WALKING ON THIN ICE

Appalachian Mr. Haney vs Hollywood Mr. Haney

Mr. Haney the bluegrass group

(the 4th of 4 pieces written for 3rd Annual Blue Sky Festival for possible press — they’re appearing today 2:30-3:30pm)

Mr. Haney

Mr. Haney, a northeastern Ohio traditional bluegrass band featuring Jim Eisenberg (claw hammer banjo, vocal, hambone), Laura Lewis Kovac (fiddle, feet), Ken Roby (fiddle, mandolin, banjo), Jim Richards (guitar) and Nancy Tozer (bass), will be appearing at the 3rd Annual Blue Sky Folk Festival in Kirtland, Ohio on May 4th, 2012.

The band takes their name from the Mr. Haney character on the old “Green Acres” television sitcom that ran on CBS from 1965 to 1971 about a rich New York City couple who move to a country farm to reconnect with the simple life.

The TV Mr. Haney (played by Pat Buttram) was a scoundrel who sold his farm to Oliver and Lisa Douglas (played by Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor) at an inflated price after first stripping it of all its assets and then selling them back one at a time. Unlike the con artist Mr. Haney, this band is the real deal.

I interviewed Laura Lewis Kovac, the band’s clogger and one of two fiddle players, and asked her some questions about the band. (Appalachian clogging is a traditional percussive dance danced to old-time fiddle music.)

Q: How long you all have known each other?
A: Some of us are old friends, others are new friends. Music is the common denominator.

Q: How did you first get together to play?
A: Jim Eisenberg and I had been playing together a bit and invited Ken, Nancy and Jim to join us.

Q: How long have you been playing together?
A: We’ve been playing together in public a little less than a year, but informally at parties for many years.

Q: What music has influenced the band?
A: All of us have deep roots in old-time music.

Q: What’s it like now that you’re playing for paying customers rather than friends?
A: Old-time music is happy, celebratory music. It lifts the heart and people can’t help but tap their toes or dance. So when we play out, we put the word out to friends and have a party!

Q: Any thoughts you have about music or the group you want to share?
A: We all like each other’s company and when we get together, there’s usually food and visiting involved. We’ve all played in different configurations over the years, but a full band with twin fiddles is pretty great. We look forward to deepening our groove and expanding our repertoire.

The 3rd Annual Blue Sky Folk Festival Saturday, May 4, 2013 is a day-long folk music jam with workshops, great food, and an inside main stage. New this year: more tents for jammers and a dance floor near the main stage. More details at blueskyfolkfest.com.

Bring your blankets & lawn chairs. There is a playground and storytelling for the kids. Bring your instrument to jam and get a $5 discount. Come enjoy local artists playing original music.

On the grounds of the East Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, 10848 Chillicothe Rd / SR 306, 1/4 mile south of SR 6 in Kirtland, Ohio. Tickets $10 at the door, $8 seniors 65+, kids are free! 11:00am until 7:00pm. Service dogs only at the festival, please.

— Steven B. Smith, 4.28.2013 for Blue Sky Folk Festival

Mr. Haney from TV’s Green Acres

Rachel Brown & The Beatnik Playboys, Blue Sky 5.4.2013

Rachel Brown

(the 3rd of 4 pieces I wrote for the 3rd Annual Blue Sky Festival for possible press — they’re appearing today at 4pm)

Rachel & The Beatnik Playboys

Retro honky-tonkers Rachel & The Beatnik Playboys will be the local headliner at the 3rd Annual Blue Sky Folk Festival May 4, 2013 in Kirtland, Ohio.

Listening to Rachel’s home page song snippets takes me back to Patsy Cline on early 1960’s country radio and 1970’s bluesy Bonnie Raitt.

Rachel has a big voice. A pretty voice. Full. Rich. Powerful. Smooth. Strong. Sure. Versatile. Beautiful. And the woman can whisper or wail at will.

Toss in her excellent taste in backing musicians and great choice of story songs from the likes of Tom Waits, Dolly Parton, Chuck Berry and Randy Newman, and you’ve a varied merry musical evening.

Her solid old-school country fused with blues, rock, jazz, swing, funk, and soul makes for good listening and dancing. She also plays a mean piano along with a host of other instruments; and just like Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys, she jumps genres at the drop of a cowboy hat.

Her home page says it best:

“Rachel & The Beatnik Playboys is a band comprised of four professional musicians with long histories in playing roots/americana, blues, country, rock, jazz and swing. In any given performance, one might hear Junior Wells or Kitty Wells, George Jones, or the Rolling Stones. The Beatnik Playboys feel that their audiences, like themselves, can love a lot of different musical styles.” (rachelandthebeatnikplayboys.com/).

The band consists of Rachel Brown on piano, Bill Watson bass, Roy King percussion, and Dave Huddleston guitar

Rachel has been singing, writing songs, and playing multiple instruments for over 25 years, opening for such greats as Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Merle Haggard, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Loretta Lynn, Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, Ricky Scaggs, and The Judds.

She also performs in Hillbilly Idol, and previously played with The Damn, New Frontier, Blue Moon Express, Sidewinder, Buckshot, and Kalico, and lives a second life as a Cleveland west side middle-school music teacher with a masters degree in classical piano with choral emphases.

Bassist Bill Watson also performs with The Numbers Band, Hillbilly Idol, Alex Bevan, and Clearfork as well as having played with The Damn Band, Reckless Abandon, Mimi Hart & The Bopkats, Deadly Ernest & The Honky Tonk Heroes, Gopher Broke Swing Band, Smackinrrouge, and Better ‘n Bacon Band.

Drummer Roy King has played with Mose Allison, Bucky Pizzerelli, Eddie Bo, Johnny Gimble, and Jay McShann, along with such local greats Alex Bevan, the Gopher Broke Swing Band, Mike Petrone, and Joe Hunter. He also teaches percussion at Woodsys Music in Kent and Medina, and leads his own jazz trio.

Guitarist Dave Huddleston is a vocalist, guitarist, and bassist whose influences include Bach, Artie Shaw, Elvis, the Temptations, the Beatles, Ella Fitzgerald, 1960s TV themes, Gaetano Veloso, Chaka Khan, U2, the Bee Gees, the Isley Brothers, Frankie Valli, Ennio Morricone, Buck Owens.

Their album “Just Look My Way” was released in February. They are scheduled to play from 4-5pm at Blue Sky.

You can friend them on Facebook: facebook.com/pages/Rachel-The-Beatnik-Playboys/126332006901

hear them on Reverbnation: reverbnation.com/rachelthebeatnikplayboys

or watch them on YouTube:
“Love Me Like a Man” – youtu.be/9k5DnC1hRKY (Bonnie Raitt)
“You Don’t Know Me” — youtu.be/MiBV2l9oXh8 (Eddy Arnold)
“Grand Tour” – youtu.be/lqzABib2b1A (George Jones)
“I Just Wanna Dance With You” – youtu.be/Xc2UZngahsg (John Prine)

The 3rd Annual Blue Sky Folk Festival Saturday, May 4, 2013 is a day-long folk music jam with workshops, great food, and an inside main stage. New this year: more tents for jammers and a dance floor near the main stage. More details at blueskyfolkfest.com. Bring your blankets & lawn chairs. There is a playground and storytelling for the kids. Bring your instrument to jam and get a $5 discount. Come enjoy local artists playing original music.

On the grounds of the East Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, 10848 Chillicothe Rd / SR 306, 1/4 mile south of SR 6 in Kirtland, Ohio. Tickets $10 at the door, $8 seniors 65+, kids are free! 11:00am until 7:00pm. Service dogs only at the festival, please.

— Steven B. Smith, 4.5.2013 for Blue Sky Folk Festival

Rachel Brown

spoon a little spoon with me

learn how to spoon with Spoon Too Soon

Here’s the second of four short pieces I wrote for the Blue Sky Folk Festival on this Saturday’s performers.

We’ll be getting there at 11:30 to attend Spoon Too Soon’s spooning workshop so we too can entertain with kitchen implements.

Spoon Too Soon

The upbeat off-beat Northeastern Ohio acoustic duo Spoon Too Soon breaks through the usual wall between performer and audience by using humor, harmony and . . . kitchen utensils.

You can check them out at the 3rd Annual Blue Sky Folk Festival May 4, 2013 in Kirtland, Ohio.

With voices born to sing together, Lenora Darlin and Bow Yocum formed Spoon Too Soon in 2010 to showcase their mix of original, Americana, folk and country with smooth harmony, guitar, fiddle and spoons. There’s a lot of smiles and affection in their performance of positive, up-tempo songs (possibly provided by their getting married last summer), and they always reel the audience in with their spoons, especially the kids. It’s rather like sitting out on the back porch with friends.

Lenora sings, plays percussion and, of course, spoons. Bob says she’s the inspiration for it all, and has a song to prove it (“Don’t Count Me Out”).

Bob has performed in local bands for years, including Better than Bacon, the Hot Foot Quartet, Whiskey River Band, The Silver String Band, and still performs with Abbey Rodeo on fiddle, mandolin, guitar, harmonica and vocals.

Spoon Too Soon’s music swings from 1940’s light-hearted odes of love to old-time classic country. If you want a good reason to catch them, stop by their website at spoontoosoon.com/ and listen to “How’d Ya Like to Spoon with Me.” Their delightful banter is guaranteed to make you smile; if it doesn’t, you’re probably too cranky to be going out anyway. Bob channels a bit of 1940’s Jimmy Durante on this one.

They are also giving a “How to spoon” workshop at Blue Sky (the percussive spoons, not the older meaning of “a horizontal hug lying back to chest, fitting into each other’s nooks like spoons in a drawer”).

Their songs can be heard online:
“A, You’re Adorable” – >spoontoosoon.com/ayouradorable.mp3
“Bluebird on Your Windowsill” – spoontoosoon.com/bluebirdonwindow.mp3
“Don’t Count Me Out” – spoontoosoon.com/dontcountmeout.mp3 (an original song)
“This Old House” – spoontoosoon.com/thisoldhouse.mp3
“How’d Ya Like to Spoon with Me” spoontoosoon.com/spoonwithme.mp3

Find them on Facebook: facebook.com/pages/Spoon-too-Soon/184544301622342

Watch them on YouTube:
“Down by the Water” — youtu.be/TBJ4mZusK6A

The 3rd Annual Blue Sky Folk Festival Saturday, May 4, 2013 is a day-long folk music jam with workshops, great food, and an inside main stage. New this year: more tents for jammers and a dance floor near the main stage. More details at blueskyfolkfest.com. Bring your blankets & lawn chairs. There is a playground and storytelling for the kids. Bring your instrument to jam and get a $5 discount. Come enjoy local artists playing original music.

On the grounds of the East Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, 10848 Chillicothe Rd / SR 306, 1/4 mile south of SR 6 in Kirtland, Ohio. Tickets $10 at the door, $8 seniors 65+, kids are free! 11:00am until 7:00pm. Service dogs only at the festival, please.

— Steven B. Smith, 4.10.2013 for Blue Sky Folk Festival

Lenora Darlin & Bow Yocum of Spoon Too Soon