Woodyfest 2014: SONiA disappear fear

SONiA disappear fear at the Pastures of Plenty

Emerg­ing from Baltimore’s folk scene in the late 1980s, [Sidenote: This is the fourth post in our cov­er­age of the sev­en­teenth annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival. We’ll be alter­nat­ing our report­ing with essays and photo gal­leries from the twenty-sec­ond fes­ti­val in 2019, so check in often for a mix of old and new Woodyfest good­ness.] Sonia Rutstein formed the folk-duo Disappear Fear (styl­ized “dis­ap­pear fear”) with her sis­ter Cindy Frank. Sonia was hence­forth known as “SONiA” and Cindy as “CiNDY.” The two released five albums before Frank left the group in 1996. [Sidenote: Monger, Timothy, “SONiA Artist Biography,”, Allmusic​.com (retrieved 16 October 2010).]

Following her sister’s depar­ture, Rutstein released a spate of solo albums, often work­ing with other musi­cians, some­times under the name dis­ap­pear fear, some­times under the moniker SONiA, some­times as SONiA and dis­ap­pear fear. Since the begin­ning, her music has treated themes of social jus­tice, fem­i­nism, and LGBTQIA issues. She is the recip­i­ent of dozens of awards and pres­ti­gious nom­i­na­tions, includ­ing a Grammy nom­i­na­tion for Folk Album of the Year.

For her 2014 appear­ance she per­formed as SONiA dis­ap­pear fear. This was her third of five appear­ances at the fes­ti­val. Woodyfest reg­u­lar Don Cognosenti joined her near the end of her set.

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