We’ve got an excellent night of music coming up December 14 at 7pm featuring La Crosse native Taylor James Donskey and the effervescent Sarah Morris. There’ll be a little Christmas, a little originals, and a whole lot of love.

Meet the artists:

Taylor James Donskey is a lover and writer of songs. Although he has become known for his work as a sideman (bass, vocals, trumpet, trombone, percussion), Donskey considers himself a songwriter and band leader ahead of all else.

Absorbing the sounds of the many bands he’s played in (I Like You, The Lowland Lakers, Lena Elizabeth, The Gentlemen’s Anti-Temperance League, Mississippi Hot Club), Donskey has carved a unique spot for himself in the Twin Cities music scene that includes elements of pop, bluegrass, folk, and jazz.

Raised in La Crosse, Wisconsin and influenced by his time in the Driftless Region, he picked up the bass at 14 and began his life as a sideman. He played in pop-punk bands and school jazz combos. He sang in choirs and played trumpet, trombone, percussion, and most importantly, the bass. This led him to playing paid gigs in high school, sitting in with his uncle’s cover band. “I had to learn nearly two hours of rock cover songs,” Donskey says. Playing music by Bowie, Petty, Harrison, and McCartney left its mark. “A lot of that music had incredible bass lines like I’d never really heard. It really inspired me.”

Recognizing his talent, his uncle gave him a Sigma acoustic guitar. “He bought it in the seventies, and I’ve continued to play it. A relentless old companion, it has followed me wherever I go, and it is the instrument from which many of my songs have grown.” Taking that big leap into the spotlight, Taylor James Donskey emerges from his supporting role with Paper Over It, a sophisticated debut, showcasing his strong songwriting skills and prowess as an arranger and producer.

When not busy performing his own music or touring in Lena Elizabeth’s band, he teaches ukulele, piano, electric bass, upright bass, guitar, songwriting, music theory, and voice. “Teaching is my second great joy,” he says. “I’ve learned how to translate the language of music so that people may experience it in their own way.”

Sarah Morris has a habit of missing the forest. From the day the Minneapolis based singer-songwriter picked up a guitar, armed with the bone-deep memory of her parents’ well-loved record collection and rooted in the storytelling fire of a Mary Chapin Carpenter tune, she’s been too busy crafting love letters to the details of the trees. Sarah’s endearingly honest, expertly penned songs encourage audiences to pull away from the big picture and get caught up in the magic of our everyday minutia, the rainy day ache in her sunlit voice granting us permission to escape into stories at once hauntingly familiar and uniquely her own.

A graduate of the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, Sarah spent the first years of her career in Nashville, losing herself in the art of writing timeless Americana melodies. “Sarah Morris [is] a bright, clear, brilliant songwriter,” wrote Jon Hunt of L’Etoile Magazine. “…pure and crisp and perfect.” In the eight years since her 2011 debut album, Lonely or Free, Sarah’s career, like her songs, has been overflowing with delicious details. Her albums Ordinary Things (2015), Hearts in Need of Repair (2017), and All Mine (2020) recorded with band mates Thomas Nordlund, Andrew Foreman, and Lars-Erik Larson with producer Eric Blomquist, earned international airplay and considerable critical acclaim, reaching notable positions on both the Americana Music Association and Euro Americana charts. In 2016, Sarah was a top four finalist in the NewSong Music Contest at Lincoln Center in New York City, 2^nd place winner of the Chris Austin Songwriting Competition at MerleFest in Wilkesboro, NC, and an Americana semi-finalist in the International Songwriting Competition. In 2018, she went on to win the Kerrville New Folk Competition, collecting an honorable mention at the Telluride Troubadour contest along the way.  More recently, Sarah was named Midwest Country Music Organization’s Songwriter of the Year for the second time.

“Rootsy singer Sarah Morris offers a Norah Jones-like approach to Americana, smoothing overs its rough edges with a butter-velvety voice and an intimate songwriting style.”  Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune.

Inclined toward the intimacy of live performance, Sarah spends a remarkable amount of time on stage. Whether solo, backed by the country kick of her long-time band The Sometimes Guys (Nordlund, Foreman, and Lars-Erik Larson), as half of vintage-harmony heavy duo The Home Fires with Vicky Emerson, or hosting local and traveling musicians live online from her big green bathroom, her playful-hearted presence is both captivating and contagious. Amidst her steady performance schedule she has opened for greats like JD Souther, Suzy Bogguss, and Teddy Thompson – she’s had plenty of beautiful moments to revel in. And with a brand new album to share in 2023, she’s primed to offer us a few beautiful moments of our own.

Deeply committed to the Twin Cities’ life-giving music community, Morris hosts an online interview program called, “Hey, I Miss You,” to amplify the work of her peers, as well as collaborating with musicians for a Youtube series of under-rehearsed cover songs filmed in her laurel green bathroom. Additionally, Morris is head cheerleader for a local songwriting collective.

As a writer, lover, mother, and witness, Morris invites us to join her in missing the forest for the trees, with songs that count and celebrate the glorious details of our messy, magical, everyday lives.