Music for March 20, 2010

The Hoyles The Hoyles have been performing bluegrass together as a family band  for more than 25 years, and are always a welcome addition to the Medicine Show Stage. Founding members of the band include Eddie on banjo and vocals, Lisa on upright bass and vocals and Al on guitar, mandolin and vocals. With Eddie’s hard driving  Scruggs-style banjo along with Lisa’s traditional bass playing and Al’s smooth rhythm audiences have a hard time keeping their  feet still. The Hoyles  blend together their rich acoustic instruments as they reach a tight family harmony  scarcely achieved by any means other than years of playing and singing together. They will be joined by long time friend and band member "Fiddle Wizard" Mark Squires for their Medicine Show performance this month. Audiences  get a feel for that high lonesome sound that is so prominent in bluegrass music as they listen to the Hoyles’ performance. Their love for traditional bluegrass music is evident to all who listen and watch them perform. http://www.hoylesbluegrass.com/

Skillet Lickers II The "Skillet Lickers II", the ever popular North Georgia string band, will once again be joining the Medicine Show for it's March 2010 performance. The Skillet Lickers name is synonymous with fiddle band music in Georgia and is a group familiar to Georgia historians and folk music fans across the globe. One of the earliest “old-time” music groups to be recorded, the band’s recordings have sold millions of copies in the United States, and their style remains influential to the development of country, folk and bluegrass music. The band took root in the 1920s when a Dacula chicken farmer, Gid Tanner, was asked by Columbia Records to go to New York and record “some of that hillbilly music.” Today the "Skillet Lickers II"  are carrying on a tradition of family and community string band music going back at least four generations.  Gid’s grandson Phil Tanner on guitar and great grandson Russ Tanner on fiddle, are keeping the Tanner tradition alive, along with Art Rosenbaum on banjo, Doug Landress on bass, Julian McDaniel  on mandolin and harmonica, and Fleet Stanley on dobro. The band performs regularly throughout North Georgia’s traditional musical circles. A  has a recording project on the Global Village label, called “The Tanner Legacy Now”, that is a selection of the group’s most popular tunes.

Georgia Mudcats The "Georgia Mudcats" were featured on the very first Mountain Music and Medicine Show ten years ago, and are still one of the most popular bands to perform. The band members are Patrick Shields on guitar, John Grimm on fiddle, Lisa Deaton on bass and vocals, and Tom Ryan on banjo, and joining them for this performance will be "Special Guest",  Joel Cordel, a popular local multi-instrumentalist and  original member of the group and Medicine Show as well. The group blends a mix of Appalachian string-band music, flatland country blues, gospel music and traditional songs from all over the South. The "Georgia Mudcats" learned their music from friends, relatives and peers on porches, in living rooms and kitchens all over the country, and they love sharing their music, being  available for weddings, community festivals, square dances, family reunions, barbeques, private parties and other occasions at which traditional music is appreciated. The Mudcat's CD release, Across the Big Pond, is a compilation the group played on a tour of Northern Ireland. Their latest CD, Barefoot in the Henhouse and Other Southern Delights, features their current lineup and is chock full of fine old-time tunes and ballads. www.guitarauction.com/georgiamudcats.htm

Mist on the Mountain "Mist on the Mountain", has been the Mountain Music and Medicine Show "House Band" for the last three seasons with the talents of Clyde Gaddis on guitar and vocals, Melanie Pruitt singing lead and harmony vocals, Doyle Butler on mandolin, Sherry Moser  on bass and vocals, and are always one of the Medicine show highlights, with some of everyone's favorite Bluegrass, Gospel and Country songs.