Folk Bands and Artists
Bigfoot
Formed in 2010 to compete in the traditional string band contest at Clifftop, they took the name Bigfoot from Rhys Jones’ swollen foot at the time, and they took first place. The band members are Rhys Jones & Cleek Schrey on fiddles, John Herrmann on banjo, Susie Goehring on guitar and Meredith McIntosh on bass. Everyone but Cleek sings. They are all household names in old-time music and veterans of many great bands.
John Herrmann: Best known as a banjo player, John is also an expert guitarist, bassist and fiddler, and he has played with many notable bands such as the Henrie Brothers, Ralph Blizzard, One Eyed Dog, the Wandering Ramblers and Songs from the Mountains. He and his partner Meredith McIntosh have been part of the Midnight Mockingbirds, Ida Red and the Rockinghams, to name just a few.
Meredith McIntosh: With a degree in music education and a great love for old-time music, Meredith is known as a patient and enthusiastic teacher. She plays fiddle, guitar, bass, flute and piano. Over the years she has performed with Ida Red, the Heartbeats, Balfa Toujours, The Rockinghams, and The New Southern Ramblers (with John Herrmann, Gordy Hinners and Phil Jamison). She lives in Asheville NC where she is a certified massage therapist and teacher of The Alexander Technique.
Rhys Jones: One of the finest contemporary old-time fiddlers around. Born in Chicago, he began his fiddling in the fertile environment of the Chicago Barn Dance Company. Soon after, his family moved to southern West Virginia where he learnt from the older generation of fiddlers, including Ernie Carpenter, Melvin Wine and Wilson Douglas. Rhys has played for concerts, dances, workshops and festivals across the United States and Europe, has won both fiddle and band contests at The Appalachian String Band Festival (Clifftop), and is regarded as one of the best fiddlers of his generation.
Cleek Schrey: Described by the Irish Times as “a musician utterly at one with his instrument and his music.” Cleek Schrey is a fiddler and composer from Virginia, now based in NYC. The journal Sound Post has noted that Cleek “possesses a rare combination of traits: deep respect for traditional music and the people who make it, and an unbounded curiosity about new directions for sound.”
Susie Goerhing: has been playing old-time fiddle and guitar and singing Appalachian ballads and Carter Family songs since the late 1970s when she first joined forces with long time musical partners Jeff and Rick Goerhing. This musical trio formed the core of the Red Mules, an old-time string band that actively performed at festivals, music and dance camps, square dances and social gatherings throughout the 1980s and 90s. Susie has also performed with Rayna Gellert producing several fine CD
Genre: Old Time
