What, When, Where???

House Concerts: 
Friday, March 23, 8 pm
Saturday, March 24, 8 pm
Hosted by Curt Cooper & Annie Trimble
230 Edward Ave. , Pittsburgh, PA
412-343-0498  amt@southwind-pa.com
Please call or email for directions

House Concerts ~
2 chances to see the Reed Island Rounders strut their stuff!

Curt, and I (and Roanoke the Duck) and I are delighted to welcome the Rounders back to Pittsburgh, again for TWO house concerts in one weekend. For the past six or seven years, the Rounders have been coming to Pittsburgh to share their wonderful tunes and songs at house concerts and instrumental workshops.

Betty’s fiddling repertoire includes wonderfully smooth renditions of Southern Virginia, West Virginia, and Northern Kentucky tunes. I love her waltzes! Diane has a strong rhythmic clawhammer banjo style. She also has a wonderful collection of old-time songs (hope she gets the Peepers out). Billy adds a very solid guitar rhythm, plus comic asides—a great storyteller!

Though I now consider these folks my closest friends, I first heard their wonderful renditions of old time dance tunes as soloists in competitions at festivals in West Virginia and North Carolina, where they have each won top prizes. Where their music really grabbed me, though, was in the jam sessions at these festivals—you could feel the soul of central Appalachia in every note.

When Diane joined Betty and Billy in 1995, I knew it was a perfect match. Every one of them has the same passion—passing on the wonderful legacy of the old-time fiddle and banjo traditions. Tunes and songs that have been transported across the Pond and morphed by talented, but isolated musicians in their respective hollows. Or tunes created more recently by the souls that built the railroads, worked the mines, farmed the hills—a release, a cathartic creative process that transported the creator, the player, the dancer, the listener-- away from a life of hardship for a spell.

If you can’t make the concert on Friday, you can come Saturday night. Or you can come both nights! The Rounders promise not to present exactly the same concert--they usually let the audience (or Roanoke ) decide what they want to hear.

I know lately there are a number of budding fiddle and banjo players in the Pittsburgh area. Betty and Diane are both wonderful teachers, and will tailor their classes to the needs of their students. I encourage you all to come out to learn from these great musicians!

                                                                                                                                                   ~ Annie Trimble

Workshops...
Saturday, March 24, Noon - 4 pm (please arrive a bit early to get set up and tuned, bring recorders and extension cords)
Tuition: $50, registration info below

Intermediate Banjo:
Diane will be cramming everything into your heads and fingers that she possibly can in one day.
Her clawhammer style focuses on rhythm, melody & phrasing, whether playing solo, or
 accompanying fiddle or voice. 
E-mail Diane

Intermediate Fiddle: 
Betty will be emphasizing bow control, rhythms, accents & phrasing, through a few of her favorite
 weird tunes and tunings.  She combines drive, texture, and dynamics to bring life to dance tunes,
 solos, & waltzes.
E-mail Betty

Please note!  Messages will be handled as soon as they are retrieved, so please act quickly and be patient!
Hope to see you there!