The Honey Badgers Emerge Victorious

The Honey Badgers was named the winner following the Emerging Artist Showcase at the 2024 Susquehanna Folk Festival in York, Pennsylvania on Saturday, August 10. The Newark, Delaware-based folk and Americana duo of Erin Magnin and Michael Schutz Natrin was afforded the opportunity to open that evening for Hot Club of Cowtown at the Capitol Theatre and received a $1,000 cash prize.

The Honey Badgers were among five jury-selected finalists in an emerging artist competition that attracted 58 applicants who perform in various acoustic roots-based styles. Along with Erin Lunsford, Joseph Alton Miller, Dann Pell, and Red South & Blue Dawn, the duo performed a 20-minute set, followed by a short interview, in the Studio at the Appell Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday afternoon. Four judges evaluated their live performances based on stage appearance, originality, personality, and overall consistency.

“We were in great company in the emerging artist showcase. We felt that all five of the finalists were really well matched in skill, songwriting and musicianship, and we don’t envy the judges for what must have been a tough job,” The Honey Badgers told AcousticMusicScene.com. Although Magnin and Natrin, who have been full-time musicians since 2019, said that they were” “pleasantly surprised to be named the winner in such a talented group of performers,” the married duo was previously voted “”Most Wanted to Return” artists following the Grassy Hill Emerging Artist Showcase at the 2023 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in Goshen, Connecticut. The Honey Badgers (honeybadgerfolk.com), who released a second full-length album entitled The Earth Turns and So Do We (https://open.spotify.com/album/6OJ2Aqf70ZeBnyp5haMv0N?si=4eYTZ_jQRD6v4zZlAWg_rQ) in June, will play the Tank Stage on Sunday, Aug. 18 at 11 a.m. ET during the Philadelphia Folk Festival. The harmonic duo also will be Jon Stein’s featured mini-concert artists on his Hootenanny Café radio show that airs on WTBQ.com (based in New York’s Hudson Valley) on Sunday, Aug. 25 at 9 p.m. ET and also will be posted on talentconnections.com.

“It was a fantastic day overall at the Susquehanna Folk Festival,” The Honey Badgers said. “We loved the mix of free and ticketed shows, the bliss of air-conditioned performance spaces with a lovely walkable town right outside, and super kind audiences, volunteers and staff. We felt very lucky to end our evening opening for the incredibly Hot Club of Cowtown in the gorgeous Capitol Theatre. Playing our set was a thrill, but getting to watch such an impressive and fun headliner was the cherry on top of an awesome day.” The festival’s other headliners were acclaimed Celtic fiddlers Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy (along with their seven children) and The Klezmatics, a Grammy Award-winning klezmer(Jewish roots music) ensemble.

The Emerging Artist Showcase is considered a highlight of the annual three-day Susquehanna Folk Festival that extended from August 9-11 and also featured national and regional touring artists, a jam session, family activities, an archive challenge hosted by The Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center, and lots of dancing. The Susquehanna Folk Music Society (sfmsfolk.org), a Harrisburg, PA-based nonprofit organization that bills itself as Central Pennsylvania’s grassroots voice for folk music and dance, launched the festival in 2018. The society has been presenting traditional, contemporary and international folk music and dance events in Central Pennsylvania since 1985.