One Dollar Hat (12 pm)

One Dollar Hat is an Old Time stringband from Geauga County. Old Time music can be loosely defined as traditional music from the Appalachian Mountain regions of the south-eastern United States. Old Time, often mistakenly called “bluegrass”, was first recorded in the 1920’s. Bluegrass music developed from Old Time music in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. For more information about the Old Time genre, read about the next band called The Lackwanna Longnecks.

Most of One Dollar Hat’s tunes and songs come from recordings made in the 1920’s and 30’s, and they are most heavily influenced by the long-bow fiddling of stringbands from the northern hills of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia: Hoyt Ming and His Pep-steppers, Namour and Smith, The Leake County Revelers, The Skillet Lickers, The Stripling Brothers, Big Dilly and his Dill Pickles, The Georgia Yellow Hammers, etc.

One Dollar Hat plays at parties, dances, concert venues, and the occasional saloon job. The members are Rachel McKinney – banjo, Zach Smolko – fiddle, Louise Keller – guitar, and Gordon Keller – fiddle.

To hear their music and for more information about the band visit www.myspace.com/onedollarhat.

The Lackawanna Longnecks (1 pm)

Like One Dollar Hat, The Lackawanna Longnecks are an Old Time stringband. They are coming to the festival from Pittsburg, PA. The Lackawanna Longnecks have committed themselves to playing music in the style of the Old Time Appalachian tradition. Often misunderstood and misrepresented as backward and without culture, in fact the people of Appalachia have long featured a strong oral tradition of music and song with emphasis on self-sufficiency and strong religious faith. Before the advent of modern transportation and communication, many of its inhabitants were geographically isolated from the rest of the country as late as the 1920’s. As a result, the culture of their ancestors, most of them English, Scottish, Scotch-Irish, Irish, and African Americans existed mostly unaffected by developments in surrounding urban regions for over 200 hundred years.

With little dependence on reading and writing, many Appalachian people had amazing memorization skills, capable of perfectly reciting 20 or more verses of song after hearing it sung only once. The instrumental music and songs of Appalachia range from playful and nonsensical, to sensitive and beautiful, touching upon some of the deepest emotions and experiences known. The dancing includes clogging, which is sometimes done for competition, but more commonly happens as a free expression of rhythm, a direct response to the energy of good music. Also known to occur in earshot of stringband music is Square and Contra dancing, a community event which facilitates sharing music and movements with a large group, usually the local neighborhood.

Current members are: Frank Falvo - fiddle, Mike Reing - guitar, and Mark Tamsula - banjo. Since 1987, their full acoustic stringband sound has often been heard at concerts, square dances, and parties around Pittsburgh. Wherever they perform, the Lackawanna Longnecks are your guides on a musical tour into the hills and through and the ages.

To hear their music and for more information about The Lackawanna Longnecks visit www.appalachianmusic.net.

The Otis Brothers (2 pm)

Bob Guida and Pat Conte, The Otis Brothers, have been playing music together since they were classmates in the 70’s in Queens, N.Y. The Otis Brothers play all manner of instruments; banjos, guitars, cigar box mandolins, etc. which they have rescued from dumpsters or bought on the cheap at garage sales. They play blues and proto-blues in many forms, primarily gleaned from pre-war 78’s and field recordings. The music is intimate, powerful, and raggedly eccentric. The Otis Brothers play a wide range of tunes and songs – field hollers, spirituals, humorous raunch, early electric instrumentals, fiddle tunes, and outlaw ballads, to name a few. Pat and Bob’s taste runs to the rare, the unusual, and the obscure. If not for them, these tunes would probably have been lost to us. And they really know how to make it shake and move.

To hear their music and for more information about The Otis Brothers visit www.downhomeradioshow.com/2008/02/interview-with-the-otis-brothers.

The Bluegrass Mountaineers (3 pm)

The Bluegrass Mountaineers represent three generations of bluegrass music and a seasoned lineup of first class players. Edward Efaw, also known as Beanpole, started the band in the early 60’s. While playing in the band, Edward raised six children and bluegrass music was a big part of family life. As the years progressed, Edward’s son Larry joined the band, and now Larry’s son Stanley plays in the band as well. Larry’s son-in-law, Stacy Wilcox, joined the band in 2004 on upright bass making it even more of a family endeavor. Edward, Larry, Stanley, and Stacy are joined by “the outsiders” Billy Borton and Chris Smith, who must feel like family by now.

All six band members are multi-instrumentalists and have won or placed high in numerous state and festival contests on guitar, banjo, fiddle, and mandolin. The Mountaineers typical band lineup includes Edward and Larry on guitar, Stanley on mandolin, Stacy on upright bass, Billy on fiddle, and Chris on banjo. Edward, Larry, and Stanley handle most of the vocals. The group primarily focuses on playing “traditional” bluegrass music from the 1940’s and 1950’s including songs and tunes from Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, and the Stanley Brothers.

Over the years, the band and individuals in the band have performed with numerous famous bluegrass musicians and legends including Bill Monroe, Rhonda Vincent, Jimmy Martin, Goldwing Express, and Del McCoury to name a few. The band is especially close to Dr. Ralph Stanley. Mr. Stanley is featured as a special guest on the band’s most recent CD release from 2007 entitled Clinch Mountain Tradition, a tribute to the Stanley Brothers. Musically The Bluegrass Mountaineers are tough to beat. Their shows are family friendly and always include some good laughs between songs.

To hear their music and for more information about The Bluegrass Mountaineers visit www.bluegrassmountaineers.net.

The Smokin' Fez Monkeys (4 pm)

The Smokin’ Fez Monkeys is a modern jug band that plays a wacky mixture of songs and tunes from several decades ago, mixed in with a number of snappy original ones written by a few of the band members. There are more than a few surprises along the way. It’s a sort of a ragtime-cartoon-Vaudeville-circus-hobo-gypsy-jazz thing.

The band consists of five members. Tim Wallace plays a variety of instruments including jug, banjo/guitar, slide whistle and various noisemakers. Tim writes songs and sings with a rich deep voice. Mark Sherepita is the other songwriter in the group. He also sings and plays a resonator guitar, harmonica, and scary percussion instruments. Holly Overton, a classically trained violinist, plays fiddle for the group and also sings from time to time. Bill Drake is the percussionist of the group, but he’s also a multi-instrumentalist, and singer. Bill plays a whole collection of drums, bells, blocks, washboard, and pretty much anything you can put on a stick. Jim Stone is the other half of the rhythm section on upright bass. Jim also wears many hats: Fedora, cowboy, derby, etc. Occasionally the band will let him play guitar, too.

This band is a true Northeast Ohio gem. Venues they’ve played recently include The Barking Spider, Fat Fish Blue, The Prosperity Social Club, The Beachland Ballroom, Poor Richards, The Winchester, Willoughby Fine Arts Association, Painsville Party in the Park, Scott’s Folk Auditorium, First Night, and the Mountain Rose Concert Series.

To hear their music and for more information about The Smokin’ Fez Monkeys visit www.myspace.com/smokinfezmonkeys.

New Orleans Jazz Ensemble (5 pm)

The members of the New Orleans Jazz Ensemble are Phil Cartwright – banjo and vocals, Al Kinney – cornet and vocals, Truman Witt – clarinet, Bruce Lehtiner – trombone, and Rich Fawatt – drums. The group plays the sort of jazz that developed in New Orleans during the golden age – from 1900 to 1930, in a style that now can be heard at Preservation Hall in the French Quarter – “music marked above all by collective improvisation”. Theirs is a laid back, ensemble approach, in which the lead melody is traded back and forth between the clarinet, cornet, and trombone while the tenor banjo and drums propel the rhythm. Listen for the part of the tune when everybody cuts loose at once and the full-throated warbling of interweaving musical lines creates a euphonious sublimity that is better than crawfish pie.

To hear their music and for more information about the New Orleans Jazz Ensemble visit
www.philcartwright.info/NOJE.html.

Maple Hill Rounders (6 pm)

The Maple Hill Rounders will be the square dance band for the evening, and Lynn Frederick will call the dance.

The Maple Hill Rounders are a local old-time and bluegrass string band originally from Maple Hill on Butternut Road in Munson Township, Geauga County, Ohio. The group consists of four of the Haas family siblings and other rotating members. The Maple Hill Rounders are a true example of a family where traditional American music is passed on from generation to generation through the oral tradition – brothers taught sister, who taught brother-in-law, who taught nephews, etc. The band was highly involved in past Raccoon County Music Festivals, and it is always a treat to have them back to play for the festival square dance.

Lynn Frederick hails from Brady Lake, OH, near Kent, and has called dances from here to who knows where, including the National Folk Festival, but you may remember him as the caller for the Kent Community Square Dance, which served as a regional square dance oasis from 1981 until the close of the millennium. Lynn is also a member of The Fullertones, an old-time stringband based in Brady Lake, OH, near Kent.

Madeleine Keller – Featured Artist

Madeleine Keller is this year’s featured artist, who grew up right down the road from the Geauga County Historical Society’s Century Village Museum in Burton, OH, but now resides in Chicago, IL. She attended Earlham College where she majored in fine arts. She has spent a significant amount of time doing community art in Mexico, Chicago, New York, and Bolivia winning awards, teaching art to children, and integrating art into everyday life. Madeleine has been around folk-music all of her life and is the daughter of Louise and Gordon Keller, who are in the Old Time stringband One Dollar Hat. Madeleine designed the 2008 festival t-shirt and the images for the 2008 festival flyer.