Artists

Walt Koken

Walt began playing the five string banjo in 1959. He first played in an old time string band in 1965 in the Busted Toe Mudthumpers, based in Ithaca NY. He also played four-string (plectrum) banjo in the Muskrat Ramblers, a New Orleans style seven-peice traditional jazz band around that time, which gave him his background and repertoire along those lines. The Mudthumpers travelled to the San Francisco Bay area twice in 1968 and 1969. When their fiddler, George Dorian, and guitar player, Bob Pine were killed in an aoutomobile accident, Walt began playing fiddle himself, and by late1970 had formed a new band in Berkeley with Mac Benford, and Bob Potts, called the Fat City String Band. In the spring of 1972, the three of them teamed up with Doug Dorschug and Jennifer Cleland to form the Highwoods Stringband, who spent the next seven years touring the country, as well as a tour of Central and South America in 1974, and a tour of Europe in 1977. They made Three LP records on the Rounder label, parts of which were recently re-released in a compilation CD called Feed Your Babies Onions...Fat City Favorites. In 1978, Walt retired from the unprofitable old-time music business, and began a carpentry career. In the early 1990's he began playing the banjo again and making recordings on a DAT machine loaned to him by Marty Lebenson, the mouth harp player in the old Busted Toe Mudthumpers. Since that time he has released three CD's, two of them on Rounder, Banjonique, and Hei-wa Hoedown, and a third on Mudthumper, Finger Lakes Ramble. The Rounder CD's are becoming increasingly hard to obtain, so check with Walt before ordering them. He currently resides in Chester County PA, which is a hot-bed of old time music, and where he plays occasional square dances and concerts with "The Cacklin' Hens and Roosters Too!" He has a recording out called "Just Tunes ", a collection of banjo-fiddle duets with Clare Milliner, a long-time fiddler in the "Hens and Roosters". And Check out the latest release, "Orpheus Supertones".

Clare Milliner

Clare grew up in Chester County, Pennsylvania, not far from the original site of the Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music's annual Mountain Music Festival. She studied piano and violin, but when she heard fiddle tunes at the Old Fiddler's Picnic at Lenape Park near her home, it changed her approach to playing. She began going to weekly sessions with local musicians, and in order to learn the tunes in the manner she had been learning classical pieces, she wrote each one down in musical notation as they came her way. Now with over thirteen hundred tunes transcribed, she has become one of the best sources for tunes in the east. She and Walt are working in conjuction with the Brandywine folks to get her collection published, along with a database she's working on containing information on recorded sources, keys, and tunings. She plays often for square dances, usually with the Cacklin' Hens and Roosters Too, and she and Walt play double fiddles, as well as fiddle-banjo duets. Their first release is Called "Just Tunes". For bookings contact Walt or Clare at 610-268-0217

Kellie Allen Kellie, originally from Kansas, grew up in the Philadelphia area, and comes from a musical family. She's played various forms of music, and since teaming up with Pete she's put her musical knowledge to good use in developing a light-hearted yet driving style on the guitar. She and Pete also spend plenty of time singing together, and they're hard-core members of the widespread, loose-knit "Duet Masters", who meet nearly annually in some remote spot where they can revive tunes from such old songsters as the Carter Family, the Louvin Brothers, etc. Kellie became the original organizer of the Orpheus Supertones, when she instigated a recording session to produce a CD for an audition for a movie being filmed in the Chester County area. Read more details on the CD notes.

Pete Peterson Pete, who also grew up in southeastern Pennsylvania, met Walt in the 70's when Highwoods would play the annual Five College Folk Festival near Amherst, Mass. He happens to have a Supertone banjo purportedly once owned by Charlie Poole, which he plays in a finger-picking style similar to Charlie's, yet distictly original. He's been a student of old time music and song for so long, and knows the lyrics to so many pieces that some people have suggested he has had computer memory inserted somewhere behind his ear. As a former chemist, he amply demonstrates the chemistry of music with his duets with Kellie. He also displays excellent talent on the guitar, using a finger-picking style not unlike Maybelle's original "Church-lick". Oddly enough, at times his singing evokes echoes of A. P. He's a veteran of several string bands, including the "Golden Age Retrievers" (not a dog!), and the Clifftop alternative band, "Ben Borscht and the Beats". He and Kellie have two CD's to their credit along with Eileen Kosloff as the "Well Tempered Stringband". The Orpheus Supertones are indebted to Pete and his banjo for half of their name!

Walt Koken, banjo, Mac Benford, guitar, and Bob Potts, fiddle, The Original Fat City String Band

The Original Fat City String Band Walt Koken, banjo, Mac Benford, guitar, and Bob Potts, fiddle, Fall of 1998. Photo by Kay Benford.

The trio began playing in the Berkeley, California area in early 1970, and two years later formed the Highwoods Stringband in Ithaca, New York. They have been occasionally playing festivals such as The Wheatland Music Festival in Remus, Michigan, the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old Time Music Association festival near Minneapolis, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington D.C., and Hillbilly Days, Pikeville Kentucky. Their CD is in its second pressing.