A Genre Blending Track by Track with Sophie Wellington on Sunset Road
By WTJU
Date: 07/10/2026
Time: 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Percussive dancer and multi-instrumentalist Sophie Wellington will be appearing on Sunset Road this Friday to go track-by-track through their brand new album Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still, which officially releases the same day on Adhyâropa Records. Riding the crest of a generation of musicians focused on blending genres to create something new, unique, and personal, Wellington brings a jazz-informed sensibility to folk song performance and pairs it with their stunning virtuosity as a percussive dancer to create a one-person band in a category all to themselves. Tune in on 91.1 FM or stream at wtju.net.
“Sophie Wellington moves the needle to 10 out of 10 with her fresh interpretations of old time music on fiddle, guitar, vocal, and dance.” –Cathy Fink
Growing up in Staunton, VA, Sophie Wellington was raised in a musical community via contra and square dances, choirs, music festivals and camps; their approach to both music and dance has always been of a piece with one another, two squares on a single quilt. Since studying with Bruce Molsky, Darol Anger, Paul Rishell, and Annie Raines at Berklee, Wellington has pursued a similarly quilted approach to their creative work.
“This album is the culmination of developing old time and ballad music for guitar and for a different harmonic space,” Wellington says. “I grew up around old time fiddle and guitar music but I’ve always been passionate about jazz as well, and as I’m getting older those streams have started to cross a bit. Guitar offers so much in terms of harmonic and rhythmic structure when accompanying a melody, which is also at the heart of fiddle playing as it differs from classical violin playing. I’ve been exploring a lot of alternate tunings, and trying to apply that melodic approach to the old time music that’s been in my blood my whole life.”
Sunset Road broadcasts live Fridays 4 – 6 p.m. US Eastern at wtju.net , and archived for exactly two weeks at wtju.net/recent-shows/
