MP3 W.B. Reid & Bonnie Zahnow - Poca River Blues
Great old-time fiddle, banjo, and guitar with duet singing on songs ranging from poignant to humorous. Plus country blues gems, fiddle tunes and rags, and beautiful waltzes.
18 MP3 Songs in this album (63:15) !
Related styles: FOLK: String Band, COUNTRY: Old-Timey
People who are interested in Mike Seeger Foghorn Stringband should consider this download.
Details:
WB Reid & Bonnie Zahnow
This husband and wife duo present a wide range of musical traditions: old-time country songs and fiddle tunes, string blues music from Mississippi and Memphis, and Mexican songs and dance tunes. Both play fiddle and guitar, and WB also plays a variety of other stringed instruments. Sweet harmonies on songs ranging from poignient to humorous, twin-fiddling, foot-tapping tunes and slow waltzes, all make for fine and enjoyable music in any situation.
W.B. Reid has been playing all kinds of music with all kinds of folks throughout the West Coast and points East for over 35 years. He is known as a fine singer, guitarist, fiddler, and also for his work on banjo-guitar and banjo-mandolin. He has also taught music in a variety of settings from individual lessons to major workshops throughout most of his career and continues to do so.
Here are some of the bands WB plays in currently. Most have CDs which are described on our Recordings Page
WB Reid & Bonnie Zahnow -- plenty about this duo of WB & his wife here on this website.
Lee Stripling -- WB & Lee started playing together soon after they met around 1998. Lee is the son of the famous Alabama fiddler Charlie Stripling of the duo "The Stripling Brothers," and he moved to Seattle just after WWII, and soon after quit playing the fiddle much. Since hooking up with WB, Lee has been out making the scene in full force, and in 2006 celebrated his 85th birthday by playing a contra dance. Lee & WB perform as a duo, and as "The Lee Stripling Trio" (with Bonnie, doing western swing trios and twin fiddling), and as "Lee Stripling and His Six Footed Boys" (with Tony Mates and Glenn Dudley, specializing in playing Lee''s dad''s tunes for contra and square dances).
The Rhythm Rollers -- Several years ago WB was beside himself with joy at being asked to accompany his old friends Cathie Whitesides and Laurie Andres at a contra dance, and over the years he eventually has become a Rhythm Roller full time. We play lots of dances, and every once in a while get to play with the great New England pianist Bob McQuillen (and then WB gets to cut loose on banjo-guitar), another long-term Rhythm Roller. The trio also moonlights as Armonikos playing Greek and nearby music.
The Todalo Shakers -- This is the acclaimed jugband with Eric & Suzy Thompson, Frannie Leopold, and a variety of folks on bass (our first and preferred bowed bassist is Steven Strauss).
For Old Times Sake is now in its 3rd decade. Husband and wife Jim Mueller and Amber Roullard Mueller play closely matched twin fiddle, backed up by the locked in rhythm section of WB Reid on guitar and Jerry Ray Weinert on bass. We specialize in playing for contra and square dances but also put on a fine concert.
The Carolina Jug Stompers -- WB teamed up with his old pal Ron Cole, along with Randy Johnson and Luke Faust (once a Holy Modal Rounder) in 2005 to record a highly praised CD of jugband, blues, and rags on the Old98 record label.
The Bing Bang Boys -- Mark Rubin, bassist/tuba-ist extroadinaire from Austin, instigated this band with WB and Greg & Jere Canote after a week of fine jamming at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes a few years ago, and produced a fine CD of rags and songs featuring fiddle, banjos of all sizes and types, bass and tuba (but no wood-topped guitars).
Bonnie Zahnow began playing violin in the fourth grade but became an old-time fiddler after meeting up with the Seattle music community in the mid 1980s. For nearly 10 years she played with the legendary open band for square and contra dances at the G-Note and New Melody Taverns, and also for family dances and with the Mexican music ensemble "Los Chalados."
For the past 20 years, she has participated in the annual Festival of American Fiddle Tunes where she has met and learned from tradition bearers including Melvin Wine, Joe Thompson, Charlie Acuff, Bob Holt, Don Pedro Dimas, and many others.
She performs as a duo With her husband WB Reid, and with Alabama fiddler Lee Stripling as The Lee Stripling Trio, and in several other groups. She is an accomplished fiddler, guitar accompanist, and singer, specializing in old-time country music, jugband and blues, and Mexican and hispanic music, especially the twin fiddle traditions of Michoacan and the Tohono O’odham people of Arizona.
Bonnie Zahnow has performed and/or taught at Fiddle Tunes, Merlefest, Lark in the Morning Camp, San Diego Roots Festival, The Caspar World Music Festival, and numerous other events. She plays regularly in Seattle at restaurants, concerts, and nursing homes, and has toured throughout the west coast and in Alabama and Alaska.