schedule.
workshops.
Flatfooting - Tapping Out a Tune
Julie(feet) & Adrian(fiddle) Shepherd-Powell
Learn some rhythmic flatfoot steps to accompany your favorite old time tunes. Julie will teach beginner and intermediate steps to some of the most loved dance tunes of the mountains, played by Adrian on fiddle or banjo. She’ll also discuss the ways she approaches dance as a percussive element to the music in both jam sessions and performance settings. Be sure to bring your dance board and leather bottomed or slick soled shoes!
Partner Dancing
Joanne Pontrello
Learn Honky-Tonk & Cajun dancing - waltzes, two-steps and maybe a little zydeco! Bring your new dance steps to the Honky Tonk and Cajun dance on Saturday night!
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Intermediate Fiddle
Myra Morrison
Although bowing syncopation is a fanciful term, the focus of this workshop will center on adding rhythmic texture to a common and simple melody. Myra will elaborate on a a few rhythmic bow sequences and techniques that will help intermediate fiddlers find and express their own groove.
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Beginner/Intermediate Guitar
Denis Severino
Come join a beginner / intermediate old-time guitar workshop focusing on rhythm fundamentals, developing an ear for chord changes, and being the ultimate subservient rhythm bitch to the even the most unappreciative of fiddlers!
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Intermediate Banjo
Frank Evans
The emphasis will be on learning by ear, but tabs will also be provided for the repertoire covered in the workshop. We will talk about jam sessions - how to learn tunes you've never heard before. We will discuss playing and singing at the same time, so if you are a singer, be sure to bring some of your favorite songs. By the end of the class you will be equipped with a deadly arsenal of banjo skills that will be sure to lead you to safety no matter what Old Time encounter you may find yourself in.
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Fiddle Tunes from the Mountain South
Adrian Shepherd-Powell
This workshop will explore a few tunes from the mountains of East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. Adrian will guide fiddlers through the styling, technique, and melodies of dance tunes from some of his favorite fiddlers. Bring your fiddle and be prepared to feel the summertime rhythms of fiddlers conventions in the southeastern U.S.
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Harmony Singing Repertoire
Channing Showalter
Join us in learning two part harmonies to some beautiful traditional songs. All abilities and experience levels are welcome. We will be teaching everything by ear, with lyric sheets and recordings provided. All singing will be done as a group in a relaxed and welcoming space. The workshop will begin with vocal warm ups and a demonstration of some two-part harmony techniques and styles. Come learn a few beautiful songs and make new friends that you can continue singing with long after the workshop ends!
Adrian & Julie Shepherd-Powell
Adrian and Julie Shepherd-Powell are a traditional music duo hailing from the mountains of southwest Virginia and western North Carolina. A native of Crimora, VA, Adrian has won contests at fiddler's conventions all over the southeast. His fiddle style is straight forward with a hard drivin' bow. Adrian has played with many old time bands including the Pea Ridge Ramblers, Matt Kinman's Old Time Serenaders, and the Cabin Creek Boys. One of his most recent awards includes second place in the old time fiddle competition at the Johnson County Fiddlers Convention in 2018. Julie is an award-winning clawhammer banjo player and flatfoot dancer originally from North Carolina. She competes in flatfoot dance competitions at fiddlers' conventions all over the southeast and calls square dances anywhere from Knoxville to New York City. She has won numerous awards for her flatfoot dancing, including most recently a first place finish at the Grayson County Fiddlers Convention in 2018. She currently teaches Appalachian Studies and Appalachian music at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. Together, Adrian and Julie play in an old time band, the Pine Mountain Railsplitters, celebrating the dance music of eastern Kentucky an southwest Virginia.
Max, Frank, & Sarra Evans
Max and Frank Evans grew up in Toronto in a family of classical musicians, and both started playing old time and bluegrass music at a young age after regular trips to the Clifftop festival in West Virginia. As teenagers they played together in Kitgut Stringband with their dad Neal, and Max went on to form The All Day Breakfast Stringband, and Frank to his now Juno-nominated band, The Slocan Ramblers. Sarra grew up on the opposite end of the country and music spectrum, in the punk scene in Vancouver, performing whenever an unlucky promoter would let her band Vulture Shock in the building. After meeting Max at a fundraiser for the first year of East Van Old Time Social, the two started playing music together, collaborating with Frank whenever possible. Max and Sarra live with their two dogs in Port Alberni, while Frank resides in Toronto, and the three are very pleased for the chance to share the stage for the third East Van Old Time Social.
Lewis & Spence
Micah Spence is a second generation multi-instrumentalist. His birthplace, Atlanta GA, was a hotbed of stringband music in the 1920's and 30's and he draws from a deep well of hometown heroes. Fiddlin' John Carson, The Skillet Lickers, and The Georgia Yellowhammers are some of his favorites from this transitional time in country music. A regular attendee of fiddler's conventions in the South, Spence has placed in several smaller contests on both fiddle and banjo, and placed first in the banjo contest at the 2017 Appalachian Stringband music festival in West Virginia.
Hannah Lewis is a talented musician and artist living in Detroit, MI. Since her old time awakening in 2014 at a house party in Mount Airy, NC, Lewis has become a fixture at fiddler’s conventions around the Southeastern United States. She has been the proud recipient of 5 participation ribbons from the Old Fiddler’s Convention in Galax, VA, and has gained a reputation for her flatfooting and singing.
Myra Morrison & Denis Severino
Myra started playing fiddle when she was 9 years old, playing for several years with her older fiddle-playing sister. They learned a majority of their tunes at music camps and festivals in West Virginia, particularly Allegheny Echoes and Augusta Old-Time Week. Myra was fortunate to have the influences of mentors Cathy Grant, John Morris, and Bobby Taylor who walked her through the basics, and stylistic aspects of fiddling while also instilling an appreciation for the cultural significance of the music. She has played in various band configurations including the Berea College Bluegrass Ensemble and the "Old Irregular String Band". Myra has since been kidnapped by Denis Severino and now fiddles around the BC Interior with The Tappalachian String Band. Denis met Myra during his first visit to Appalachia to immerse himself in the depths of old-time music. Myra and Denis make a long road trip every summer journeying back to Appalachia to stay connected to the music, friends and family out east.
Les Coeurs Criminals
Joanne Pontrello, Paul Denison, and Kelsey Nelsen make up Les Coeurs Criminals and are an exciting new arrangement that we are excited to bring to EVOS to fill the dance hall with the sounds of the Bayou on Saturday night.
Jack Dwyer Country Band
Jack Dwyer is a multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, and teacher based in the Pacific Northwest. He appears regularly at various N.W. festivals both under his own name and as sideman to some of the region's most respected musicians. He tours year round, teaches privately, and operates a recording space in Port Townsend, WA. Formerly a resident of Portland, OR, he taught on faculty at Lewis and Clark College for 7 years.
Alex MacLeod
Alex MacLeod is a Seattle-based caller and fiddle player. A member of the secretive Seattle Subversive Square Dance Society, he has called square dances in parks, on ferries, in parking lots and living rooms, in grange halls and barns and ballrooms. He strives to get dancers smiling, laughing, and breathless with fast past teaching and calling and a quick turn of phrase. He plays fiddle in the Highball Stringband, mostly at the corner pub and sometimes for dances near and far. He was at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada to call square dances in February, so it's possible he'll be sporting a conspicuously new cowboy hat. Feel free to point out how ridiculous this makes him appear
Gabe Strand
Gabe Strand has called square dances in grange halls, bars, State Parks, kitchens and pie contests across the Pacific Northwest. He is a frequent caller and musician at his local grange dances on Lopez Island, where he lives. A co-founder of the Salish Sea Squaredance Society (S4), Gabe is proud to continue a tradition that has been an important part of Pacific Northwest social life going back 160 years.
J.R. Proctor
On stage, J.R. Proctor’s approach to performing is simple: make the audience feel something. In doing so, he captivates listeners by mixing sparse arrangements and melodic hooks with clear deference for the folk story telling tradition.
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On his first solo release (forthcoming EP - planned to be recorded in 2019), J.R.brings together old friends to record five original songs about life, loss and love.While the songs are rooted in the folk tradition, and are influenced by his time spent performing bluegrass and old-time music, he explores themes that extend beyond the confines of any particular genre. Through his vivid imagery and understated approach, J.R. Proctor showcases himself as an emergent artist with a promising future.
Channing Showalter
Channing Showalter is a puppeteer and musician living in Port Townsend, Washington. She is part of a duo called West of Roan.
Paul Silveria
Paul Silveria is a musician, songwriter, dance caller, and community organizer who engages audiences of all ages with interactive old-time music and dance. Paul has called dances at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, the Mission Folk Music Festival and many more, and has presented square dancing workshops at more than 150 schools across western Canada.
Kelly Marie-Martin
Artist and multi-instrumentalist Kelly Marie Martin has been playing old time American fiddle and banjo music for over a decade. Based in Los Angeles, she sings and plays guitar, banjo and upright bass with quintet Echo Mountain and duo Two Galoots. Echo Mountain has performed at the Fathers’ Day Festival in Grass Valley and Parkfield Bluegrass Festival. Kelly was a crucial part of fomenting a “squarevolution” in LA with old time trio Triple Chicken Foot, hosting a monthly jam and square dance that continue, along with founding annual festival the Los Angeles Old Time Social, three days of family-friendly concerts, workshops, cakewalk and square dance dedicated to old time music. Triple Chicken Foot produced 3 albums and were featured on NPR and in the Los Angeles Times. In 2017, she released her first solo album of original songs and sound interludes, The Last Kind Word.
Rats Gone to Rest
Rats gone to rest is a high-energy square dance band hailing from Portland, Oregon. The band consists of Joel Brown and Devin Forest-Hines, long time friends and musical collaborators who arrived into traditional Old time music through punk music. Rats Gone to Rest channels the lawless energy and spirit of late night fiddle festivals, and rogue square dances.
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