The second installment of the Happy Hollow Hootenanny evening concert series is an old-time string band double header!

The evening features Kanawha Tradition lead by 4th generation fiddler Bobby Taylor and Grammy award-winning artist and composer Chance McCoy (Old Crow Medicine Show) with 3-time WV State Fiddle champion Tessa Dillon .

Tickets for Friday’s performance are $10.

For those attending the daytime Happy Hollow Hoot programming, Bobby Taylor will be teaching a Fiddle Kanawha workshop focusing on styles of West Virginia fiddlers Friday afternoon.

HAPPY HOLLOW HOOTENANNY:

The Stuart’s Opera House Arts Education Department has reimagined Old Time Music Week into a 4 day camp-out celebrating the music, art, and cultural traditions of Central Appalachia! Workshops in Old Time Music, dancing and calling, traditional crafts and more will be offered all weekend long.

Learn more

ABOUT KANAWHA TRADITION

Kanawha Tradition is an old-time string band from the Charleston area of West Virginia. Leader of the band is Bobby Taylor, a 4th-generation fiddler. His great-grandfather, grandfather, and father were all well-known Roane County fiddlers. Bobby grew up in Dunbar and was influenced by the legendary fiddler Clark Kessinger, who lived just down the road in St. Albans. He also spent many years with the renowned fiddler Mike Humphreys, and learned many tunes from him. Bobby calls himself a melting pot of old-time fiddle styles, and can be heard at late-night jams at various festivals throughout West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky. He has also taken his music to Australia, Ireland, and Germany.

Cody Jordan is a vital part of the West Virginia old-time music scene. A native of Point Pleasant, and currently living in Charleston, he is well-known as a guitarist, banjo player, fiddler, as well as a fine singer. Cody can be heard at many of the area festivals such as the WV Folk Festival, the Vandalia Gathering, and Clifftop, as well as many of the square dances around West Virginia.

Kim Johnson is from Clendenin, West Virginia, and has been playing banjo since about 1977. She was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and had the chance to learn old-time music from Wilson Douglas, a well-known Clay County fiddler whose soulful mountain style of playing is much sought after yet today. After Wilson’s passing in 1999, Kim played for many years with Calhoun County fiddler Lester McCumbers, who passed away in 2015. She has recorded several projects with Wilson, Lester, as well as the Modock Rounders, a band from the Huntington area.

ABOUT CHANCE MCCOY

Chance McCoy is a Grammy winning artist, music producer and film composer from Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. He has recorded and performed with a diverse roster of artists including, Willie Nelson, Old Crow Medicine Show, Mumford and Sons, Kesha, The Lumineers, NEEDTOBREATHE, Tyler Childers, Yelawolf, Margo Price, Rhiannon Giddens and more. His solo recordings have been met with critical acclaim and span from traditional Appalachian string band music to genre bending Americana.

Chance was raised in a musical family and was exposed to music from birth, he was strapped to his fathers back as an infant while his father spent long hours composing in their home studio. Chance taught himself to play by ear and was regarded as a phenom among his teen-age friends who would bring records to the shed he lived in behind the family home and watch in amazement as he would learn to play an album in its entirety by ear.

In his twenties he delved deeply into the traditional music of the Appalachian region he grew up in, traveling to fiddlers conventions, summer camps and apprenticing with master artists. He became a well regarded multi-instrumentalist and singer during these formative years, learning to play a multitude of styles on multiple instruments. He also captured top honors in many of the regions most prestigious contests, sometimes winning multiple blue ribbons on different instruments at the same contest.

Chance currently resides in the isolated area of Monroe County, West Virginia where he has built a world class residential recording studio to produce music in. He also continues to performs as a solo artist and collaborate with other musicians, score films, teach at music camps and travel to regional fiddlers conventions during the summer.

ABOUT TESSA DILLON

Originally from Saint Albans, West Virginia, Tessa Dillon has been playing fiddle since she was six years old. As a regular blue ribbon recipient in fiddle contests around the region, she’s a 3 time WV State Fiddle champion (Vandalia) and also won the Appalachian Stringband Festival (Clifftop) in 2022. Tessa toured the US and Australia with her former band, Big Possum Stringband, which won first place at Clifftop in 2018 and released a self-titled album in 2019. She now fiddles in her new band, The State Birds, and in The Jesse Milnes Band (electric country). She is Program Coordinator for the Augusta Heritage Center, directs Augusta’s after school old-time program, teaches fiddle for West Virginia University, and has many private students