The Show Ponies are an Indie-Folk band with Old Tyme Country influences, striking a balance between old and new; joy and sorrow;
rough and tender. The band started in 2011 as the combined musical creativity of Clayton Chaney and Andi Schrock.; Schrock is a
native Texan, while Chaney was born in Texas and raised in Arkansas. Heading to Los Angeles at different times for unrelated reasons,
they eventually found themselves singing, writing, and performing together.
Jason Harris, fellow musician and Texan, initially introduced the duo. Harris jumped at the opportunity to produce
The Show Ponies’ debut album, Here We Are!, bringing his extensive training in music composition to the project. Shortly after
recording the album, Harris officially joined The Show Ponies as their guitarist and banjo player. Philip Glenn joined the group after
recording fiddle tracks with the band. Glenn is considered by many to be one of the top young fiddle players in the country;
before joining the other Ponies in the studio, Glenn attended the Mark O'Conner Fiddle Camp where he was awarded the Daniel Pearl Memorial
Violin. Kevin Brown soon became the fifth Pony, lending his drumming expertise while earning his masters degree in percussion performance
from CSU Long Beach. Very rarely do five people with such exceptional talent join together to create such a cohesive sound.
The Show Ponies play regularly throughout the west coast to support their debut album Here We Are!, released in April 2012.
They are ramping up momentum to tour the country and record their next album.
Shoe Ponies Video
Triple Chicken Foot plays Old-Time fiddle and banjo tunes and songs in Los Angeles, California with Ben Guzman on
fiddle/mandolin, Mike Heinle on banjo and Kelly Marie Martin on guitar. For over six years, playing old time music in
Los Angeles, they have performed at the Autry National Center, LACMA, The Watkins Family Hour, weddings, numerous clubs around
Southern California and NPR. They have also performed at local festivals: Goleta Fiddlers Convention, Topanga Banjo•Fiddle
Contest and the New Los Angeles Folk Festival, up the west coast at the Portland Old-Time Gathering, the Berkeley Old-Time
Music Convention, and on the Palomino stage of the Stagecoach Festival. They regularly host Old Time square dances and
jams in Los Angeles.
In 2011 they were voted “Best Folk Band in LA” by the LA Weekly. In 2012 they had a full-length feature article
in the Los Angeles Times Arts section and a studio session for Roz Larman’s FolkScene radio show on KPFK!
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, monthly 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 Virginia. Both are available at CD Baby and iTunes.
More at www.triplechickenfoot.com
The Dustbowl Revival is a Venice-based roots collective. Often up to ten musicians at a time, this little orchestra has toured the west with
their raucous re-imagining of traditional American music, melding elements of bluegrass, New Orleans second-line swing and jug-band blues into a potent
roots cocktail.
In 2011 they released their acclaimed second record “Holy Ghost Station” which was recorded on one inch tape (and a 45 single) and played
with artists as diverse as The Rebirth Brass Band, Best Coast, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot and more. They have played across California (including three packed
days at The Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco) and have a new record coming in 2013 which reinterprets classic bluegrass, gospel and 1930s
swing songs and brings it into the new century.
More at dustbowlrevival.com/
The Murphy Family Band plays an exciting mix of traditional and original bluegrass music. Based in Culver City, California, the Murphy Family Band
has performed at bluegrass festivals, coffee houses, pizza parlors and other venues around Southern California. They placed first in the band contest at the 50th Topanga
Banjo•Fiddle Contest and their members have won individual categories in fiddle, mandolin, banjo, and guitar - plus the winning entry for the best festival
logo in 2011 and 2012. The Murphy Family Band consists of Sara Murphy on the fiddle, Kyle Murphy on the mandolin and fiddle, Jim Murphy on the guitar, Doug Davis on the
bass, Paula Lane on the dobro, and Bill Knopf on the banjo.
Visit the band at:
Murphy Family Band
The Railroad Stage will host the "Sing-Offs and the Intermediate Fiddle Playoffs in the morning.
Evan J. Marshall is the World's Premier Solo Mandolin Virtuoso. Country guitar legend Chet Atkins
called Evan "One of the few great musicians of our time." Inspired by Atkins and classical
violinist Jascha Heifetz, Evan has created a unique playing style that combines bass lines, chords,
rhapsodic runs and tremolo melodies.
Two of his solo mandolin recordings have been released by Rounder Records: Evan Marshall Is the Lone Arranger, which the Washington Post labeled "Truly dazzling," the Raleigh-Durham Independent called "Superhuman," and the Fresno Bee called "Mind-boggling;" and Mandolin Magic, which the St. Paul Pioneer Press applauded for "A stunning mastery of interpretation." Evan also has recorded three solo CDs for his own label, Mandolin Conservatory.
In 1995, Evan gave his New York debut at Merkin Hall. Later that year, he made his first appearance on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. Between 1993 and 2005 Evan was a Featured Soloist at Disneyland, performing his signature William Tell Overture: Finale for about two million visitors to the famous Golden Horseshoe Theater during the course of 10,000 shows. He has performed and given seminars and workshops at numerous regional and international conferences for mandolinists.
Faithful to timeless Southern Traditions, Bob Carlin has taken the distinctive “clawhammer” banjo style to appreciative
audiences worldwide. As a solo performer, and a member of John Hartford’s Stringband, Bob has appeared at countless festivals,
clubs, schools and museums. These have included the Philadelphia Folk Festival, MerleFest, the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and
Rockygrass. Various national radio appearances have included NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” “A Prairie Home Companion,”
“Mountain Stage” and “The Grand Old Opry.” As a member of the prestigious Virginia and North Carolina Visiting Artist Programs, Carlin
presented southern traditional music and the banjo traditions of rural America to audiences in the schools and community.
He has studied both in person and on transcriptions the work of master players from previous generations. Combined with archival research,
the result has been over fifty different albums, primarily for Rounder Records, and countless magazine articles and CD notes.
Carlin has participated in two grammy-nominated recordings. Through an association with the Blue Ridge Institute at Ferrum College,
Bob helped produce the touring museum exhibit and catalog, “The Banjo in Virginia.”
Dan Levenson is a Southern Appalachian native who has grown up with the music of that region. Today he is considered a respected
master teacher and performer of both the Clawhammer banjo & Appalachian style fiddle.
Dan has won awards on both instruments including first place at the 2005 Ohio Clawhammer Banjo Championship and Grand Champion at
the 2010 Ajo, AZ fiddle contest. He has over 10 recordings both with his band The Boiled Buzzards and as a solo artist.
Dan performs and teaches regularly throughout the country. He has taught at many of the traditional music schools and camps including
the Rolland Fiddle Camp, John C. Campbell Folk School, Mars Hill, Maryland Banjo Academy, The Ozark Folk Center at Mountain View, AR
and Banjo Camp North. He currently also runs various clawhammer banjo, fiddle and stringband workshops throughout the year.
Dan is an author for Mel Bay publications. His books include Old Time Fiddle From Scratch; First Lessons Clawhammer Banjo;
First Lessons Folk Banjo; Clawhammer Banjo From Scratch; Old Time Festival Tunes for Clawhammer Banjo; Old Time Festival Tunes for
Fiddle & Mandolin; Gospel Tunes for Clawhammer Banjo; Kyle Creed Clawhammer Banjo Master; Wade Ward Clawhammer Banjo Master;
and Buzzard Banjo Clawhammer Style.
He is also a writer and editor for Banjo Newsletter's Old Time Way.
To order Dan's books, recordings and more information about Dan please go to www.Clawdan.com
Jesse Milnes and Emily Miller perform country and old-time music, singing close harmony with Jesse’s unique finger-picked
guitar style, and a healthy dose of old-time fiddling. Emily was raised playing and singing Louvin Brothers and Stanley Brothers
songs with her parents while they traveled the world as journalists. Jesse grew up in the world of West Virginia old-time music,
learning from masters like Melvin Wine and Ernie Carpenter. They live in central West Virginia when they are not on the road
with their country band, the Sweetback Sisters.
Ross presents a solo acoustic program for the 50th anniversary of The March on Washington; it will feature a variety of
folk music performed at the March by Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Len Chandler and Peter, Paul and Mary. It will also include a
few songs that became prominent in the months leading up to the March and in the aftermath (such as Richard Farina’s Birmingham Sunday)
and end with the 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK on November 22.
Please visit Ross at his Web site,
http://www.ultimate.com/altman
The Pavilion Stage will host the Beginning Instrument competitions in the morning.
Like a jukebox of old 78 records, The Ventucky String Band is reminiscent of a time when Jazz bands featured banjo, and Bluegrass music was as
novel as the arrival of television. Where some have tried to diminish Ventura as “Ventucky,” this band sees their name not as a
veiled jab at Bluegrass music or the city that brought them together - but instead as a tribute to the music and culture of the farmers,
roustabouts, and cattlemen that helped grow the city during the early days of big-oil and agriculture in Ventura County.
Typical sets can vary from 1930’s Jazz & Bluegrass, to cowboy ballads & honky-tonk - all seamlessly woven together with original
songwriting that draws inspiration from the deep well-spring of American roots music.
Formed in late 2010, this highly skilled multi-instrumental quartet features Matt Sayles, Dave White, Rick Clemens and Mark Parson, blending
their decades of musical experience into a sound that harkens back to the dust-bowl era of California, and the roots of
the “"California-Country” sound.
Members of the Band have played professionally for over 30 years, with individual appearances on the Grand Ole Opry, the Wheeling West Virginia Jamboree (WWVA),
as well as performances with Bluegrass, Country, Texas Swing & Cajun/Zydeco legends like Johnny Gimble, Merle Haggard, Dwight Yoakam, Larry Sparks,
Doyle Lawson, the Bellamy Brothers, Fernest Arceneaux, Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys and Hot Club of Cowtown.
Please visit them at: www.frostbittengrass.com/Ventucky.html.
The Americans perform traditional American music, from jug and string band to rural blues and spirituals. Formed in 2009, the Americans
have performed with T-Bone Burnett and completed two cross-country tours with Ryan Bingham. Their music will appear on the soundtrack
to the Coen Brothers’ 2013 Inside Llewyn Davis, a film based on the Greenwich Village folk scene in the 1960s.
Visit their web site for more information:
www.theamericansmusic.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 Competition. In January of 2012 they took first place in the California
Bluegrass Association’s “Great 48 Showcase Showdown,” competing against the top
bluegrass bands from across the state and earning a spot in the Father’s Day Festival in Grass Valley.
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 album has been receiving regular airplay on radio stations across the country.
They have also appeared on 2 episodes of WETV's “My Fair Wedding” with David Tutera as well as in a cover story
photo spread in C Magazine’s wedding edition.
Their live ensemble at Topanga will include Brian Netzley on bass and long-time Topanga banjo contest
judge, Kevin Gore.
Please visit the band their Web Site:
www.rockyneckbluegrass.com/.
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.
As a longtime member of the popular Cowboy and Western band Wylie and the Wild West, Ray Doyle logged countless miles performing on five continents at venues ranging from the Grand Ole Opry to the Kennedy and Lincoln Centers. He has played at National Folk Festivals and Cowboy Poetry Gatherings, at French Rodeos and in Australian wool sheds. After 20 yrs. with the band Ray left in 2011 to concentrate on his own material.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Ray emigrated with his family to Canada, and then settled
in Southern California. His second solo CD, “The Emigrant Trail,” celebrates his
Irish heritage, Western music influences, and first-hand emigrant experience. It
was nominated by the Academy of Western Artists for top Western Album of 2009,
and by the Western Music Assoc. for Trad. Western Album and Song of the Year. It
also contains Ray’s song “The Jewel,” the Gold Award winner in the Western
Foklife Center’s “Yellowstone” song contest.
More at RayDoyle.net
| 12:30-1:30 | Dancing with Bees Knees |
| 1:30-2:30 | Dancing with Modal Tease |
| 2:30-3:30 | Step Dancing with Katie and Samantha Harvey |
| 3:30-4:30 | Dancing with the David Bragger Band |
Bees Knees is Joe Wack (fiddle), Steve Lewis (banjo), and Laura Osborn (guitar/banjo-uke). Their repertoire is an
eclectic mix of traditional music ranging from high-energy, all-out dance tunes to hauntingly beautiful
melodies from the Southern Appalachian region. Though they’ve only been playing together as a trio since
2008, their old-time music reflects decades of playing for dances, concerts, workshops, parties, and events,
as well as just good old-time music-making with like-minded folks on both sides of the country.
Joe Wack was first enthralled by old time music as an art student in West Virginia University in the early ‘70s.
From that time he has maintained the dual vocations of musician and artist. As a banjo player, he was an
original founder of the still-active WV stringband Stewed Mulligan. Since moving to L.A. in '93, he has worked
as a character designer for “The Simpsons” TV series while remaining immersed in old-time music on fiddle,
banjo, and guitar.
Laura Osborn has been a lifelong musician, performing and teaching flute in the Los Angeles area for almost twenty
years. While enjoying a robust family life with her husband, two children, and two cats, she finds time whenever
possible to play old-time music on guitar, banjo, and banjo-uke.
Steve Lewis has played the 5-string banjo most of his adult life. A veteran of contests, fiddlers’ conventions,
and festivals, Steve has also produced and played for contradances since 1989. He continues to play for dances, both
contra and square with one or another of four old-time bands. For the past eleven years, Steve has led an old-time
jam at the CTMS Folk Music Center in Encino on the first Sunday of each month.
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 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
Earthworm Ensemble is music for kids and parents, with some of Los Angeles’s best folk/country artists singing and
playing guitars, keys, ukulele, jawharp, and percussion, with rich 3 and four part harmonies.
Our live show features Sherri and Shawn Nourse, Victoria Jacobs and Paul Lacques, and Denny Moynahan, aka King Kukulele.
We’re calling it family music, because parents sing along as much as their kids do.
Our songs are for families to enjoy together, and talk about the ideas in the songs and our live show conversations: buffalo
migration, ladybugs, earthworms, composting and recycling, taking the train, farmers markets, and what we can all do to keep our planet green.
Visit us at www.earthwormensemble.com.
For the past thirty years, the Scottish Fiddlers of Los Angeles have delighted audiences throughout Southern California
with the lively, energetic and irresistibly uplifting music of Scotland, the Shetlands, Cape Breton Island and Ireland.
Their playing is characterized by hard-driving reels and strathspeys, hauntingly beautiful airs, and sweet waltzes. Directed by internally
known Scottish fiddler Jan Tappan, their music is sure to get your toes-tapping and your hand-clapping.
The Scottish Fiddlers perform at a variety of venues, and are always accepting new members. For information on booking the Scottish
Fiddlers, or to join, please contact: info@scottishfiddlers.com
Visit us at www.scottishfiddlers.org.