Podunk 2012 - Saturday

The Boy Scouts Staffed the Gate All Weekend

 Walking the Dog

Mike Wilcox - Podunk Board President

Brian Hall - Office Manager

Saturday at Podunk was a wonder of variety, emotion, traditional bluegrass, and happy reunions topped off by the astounding performance of Kathy Mattea, revisiting her great hits of the eighties and nineties as well as performing mature new work that shows her depth and intelligence. It takes imagination to put together a program such as this; imagination to envision Podunk in a new and different venue after sixteen years; imagination to recreate an event a vituperative politician sought to destroy. Promoter Roger Moss is a man of both imagination and courage. He continues to offer the best in bluegrass to people willing to support variety and quality.

Travers Chandler & Avery County

Travers Chandler won last year's Podunk Band Contest and since then has been touring hard. He arrived at Podunk for the booking he earned road hardened and ready. Travers' traditional style is rough, raw Baltimore bar band music celebrating the music of the relatively unknown Charlie Moore.  His work represents a style of traditional music deserving preservation even while it is clearly not to everyone's taste. 

Adam Poindexter

 Tom Isaacs

Merle Johnson

Bobby Lundy  (Fill In)

Travers Chandler

First People in Their Seats - 9:30 AM

 

The Spinney Brothers
Happy Birthday at the Orlomoski's
 

Photo by Tex Orlomoski

The Spinney Brothers continue to bring their traditional bluegrass and classic country covers along with their own evocation of traditional values to the U.S. and the world from the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. With plenty of drive and enthusiasm, which never wavered on this hot and humid weekend, they entertained old fans and won new ones.  While not twins, they celebrated a common birthday on Sunday with a cake and good fellowship provided by the Orlomoski family.

Darryl Hebb

Gary Dalrymple

 Alan Spinney

Rick Spinney

 

Robin Orlomoski

The New Dave "Tex" Orlomoski

Podunk Kids Academy Rehearsal

in Dodd Stadium Sky Boxes w/air conditioning

 New Town
 Kati Pen-Willams

Kentucky-based New Town fronted by fiddler/singer Kati Pen-Williams has been spreading its wings and getting broader attention nationally through performances and frequent air plays on Sirius/XM radio. This band remains close to its traditional roots while reaching out for a new contemporary sound. They offered two strong sets at Podunk.

Junior Williams

C.J. Cain

James Kee

Terry Poirier

The Key to World Peace

 Special Consensus
 Greg Cahill

Greg Cahill has led Special Consensus through thirty-seven years of superb bluegrass music. In addition to traditional standards and compositions from members of the band, they offer wonderful instrumentals based on popular music and jazz with a banjo orientation. Exciting and most solid. Apologies to bassist David Thomas who I somehow overlooked.

Dustin Benson

 \

Rick Faris

Can't Quite....Get It!

Roger Moss and Jim Beaver 
Watching New Coon Creek Girls


Original New Coon Creek Girls
Vickie Simmons

 The New Coon Creek Girls were founded in 1979, appearing at the Renfro Valley Barn Dance in Kentucky for some years to critical and popular success. They began playing together again to assist in therapy for Vickie Simmons who had been sidelined by a stroke. Their play was so effective in helping Vickie's rehab and so much fun that they have scheduled this reunion concert. The event was touching and the music was just plain great. They were greeted with enthusiastic cheers as they performed and were called back for much more than the obligatory pro-forma encore.

Wanda Barnet

Pam Perry


Pam Gadd

Get Back and Push - Original New Coon Creek Girls
Video

Vendor's Row on the Concourse

Danny Roberts & his (Loar?) oops... Sam Bush Mandolin

My mistake - two people have pointed out to me that this is Danny's Sam Bush model. I held the Loar in my hands and looked at the label, but I guess I got confused about what I had photographed. Sorry....I'll get a good pic of it next chance I get. I've changed the name above and deleted the date. Welcome to my editorial board Kevin Lynch and Kelly Stockwell. Don't have an emoticon for "red in the face."

The Grascals

The Grascals continue as one of the most popular and exciting bands in bluegrass, touring hard and always entertaining. They hit the stage with conviction and energy, keeping it up for their entire performance. With their new bus wrapped by sponsor Vietti Chilli, they have truly joined the elite of bluegrass bands. Their vocal workshop was enthusiastically attended.

Jamie Johnson

Jeremy Abshire

Terry Eldredge

Terry Smith

Kristin Scott Benson

Danny Roberts


Kathy Mattea, Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom & Mrs. Nystrom

Kathy Mattea Backstage

Kathy Mattea

Kathy Mattea took the stage as the closing act on Saturday night and took the breath away  from the audience, which had swelled for her appearance. Not knowing much about her before, either in the eighties or more recently, I was astounded by her approach to her audience. Mattea treats serious subject matter in an adult way, expecting  her audience to think about her content while they thrill to her voice.  She never pandered or condescended to the bluegrass audience, according them and their music the greatest respect while presenting her hits of yesterday and her finely tuned music of today, related to bluegrass music while not seeking to pretend to be bluegrass. Supported by a small, acoustic band and playing guitar and adequate clawhammer banjo herself, her self-effacing approach endeared her to the audience, and she was accorded two encores, leaving the audience still wanting more. She signed CD's and chatted with her fans until each one was satisfied. Simply a terrific evening!

Bill Cooley

Eamon O'Rourke

David Spicher

 Kathy Mattea

Kathy Mattea - The L&M Don't Stop Here Any More

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