Hey, fellow musicians --

Curt and I are delighted to announce that the Reed Island Rounders are coming
back to Pittsburgh later this month!

Who: Reed Island Rounders
When: Concerts: Friday, March 23 AND Saturday, March 24, 8:00 pm
Fiddle and Banjo Workshops: Saturday, March 23
(more workshop info: http://www.reedisland.com/RIR/pitts07.htm
What: Old-time songs and tunes, and great stories
Where: Home of Curt Cooper and Annie Trimble
Contact: Reply to this email or call 412-343-0498

After a year hiatus, the Rounders are bringing their great old-time tunes and
songs back to Pittsburgh for TWO nights of Concerts. Join us on Friday, March 23
and/or Saturday, March 24 for a very entertaining evening of music from the
heart of Appalachia.

During the day on Saturday, March 24, Betty will be teaching a fiddle workshop,
and Diane will teaching a banjo workshop. Both of these fine musicians are also
excellent teachers, so take advantage of their expertise while they’re here!

Betty’s fiddling repertoire includes wonderfully smooth renditions of Southern
Virginia, West Virginia, and Northern Kentucky tunes. I love her waltzes! Diane
has a strong rhythmic clawhammer banjo style. She also has a wonderful
collection of old-time songs (hope she gets the Peepers out). Billy adds a very
solid guitar rhythm, plus comic asides—a great storyteller!

Though I now consider these folks my closest friends, I first heard their
wonderful renditions of old time dance tunes as soloists in competitions at
festivals in West Virginia and North Carolina, where they have each won top
prizes. Where their music really grabbed me, though, was in the jam sessions at
these festivals—you could feel the soul of central Appalachia in every note.

When Diane joined Betty and Billy in 1995, I knew it was a perfect match. Every
one of them has the same passion—passing on the wonderful legacy of the
old-time fiddle and banjo traditions. Tunes and songs that have been transported
across the Pond and morphed by talented, but isolated musicians in their
respective hollows. Or tunes created more recently by the souls that built the
railroads, worked the mines, farmed the hills—a release, a cathartic creative
process that transported the creator, the player, the dancer, the listener--
away from a life of hardship for a spell.

If you can’t make the concert on Friday, you can come Saturday night. Or you
can come both nights! The Rounders promise not to present exactly the same
concert--they usually let the audience (or Roanoke the Duck) decide what they
want to hear.

Seating for concerts and spots in the workshops are limited, so please call or
email to your seats. Hope to you can join us a wonderful musical evening—or
two!

Annie Trimble
412-343-0498