Those fortunate enough to catch performances from the Whitetop Mountaineers, Martha Spencer and Jackson Cunningham, last year will remember energy and enthusiasm of the duo and the ease with which they presented their old time mountain style music, not to mention Martha’s dance steps while playing the fiddle. The Whitetop Mountaineers played a number of gigs around the country including the popular Woodford Folk Festival in Queensland.
The Whitetop Mountaineers are featured on Cybergrass Profiles this month.
The Whitetop Mountaineers have been touring Oz playing Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania. Our friend Stephen Loss from WA, when he is not playing double bass for Bluegrass Parkway, seems to be tripping around the Australian festival circuit taking in the best on offer.
Stephen caught the Whitetop Mountaineers in concert at Woodford Folk Festival earlier this month. Here’s what he had to say: -
I had the pleasure of attending several performances of The Whitetop Mountaineers at the Woodford Folk Festival last week. From the first note of their show, I was left in no doubt that Martha Spencer and Jackson Cunningham are the real McCoy when it comes to Old Timey music. I imagined their high lonesome mountain voices and tasteful guitar, claw-hammer banjo, fiddle and mandolin accompaniment could have come straight out of Appalachia 80 or 90 years ago. It was obvious that this music has been in their blood for many generations, and this couple have been immersed in it since their conception.
Each performance included a good mix of secular and gospel songs, plus banjo, fiddle and mandolin instrumentals, all executed with ease and simple charm. Despite a heavy workload with at least two performances every day of the six day festival, plus the high temperatures and humidity, Martha treated the audiences to her energetic and flamboyant clogging. It seemed her legs, arms and hair each had a mind of their own – she was sheer joy in motion.
If you like Old Timey music and get a chance to see The Whitetop Mountaineers as they tour NSW, Victoria and Tasmania, I would recommend it highly. It’s not often we get to see the real McCoy here in Australia. You won’t be disappointed
Stephen Loss.
Bluegrass Parkway’s Paul Duff writes:-
When you agree to perform as one of the acts for the Woodford Folk Festival in Woodford Queensland you are signing on for so much more than your conventional, run-of-the-mill gathering of musicians, brought together to provide concerts and workshops. Woodford is not so much a festival as an ‘experience’. Now before you let out a heartfelt, ‘That’s what they all say!’ I can tell you from personal experience that this is actually the case.
There are thousands of performers supplying not only a music festival but also a dance, film, children’s, spoken word, circus, street theatre, vaudeville and comedy festival. This thing is big. Acts cover the range from international to local and the diversity is staggering. The festival site could easily maintain its own postcode and performers are shuttled to their respective gigs in vans from the ‘Green Room’ via a series of back roads cleverly concealed for the most part from the general public. The amazing thing is however that even though it is a huge logistical undertaking, the people you are relying upon to get the organisation right are all so relaxed, personal, approachable and willing to make your experience a good one. This is not to say that sometimes things don’t go to plan but when it happens, there they are, smiling and asking you what they can do to help make everything better.
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Those fortunate enough to catch performances from the Whitetop Mountaineers, Martha Spencer and Jackson Cunningham, last year will remember energy and enthusiasm of the duo and the ease with which they presented their old time mountain style music, not to mention Martha’s dance steps while playing the fiddle. The Whitetop Mountaineers played a number of gigs around the country including the popular Woodford Folk Festival in Queensland.
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