When Townes Van Zandt died last year, Michael Hurley suddenly stood alone as the last great unsung hero of American folk music. He hadn't managed to fly under the cultural radar completely unnoticed -- astute critics seized upon his few performances to laud him as a lost master of incomparable songwriting skills. But to this day, there's no tribute album, no major-label reissue program and no groundswell of popular recognition for the man also known as Doc Snock. So who is Michael Hurley? Long considered a pioneer of "Acid-Folk" along with friends/co-conspirators "The Holy Modal Roudners" (Peter Stampel and Steve Webber), since recording his debut for Folkways in 1965, the twisted troubadour has released about a dozen albums of unwavering quality, sauntering through a distinctive pastiche of blues, country and folk styles and singing undiluted odes to Southern cookin', lovely ladies and animated critters. Hurley is also an eccentric painter/cartoonist, with his drawings and watercolors frequently showing up on his album covers. His newest recording, Weatherhole, is out on the New York based Field Recordings record label.

The Cosmic Hoedown welcomes the return of Doc Snock, this time with a 7-piece band - local area band The Chabs, who will lend their instrumental skills to backing up Mr. Hurley. This show will also be recorded live for use on Hurley's next record, so this is likely to be an exciting show. The Chabs features a number of well known local musicians, most notably guitar wunderkind Scott McCall from $2-Pistols and drummer Nic Brownnn from Atheneum.

Scott McCall - guitar, dobro
Rob Slifkin - mandolin
Lance Sidecar - accordion, piano
Wendy Spitzer - oboe
Clay Williams - bass
Nic Brownnn - drums
V.J. Rockefeller - accordion


Scott McCall has played guitar with The Crowflies and Beat the Reaper as well. He currently plays with Two Dollar Pistols and the Delta Rays. Many local musicians consider McCall one of the finest guitarists in the area. Nic Brownnn plays drums for a variety of local and national bands including Atheneum and Skeleton Key.. After this show Mr. Brown will be relocating to New York City where he will live in a small apartment with the stage manager of the Apollo Theater in the Meat Packing District. Rob Slifkin has played in such local bands as The Crowflies and Beat the Reaper. He is now the singer and guitarist for the Chabs. Wendy Spitzer is a student at UNC Chapel Hill and a member of the UNC Symphony Orchestra. She composes and arranges all of her own oboe parts. Clay Williams is also a UNC student and the principal bassist for their symphony. Lance Sidecar has been playing accordion and other neglected instruments such as the triangle, tenor ukulele, rain stick, and viola for over 20 years, mostly in the streets of Venice Beach, California. He has played with The Crowflies and Benny's Late Afternoon Wind Machine. V.J. Rockefeller plays the accordion for the Chabs. He also performs solo under the pseudonym Jay Cartwright.

Post-Concert Note:
WTVD-11 came and filmed this show for a newscast special feature. Stay tuned for an online QuickTime video version of the news story!

As many of you know, Durham's own Alice Gerrard now heads up the Old Time Herald magazine, published in Durham and available nation-wide on newsstands. Some of you are familiar with her ground-breaking bluegrass work with Hazel Dickens, her old-time musc making with folks like Tommy Jarrell or Mike Seeger, and more recently with Tom Sauber and Brad Leftwich as "Tom, Brad and Alice".

JEANIE McLERIE has been playing music all her life, since age 7, playing uke, guitar and fiddle, living in London, Paris, Louisiana, California and New Mexico...She has learned much of the music she plays first hand, at the side of musicians in her community. She has been a part of the duo Sandy and Jeanie, The Harmony Sisters, The Delta Sisters, and for the past 20 years, the cajun group Bayou Seco along with her husband Ken Keppeler. Her musical tastes are vast, but she has concentrated on the styles of the American Southwest, Cajun, the Spanish Colonial music of New Mexico, the double fiddle tradition of the Tohono Oodham tribe southwest of Tucson, and the old Spanish songs of the border area.

IRENE HERRMANN has played music all her life, but only after she graduated from music school did she discover the world of non-classical music and started dividing her time between classical piano and cello and traditional music. She feels strongly that elements of both are part of all of her music. The world of traditional music opened many doors for her, not only musically, but socially and culturally as well. She has played cello on Joe and Antoinette McKenna's second album, orchestra bells on the second album of R. Crumb's Cheap Suit Serenaders, recorded on mandolin with vaudevillean Roy Smeck, and on fiddle with gospel singer Marion Williams. With Paul Hostetter, she formed a string band with friend and traditional Italian mandolinist, Riccardo Tunzi, playing the traditional music that Riccardo taught them, until he passed away several years ago. They now continue that tradition in a trio with Italian mandolinist Tony Flores. Irene was pregnant during the last Harmony Sisters tour, and she now has two teen-age girls who are also fine musicians. These days Irene is primarily a pianist, specializing in the music of Paul Bowles and other 20th century American composers. She performs in new music ensembles, with choirs and in chamber music in the Santa Cruz, California region where she makes her home. "Making and sharing all kinds of music with my friends is the greatest joy I know.

John Bemis and Greg Hanson weave tight harmonies along with lively guitar playing (including Hanson's stellar hot-picking and soloing) and occasionally pulling out mandolin or fiddle that harkens back to early country groups where tight harmonies and intricate instrumental work created a sound that is far more powerful than what a simple country ballad might be in the hands of lesser musicians. Although their sound brings back memories of a time long ago, almost all of the songs they perform are their original compositions, further showing the talent these two posess. Gigging out these days with bassist Paul Dowds, the trio makes a powerful and moving sound that pulls the listener in close...perfect music to hear in the intimacy of a living room!

Hooverville is:

John Bemis: Guitar, vocals, fiddle
Greg Hanson: Guitar, vocals, mandolin
Paul Dowds: Bass, backing vocals

BILL AND LIBBY HICKS have been mainstays of the NC traditional music scene since the 1970s. Libby was the harmonizing half of a duet with Lightnin' Wells for seven years. They specialized in the old-time "brother duet" style of singing-- (with Libby playing guitar and singing Charlie, Earl, Ira, or Alton's parts usually, depending on which pair of brothers they were "borrowing from"-- or rather "paying tribute to" at the time). With a repertoire of hundreds of songs, they did paying jobs when they could find them-- at bars (perfect for the drinking and prison songs), victory parties for losing candidates, and the odd concert spot that family members coerced bosses and friends into hiring them for. In addition, they not only accepted but sought out opportunities to entertain for free any group that would appreciate the old sentimental songs--which meant hundreds of performances at church picnics, senior citizen groups and nursing homes (the optimum audience--they knew the words to all the songs and couldn't leave the building.) The only recordings that remain of that duet are somewhat bootleg and get swapped around sometimes at festivals.

Bill, at the same time, was finding fame if not fortune touring the United States and Europe in funky vans as a founding member of the Red Clay Ramblers. He made a name for himself all over the map with his energetic fiddling, developed over years of seeking out and learning literally at the feet of the old masters such as Tommy Jarrell and Burl Hammons. His mom was mighty proud when the band performed off-Broadway in 1975 in the smash-hit play Diamond Studs. Bill also has made a place for himself in thousands of record (and now CD) collections with a long string of recordings with the Ramblers, featuring his fiddling as well as some original songs. In 1995, the Merle Watson Festival sponsored a reunion of his first band, the Fuzzy Mountain String Band, to celebrate the reissue on CD by Rounder Records of their early '70s recordings of fiddle tunes, still recognized as the "gold standard" of string band music. For more info on Bill's career, see http://redclayramblers.tripod.com/ a website devoted to the original band and it's members.

Performing together since 1982, Bill and Libby have had plenty of time to merge minds and styles and have developed a sympatico duet style on fiddle, guitar and keyboard that often makes people check to see if it really is only two people playing. In the past 10 years, along with performing and playing for dances, they have turned their attention to passing along the fun of old-time music. On several occasions they been on the staff of the Augusta Heritage Workshops on the campus of Davis and Elkins College in WVA, teaching musicians from all over the world about the distinguishing points of southern Appalachian fiddle and guitar styles and old-time string band singing.

Bill and Libby's musical universe expanded further in the mid-'90s when they were invited to join the Unknown Tongues--that mystico-morphic cajun-zydeco dance band of the Down-East coastal NC bayou. They are indebted to Bryan and Barbara Blake for expanding their musical horizons to include among other pinnacle experiences, the Morehead City Seafood Festival and the Gloucester Mardi Gras (both of which they would urge you not to miss)!

Fall '99 Concerts

Winter/Spring 2000 Concerts