Concert at the Freight & Salvage   
2020 Addison St, Berkeley CA

Tickets $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door
Complete ticket information for Freight & Salvage concerts, including how to order advance tickets online: http://www.freightandsalvage.org
See http://www.freightandsalvage.org/directions for parking information

Jimmy Triplett, Scott Prouty, and Andy FitzGibbon are deeply immersed in the older West Virginia mountain style of fiddle playing, which includes dance music as well as beautiful solo fiddle tunes.  Their playing has been shaped by each other, as well as by rare field recordings and time spent with older traditional players.   They have all won fiddle contests around the state, and have taught various classes in music, both at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, WV and in other settings.  In addition to playing and teaching old-time music, all have been involved in activities related to its documentation. 

The Old Time Herald calls Jimmy "a fiddler's fiddler." While living in Elkins, WV, Jimmy worked for the Augusta Heritage Center, where he wrote grants and co-produced a two-CD compilation of the fiddling of Ernie Carpenter in 2001. He also produced the CD-Rom/DVD "One More Time: The Life and Music of Melvin Wine"  in 2004.  He studied with Melvin Wine through an Augusta Apprenticeship, and studied informally with many other fiddlers during his years in West Virginia.

Andy FitzGibbon works as a banjo repairman at Smakula Fretted Instruments in Elkins, WV and has presented research on historic banjos and their makers at the Banjo Collectors Gathering.   He is also an accomplished banjo player and singer of traditional songs.  A lot of what he learned about fiddle music came from spending time with Melvin Wine of Braxton County, Lester McCumbers of Calhoun County, John Hannah of Mingo County, and Murrell Hamrick of Randolph County.

Scott Prouty has assisted in the production of several recordings, including releases for Rounder Records and the Hammons Legacy series, and has written record reviews for Musical Traditions magazine.  He interned at the Archive of Folk Culture at the Library of Congress (where he helped produce a guide to West Virginia recordings) as well as the Rinzler Archives at the Smithsonian Folklife Center.  He spent time learning from central West Virginia fiddlers Melvin Wine, Wilson Douglas, and Leland Hall. 

Jimmy, Scott & Andy will be performing in concert at the Freight on Thurs. Sept. 9, playing for the square dance at Ashkenaz on Sat. Sept. 11, and all three will be giving master class workshops at the Jazzschool on Sun. Sept. 12.

"I am a bit of a hard case and it takes a special combination of sincerity and musical skill to bring both a gleam and a tear to my eye.  Cliff and Laurel have their own spin on the music and sound like no one else, not in vocal timbre, style of harmony or even instrumentation. How many albums of duet singing have you heard where every guitar break was backed exclusively (and beautifully) by rhythm dobro? Their forthright and tuneful singing is decorated in the most beautiful ways imaginable. Ornaments are subtle, delicate, and free from cliche. Harmonies are unexpected and gorgeous. The most predictable thing in their music is the high quality of delivery and of their repertoire. They each have a distinctly different style of singing lead but a similar approach to harmonizing which is as hard to describe as it is to sing. Neither starkly "lonesome" or overtly sweet, nor rustic, nor urbane, it is highly skillful singing. The voices tend to move independently, ornamenting and turning in a non-synchronous way. What I'm trying to say, friends, is they don't wiggle their notes at the same time. Their long resting notes are often harmonized unusually, creating thrilling suspensions, and they come off their final words beautifully. They don't "blend" like the Louvins, but somewhat more like the various Bill Monroe duets of the '50's: two vocal patterns interact to make a third pattern".
 
Molly Tenenbaum describes their music: "If there ever was a definition for the word "twine," Cliff and Laurel embody it, their voices simultaneously two separate and one together. Carter Family, Delmore Brothers, parlor songs, and hymns, every song in their repertoire is a beautiful gem and their music is rich with emotion - not sentiment, but a deep, pure pull toward the essential. Their music remembers that time before country, bluegrass, and old-time split apart-and brings us to the present, re-grounded, refreshed, and reminded of our own full natures."

http://www.hobemianrecords.com/Del_press.html
http://www.ericandsuzy.com/suzymore.htm