Buckdancing from Tennessee, high-energy string band music from North Carolina, and old-time mountain singing from West Virginia are among the Appalachian traditions that will be celebrated at the 9th Annual Berkeley Old Time Music Convention, September 14-18, 2011.

Festival events include concerts, workshops and a film showing at the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse; square dances, family concerts; a panel discussion at UC Berkeley, and more. Check the BOTMC website for details.

Tonight the Pilot Mountain Bobcats will deliver fiddle
and banjo mountain music in spades. BOTMC Director Suzy Thompson describes their high-energy string band music
as "old-time music in overdrive, with an intense, cohesive, and focused sound." This will be the first West Coast appearance for this Surry County, North Carolina band comprised of Nancy Sluy (fiddle), Bill Sluys on bass, Jacki Spector on banjo, and Allin Cottrell on guitar.

Ginny Hawker and Tracy Schwarz, from West Virginia, will be making a return trip to the BOTMC; they were last here in 2006. Tracy was a member of pioneering old-time music trio the New Lost City Ramblers with Mike Seeger and John Cohen (for 50 years!), and has also been very active in Cajun music. Ginny grew up in the Primitive Baptist church and has recorded with the late Hazel Dickens and Carol Elizabeth Jones. The couple has performed several times at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, often with Hazel. Emmylou Harris says that Ginny is one of her favorite singers, and we agree!

Tonight's evening is kicked off by the ACES a local all-star band featuring the talents of Alan Senauke, Chad Manning, Eric Thompson, and Suzy Thompson. Alan has performed with Hig Country and, with Eric & Suzy, in the Bluegrass Intentions and the Blue Flame String Band. Chad (David Grisman Bluegrass Band, Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands) is a wonderful oldtime fiddler who has delved deeply into those pre-bluegrass sounds from Kentucky and Tennessee. Eric, best known as a flatpicker, plays fingerpicked old time banjo in this band! Suzy, roots musician extraordinaire, rounds out the band with her unmistakable vocals and fiddling talents.

The Berkeley Old Time Music Convention will hold several workshops at the Freight on Sunday, September 18.

Old-time Fiddle w/ Joseph Decosimo
Old-time Banjo w/ Nancy Sluys
Primitive Baptist Singing w/ Ginny Hawker
Old-time Fiddle w/ Mike Bryant
Old-time Banjo w/ Joseph Decosimo
Close Southern Harmony Singing w/ Ginny Hawker & Tracy Schwarz

Visit The Pilot Mountain Bobcats' website

Visit Ginny Hawker and Tracy Schwarz' website

Visit Eric & Suzy's website

Visit the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention

Listen to tracks from The Pilot Mountain Bobcats, Ginny Hawker & Tracy Schwartz, ACES