Clifftop Appalachian String Band Festival

Photo by Amos Perrine for No Depression.

The Clifftop Appalachian String-Band Festival is a week-long gathering for musicians and friends that features concerts, contests, flatfoot dancing, campfires and workshops. Rumput entered the Neo-Traditional competition and made it to the finals!

We also made some great new friends.  Watch for future collaborations, shows, and crankies with this year’s neo-traditional winners The Early Mays.

See the write-up at No Depression.

Shadow Ballads

In April 2016 we toured with Shadow Ballads — a collaborative music and shadow theater performance involving Balinese master puppeteer Gusti Sudarta, master Javanese kroncong musicians Peni Candrarini and Danis Sugiyanto, and old-time Appalachian balladeers Anna & Elizabeth. This production incorporated new arrangements of traditional Indonesian and Appalachian music as well as a newly produced crankie based on The Ramayana.  We performed at The University of Richmond, Cornell, Wake Forest, Bucknell, the Indonesian Consulate in NYC and the Indonesian Embassy in DC.

Photos, bios & tour/production blog

Live performance videos

_rumputRecording
Photo by Ron Karnes. L-R: Jesse Wells – violin; Jessica Zike – voice; Brian Larson – percussion, hammered dulcimer; John Priestley – guitar, voice; Hannah Standiford – cak, voice; Andy McGraw – selo, guitar, pin-pia; Kyle Dosier – cuk, voice; Natalie Quick – bass ukelele.

 

We recorded a few demos and documented the process on video.