Red Mountain White Trash (Monthly Program)

THE RED MOUNTAIN WHITE TRASHAKA Red Mountain or The TrashTHIS ALABAMA-BASED old-time string band specializes in country dance music, playing traditional fiddle tunes in a powerful, driving style that has made themhighly popular with dancers across the Southeast. They have been featured at dance festivals in Alabama, Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, Charleston,Tallahassee, Louisville and Black Mountain. Club and festival audiences also enjoy their stage performances which include old-time blues numbers, songs andimpromptu humor.THE SEVEN MEMBERS of the Red Mountain White Trash started playing together around 1985. They all lived in Birmingham on Red Mountain in a historicneighborhood that was being gentrified by young professionals. Slow to renovate, the band members wondered if they were considered the 'white trash' ofthe neighborhood and savored the concept of BMW's upon blocks and obsolete expresso machines on the front porch. Thus came the band name that hasbeen loved by some, deplored by others. Presenters and reviewers that fall in the latter category are welcome to refer to the band as simply Red Mountain orThe Trash. Though their name is facetious, they take their music seriously. Many of their tunes were collected from older fiddlers in Alabama and Tennessee,and they play in a style that reflects the region in which they live.FOLKS OFTEN DESCRIBE Red Mountain White Trash as a wall of sound. Components of this sound are twin fiddles played by Ed Baggott and Jim Cauthen, guitar byJoyce Cauthen, mandolin by Phil Foster, harmonica and banjo uke by Jamie Finley, autoharp by Bill Martin and bass by Nancy Jackson. At club gigs they areoften joined by the talented vocalist and guitarist, Carole Griffin.