Robert Belfour was born in a small plank house several miles South of Holly Springs, Mississippi in 1940. It was one of several shacks on the Hurdle farm, part of which his father rented until his death in 1953. The specific part of Mississippi where Robert was born is the hill country in the northern part of the state. This region has a distinctly different culture than the more famous Mississippi Delta and the Blues from that region is strong and unique. Like most of the other accomplished performers from the area R.L. Burnside, Fred Mcdowell, Joe Callicott, Jesse Mae Hemphill, Junior Kimbrough, and Charlie Feathers-- Robert Belfour was submerged in the area's rich musical heritage. Robert's first memory is that of his father playing a resonator guitar in a style similar to that of Charlie Patton's. Robert ate at picnics held by Othar Turner, and at church with gospel songs led by Syd Hemphill. When free from chores, Robert could be found in the company of neighbor, and future label mate, Junior Kimbrough. Robert was 13 when his father died bringing an end to his childhood. From then on all of Robert's energy went to helping his mother provide for him and his younger brother. Robert spent what little free time he had learning to chord his father's guitar.
In 1959 Robert married Norene Norman and they moved to Memphis, Tennessee. A year later Robert went to work for Choctaw construction, a hard gig that lasted thirty-five years. At sixty, Belfour's guitar playing is mature and highly accomplished; his voice, clear and powerful, and the sound is pure country blues. Robert left the hills of North Mississippi forty years ago but his music never did.
This Biography was found at Fat Possum Records where you can find Robert's recordings. We're certain he'll bring a few along to the Festival, too!
Seamus Connolly is one of the world's most respected master Irish traditional musicians and teachers. A native of Killaloe, County Clare he now resides in Groton, Massachusetts. Seamus won the Irish National Fiddle Championship 10 times, a feat unequalled by any other musician. He was also the winner of the internationally acclaimed "Fiddler of Dooney" Competition.
More recently, Seamus was appointed to the endowed "Artist in Residence" Sullivan Chair in Irish Music at Boston College. He was also awarded a Fellowship in Traditional Arts by the Massachusetts Cultural Council (in 1990 Seamus was awarded another Fellowship from the Council and three consecutive Master/Apprenticeship Grants). In 2002 he was named "Traditional Musician of the Year" by The Irish Echo, a national Irish-American newspaper. He was also inducted into the Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann Hall of Fame. In 1999 Irish America Magazine selected Seamus as one of their "Top 100" Irish Americans.
Seamus grew up in a home filled with music; both his parents and two brothers were musicians. His brother, Martin Connolly a button accordionist, also won the National Championship a number of times. Seamus was 12 years old when he began playing the fiddle. His father encouraged him to listen to the recordings of the famed County Sligo fiddler, Michael Coleman. Coleman was later to became one of Seamus' musical heroes. Seamus would slow down the Maestro's 78 rpm recordings and re-tune his own fiddle to match the sounds and tones of the record. He could then hear every note clearly and was almost able to visualize the movements of the master's fingers and bow.
Before long, Seamus went on to national prominence. He was a regular performer on Irish radio and television. He joined the famous Kilfenora Ceili Band, an ensemble noted for its rhythms, musicality and rare tunes indigenous to North County Clare. He traveled with the band throughout Ireland and Britain, playing for dances, concerts, radio and television programs.
Seamus came to the United States in 1972 as a member of the first Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann (CCE) tour, an ensemble of 26 musicians, singers and dancers. In 1976 he immigrated to America and settled in the Boston area. At the request of Larry Reynolds, President of the local branch of CCE, Seamus agreed to teach and pass on to American-born students the various regional styles of Irish fiddling. Some of his better students qualified to compete in the Irish National Music Championships, one of them, Brendan Bulger, won first place in the under eighteen fiddle category, a competition Seamus had won twenty-five years earlier. Seamus has had the honor of representing Ireland on three "Masters of the Folk Violin" tours organized by the National Council for the Traditional Arts. He has performed at most major festivals in the United States, including the National Folk Festival, Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife, Wolf Trap Irish Folk Festival and American Roots Fourth of July Celebration at the Washington Monument. He also performed on the "Folk Masters" radio series, which was broadcast nationwide on National Public Radio. As a performer, teacher and lecturer, he has traveled to places as far afield as Australia, Spain, France, England, Canada, and Ireland.
Since the early 1970's, Bruce Greene has been playing and preserving the traditional fiddle music of Kentucky. He learned to play from some of the last living fiddlers of that region, whose music had been passed down from the 1800's.This foundation helped him build upon a style and repertoire unlike any other. 30 years ago, Bruce's playing more closely mirrored the sources he learned from, but today, it has developed into his own unique style, which still retains many of the traditional elements that make his fiddling sound authentic and ancient. His incredible technique is camouflaged by his relaxed style of playing. Bruce's repertoire includes a vast number of obscure and crooked tunes, as if opening a previously locked door to a room rich with old-time music most people didn't know existed.
Bruce Greene was born in 1951, and grew up in New Jersey. He learned to play the guitar and five string banjo in his teens, mainly from listening to records. His interest in traditional music started during that time and led him to the fiddle, inspired by the New Lost City Ramblers and some of the field recordings that were starting to become available. In 1969, Bruce left home for college in Washington state and met the first traditional fiddler he would come to know, a man originally from Missouri. By that time, Bruce's interest in traditional Appalachian music had grown quite a bit, and he moved to Kentucky to study folklore, especially the music. Bruce began to meet some of the local Kentucky fiddlers, and as it turned out, he spent more time seeking out and studying the old time fiddlers than he did learning the discipline of folklore!
After a number of years living in different parts of Kentucky, Bruce met his partner, fine artist and singer Loy McWhirter, and moved to North Carolina in 1978, where he still lives. Bruce has continued his work of preserving and learning the traditional music of the area, when he can find time aside from family life and his job at a local book business. Bruce has taught fiddle classes on and off for some years, at festivals and gatherings including Augusta, Swannanoa, Mars Hill and The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes. He specializes in Kentucky fiddling, and has performed as an artist in residence at Brown University and Amherst College.
Bruce's greatest influences have been Jim Bowles, Gusty Wallace, Hiram Stamper, John Salyer and his sons Grover and Glen, all Kentucky musicians. Sing Out Magazine writes:
"Another player whose style and repertoire are almost entirely reflective of one region is the legendary and somewhat reclusive Bruce Greene. Evidently, we all owe Greene a giant debt not only for preserving scores of archaic central and eastern Kentucky fiddle pieces from fiddlers now passed on, but also for choosing to adopt the gently, rolling bow of some of his teachers as his own. To hear him play...is to take a trip back in time. It is hard to imagine that this is a man in his (fifties) playing for us in the (21st century). Many of my fiddling friends had told me I "needed" to listen to Bruce's music, so I introduced myself to him via Fiddle Magazine's Appalachian fiddling video. I was instantly mesmorized my Bruce's gentle style and authenticity. I was amazed by his economy of graceful movement, and the great amount of expressive tone it elicited from his fiddle. From a fiddler's viewpoint, I find there is much to learn and enjoy from Bruce's fiddling."
Loy McWhirter Ballads and Songs
Loy McWhirter of Yancey County, North Carolina has been singing all her life. She has a vast repertoire of traditional songs and ballads from the southern Appalachians and Britain. Many of her songs she learned from her Georgia father as well as from the German and English people she grew up around in a community in Paraguay. In addition to her singing, Loy is also an accomplished visual artist. Most recently, her etching series is being shown at the New Orleans Museum of Art. She is well known as the illustrator of Rise Up Singing.
What started as a class taught by University of Chicago alum and Second City co-founder Bernie Sahlins quickly escalated, spread like wildfire, and took the country--nay--the world by storm...sort of. The truth is that The University of Chicago is the undisputed birthplace of improvisational and sketch comedy as we know it today. In the 1950's, a group of University Chicago students formed the Compass Players on campus, and in 1959, the group became The Second City. The theater has since become an institution, rearing the likes of Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Chris Farley, Tim Meadows, Mike Meyers, Rachel Dratch, and Tina Fey. In 1986, the aforementioned Sahlins returned to the University campus in order to begin a south side group to rival his north side creation. He trained the first Generation of Off-Off Campus in the art of sketch and improv comedy and the group has kept to his regiment of training ever since. Since 1986, Off-Off Campus has entertained thousands of Chicagoans with its unmistakable mix of improv, sketch, and musical comedy.
For over thirty-five years, Bob and Dan Paisley and the Southern Grass have maintained a reputation as a premier traditional bluegrass band. After Bob Paisley's passing in November 2004, Dan Paisley and the Southern Grass will continue their distinctive brand of hard-driving bluegrass music, which combines soulful and powerful harmony singing with exciting instrumental work. The band has performed at many music festivals and special events over the years (including the inauguration of President Carter), and has numerous tours of Europe and Japan to its credit.
Dan Paisley and the Southern Grass travel extensively to play fairs, festivals, colleges, and clubs, as well as private parties and promotional events -wherever there is an audience for lively and authentic Appalachian bluegrass music. Their latest CD, "Heritage," is enjoying critical acclaim, including a highlight review in "Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine."
Dan Paisley, Bob's son, joined the band in 1974 (at the age of fifteen) and has become one of the most distinctive and expressive vocal stylists in bluegrass music today. His powerful singing and rhythm guitar playing are unmatched in their soul and intensity.
Michael Paisley, also Bob's son, has played acoustic bass with the group since 1981, and is an accomplished trumpet player as well. His instinctive sense of timing and rock-solid bass playing are the backbone of the renowned Southern Grass rhythm.
Bob Lundy is the son of the great banjo player, Ted Lundy. His hard-driving and dynamic style of banjo playing adds greatly to the Southern Grass sound. His rich baritone voice is a natural with Dan's lead and tenor. Prior to joining the Southern Grass, Bob played with such greats as Jimmy Martin and Bill Harrell.
T.J. Lundy, also a son of Ted Lundy, is one of the greatest bluegrass fiddle players to come along in years. He is a master of the classic 50s buegrass sound. His hoedown fiddling is the best in the field, He toured previously with the Hot Mud Family.
Don Eldreth, Jr. is the son of a former member of the Southern Grass, Don Eldreth Sr. Don, like his father, plays the mandolin and like most other members of the band he plays several other instruments. He has a great bluegrass voice and can really put a song across.
The Pine Leaf Boys perform Cajun and Creole music. They are made up of Wilson Savoy, Cedric Watson, Jon Bertrand, and Blake Miller.
Wilson Savoy plays accordion and has known Cajun music since he was a young child growing up in Savoy, Louisiana. At an early age, he fluently whistled Cajun songs with intricate melodies as he jumped on the trampoline with his brother and sisters. He began piano at an early age, pounding boogy-woogy and honkey tonk on an old upright that was tuned 3 half-steps low. At the age of 15, Wilson's father built an accordion from a Sasafras tree that was planted the same day his grandfather was born, and died the same year as his grandfather He is inspired by Amede Ardoin, Iry LeJeune, Lawrence Walker, and his father, Marc Savoy, but enjoys and continues to be influenced by old and modern Cajun, Soul, and Blues. He also studies film and documentary filmmaking and received a grant to study fiddle with the brilliant fiddle legend, Ken Smith.
Cedric Watson performs on fiddle and has studied les veilles styles of Canray Fontenot and Bebe Carriere. He is today the leading foreman in the Creole Cowboys. Cedric lives, breathes, and eats Cajun, Creole, and Zydeco music and introduces a heap of new arrangements and original songs to the group. He is currently living near the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and studies ancient French and ballads of Blind Uncle Gaspard and Edius Naquin. Cedric adds a fantastic new energy and style to the Pine Leaf Boys and equally carries his weight by playing the accordion, drums, and guitar. His fantastic interpretations of melody and master improvisational skills are untouched by any Creole fiddler today.
Drew Simon on drums and accordion, was raised in Lafayette, Louisiana and has played Cajun music since his was a little boy. Drew began his musical career playing drums with his brother in a local band named "Acadien", and today plays drums, guitar, and accordion. He is also a fantastic vocalist and has been influenced greatly by Phillip Alleman, the Balfa Brothers, and Lawrence Walker. Music never stops in Drew's head, and sometimes he will awake from slumber with a new melody in his head and vainly adapt it to the group. Although we never play those songs, we admire his perspiration. He is currently a student at UL in Louisiana Tourism.
Jon Bertrand, on guitar, was raised in the thriving hub of Jeff Davis Parish that is Pine Island or Crapeauville where he began life as a cowboy. He eventually, after many blows to the head by various large farm animals, decided to seek for a less painful lifestyle. He began playing guitar and, in 2004, 'il a quitte sa maison' and began touring with the Lost Bayou Ramblers. His major influences in life are Cory McCauley, Harry Trahan, the Hackberry Ramblers, Iry LeJeune, Austin Pitre, and Sonny Meaux. He is also en route to play a festival with Cory Ledet in Moscow, Russia. Jean completed his studies at UL in French and today lives with the rest of the Pine Leaf Boys on Convent St. in Lafayette, LA.
Blake Miller, on guitar and bass and second-fiddle, was grown in the humble town of Iota. The oldest of two children, Blake began playing accordion at a very young age and supernaturally became fluent on the 10-button box. Limited by the diatonic squeeze box, Blake shifted his focus to the fiddle and, "practiced fiddle for hours a day while his accordion sat on the shelf," according to his dad, Bruno. Before even graduating high school in 2005, Blake became renown as the 'sought-after' musician of Louisiana for accordion, fiddle, and rhythm/lead guitar. Now, equipped with the holy trinity of Cajun instruments, Blake adds a new dynamic to the Pine Leaf Boys as a rhythm machine, solid as a Sherman tank but twice as deadly, an accompanying second-fiddle player, with harmonies more beautiful than a butterfly in a jar of honey, and bass, with walks and syncopated riffs funkier than Michael Jackson.
Pula-lhe o Pe is committed to restoring the participative culture that was once an integral part of village life and small town communities in Spain and Portugal: lively music and dance gatherings functioned to bring together people of different ages and backgrounds and contributed to a harmonious and joyful atmosphere. However, as in many traditional communities, the transformation from a rural to a more urban way of life severely damaged these forms of creative interactions. As a result, many songs and dances were lost and many are currently threatened with extinction. In an attempt to conserve the traditional repertoire of Galicia and Portugal, the members of Pula-lhe o Pe have been learning and collecting traditional songs and dances from elderly people. The band then introduces this traditional material from Galicia and Portugal to new audiences of both young and old throughout Spain, Portugal, and Europe to foment interest and restore music and dance as a community activity. Pula-lhe o Pe's repertoire includes muneiras, xotas, marchas, valsas and xogos from Galicia and Regadinho, Erva Cidreira do Ribatejo, Pingacho, La Cirigoca, and Polqueado from Portugal. All the songs are sung in Gallego, Portuguese and Mirandes. The instruments used are especially chosen to reproduce the original sonority of the music and include Galician bagpipes, flutes, accordion and percussion, such as frame drums. Pula-lhe o Pe performs its repetoire at balls and concerts where a caller explains the dances and the public is invited to dance. Pula-lhe o Pe also participates in many dance workshops, where the traditional dances are taught in detail. They have performed in several folk festivals throughout Portugal an Spain, including Andancas and Danzas sin Fronteras.
Montse Rivera is one of the three members who provides percussion, voice and calling for the group. She has dedicated herself to teaching and performing Galician frame drums, dancing and singing for over 20 years. She is a founding member of Leilia, one of the most important traditional Galician bands, and has collaborated in several projects with internationally-recognized artists such as Kepa Junkera, Milladoiro, Jose Nieto and Xose Manuel Budino.
Mercedes Prieto, also percussion, voice and calling, is a recent graduate of Faculdade de Motricidade Humana (Portugal) in dance arts. She has been dancing Galician dances since childhood and teaching Galician dance in workshops since 1994 in Europe and South America.
Celina da Piedade is featured on accordion and voice. Celina studied accordion, piano, musical formation and music history at the Conservatorio de Setubal (Portugal). She is a member of several Portuguese projects such as Uxu Kalhus, Rodrigo Leao, Modas a Margem do Tempo and Cravo e Ferradura and she has been a guest musician with At-tambur, Dazkarieh, Ne Ladeiras and Viviane.
Joana Negrao on percussion and voice, has studied classical and modern dance at the Academia de Danca Contemporanea de Setubal (Portugal). She also studied the bagpipe, frame drums and Portuguese traditional singing and is guest singer and caller for the band, Uxu Kalhus.
Miguel Barriga plays flutes, bagpipes and percussion. He has a special interest in traditional music and dance, and has studied several percussion techniques as well as the bagpipes.
The Rogues bring the sounds of Scottland to Hyde Park this year, and are made up of Randy Wothke, E.J. Jones, Nelson Stewart, and Jeremy Freeman.
Randy Wothke began Scottish style drumming in 1986. He has competed at numerous Scottish Highland games throughout the United States in the open snare drum classification. He has also competed with the Hamilton Pipe Band out of Houston, Texas when they became the Grade III World Champions in Glasgow, Scotland in 1998. Through his pipe band experiences Randy has met and performed with Rod Stewart, and shaken hands with Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of Britain. Randy currently composes music for the Rogues and manages most of the band's business. He and his wife, Sharon, who assists him with band business, promotion and sales, enjoy traveling around the country and visiting new places with their three cats.
EJ Jones is best known for his work with the band Clandestine, of which he was a founding member. From 1991 to 2003, he wrote music for and played with that group. In 2003 and 2004, he toured with The Willow Band in support of his solo album, The Willow. EJ has played the Highland bagpipes since age 11 and has been in the prize lists of the U.S. Piping Foundation and the Nicol-Brown Chalice. He still competes when his schedule allows. He also plays flute, whistles, bombarde, border pipes, Irish bagpipes and Scottish smallpipes, which he manufactures himself. His playing is the result of years spent in traditional study; his imagination and orchestration open up new avenues for the band in Celtic music.
Nelson Stewart was a founding member of the popular Celtic Rock band, The Swinish Multitude, from Toronto, Canada. When the group later reformed as The Fictionmakers, he became their lead singer and chief songwriter. Nelson has recorded with various artists as a studio musician and has shared the stage with such popular groups as Our Lady Peace, Big Sugar, Ashley MacIsaac, Leahy, Kilt, and The Mahones. But the highlight of his musical career, he says, was performing at the famous El Mocambo in Toronto. Nelson is currently an instrumental school teacher in Hamilton, Ontario, where he also conducts a stage band. In his spare time he enjoys playing ice hockey and writing and recording music at his home recording studio.
Jeremy Freeman began his piping career at age 9 at the acclaimed St. Thomas Episcopal School in Houston under the tutelage of world renowned Gold Medalist Mike Cusack. Cusack's high technical standards and his pure "feel" for Highland music, old and new, have most inspired Jeremy's playing. Jeremy, an open class piper, has won numerous and prestigious solo piping competitions in Scotland and the U.S., including taking 2nd place in the Silver Medal at the Northern Meeting at Inverness, a very significant achievement. He attended Lyon College on a full piping scholarship, and earned a B.A. in English and philosophy. He went on to obtain a Masters of Arts and Religion from Yale University.
Nancy Sluys, on banjo, has been playing clawhammer banjo since 1974 when she built a banjo from a kit and locked herself in a room and didn't come out until she knew Shady Grove. Traveling to the Galax Fiddler's Convention in 1974 Nancy came to love the style of playing that originated in Round Peak, the area between Galax, Virginia and Mount Airy, North Carolina where she and her husband Bill have made their home. A regular at the fiddler's conventions she has won the blue at Galax three times! Nancy is one of the few aficionados of the Kyle Creed style of clawhammer banjo playing. She is also a fiddler with the Pilot Mountain Bobcats, a popular Surry County dance and festival band.
Bill Sluys, on bass, got his chops on a washtub bass in the 70's before switching to an aluminum upright bass. His steady beat and creative licks have driven many a festival jam session way into the night. Bill also plays bass for the Pilot Mountain Bobcats.
Chester McMillian, on guitar, was born, raised and still living on Round Peak, you can't get any closer than that! Played with Tommy Jarrell, The Shady Mountain Ramblers, Ernest East and the Pine Ridge Boys, Backstep and most every other Round Peak area musician at one time or another. Chester is known for his unique picking style that uses thumb and finger picks instead of a flat pick to get his driving sound.Richard Bowman, on fiddle, is from Ararat, Virginia, just over the line from Surry County, N.C., a powerhouse of a fiddler with that authentic old time style. Richard has learned all of his tunes from the older musicians who lived in the foothills of the Virginia and North Carolina Mountains. A winner at many fiddler's conventions, individually and with his family band, The Slate Mountain Ramblers, he has a drive that will get you dancing.
Excerpted from an article by Niles Frantz (Full article and original image from "Byther Smith: Working Man's Blues" at The Blue Highway
. . . . "This is what I search for in my heart all the time," Smith said, "to try to get something across to the people, to get them to feel what I feel." Smith's tough, unflinching songs reflect a tragic, turbulent youth and a determined, focused adulthood. Byther Claude Earl John Smith was born in Monticello, Mississippi, on April 17, 1932, the next to the youngest of nine kids, the only musician in a church-going family. His mother died in childbirth, and his father died just six months later. One of his sisters died in a house fire, the story of which would later become a song and an album title for Smith. The boy was raised by an aunt and uncle on a farm, which he left at 15 to work throughout the South in construction.
Smith was drawn to boxing as a teen, and when he wasn't at the gym, he picked up upright bass from some cowboys at a nearby ranch and soon began playing country-western music at rodeo shows. When he experienced his first boxing defeat, his aunt bought him a Fender bass and told him to focus on music, and stop boxing. "I learned from boxing that you got to have that killin' instinct," Smith said. "You got to hate everything that's an obstacle to you getting to the top. You got to stop what's in front of you." Smith told Living Blues that he still considers himself a better bass player than guitar player, which may partly explain the undeniable drive underpinning many of Smith's compositions. The youth also learned harmonica and drums.
Smith's oldest brother had lots of blues 78s, and the young guitarist tried to play like Tommy McClennan, and then Blind Boy Fuller. The first song he learned all the way through was John Lee Hooker's Sally Mae. Smith is a cousin to the idiosyncratic Chicago bluesman J.B. Lenior, on his mother's side. Lenior was Smith's idol. In the mid-50s, while home from Chicago, Lenior offered to start Smith in music if he ever made it to Chicago.
Smith made the trip in December 1956, having married his wife Etta Mae three years earlier, and started working at a candy company while his wife worked at a barbecue house. Unfortunately, there was no room for him in Lenior's band. Ever determined to pursue music, Smith played bass with a three-piece jazz combo for a couple years, singing a few blues numbers each night to break things up. In Chicago, he got to hear and even sit in with many artists he admired, including Lenior, Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, and Chuck Berry. Around 1962, he began to take guitar much more seriously, and he received guidance on the instrument from Robert Lockwood, Louis Myers, Hubert Sumlin, and Freddy Robinson. Lessons a'plenty came when Smith earned a gig playing rhythm guitar for Otis Rush on Wednesday and Thursday nights at Pepper's Lounge.
Smith landed another plum job playing with Junior Wells on the South Side at Theresa's Lounge. He held this post for about six years in the 70s, and he ran Junior's band, which became the regular band at Theresa's. In the mid 70s, Smith hit the road as guitarist for George "Harmonica" Smith and Big Mama Thornton.
For Smith, the 1980s and early 1990s were spent working hard for his family, playing music in clubs throughout the Midwest, regularly touring overseas, and making records when the opportunity presented itself. In 1983, a self-produced demo session became the album Tell Me How You Like It on the Texas-based Grits label. Material from the sessions was leased to Red Lightnin' in England and to the Mina label in Japan. This led to tours of Europe and Scandinavia. In 1984, Smith was prominently featured in the book Sounds So Good To Me: The Bluesman's Story by Barry Lee Pearson.
In 1985, Smith recorded a second album for Grits, which languished unreleased in the U.S. due to money troubles at the label. (A very limited release was done in Japan.) Happily for blues lovers, the masters were purchased by Chicago-based Razor Records and released as Housefire in 1988. Rounder Records reissued Housefire on CD on its Bullseye Blues label in 1991.
Smith retired in July 1995 after working 25 years as a machinist at Economy Folding Box Company, having put his six daughters through college. Though he will now be able to concentrate fully on music and do more touring, in many ways, to Smith, it is still just a job. "If people write about me after I'm gone," Smith pondered, "I wish they'd say, 'He was a working man.'"
