Calliope Presents Snappin' Bug Stringband

Join us in celebration of the release of Straight Fours, Snappin’ Bug Stringband’s 7th album in a series of Old Time Music of Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Pittsburgh old-time music icons Mark Tamsula, Richard Withers, and Barbara Rosner are giving new life to a regional music tradition. They present traditional Appalachian music, historically rooted in Southwestern Pennsylvania, performing tunes collected by the renowned music historian and Penn State professor, Samuel Preston Bayard. Bayard visited fiddlers and fifers in this region between 1928 and 1963, and published over 1000 of their tunes in two books, Hill Country Tunes, and Dance to the Fiddle, March to the Fife. Many of the tunes are performed on fiddle and banjo, the traditional “old time” instrumentation, as well as the fife, in keeping with the rich heritage of fife music Bayard drew on. Together with Barbara Rosner on upright bass, the group performs for festivals, dances, workshops, and diverse occasions.

They are joined by guitarist Art Lindsay, who shares this strong interest in the revival of traditional music with Pennsylvania roots.

Samuel Bayard and his source musicians are gone, but Tamsula, Withers, Rosner, and Lindsay are bringing their music back to life on fiddle, banjo, bass, and guitar.