Alice Gerrard, Tatiana Hargreaves & Reed Stutz
DAY/LOCATION
FRI. | Freight & Salvage
SUN. | Freight & Salvage (workshops)
In a career spanning six decades, Alice Gerrard has helped define and shape American traditional music. Her early groundbreaking recordings with Hazel Dickens set the tone for an unconventional musical career which has included numerous honors including Grammy nominations, an IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award, a Virginia Arts Commission Award, the NC Folklore Society’s Tommy Jarrell Award, and an Indy Award. In 2017 Alice was inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame. A recent documentary film about her life and music, You Gave Me a Song, has been shown at film festivals throughout the United States and internationally. Alice has been a mentor and inspiration to countless other women musicians, including Emmylou Harris, the Judds and Laurie Lewis. Over the past decade, Tatiana Hargreaves has been on the forefront of an up and coming generation of old time, bluegrass and new acoustic musicians. From placing first at the Clifftop Appalachian Fiddle Contest, to her bluegrass fiddling on Laurie Lewis’ GRAMMY-nominated album The Hazel And Alice Sessions, Hargreaves shows a musical fluency that flows between old time and bluegrass worlds with ease. She has toured with musicians such as Dave Rawlings, Gillian Welch, Laurie Lewis, Darol Anger, Bruce Molsky and Jake Blount. She currently tours with banjo extraordinaire Allison de Groot and teaches bluegrass fiddle at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Over the past decade, Vist Tatiana Hargreaves Website Reed Stutz grew up in Portland, Oregon. Starting out as a pop-punk guitarist and songwriter, he shifted gears in 2017, digging into bluegrass and old time music and taking up the mandolin. After graduating from Berklee College of Music, he moved to Durham, North Carolina where he performs regularly with locals Alice Gerrard, Tatiana Hargreaves, Joseph DeCosimo and others; he’s also performed with Bruce Molsky and Allison de Groot and George Jackson and appears on recordings by Bella White and Joe Troop. Vist Reed Stutz Website
Earl White Stringband
DAY/LOCATION
FRI. | Freight & Salvage
SAT. | Ashkenaz
THURS. & SUN. | Freight & Salvage (workshops)
One of the first Black Americans to focus on the music that was once an important part of rural Black communities in the American southeast, Earl White began fiddling in 1974, mentored by tradition bearers Tommy Jarrell and the Black fiddler Joe Thompson. Raised in Newark, NJ, Earl spent summers at his grandparents’ North Carolina farm, later attending college at East Carolina University. There, he helped form the Greengrass Cloggers, who toured widely, often accompanied by live music from legends like Bill Monroe. Earl lives in southern Virginia where he farms and operates a bakery. Earl’s band includes North Carolina banjo builder and player Andrew Norcross and acclaimed bassist Mark Schatz. Earl and Adrienne Davis, his partner in music and life (who will not be able to join us this year due to obligations at the farm and bakery), have been part of the BOTMC from the beginning (when they were living near Santa Cruz) and we are delighted to welcome Earl back! Earl will present a special FREE workshop on Sunday at 1:00 at the Freight: "Black Americans in Old Time Music: Then and Now" Click here for info on the Black Banjo & Fiddle Fellowship
Piedmont Bluz
DAY/LOCATION
THURS. | Freight & Salvage
SAT. | Civic Center Park
SUN. | Freight & Salvage (workshop)
Valerie and Benedict Turner are ambassadors of country blues music and the Piedmont style of fingerpicking. Mentored by the late John Cephas, Valerie is heir to the gentle blues guitar stylings of Mississippi John Hurt and Etta Baker, although she can also pound out a Delta blues. Husband Benedict Turner adds percussion on his self-designed custom-built washboards, which he plays lap-style with brushes, and occasionally adds harmonica to the mix. Inducted into the NY Blues Hall of Fame in 2018, Piedmont Blūz has performed at the Newport Folk Festival, Chicago Blues Festival, Clearwater Revival, and Brooklyn Folk Festival and has toured in Europe and the Middle East.
Corn Potato String Band
DAY/LOCATION
WEDS. | Ashkenaz
THURS. | Freight & Salvage
FRI. & SUN. | Freight & Salvage (workshops)
The Corn Potatos have delighted audiences with their driving fiddle tunes and harmonious singing across the US, Canada, Europe, Mexico, and India. They are all multi-instrumentalists dedicated to continuing the music and dance traditions of the Central and Southern US. In addition to being champion fiddlers they play banjo, guitar, bass and mandolin and deftly handle many different antiquated styles including "ho-downs” and country “rags”, specializing in twin fiddling and double banjo tunes.
Skillet Licorice Allsorts Orchestra
DAY/LOCATION
FRI. | Freight & Salvage
Fiddler Elise Engleberg and guitarist Matt Knoth, who perform as Skillet Licorice, have brought together an ensemble to focus on the rags and waltzes of the East Texas Serenaders, featured on their new Tiki Parlor CD & vinyl release. For their BOTMC performance, they will be joined by Meredith Axelrod, cello; Clinton Davis, fiddle, banjo, mando; Kelly Marie Martin, bass, guitar; Suzy Thompson, fiddle.
New Vintage Revelers
DAY/LOCATION
THURS. | Freight & Salvage
Fiddler Harry Liedstrand (Sweet's Mill Stringband with Kenny Hall), banjo player Dan Warrick (Earl White Band, Thompson’s String Ticklers), and guitarist Paul Kotapish (Wake the Dead, Hillbillies From Mars, Hurricane Ridgerunners) have joined together to play fierce dance tunes, lonesome ballads, cowboy songs, brother duets, and more. Their instrumentals often favor Harry's unique repertory of tunes with California origins.
Right To Parlay
DAY/LOCATION
SAT. | Ashkenaz
From the ashes of the Santa Cruz thrash scene, multi-instrumentalist Mike Lewinski brought together the defining elements of Right To Parlay with his signature hard driving banjo. The rhythm is held steady by Dan Kluger on guitar, who you may know from his performance as 3rd chair Tenor Recorder in the Fremont Opera's production of Benjamin Britten's "Noye's Fludde" in 2015. Dane Miller and Thomas Angell play screaming double fiddle. Dane is the former concertmaster of Lincoln High School Orchestra, and multiple award winner at the BOTMC band contests circa 2010-2022. Thomas Angell is the former first chair violinist at Live Oak Waldorf School Orchestra.
Callers /Robin Fischer, Evie Ladin, Mike Lewinski
DAY/LOCATION
WEDS. | Ashkenaz
SAT. | Ashkenaz
The BOTMC features 3 great square dance callers this year! Robin Fischer has called dances up and down the west coast, including at the Los Angeles Old Time Social, Parkfield Bluegrass Festival, and the Oakland Museum of CA. She helps organize the twice monthly North Oakland Square Dance. She started calling traditional square dances in 2014, after many nights as a dancer and fiddler. Robin is a music teacher and a member of the Bearcat String Band. Evie Ladin wears many hats: banjo player, singer, songwriter, step-dancer, square dance caller. She grew up square dancing and clogging, but it was through hippie folk festivals and the Green Grass Cloggers, rather than super organized club dancing. She was inspired to try calling in order to give the musicians an outlet for fast, crooked tunes. Evie enjoys a certain amount of controlled chaos in the room, as she guides a group smoothly through dances without spending too much time teaching or focusing on “correctness”. As a performer, she tours internationally with the Evie Ladin Band and Keith Terry from her home base in Oakland. Mike Lewinski has been calling dances in the Bay Area since the heyday of the Marxist Library Dance on Telegraph Ave. He co-ran a dance for 5 years at the fabled Alley Cat books in San Francisco with other local Old Time legends KC and the Moonshine Band. Having kept it underground for a little over a decade he recently broke out as a mainstream caller, hosting the Square Dance events at the 2022 Father's Day Bluegrass Festival in Grass Valley. He's back in the Bay (Santa Cruz) after a 2 year sabbatical in Portland, Oregon. His style is rough around the edges, but always results in a a good time on the dance floor! Mike also plays in the band Right To Parlay, who will play at the BOTMC’s Saturday night square dance party.
Clinton Davis
DAY/LOCATION
SUN. | Berkeley Horticultural Center
THURS. | Freight & Salvage (workshop)
Clinton Davis is a fifth-generation Kentuckian who now lives in San Diego. A man of many hats, he plays guitar, banjo, fiddle, harmonica, mandolin, and piano (probably other instruments too!) with festival appearances at Wintergrass (WA), Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival (WA), National Jug Band Jubilee (KY), and the Brooklyn Folk Festival (NY). His first solo CD, “If I Live and Don’t Get Killed” was recently released on the Tiki Parlor label.
Cookie Segelstein & Josh Horowitz
(Veretski Pass Duo)
DAY/LOCATION
SUN. | Berkeley Horticultural Center
Cookie Segelstein and Joshua Horowitz play old-time Jewish Instrumental music of historical Eastern Europe; melodies from Ukraine, Carpathian-Ruthenia, Bessarabia and Rumania. Much of this rare music has been gleaned from field recordings gathered by the musicians themselves in over 14 countries spanning over 20 years. With its colorful instrumentation, unique arrangements and compositions, Cookie and Josh (and their reknowned group Veretski Pass) carry on the ancient tradition of klezmer musicians, playing in an unbound, energetic village style. Their music has won numerous awards, among them BBC’s Critics Circle award for best CD, the Belgian Gandalf Award for Best Concert and The Viennese Fritz Spielmann Award. They have twice been chosen as ambassadors representing traditional Jewish Music of Eastern Europe for the German World Exhibition of Klezmer History (Klezmerwelten) and have headlined the Jewish Music Festival of the University of London. They have been featured in concerts worldwide at prestigious venues including the Amsterdam Concertgebeouw and the Vienna Concert Hall and their CDs have repeatedly been on the 10-best recordings lists of journalists. Cookie’s unique Jewish violin style was featured for the Jewish wedding scene on HBO’s “Sex and the City” and Josh's compositons provided the music for Jes Benstock's award-winning film “The Holocaust Tourist." As well as for the German TV series, "Berlin, Berlin."
Meredith Axelrod & Craig Ventresco
DAY/LOCATION
SUN. | Berkeley Horticultural Center
This San Francisco-based duo have developed a national audience with their nightly informal online concerts, which they have done nearly every single night during the two-plus year pandemic, with a gigantic repertoire that goes to many old-time places from early 20th century tin pan alley and ragtime to hillbilly jazz and much more. Meredith Axelrod’s singing is a riveting combination of demure and passionate; she’s also a powerful rhythm guitarist and lately has been playing the cello in the style of the East Texas Serenaders (you’ll hear that when she performs with Skillet Licorice Allsorts Orchestra.) In addition to her work with Craig, she also performs in a duo with Jim Kweskin. Craig Ventresco’s explosive, melodic and inventive guitar playing is featured on the soundtracks of the films Crumb and Ghost World. He became obsessed with 78-rpm recordings of early ragtime and jazz at an early age; while the other kids were listening to Led Zeppelin, he was spending his allowance on obscure sides by Billy Murray and Arthur Collins.
The Propagators
DAY/LOCATION
FRI. | Berkeley Horticultural Center
Michelle Yu on fiddle, Evie Ladin on banjo and guitar, Rowan McCallister on guitar and mandolin, and Keith Terry on bass join forces to sing songs and play dance-worthy fiddle tunes. Their band name is in homage to the Berkeley Horticultural Center’s 100th anniversary!
Thompsonia
DAY/LOCATION
WED. | Ashkenaz
Thompsonia combines Eric & Suzy Thompson’s deep devotion to old-time, bluegrass, Cajun and acoustic blues with daughter Allegra’s fresh perspective, creating feel-good music that richochets between the rowdy and the sentimental, with an abundance of groove and a bit of a quirky edge. The band features the genetically-matched vocals of Suzy and Allegra (Geoff Muldaur has dubbed this “The Everly Sisters sound”) along with stellar lead playing from Eric on mandolin and guitar, Suzy’s red-hot fiddling and Allegra’s rock-steady upright bass.
Tatiana Hargreaves
DAY/LOCATION
FRI. | Freight & Salvage
SAT. | Ashkenaz
Over the past eight years, Tatiana Hargreaves has been on the forefront of an up and coming generation of old time, bluegrass and new acoustic musicians. Since releasing her first solo album “Started Out To Ramble” in 2009, Tatiana has toured with musicians such as Dave Rawlings, Gillian Welch, Laurie Lewis, Darol Anger, and Bruce Molsky. From being the second woman to place first at the Clifftop Appalachian Fiddle Contest, to her bluegrass fiddling on Laurie Lewis’ GRAMMY-nominated album The Hazel And Alice Sessions, Hargreaves shows a musical fluency that flows between old time and bluegrass worlds with ease.
Ann Savoy
DAY/LOCATION
WED. | Ashkenaz
Ann Savoy, from Eunice Louisiana, is a Grammy-winning musician (vocals, Cajun accordion, fiddle and guitar), an author, a record producer and a photographer. She’s recorded duets with Linda Ronstadt, has made numerous albums and films with her husband, the renowned accordion player and builder Marc Savoy, with her incredibly talented children, Joel, Wilson and Sarah Savoy, and with her Louisiana-based all-woman band the Magnolia Sisters. She’s written two award-winning books about Cajun and Creole music.