Elmore’s Suzanne Cadgene is recapping the best moments of this year’s Folk Alliance conference in Kansas City. Check out her previous recaps here, here, and here.

The Appleseed Collective looks like the face of America’s youth: male and female, black, white, Hispanic, hipster and chess club president, they play the music of America’s youth: bluegrass, swing, rock and banjo rap, and they do it all with precision and panache. Lead singer and banjoist Katie Lee seems poised to take over the role that Grace Slick held in the late 1960s and the one Grace Potter claimed in the 2000’s, a no-holds-barred girl leading edgy guys in a band which corrals their audience along for a wild ride. This is one kickass band.