Great Big Taters (Special Event)

More than just music for dance Great Big Taters is providing music for the Glen Echo dances on Friday and Sunday, but they do more than merely play for dances. They play rollicking and tasty music from the American South and beyond, featuring the award winning banjo and fiddling of Hilarie Burhans and Janie Rothfield! They also write awesome new tunes in traditional styles and play ?em with fire and whimsy -- and they can sing too! Cool piano dude Mike Maher adds seasoning with his unique Old Time/Celtic/Jazz tickling of the ivories. Hilarie Burhans (clawhammer banjo/vocals) has most recently played with the newly retired dance band The Hotpoint Stringband, one of the top contra dance bands in the country. Her driving banjo style and original tune compositions, repertoire and arrangements were a key element in Hotpoint, and she brings all that energy to Great Big Taters! Hilarie is an award winning banjo player (2007 Prize winner at Clifftop) whose musical roots include a father who is a jazz pianist, a childhood spent in Asia and Africa, and an adolescence which included many hours spent with local fiddlers in her Appalachian Ohio hometown. She has numerous recordings with Hotpoint including Light Fuse Get Away, The Road to Burhania, Hotpoint Special, Steppin? on Cords, and her own Put on the Skillet (a track from which was featured on the acclaimed HBO series Deadwood.) www.hilarieburhans.com Jane Rothfield (fiddle/vocals) is an award winning fiddler, tune composer and performer, who has delighted audiences and dancers in the USA, Scotland and England with her energetic old-time and Celtic style music. She has numerous recordings, including three LP?s from the 80?s with her Scottish/Old Time Fusion group Hadden, Rothfield and Carr, a Scottish Traditional Melodies CD with Selma Kaplan on piano, and two ?Jane? CDs (the 2005 release In the Moment and her latest recording, iFiddle,theyBanjo (with Hilarie Burhans, and recorded by Bernie!) Jane also plays with her NY/Philly based dance band, Jane?s Gang, and the ?new? old-time band Red Hen. Her tune "Too Late for the Bacon" won the coveted award for Best Non-Traditional Tune at the 2006 Clifftop Appalachian Stringband Festival contest. www.janerothfield.com Mike Maher joins Great Big Taters for this DC tour. He is a jazz pianist, currently teaching jazz piano and music theory at Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA. Mike has done everything from concerts at the Kennedy Center to playing in the pit of broadway productions. ?He plays banjo and sings in the celebrated Caroline Mountain Band, whose new CD, Joke on the Puppy, is due for release July 1st. ?Mike has appeared with the Hotpoint Stringband, and has been a student of Hilarie Burhans, Dave Bing and Adam Hurt. http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.carolinemountainband.com Suggested donation $15.Contact Andy and Sondra Wallace by e-mail or at 301-324-7311 to reserve a seat or for driving directions. It?s also walkable (a half-hour walk) from Largo Town Center on the Blue Line.