posts about live music, performance of music, concerts, etc.
by Jonah Barrett for OLY ARTS The Oly Old Time festivities on Saturday will include a square dance with Portland-based band Uncle Wiggily. Originally formed by the late Bill Martin and friends, Uncle Wiggily’s sounds encapsulate the music of old-fashioned square dances of the 1920s and ’30s. Today Uncle Wiggily consists of Amy Hofer and …
by Kelli Samson for OLY ARTS Olympia’s Bow Weevils are returning to The Oly Old Time Festival, the site of their 2016 debut. Prior to forming The Bow Weevils, Ruby Neatherlin (bass, fiddle, washboard), sisters Annie (fiddle, songwriting) and Ellie Davis (fiddle, guitar) and brothers Hatcher (guitar, mandolin) and Rizley Cox (banjo, fiddle, mandolin) played …
by Adam McKinney for OLY ARTS Music history is lined with family bands, with qualities spanning the good (the Everly Brothers), the bad (the Jonas Brothers) and the indescribably weird (the Shaggs). Those examples are all sibling acts, and that avoids the potential sleaziness of parents promoting their children as music acts. It’s easier to …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Rufus Wainwright has been described as Canada’s most flamboyant man of music. Beneath the flash, though, there’s plenty of substance. Wainwright, who laughingly describes himself as a “gay troubadour,” will perform for a reduced fee at the third annual “Gayla,” a benefit for Pizza Klatch, an organization that supports …
by Adam McKinney for OLY ARTS It’s a sad fact that a lot of people, even those who would consider themselves passionate fans of music, still have a blind spot when it comes to classical and chamber music. Perhaps it’s possible that years of classical music concerts being big-ticket affairs have conditioned people to view …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS When they perform at The Oly Old Time Festival, Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrelle won’t simply play and sing. They show as much as they tell, accompanying their songs with “crankies,” rolls of fabric or paper with illustrations that move with the turn of a crank. The duo’s music—and …
A longer history, as told to OLY ARTS by festival founders In 2008, a group of people who enjoyed old-time music—music played with banjo, fiddle and other traditional stringband instruments—began jamming in Olympia homes. People played under the band name Grizzle Grazzle, with the inclusive motto, “We are Grizzle Grazzle and so are you!” This motto …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Seattle-based Cajun band Touloulou will play for late-night dancers in the South Bay Grange on Feb. 18. The four-piece band is made up of Elena DeLisle on guitar, John Hurd on accordion, and Karen England and Steve Perry on fiddle. The festival website promises, “They’ll have you joyfully two-stepping …
by Christina Butcher for OLY ARTS There’s nothing quite as Pacific Northwestern as Olympia’s teen fiddle-and-folk band The REDS. Comprised of Eros and Dante Faulk and River and Sage Scheuerell, The REDS have been playing bluegrass and old-time music together for five years. This year, they’ll open the festival at the “Thursday Night Kick-Off Dance,” …
by Adam McKinney for OLY ARTS (Featured ART: Maybelle Carter by Paula McHugh) As an art form, one of music’s most admirable traits is its ability to adapt: Trends come and go, and styles emerge in a sort of call-and-response pattern. New sounds blaze trails in response to old ones, lending us revelations like the …