I See Hawks in L.A. have released five critically acclaimed albums since they began writing
songs in their Echo Park living rooms 11 years ago. The band’s signature sound layers
three-part harmonies with shimmering textures of Martins and Gibsons, upright bass, and
added touches of dobro and fiddle. In reaching back to pre-electric traditions, the Hawk’s
latest all-acoustic record “New Kind of Lonely” walks in the big dark footsteps of Hank
Williams, The Stanley Brothers, and the Carter Family, far from the feel-good suburbiana
and auto-tune of today’s Nashville songwriting. Dave Alvin calls the Hawks “one of
California's unique treasures.”
For more on the Hawks visit:
www.IseeHawks.com.
Sitting in with the band today will be the incredible Cliff Wagner of Cliff Wagner &
The Old #7, making this an even more special Topanga!
Old #7.net
Alan Jabbour and Ken Perlman have brought the classic Appalachian tradition of fiddle and banjo
music to new heights of complexity. Their repertory consists mostly of fiddle tunes Alan learned
from elderly fiddlers in North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia in the 1960s - particularly
Henry Reed of Glen Lyn, VA, who as an old man (1884-1968) taught Alan over one hundred Appalachian
tunes. Many of these tunes for which Henry Reed is the unique source, like "Over the Waterfall"
and "Kitchen Girl," have become staples of the contemporary oldtime repertory in North America
and beyond.
Alan's involvement with our festival goes back a long time: He was a judge for the
contest in the 1960s! Alan and Ken also incorporate in their sets some tunes that Ken learned
in Atlantic Canada, England, and Scotland - he is a deeply knowledgable in the music of
Canada's Prince Edward Island and performs it magnificently in the clawhammer banjo style.
Alan's complex fiddling style is both driving and gracefully lyrical, reflecting the intricate
and often syncopated bowing patterns of Henry Reed and other Appalachian mentors.
Ken complements the fiddle with a number of different approaches to the tunes in the clawhammer
banjo style - sometimes backing up with chordal patterns, sometimes doubling on the melody,
sometimes providing running harmonic lines. The tunes are interspersed with fascinating stories
that bring alive the historical and cultural significance of the music and make palpable the
cultural transfer of these precious musical artifacts from past generations to the present.
Their sets blend virtuosity and musicality in a cultural tour de force.
Visit them online at www.kenperlman.com/ensembles.htm.
Molly's Revenge is a dynamic, acoustic Celtic trio known for its unique and infectious enthusiasm.
They will be joined here by champion fiddler Rebecca Lomnicky, and Moira Smiley.
Their arrangements of traditional jigs and reels bring these dance tunes up to date with a driving,
hard-edged accent that always leaves audiences shouting for more. The classic combination of
bagpipes, whistle, and fiddle is set against a backdrop of guitar, bodhran, and mandola accompaniment,
which guarantees an enjoyable experience for all fans of Scottish and Irish music. Molly's Revenge
has performed at many of the top folk festivals and performing arts events in the USA, and prestigious
events in Australia, Scotland, and China.
Moira Smiley, who has appeared regularly with Molly's Revenge, works internationally as a
composer-vocalist. She leads her fiery roots vocal band, VOCO, travels the world as a soloist in
early and traditional music, and creates new work with dance, theater and film. Her voice can be heard
on a wide variety of media, including feature films, television (BBC, PBS), NPR, and on over 40
recordings.
Scottish fiddler Rebecca Lomnicky started violin at the age of five, and soon after found her calling.
By 2005, she had won the Junior Division of the U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Competition. In
2009, Rebecca won the Glenfiddich International Scottish Fiddle Championship at Blair Castle in
Scotland. She was the only non-Scot, and the youngest person to have ever won the championship. Rebecca
has been invited to play at Scottish festivals and gatherings throughout the United States and
has performed with many notable players, including Molly's Revenge!
Visit the band online at http://www.MollysRevenge.com/.
Rocky Neck Bluegrass Band is a Southern California based group featuring Devitt Feeley, Lydia Veilleux,
and Craig Ferguson who got their start in the bluegrass music field by winning first place in the
2009 Topanga Banjo•Fiddle Contest Band category.
They will be joined by Brian Netzley on upright bass and from Grasslands, banjo player
Kevin Gore, a veteran of
many Southern California bluegrass bands and a long-running judge at the contest,
and fiddler Shelah Spiegal.
Their first recording, "Rocky Neck Bluegrass Band" released in November of 2010, was recorded in a
1920's cabin in the mountain community of Big Bear, CA, and was mastered by legendary bluegrass
engineer Billy Wolf in Arlington, VA. The bluegrass arrangement of Neil Young's "Comes A Time"
as well as the fresh arrangement of "Girl I Left Behind Me" have been receiving regular airplay
on radio stations across the country.
Although recently formed in 2009, Rocky Neck Bluegrass Bands's path to the bluegrass world began
years ago. All members attended Berklee College of Music and have studied with musicians like
John McGann, Matt Glaser, Roland White, and Mike Witcher. Lydia Veilleux has toured nationally
with the musical "The 3 Redneck Tenors" and has played at CMA Fanfest and Stagecoach Music
Festival. In addition, both Devitt Feeley and Craig Ferguson worked the southwest bluegrass circuit
with Cliff Wagner & the Old #7. As part of the Old #7, they played the Colorado River,
Parker, Logandale and Yuma bluegrass festivals and appeared on Fox TV's "Next Great American Band"
and FX's "Justified."
Visit the band at:
www.RockyneckBluegrass.com
The Railroad Stage will host the "Sing-Offs and the Intermediate Fiddle Playoffs in the morning.
Bridging the Gap - The two worlds of Scottish fiddle & bagpipe with Rebecca Lomnicky
& David Brewer
A vast majority of Scottish bagpipers in the world today musically reside in military-style pipe
bands; fiddlers, only in piper-less sessions. Rarely do their paths cross, and when they do, only
briefly. Rebecca Lomnicky and David Brewer, each having spent copious amounts of time delving into
the traditions of their respective instruments, have forged their duo in the spirit of merging these
two similar but very different worlds to create a new seamless sound-tight and kinetic. David's
unique piping style and phrasing closely resembles that of a fiddler, while Rebecca emulates the
sounds and ornaments of the pipes to an extent rarely gone to even in Scottish fiddling. The two
come together in common voice to present this musical interplay with a carefully selected repertoire
of new and traditional tunes that will excite and intrigue. David and Rebecca will also be
joined by vocalist Moira Smiley.
David Brewer is a multi-instrumentalist who has toured with the Scottish super-group The Old
Blind Dogs and with Molly's Revenge across the US, the UK, Canada, China, and Australia. David
offers authentic yet unique and fresh insights into his primary instruments: the Irish
penny-whistle, bodhran frame-drum, and the Scottish bagpipes. David has taught at many notable
workshops including the Pebble Beach Piping School, Sebastopol Celtic Music Festival, &
the Community Music School of Santa Cruz summer camp. He has appeared on over two dozen recordings,
most notably the soundtrack to PBS documentary "Andrew Jackson-- Good, Evil, and the Presidency".
Full bio and more at:
www.davidbrewermusic.com
Rebecca Lomnicky - A native of Corvallis, Oregon, Rebecca Lomnicky started violin at the age
of 5, and soon after found her calling-- Scottish fiddling. By 2005, she had won the Junior
Division of the U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Competition and a year later released her
first solo album, "The Call". In 2009, Rebecca won the Glenfiddich International Scottish
Fiddle Championship at Blair Castle in Scotland. This invitation only championship, which
is covered by the BBC, is widely regarded as the most prestigious in Scottish fiddle.
As well as being the only non-Scot, she was also the youngest person to have ever won
the championship. Full bio and more at:
www.RebeccaLomnicky.com
This session with Alan Jabbour will explore the tunes and style of Alan's mentor, the great
Appalachian fiddler Henry Reed of Glen Lyn, Virginia (1884-1968). Through Alan's 1960s band,
the Hollow Rock String Band, Henry Reed's tunes began to enter the repertory of the burgeoning
oldtime stringband revival. Nowadays dozens of tunes from Henry Reed, like "Kitchen Girl" or
"Over the Waterfall," can be heard throughout America and abroad. He played in a "longbow" style,
a complex grammar of separate strokes and "slurs." The style includes certain syncopated
patterns typical of Appalachian fiddling.
This session with Ken Perlman will offer powerful and authentic renderings of Celtic, Canadian,
and Appalachian fiddle tunes featuring Ken's superb "melodic clawhammer" approach.
Over the last few decades he has adapted some common clawhammer techniques (such as
double-thumbing and off-string pull-offs) -- and pioneered others (such as fretting the 5th string,
melodic fingering forms, and "skip-stroke" syncopation) - to create an elaborate approach to
clawhammer that is virtually unique. This workshop features in particular some of the tunes Ken
has personally collected from traditional fiddlers on Prince Edward Island, a province in eastern
Canada.
"
A look back at the 100 year legacy of Woody Guthrie, America's Dust Bowl Balladeer, who
captured the Great Depression with indelible songs of hard times and hope, and went on
to write about World War Two and its aftermath from the standpoint of a Merchant Marine,
including the great songs of the Pacific Northwest and the Columbia River that earned
him a special citation from the Department of the Interior for meritorious service
to his country--the only songwriter so honored.
In recent years his work has been rediscovered and even reinterpreted by a new
generation of songwriters, making his contribution to both American letters and music
one of the great achievements by a 20th Century artist.
Ross Altman surveys his uniquely patriotic protest songs from the standpoint of a new
century and what Guthrie has to say to us today--in the midst of new economic dislocations
and the continuing tradition of American dissenters.
Is there a Woody Guthrie for the 21st Century? Come to the Railroad Stage to find out!
Please visit Ross at his Web site,
http://www.ultimate.com/altman
The Pavilion Stage will host the Beginning Instrument competitions in the morning.
John Weed (fiddle) and Stuart Mason (guitar, mandola, banjo) will present a program of traditional
Appalachian, blues, and Celtic music that digs deep into "The Roots of Bluegrass." Long before the
time of Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley and the Carter Family, rural Americans were singing and
fiddling the ballads and dance tunes of Britain and Ireland, gospel and blues from the Deep South,
and the sentimental hits of the wildly popular minstrel shows. These sources provided a
wellspring of material that later formed the basis of the bluegrass repertoire.
An accomplished fiddler across genres, John Weed has lived in Ireland and immersed himself in the\
traditions of Clare and Donegal. The result is an old-time Irish fiddling style that compliments his
forays into bluegrass, swing, Cajun, and other American music.
Guitarist Stuart Mason is known for his authentic vocals, melodic mandola, and inability to hold
his whiskey. A native of West Virginia, Stuart has won awards for traditional singing (Goleta
Old-Time Fiddler's Convention), mandola (Topanga Banjo and Fiddle Contest), and songwriting
(West Coast Songwriter's Association).
Weed and Mason are both members of international touring Celtic band Molly's Revenge, and have
performed at festivals in China, Scotland, Ireland, and many of the United States. In Little Black
Train, they perform old-time bluegrass with veteran mandolinist Kenny Blackwell, and they both
teach their respective instruments as well.
Please visit them at: www.MollysRevenge.com/.
Kalinka, formed three years ago in Santa Barbara, offers a unique rendering of Old World tunes-on
good old-fashioned instruments such as the accordion, clarinet, violin, upright bass, and cardboard
box. Their music offers passion and humor and draws from sources such as Jewish klezmer, gypsy,
vintage jazz, French café, circus marches, and Eastern European folk. Kalinka offers an inspired
yet fresh "roots" music. Their blend of instruments brings to mind a wedding scene in Eastern Europe
complete with delirious dancing. They are inspired by the music of Django Reinhardt, Louis Armstrong,
composer Nina Rota, as well as numerous klezmer, gypsy, and Serbian brass bands.
Violinist Nicole McKenzie is conservatory-trained, with a background in blues and jazz as well
as classical. She also loves folk dancing. Clarinetist Fred Nadis is a former tuba and trumpet player
in jazz, punk and alt rock bands who recently lectured on the history of roller coasters at the
Coney Island Museum. When not playing accordion or surfing, Jon Brady teaches piano and ukulele.
Ann Chevrefils has played upright bass in jazz and bluegrass groups, and creates floats for the
Santa Barbara Solstice Parade. Once upon a time, Mark McLaughlin, a religious studies scholar,
started pounding on a cardboard box--he is still at it, religiously.
Kalinka performs frequently in Santa Barbara at Muddy Waters, at Reds Wine Bar, at First Thursday
venues, at weddings, and events such as Summer Solstice, the Santa Barbara Jewish Festival, and the
Santa Barbara French Festival. In June, 2011 Kalinka performed on Andy Doerr's Roadtunes Sessions on
KCSB (91.9 FM); later that summer they performed at a Direct Relief International benefit concert
presented by 'The Sounds of Santa Barbara'. Kalinka has online fans in countries that include
Bulgaria, Algeria, Greece, France, Italy, and Tunisia.
Visit their facebook site for more information:
www.facebook.com/pages/Kalinka/171699342057
Folkworks Magazine voted Susie Glaze & The Hilonesome Band in "Folkworks' Top Ten Live Acoustic
Bands in Southern California for 2008," writing "Susie is justifiably endorsed by Appalachian
music legend Jean Ritchie, and the band has a fine repertoire of beyond-bluegrass originals from its
chief songwriter, Rob Carlson. They can take you up in the hollars, or sound like a female-fronted
Asleep at the Wheel." (Larry Wines forFolkworks). This is the best in New Bluegrass to Appalachia Folks
Roots Fusion, an experience of gorgeous eclectic blends ofmountain folk and exciting new bluegrass
inspired originals, all with the remarkable voice of Susie Glaze. Winner of the Just Plain Folks 2006
Music Award for Best Roots Album, and Folkworks Magazine's Pick for Best Bluegrass Album of 2005 for
"Blue Eyed Darlin'," Susie's Hilonesome Band is Steve Rankin on mandolin, Rob Carlson on guitar and
dobro, Fred Sanders on bass and Mark Indictor on fiddle, showcasing the songwriting of lead guitarist
Rob Carlson.
Their show features work from their critically-acclaimed "Green Kentucky Blues" CD produced by Laurie
Lewis , award-winning "Blue Eyed Darlin'" and classics from Susie's debut solo album "Home On the
Hill," along with mountain standards from the Jean Ritchie collection, favorites from Gillian Welch
and Steve Earle. Marvin O'Dell of Classicheartland.com writes: "Susie Glaze does something with a
song that only great singers can do...she grabs hold of a song's deepest emotion and purpose and wraps
it tightly around your soul" and Bluegrass Unlimited calls her "an important voice on the California
Bluegrass scene." "Susie Glaze has one of the most beautiful voices in bluegrass and folk music today.
She performs a song straight from her heart and soul." KPFK's FolkScene
Please visit Susie at her Web Sites:
www.susieglaze.com and
www.myspace.com/susieglaze
Mike is a founding member and advisory board member for the Western Music Association. His background includes Broadcasting for KCRW and KCSN FM in Los Angeles & KBBQ in Ventura, Ca. Mike was one of three that began the McCabes Concert Series in 1969 and began performing at Topanga with the band Trailmix back in 1980. Mike and Trailmix perform traditional and contemporary Cowboy and Western Swing. Mike regularly hosts the Cowboy Music and Poetry segment at the Topanga Banjo•Fiddle Contest.
Voted Best Female Western Performer by the Will Rogers Academy of Western Artists, Joyce Woodson
combines both Folk and old-time cowboy songwriting creating her own brand of music. She also
recently won Best Song of the Year for the title song of her newest CD If I Hadn't Seen
the West
from the Western Music Association. Think Kate Wolf meets Sons of the Pioneers.
Writing about the disappearing California landscape and her love for the land is Woodson's
strength. Her first two albums present her original tunes in the California folk music style.
Her recent album If I Hadn't Seen the West is pure western music. Inspired
by the Sons of the
Pioneers who wrote and made famous the songs, "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" and "Cool Water," she says,
"Those harmonizing voices brought the cowboy life and landscape clearly into focus for me -
so much so that I felt like I was in the saddle with them and I never wanted the trail or the
song to end."
Joyce's Web Site:
www.joycewoodson.comwww.joycewoodson.com
E-mail: joyce@joycewoodson.com
"... her voice just glimmers and glistens like the gold in those Western hills." - Rich
Warren, SING OUT! Magazine
Singer/songwriter/guitarist Ray Doyle has contributed to more than a dozen CDs as a
longtime member of the popular Cowboy and Western band Wylie & the Wild West.
He has logged countless miles performing on five continents at venues ranging from
the Grand Ole Opry to the Kennedy and Lincoln Centers. Ray has played at national folk
festivals and cowboy poetry gatherings, at French rodeos and in Australian wool sheds.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Ray emigrated with his family to Canada, and eventually settled
near Hollywood, California. His recently released second solo CD, The Emigrant Trail,
celebrates Ray's Irish heritage, Western music influences, and first-hand emigrant experience.
The CD was nominated by the Academy of Western Artists for Western Album of 2009, and by the
Western Music Association for Traditional Western Album and Song of the Year. It also contains
Ray’s song “The Jewel,” the Gold Award winner in the Western Folklife
Center’s “Yellowstone” song contest.
Dave Volk is a swingin’ guitarist and an award winning bluegrass flat picker. He’s
been hip to western music for a long time and has even worked on horse ranches.
Steve Patt on bass is a fixture of roots music in L.A., has led his own showcase for years
and does many sessions on guitar and steel guitar. Steve likes to sing
“The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence” and Dave does Bob Wills songs and some
Gene Autry/Jimmie Rogers classics.
12:00-1:00 | Dancing with Bees Knees |
1:00-2:00 | Dancing with Modal Tease |
2:00-3:00 | Step Dancing with Katie and Samantha Harvey |
3:00-4:00 | Dancing with Flat Rock String Band |
4:00-5:00 | Dancing with Triple Chicken Foot |
Modal Tease has been serving up sizzling' hot slices of Old Tunes for New Times since 2009. Rooted
in America's old time music tradition, they’re adventurous and versatile, contrasting fast-paced
breakdowns with moseying blues, archaic crooked fiddle tunes with straight-up square dance numbers,
humorous ditties with Carter Family laments, mandolin with fiddle counterpoint, and typical clawhammer
banjo with novel applications. What unites their varied tastes is their penchant for modal tunes,
which liberally pepper their performances, giving them an "out of this world" quality often associated
with Celtic or Irish music. But rest assured their music is 100% American. At this square dance
Belinda Thom (fiddle) and Cliff Latimer (mandolin) will drive the groove with tight unison melodies,
while Jim Hamilton (clawhammer banjo) and Larry Ullman (standup bass) provide the infectious backdrop.
Recently, they won awards at the Topanga Banjo•Fiddle Contest and the Goleta Old-Time
Fiddlers Convention. In December, 2011, they released their first CD, Aggravatin Beauty.
More at www.ModalTease.com
The Flat Rock Stringband, from Portland, Oregon, plays old-time American stringband music with
an emphasis on fiddle driven dance tunes. Although the members of band come from disparate parts
of the country (Texas, Ohio, Washington, and California), it has been the years spent around
Portland's lively Old-Time music and dance scene that has given the band their old-time music
foundation.
Fiddler Linnea Spitzer is a native of Custer, Washington. In addition to playing in The Flat Rock
Stringband and other square dance bands in Portland, she was one of the original members of
Bellingham Washington's Mighty Ghosts Heaven.
Brooks Masten has been playing banjo since 1992 in various old time bands. In 1999 Brooks
started his career as a banjo maker and has been making banjos full time since 2005. He has
made hundreds of handmade banjos for folks across the U.S. as well as Scotland, Ireland, France,
Netherlands, UK, Australia and Japan.
As a youth in Dayton, Ohio, Eric Bagdonas was introduced to old-time music by his uncle and aunt,
both string band musicians and cloggers, but was re-introduced to the music upon moving to Portland.
It was Eric's brother Brian who encouraged him to take the step from punk rock bassist and trade
his amp for a banjo.
Robin Wilcox grew up in Texas where she was forced to listen to county music and dabbled with the
piano and trumpet. Robin discovered old time music when she snuck into the Portland Old Time
Gathering (who knew they let everyone else in for free, too?). She's played bass with Ebenezer
and the honky tonk band Ric-Rac, and later Eric recruited her for the old time band Salmonfly
Stringband and then Flat Rock.
As much of a tune session between friends as a band, Flat Rock plays the music in the manner
that we imagine the old-timers must have: to renew themselves after a day of work, to ennoble
the joys of the day or to sweeten its troubles, and to just kick back and enjoy the evening.
More at www.flatrockstringband.com
Triple Chicken Foot is an Old Time trio playing fiddle and banjo tunes and songs in
Los Angeles, California with Ben Guzmán on fiddle/mandolin, Mike Heinle on banjo and
Kelly Marie Martin on guitar. They all three sing. For over five years, playing old time
music in Los Angeles has brought them to backyard BBQs, the 100th anniversary of a Danish
Church, the Autry National Center, LACMA, weddings, numerous clubs around Southern California
and NPR. They have also performed at local festivals-Goleta Fiddlers Convention,
Topanga Banjo•Fiddle Contest, CTMS's Equinox and the New Los Angeles Folk Festival,
up the west coast at the Portland Old Time Gathering and the BerkelEy Old Time Music
Convention, and this year they were featured on the Palomino stage of the Stagecoach
Festival.
Spending time with veteran players around Los Angeles and the country at many late night
jams, they have been soaking up fiddle tunes and gospel songs, and have found their voice
with foot stomping dance tunes, beautiful duets and intense three part harmony of
acapella ballads.
The band tries to honor the tradition of the roots of this music as an oral and community-based
experience by hosting monthly jams, seasonal square dances and in producing the annual Los Angeles
Old Time Social. This three day event features concerts, free workshops with master musicians,
dancers and callers and ends with a family dance, cakewalk and evening square dance.
They have two full length albums: Meeting in the Air (2006) and Tar River (2010),
mixed by Joseph “joebass” DeJarnette in West Virginia.
More at www.triplechickenfoot.com
The Hollow Trees have been sharing “Folk Music for Families” around California for
eight years now. Their upbeat acoustic Americana music is like a gumbo made with a mix of
bluegrass, western swing, blues, and folk styles, seasoned with a generous helping of fun.
Hailing from Nelsonville, USA, they perform classic standards, strange and wonderful covers and
great original songs. With some luck they’ll be joined by their friend Nelson playing
his homemade banjitar. Come on by and join the hootenanny!
Learn more at www.thehollowtrees.com
For 27 years, the Scottish Fiddlers of Los Angeles have been playing and performing the wonderful
fiddle music of Scotland - from traditional strathspeys, reels and jigs going back to the 17th
century to modern compositions. Many classic Scottish tunes that we play have made their way to
the US and become Southern Fiddle style standards, including tunes like Devil’s Dream
(originally De’il among the Tailors) or Soldier's Joy.
The group welcomes musicians playing fiddle and other instruments to add "flavor" to the vast
repertoire of Scottish fiddle music. To the Scottish Fiddlers of Los Angeles, this music is pure fun!
Visit us at www.scottishfiddlers.org.
Hawaiian music! Bring your voice, 'ukulele, guitar, whatevers....
Mika'ele (AKA Mike) will lead a sing/playalong of Hawaiian favorites in English and
Hawaiian. He'll supply a sheet of word/chords/translations. He's been doing this since
1957--catch him while he still can do it! He'll bring a slack key guitar, but it'll
be hard to hear with no mike! In 1961,just out of high school, he left Honolulu to
compete in the first Topanga Banjo•Fiddle Contest. He came in first or second in
advanced Scruggs-style banjo. 5-string banjo and slack key guitar both use many tuning,
only the guitar got one more string! Most of what we'll do in 2011 is sing, in English and
Hawaiian.
The regional styles of Scottish fiddling are as diverse as the terrain that makes up
Scotland’s countryside -- each full of elegance and power. What defines these styles,
as well as what greatly differentiates them from Irish or old-time fiddling, is in their
subtleties of technique, phrasing, and ornamentation.
You will get a taste for Scottish fiddling in this class, as you will hear a North-Eastern
strathspey, highland pipe march, West-highland reel, and learn a tune by ear with the unique
gracenotes and bowings which will make it come alive.
Whether you are new to fiddling and would like to learn a Scottish tune, or an already experienced
fiddler looking to see what makes Scottish fiddling so different, this is a great class for you!