2021 Lineup
Creative Alliance convenes some of the brightest old time musicians, singers, and dancers in the country to celebrate where this music exists today. Join host artists Ken & Brad Kolodner for the Baltimore Old Time Music Festival!
Alice GerrardSimply put, Alice Gerrard is a talent of legendary status. In a career spanning some 50 years, she has known, learned from, and performed with many of the old-time and bluegrass greats and has in turn earned worldwide respect for her own important contributions to the music. Alice is particularly known for her groundbreaking collaboration with Appalachian singer Hazel Dickens during the 1960s and ’70s. The duo produced four classic LPs (recently reissued by Rounder on CD) and influenced scores of young women singers. She'll be joined by Tatiana Hargreaves fiddle and Reed Stutz on mandolin/guitar.
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Brad Leftwich & The HumdingersBrad's music is a direct link to the traditions of the southern Appalachian and Ozark mountains. He grew up hearing the old-time music of his father, grandfather, and great-uncle, and learned from many of the last great traditional musicians from the turn of the 20th century. A well-known fiddler, banjo player, and singer, Brad has been performing and teaching traditional music for some 30 years. These days Brad performs as Brad Leftwich & The Humdingers with his wife and longtime musical partner Linda Higginbotham on banjo, Sam Bartlett on guitar, and Abby Ladin on bass.
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Jake BlountJake Blount is an award-winning banjoist, fiddler, singer and scholar based in Providence, RI. He is half of the internationally touring duo Tui, a 2020 Strathmore Artist in Residence and a board member of Bluegrass Pride. He is a 2020 recipient of the Steve Martin Banjo Prize. Although he is proficient in multiple performance styles, he specializes in the music of Black and indigenous communities in the southeastern United States, and in the regional style of Ithaca, New York. He foregrounds the experiences of queer people and people of color in his work. He'll be joined by George Jackson on fiddle/banjo, Isa Burke on guitar and Nelson Williams on bass.
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Ken & Brad KolodnerYour festival co-founders and hosts, the dynamic father-son duo Ken & Brad Kolodner weave together a captivating soundscape on hammered dulcimer, banjo and fiddles pushing the boundaries of the Old-Time tradition into uncharted territory. Regarded as one of the most influential hammered dulcimer players in North America, Baltimore’s Ken Kolodner has joined forces with his son Brad Kolodner, a rising star in the clawhammer banjo world. They'll be joined by Rachel Eddy on guitar/fiddle and Alex Lacquement on upright bass.
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Bill and the Belles |
T-Mart Rounders |
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With their enchanting debut album, Dreamsongs, Etc., Bill and the Belles have captured the freewheeling, lighthearted approach to music that has endeared them to listeners of every generation. With a spirited sound that falls somewhere between old-time country and vaudeville, the group puts its own spin on a golden era of music, specifically the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. “We like old music and some of us are consumed by it,” says lead singer and guitarist Kris Truelsen with a knowing laugh. “But we don't have a desire to copy it. We want to sound like ourselves and tell our story.”
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T-MART ROUNDERS is an old-time trio that re-envisions and arranges traditional old-time tunes using percussive dance as if it was a drum set. The trio consists of Kevin Chesser on claw-hammer banjo, Jesse Milnes on fiddle and voice and Becky Hill on feet. All three artists have spent significant time in West Virginia learning from master elder musicians and dancers with the goal of respecting the tradition while pushing the boundaries of what old-time music is.
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