the sobering “this is no man’s land/‘cause we belong to her” as it dances against a blues backdrop that sucks you in without mercy. From “Love-Drunk” through “This Sweet Disease,” the collective talents that aided Ty Clayton in his latest record, have reached deep into the pulse of the world around us and molded an audible geography that takes us out of the traffic, the desk jobs, and the like, transporting us to a world of grit, expanse, and release. Plainly put, it has been quite a while since we’ve seen an organic, independent blues record like An Animist Hymnal.

There’s no doubt it was a collective that made An Animist Hymnal come to life, but it is apparent the heart behind it is the experiences and vision of Ty Clayton that hold it all together. It is a record that strikes deep into your core; your soul, as it pulls threads of organic culmination weaved from stepping out of the hustle and bustle of everyday life for, virtually, all of us. As Clayton described just one part of the process, “one November and got snowed in, so we [Clayton and Kuhlgreen] hung out by the fire in my sheepherder’s tent for a couple days fleshing out and leaning into these tunes.” He developed the tracks “often alone carrying my guitar to some far-flung sagebrush desert canyon or strapping it to a boat and scribbling words along a wild river” were written over a long period of time.  Recorded, mixed, and mastered at the Tonic Room in Boise, Idaho and An Animist Hymnal is out now.

Singer/multi-instrumentalist Dale Hiscock, calls Idaho home and his musical vision Endless Atlas. The Treefort Music Fest regular self-identifies as “dream pop for the end of the world.” It is this idea that has led Endless Atlas to finely craft the confident escape that is the latest release Everything You Know Will Go Away.

The eleven-track astral construction from Endless Atlas carries a heavy weight when grounded, yet light as a feather when given the space to expand. Hiscock has developed on an introspective lyrical presence delicately tethered by a thread to a sense of self-identity while allowing itself to float amongst a vast, vibrant instrumental backing. The dream pop, urban digital dystopian styling harnesses an ambient void crafted from keys and loops, engineering an expansive jungle of pleasurably navigable structures. As formidable as that may sound, Everything You Know Will Go Away embodies a delicate touch in execution that gently lifts you out of the muck and the mire we tread every day. As found in opener “Afterglow” or “Somewhere Else,” as you listen to the album, you’ll feel as though you’re suddenly floating a few feet off the ground, skipping over the jutting cracks in the landscape below.

Endless Atlas borrows from artists before him, not as a means of capturing lightning in a bottle, but as a way to identify sonic roads relatively untraveled by the masses. Everything You Know Will Go Away captures this by bridging the human element with technology, exploring, as Hiscock puts it “the meaning of living life against the backdrop of a world unravelling – dream pop for the end of the world.” As the namesake would imply, everything we know will, eventually, go away. So why not enjoy the trip, guided by Endless Atlas.

With their latest single “Cold Cold Gound,” The High Desert Playboys (Clark Andrew Libbey, Ryan Goodhue, Mikey Hale, Kristen Rad, Jackie Chacon, and Travis Rourk) launch their southern songwriting style into the world of zydeco with healthy doses of whiskey and gumbo.

As they describe it “Cold Cold Ground” “is a story born of old black and white Twilight Zone episodes, where fiction toys with the ordinary and the mundane. In this episode, our wayward character finds himself at a backyard party in New Orleans sharing drinks and gumbo with friends who had died in years past. Slowly realizing they are accompanying the Grim Reaper, and are there to help ease his passing, he pleads for a reprieve for as long as there’s whiskey and gumbo to go around. But everyone knows the cold, cold ground always wins in the end.” A little off the beaten path, but sure to keep your toe tapping, the song invites you into a world where the Creole-influenced party never ends; complete with Carlton a ghost dance.

The High Desert Playboys’ “Cold Cold Ground” is out now on Slow Start Records.

OK, maybe it isn’t all too common of a team. The trio of JD McKean, RC Matheson, and JC Hagopian, under the name ’63 Circus have released a three-track, self-titled EP. The shadowy calliope aura of ’63 Circus is most prevalent in opener “The Psycho Rise” where the narrative lingers at the edge of light on a twisted metal carousel floating on dripping, faded paint as the trio plays out a song of sinking into the collapse of the social contract. The darkness beckons for reflection while slightly unnerving us with its poetic honesty. “Can You Hear Me?” surfs above the dark veil with an upbeat awareness of relationships passing the point of no return. Coming in at just over two minutes, the track rips the Band-Aid off from the perspective of the only half of the relationship that’s realized it has run its course. “Tale of the Harlot” waxes poetic on the sentiment of “a beautiful and deadly temptress” in the vein of 70s psychedelic jazz. The track slips into an innocent surrender balanced on a thin razor’s edge of distorted, echoing darkness. In just three songs it becomes quite apparent ’63 Circus isn’t like the usual run-of-the-mill sounds.

While ’63 Circus exists in an atmosphere akin to a dark carnival, there is a spectrum of light which dances over the EP in the form of meticulous lyrical prowess and expansive instrumental. The trio of the same name have created a brief escape that is captivating, but maybe over too quickly.

Boston’s Canyons and Locusts, Justin Keane (vox/guitar) and Amy Young (drums), captures the sentiment with the release-filled track in “Buck Dharma’s Eyes.”

Packed with ample doses of throwback punk energy and a sneering-forward delivery, “Buck Dharma’s Eyes” is everything you’d hope alluding to the BOC frontman, and everything you need to push through the artificial. It is an escape from the clean-cut, over-produced nonsense and exists confidently in its attitude. Laced with an energetic fervor, the two-minute single leaves me wanting so much more. But tis the season to be thankful for what we have.

Check out Canyons and Locusts’ “Buck Dharma’s Eyes,” out now.

Jiffy Marx, The Silo, CC Voltage, and Lars Von Seattle, under the moniker Autogramm, have built a parasail from the skins of their 80s pop punk, synth-driven enemies and caught the prophetic winds of change to release their latest album Music That Humans Can Play.

Compiling experiences within bands like Black Mountain, Destroyer, Night Court, Spitfires, Bread & Butter, Spun Out, Black Halos, Catheters, and Lightning Dust, Autogramm successfully achieves a sound that is really nothing like any one of those for any significant period of time. Instead, Autogramm packs a strong sense of synth-forward alt-punk presence into ten tracks that are everything you need, and then some.

Balancing a genre/decade-spanning sound, Music That Humans Can Play borrows minor moments from various times and places, shifting between reminiscent lines to familiar compositions, to ultimately achieve one hell of a record. The vibrant neon glow of alt-pop fires across the 80s, 90s, and early 00s while remaining anchored in a present rock condition full of light and hope. From the optimistic realism “Born Losers” to the power swells of “Westbound” to the crash-riding waves of “Dive Right In,” Music That Humans Can Play forms a self-aware rock album that is as free as an 80s kid flying off a ramp with no knee pads, helmet, or care in the world and as cool as a dude with a mullet, five-o-clock-shadow, Ray-Bans, and T Top Trans Am on a Summer afternoon.

Refraining from falling into a sound too similar to their other projects, Autogramm parties in a world they’ve created that is all their own. The album skirts a sense of trying to find what it is Autogramm wants to sound like, but as soon as any semblance of that enters your mind, it is gone as quickly as the next note. Seemingly without a care in the world, Music That Humans Can Play embodies the liberating sense of doing whatever Autogramm wants and succeeding on a genuinely fun, if not addicting, level.

The five-day, twenty-venue experience has announced the first wave of artists, culminating in 113 names from 23 US states and 14 countries. Leading the charge into the announcement is rapper/singer/producer Channel Tres, singer/songwriter Briston Maroney, English duo Franc Moody, Ty Segal, Neko Case, and 2023 crowd favorite Celisse, to name a few.

Spanning virtually all genres and tastes, Treefort Music Fest has made its mark in the musical/art world as one of the most reliable experiences one can find, especially for the money. The all-welcoming, diversity-embracing, five-day cultural affair is packed with food, music, live art, tech, comedy, and much more.

Early in the festival’s lifespan, before word reached the four-corners of the indie world, festivalgoers would wait for the final lineup before purchasing their tickets. To quote the incomparable Jeremy Piven (circa PCU), “don’t be that guy.” As artists are announced over the coming months, ticket prices will increase with each wave. Don’t wait, get your tickets now. You don’t want to miss the “Large Print” names through the “Small Print” (which, honestly, create some of the best memories). Get excited about The Schizophonics, Blood Lemon, Cassandra Lewis, Afrosonics, Sun Blood Stories, Ealdor Bealu, Sundog, Racoon Tour, and so many more! There are bound to be many more surprises between now and March and you’re not going to want to miss them.

Head over to Treefort Music Fest’s site for more details.

Water Street, a sextet from New Jersey, has harnessed the light of a sound all but reserved for budget bin CDs. Doing so, they reinvigorate why we loved it in the first place, all while making it their own. The pull-no-punches narrative of All We Tried To Be leans into an intelligent reflection on oneself, relationship, and the world around us. Whether it’s the sociopolitical anthem of “People” or the stance-taking “Collateral,” someone somewhere (or many) is bound to find how deep and quickly the sounds of Water Street strike the right chord.

Water Street trades the trends of glitz, glam, and attempts at influence for lyric-forward modern Americana pop bursting at the seams with rock and funk tendencies. The culmination is an electric reflection in the vein of Harper and Ondrasik. Not a revival, in the traditional sense, but confidently carrying all the things that made us appreciate the late 90s/early 00s alt pop rock sound, Water Street is sure to land on your radar with their energetic, hook-laden style. They’re sure to stick around for about a dozen other reasons you need to go discover for yourself.

Toronto, Ontario’s Rachel Brunet is the antithesis to the glitz and glam of modern “country” music in her single “Morning Noon and Night.”

Embodying a sense of modern roots indie country, Brunet’s “Morning Noon and Night” carries a confident swagger with earworm lyrics paired ever sweetly with a perfectly placed guitar solo the way solos need to be. The track keeps it simple and that’s where it shines. It is equally balanced with all the makings of a love song and heavy doses of empowerment. If you are/have been “Sick and tired of livin life half way/And makin excuses why [you] had to stay” soak up “Morning Noon and Night” from Rachel Brunet.