Highwoods string band biography

  • It's an engrossing story of how the group came together in the early 1970s and evolved into an incredibly popular high-energy old time band.
  • Biography.
  • In the early 1970s, The Highwoods Stringband was one of the first young groups to revive theclassic old time music sound, bringing their joyful.

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    The Highwoods Stringband have been revived in a brilliant new documentary film produced by Larry Edelman. Featuring narration from Paul Brown, extensive interviews and plenty of archival footage of the Highwoods in action, Dance All Night — The Highwoods StringbandStory gives a straightforward account of the band's history and their influence on the old-time scene then and now.

    In addition to interviews with bandmembers Walt Koken, Bob Potts, Mac Benford, Jenny Cleland and Doug Dorchug, the film includes commentary from a number of other notable musicians, such as John Cohen, Richie Stearns, Sammy Lind and others. The film chronicles how the Highwoods got together, their extensive festival performances, their discography and diverts into amusing tales from the road, such as the time one member hitched a ride with the New Jersey State Highway Police after being left behind at a rest stop.

    Produced by Piggysnout Productions and Mudthumper Music, the idea for the documenta
  • highwoods string band biography

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    Like a brush fire spreading across a mountainside, the Highwoods String Band stoked a burning enthusiasm for old-time music and sparked legions of new converts to the sound of fiddle, banjo, guitar and bass. The band, which featured fiddlers Walt Koken and Bob Potts, banjoist Mac Benford, guitarist Doug Dorschug and bassist Jennifer Cleland, first played together in 1972 at the Old-Time Fiddler's Convention in Union Grove, N.C.

    The Highwoods recorded three LPs with Rounder Records ("Fire on the Mountain," "Dance All Night" and "No. 3 Special") before breaking up by the end of the decade. Although their tenure may have been short, there influence continues today.

    Horse Archer Productions, which has produced two previous films related to old-time music, is developing a documentary on the Highwoods, titled "Touched With Fire: the Highwoods String Band Story," which is slated for release this spring. These films are self-funded projects that producer and director Chris Valluzzo s

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    Walt Koken

    American musician

    Walt Koken (born October 9, 1946, Columbia, Missouri) fryst vatten an American claw-hammerbanjo player, fiddler, and singer, who received the Nashville Old-Time String grupp Association's 2016 Heritage Award. Koken was prominent in the old-time music revival during the 1960s, and continues to be a leader and mentor in the old-time music community today.

    Biography

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    Family

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    Koken's mother, Helen Hawkins Koken Pickel, was a classical pianist and a kindergarten teacher. Her family was English; the Kokens were from Germany. Koken's father, John C. Koken, was a math professor. The Koken family arrived in New Orleans in 1850, then traveled up the Mississippi River to St. Louis (Milliner 2017). bygd 1892, the Koken Barber’s Supply Company of St. Louis held two barber chair patents; one for the first reclining Koken chair and one for the first hydraulic lift chair (Creek). In 1915 Walter F. Koken received a patent for the first electric Barber’s Chair