Paul Brown, Terri McMurray and John
Schwab played a house concert on 24 May at Gene Bowlen’s home in Harrisonburg,
VA. Great concert space and a great
concert.. See www.bearcademusic.com Gene built a studio in which he does a lot of
local recording work for musicians and his own band. A big two story building adjacent to their
home near Harrisonburg, but in the midst of farm country. They have many hounds wandering around, goats
and cats.
The
band is THE MOSTLY MOUNTAIN BOYS. Two
guys and a lady. John Schwab is the
author of “Old-Time Backup Guitar: Learn from the
Masters.” He
has played with the Hoover Uprights, a popular band in northern
VA. Paul Brown, a long time broadcast and online journalist with
NPR, is a very talented fiddler and banjo player, and the producer of several
significant old time recordings including several that immortalized the music
of Benton Flippen and the Smokey Valley Boys.
He just retired, and almost immediately after that had open heart
surgery but he’s looking good. An old
friend. Terri McMurray plays
fine banjo and banjo uke. As her bio says, she “caught the attention of
Paul Brown when she beat him in the banjo contest at the 1982 Old Fiddlers'
Convention in Galax, VA and later joined him in matrimony and in the Toast
String Stretchers.”
They make great old time music, playing a great
range of styles. Even Mom liked it. I especially liked the version of Cluck
Old Hen that Paul learned from Ed Weaver of Stuarts Draft, VA. They played it last night. I purchased the CD and went right home with
the goal of learning this version from their CD. Quite different from the Cluck Old Hen we all know
and love.
The young lady sitting in front of us at Paul Brown’s house concert turned out to be the fiddler for a band called THE BUCK
STOPS HERE.
They
will be playing at Genes from 2 to 5 PM on 15 June.
Looking forward to a summer of local music!
Play hard,
Lew
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