Sugar
Maple Festival 2007
Robbie
Fulks returned
to SMF to give a special performance. Fulks is an American
alternative country artist originally from Raleigh, North
Carolina but who is a longtime Chicago, Illinois resident.
Fulks is known for his disdain of mainstream modern country
and the country music industry. His live performances feature
improvised arrangments of his original songs, off-the-cuff
musical humor. He started the day off with a great set. The
highlight for me was Woody
Pines & The Lonesome Two. Woody Pines & The
Lonesome Two “Low-Fi sounds from weird America's rural
roots. Resonator guitar, high lonesome harmonica, upright
bass, stripped-down drums and foot stomping twang.” Woody
Pines has been playing and singing since he can remember.
He left home with his guitar on his back and made it through
49 states before he was 19. After landing on the west coast,
he co-founded a ragtime jug band, The Kitchen Syncopators,
which sold thousands of their self-released recordings.
The Syncopators performed everywhere from the streets of
New Orleans to Seattle’s Folklife Festival to the Oregon
Country Fair. After
several years of living and playing in New Orleans, Woody
headed for the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina,
playing old time music for dances, busking for tourists,
and releasing his first solo cd, ‘Rags to Riches.’ Woody
played shows all over the south, including a stop in Nashville
for a guest appearance at the Grand Ole Opry with friends Old
Crow Medicine Show. Today, Woody continues to
find ways to reshape the old music, weaving new stories
from timeless threads. He combines freak realism and vaudeville
showmanship with the sincerity and grace of the rich, traditional
landscape of roots music. Woody plays with foot stomping
gusto, but knows when to croon a lazy mountain ballad.
The Lonesome Two is Tim Peacock on upright bass and Bram
Riddlebarger on his stripped-down suitcase drum kit. The
full band sound is featured on Woody’s newest release,
Lonesome Shack Blues. Woody is also available for solo
performances. Check
him out on the web.
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