UNCLE MONK

Tommy Ramone began his musical career as Tom Erdelyi an engineer at the Record Plant recording studios. In the musical doldrums of the 70’s he, along with the great JOHNNY, JOEY AND DEE DEE RAMONE, formed the rock group RAMONES and participated in the birth of New Wave, Punk Rock, and Alternative music. As manager, producer and drummer for the band, Tommy Ramone helped create the sound, style and ideology for what was to become modern rock. As an independent record producer Ramone has worked on recordings that include the single, Love Goes to A Building On Fire by TALKING HEADS, and the albums, Neurotica by REDD KROSS, Too Tough To Die by the RAMONES, and Tim by THE REPLACEMENTS, the later voted one of the best albums of the year by the writers of Rolling Stone, Record, The Village Voice, and The LA Times.

Claudia Tienan, formerly with the group THE SIMPLISTICS, is a partner with Tommy Ramone in Uncle Monk. Her penetrating lyrics and haunting vocals add facets and dimension to the songs. The music of the two artists complement each other. There is a Yin and Yang sensibility at work, a touch of light and dark, of bitter and sweet. www.unclemonk.com; www.myspace.com/unclemonk

Emily Dowden Bio

Twenty-eight year old Emily Jane Dowden is certainly no stranger to bluegrass/old-time music and the old time heritage. Born in Springfield, MO and raised on her father's one-thousand plus acre dairy farm in the Missouri Ozarks, she was exposed to the sounds of fiddles, banjos, and mountain dulcimers at a very young age. As a small child, Emily remembers watching the show, “Hee-Haw” and being enthralled with Grandpa Jones and his style of banjo playing. Later, on a family trip to the “Jones Family Theater” in Mtn. View, AR, (where she would later live during a large span of her teenage years) she got the opportunity to meet Grandpa Jones. A few years later, at her mother’s encouragement, Emily learned to play the old style of banjo, and became accomplished quite rapidly. She first began learning and performing clawhammer-style banjo in 1990, at the age of ten; and performed regularly at various bluegrass venues, churches, and other events, such as Silver Dollar City's Music Festival in Branson, MO, and The Ozark Folk Center in Mtn. View, AR. Also around age ten is when Emily first began sharing the stage with well-known artists in her field. She and her sisters were the opening act for bluegrass super-stars such as "Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver" and "The Drybranch Firesquad." As a child, first performing at Silver Dollar City, Emily remembers seeing Chris Thile and Sean and Sara Watkins of "Nickel Creek," who were also featured as some of the park's young acts. This was before "Nickel Creek" was well-known, and they were just mere kids at the time, too. Although Emily has been a musician for nearly two decades now, she was singing long before that. Emily has been singing since she can remember, even before she could walk. She first began singing with her two older sisters, Laura and Hannah Dowden, in small country churches. She has memories of her oldest sister Laura, carrying her down the aisle and holding her, while performing before the congregation. Laura Dowden was the main singer, with her two small sisters probably doing more harm than good. Eventually, Laura's "band" came together, with Hannah and Emily contributing harmony vocals and playing fiddle and banjo; forming a unique 3-part harmony sister trio. Laura, the bandleader/MC/manager, held the group together with her steady, Riley Puckett (The Skillet Lickers) style rhythm guitar playing, and strong lead vocals. The girls were fittingly called, "The Dowden Sisters," and began touring pretty regularly around the time Emily started high school, in 1994. Emily and her sisters became hired as regular employees at the Ozark Folk Center, in Mtn. View, AR, which has been dubbed, "The Folk Music Capitol of the World," and moved to Mtn. View a few years later. Around this time, in 1996, Emily made her first recording with "The Dowden Sisters." It was a self-produced project, recorded in Drago, AR, but is no longer available for purchase. Emily graduated high school a year later, in 1997, and desperately wanted to attend college, but she forfeited enrolling right away, to continue pursuing her and her sisters' musical career. Two years later, Emily moved once again; this time to Asheville, NC. The east coast seemed to be a better touring base, and Asheville, in particular was known for being a hot-bed for old-time/folk music. Emily lived in Asheville for five years, during which time she toured with her sisters all over the U.S. and parts of Canada. "The Dowden Sisters" produced and recorded two more albums in 2002-- an all gospel C.D., as well as an old-time secular C.D. During her time touring with her sisters, Emily won various contests and awards. To name a few, in 1996, "The Dowden Sisters" received first place for the Old Time String Band competition during "The Uncle Dave Macon Days" in Murfreesboro, TN. Emily and her sisters also ranked fifth among 70 plus entries at the N.C. Fiddler's Convention in Mt. Airy, in 2001, where Emily also won the old-time banjo championship. She held the same title, in the Jr. Division four years earlier. Her most recent accomplishment was becoming the “Old-Time Music Champion,” at the Baker Creek Garden/Old-Time Music festival contest in Mansfield, MO last summer. Emily toured with her sisters for more than a decade, entertaining a wide variety of audiences at a wide variety of venues, such as the grand opening of the Bill Monroe Home place in Rosine, KY, (where Emily performed with Bluegrass phenom, Ricky Scaggs) Six Flags Over Texas, and The Tennessee Fall Homecoming, at the nationally acclaimed "Museum of Appalachia" in Norris, TN, to name just a few. After being involved with the touring circuit for about ten years, and out of high school for about seven years, Emily moved back home to her beloved Ozarks to pursue a college education at long last and be near her grandparents, father, and two young brothers--Elijah and Abel Dowden. She enrolled at Missouri State University in the summer of 2005, and earned her Associates of Arts degree last May, when she graduated from MSU-West Plains. Emily then transferred to MSU-Springfield, where she is currently working towards her Bachelor’s degree. As far as academic achievements; Emily is a member in good standing of the prestigious Phi-Theta Kappa International Honor Society and she won a couple of Missouri State University related contests—she received first place and a scholarship in the “Speakers’ Showcase,” for her passionate speech on the dangers of alcohol; and her painting of Marie Antoinette won first place in an art contest. Emily recently declared her major to be Creative Writing English and she is Minoring in theater, because she loves acting and anything to do with the performing arts and stage. Emily has some experience in the broadcasting/communication field as well, because of her two year background in radio. During her two years at MSU-West Plains, she gained wonderful experience working part-time at local radio stations, as an announcer, board operator, and disc jockey. Of course she still played and sang during this time; it just wasn’t as a full time occupation, as before, when she was on the road with “The Dowden Sisters.” She has a lifelong background in the entertainment business/public speaking, which caused her to develop excellent communications skills, and is thus a great “people person.” Emily is an outgoing, friendly young lady; both on and off the stage, and is the type of person who never meets a stranger. Back home again at last, and pursuing her dream of a college career, Emily is stepping back into the music circle again. While her sisters still live in Asheville, NC and tour; Emily has formed a new band, and performs part-time mainly in the Springfield/Branson region, while finishing up her degree. An updated recording is also in the works, and is expected to be out by the end of this year. To be notified of its release or FOR BOOKING CONTACT:

Emily Dowden

Phone: (417) 259-1005

E-mail: emilyjanedowden@yahoo.com

Website: www.myspace.com/emilydowdenband

The Sorrell Family Singers have many years of experience in sacred vocal music performed a cappella (without instrumental accompaniment).  Their style and repertoire encompass early Southern gospel music and the tradition of folk hymnody and white spirituals that predates gospel music in the Upland South.

     From the Myrtle area in southwestern Oregon County, Missouri, members of the Sorrell family formed a vocal quartet in the mid-1970s.  The quartet consisted of Carol Sorrell (soprano/lead); her sons, Harlan Sorrell (tenor) and Dennis Sorrell (bass); and Aquilla Sorrell, the wife of her husband’s cousin (alto).  The quartet remained active until 1989, when Aquilla moved away.  Recently, Dennis’s son, Anthony, has begun singing, and the Sorrells have resumed their musical activity, singing on special occasions and at family gatherings. 

SUNNY SIDE UP BAND

   The Sunny Side Up Band current membership, with one exception, has worked together since 2004, and has appeared before enthusiastic audiences at churches, political rallies, and festivals since that time, averaging about thirty performances per year.  Members of Sunny Side Up include both seasoned performers and relative newcomers to the field of entertainment.
  Dean VonAllmen of West Plains, Missouri, plays fiddle with the group.  An accomplished old-time fiddler with roots in the musical traditions of the Missouri Ozarks, he is also a great fan of bluegrass fiddler Kenny Baker’s style of playing and cites him as an important influence.  In August, 2005, he took second place in Missouri at the fiddling contest at the State Fair in Sedalia.  He has been playing the fiddle “most of his life,” he says, and brings a drive and fire to his rollicking fiddle that others try to imitate.
  Sonya Scheets of Raymondville, Missouri, plays bass fiddle and sings alto and lead with Sunny Side Up.  She works as a Medical Technologist at Texas County Memorial Hospital in Houston, and adds a depth of harmony to the group that is without parallel.  She has been playing bass a little over two years, and has been singing gospel songs in church choirs all her life, giving her a rich background in music that touches the hearts of those in her audiences.
  Matt Meacham of West Plains has been with the band about a year and sings lead, tenor, and baritone.  He plays both guitar and mandolin “with skill and precision that is rarely heard in any group,” according to fellow member Ed McKinney.  He is from southern Illinois originally, but has lived in Kentucky, North Carolina, and West Virginia, and has accumulated a large repertoire of bluegrass and folk music during his time in those widely varying areas.  Matt works for the West Plains Council on the Arts as a folklorist and is also an adjunct instructor in music and folklore at Missouri State University-West Plains.
  Ed McKinney rounds out the membership of Sunny Side Up.  He plays guitar mostly, but occasionally plays mandolin with the group.  Like Dean, Ed has played guitar almost all his life, beginning at about age twelve, which he admits was “some time ago.”  He sings lead, bass, and some tenor, and loves to play guitar in the Carter style as Mother Maybelle did.  He also likes “corny” songs!  At the State Fair in August 2005, he took third in the state in the back-up guitar (for fiddlers) contest.  He is chairman of the history department at Missouri State University, West Plains, and serves as business manager for Sunny Side Up.

“Home Folks”
“Home Folks” consists mainly of a husband and wife team, Spike and Janis Huff, from Franklin County, Missouri.
The couple operates Home Folks Acoustic Music House located in Parkway, Missouri,  where they hold music sessions on the weekends and teach private lessons on a variety of stringed instruments.
In April of 2008, Janis was the 1st place winner of the Southern Regional Hammered Dulcimer Contest, held annually in Mountain View, Arkansas. 
She will go on to play in the national hammered dulcimer contest at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas.
Spike, a Franklin County deputy, sings, plays guitar, fiddle, and mandolin.  He has written several gospel songs in the past few years.

Contact information:  314-808-0594
homefolks@yhti.net

Travis Inman

It’s been 10 years since Travis Inman’s last performance at the Old Time Music, Ozark Heritage Festival.  At that time, Marideth Sisco, a reporter for the Daily Quill interviewed him for the newspaper.  With a few updates, we are reprinting it here for your pleasure. 

Ask Travis Inman how he got interested in playing the fiddle, and he’ll warn you it’s a tale that’ll take all night to tell.”  Inman, eleven-time Missouri state champion fiddler and three-time Midwest champion, said his roots as a fiddler run deep.

“My great aunt Kate Swearingen, a Cherokee Indian woman, was the Oklahoma state champion back in the 1920’s.  My dad played the fiddle, and so did my uncles, and all kinds of relatives are musicians of one kind or another.”   

One uncle, John “Doc” Swearingen, was Kate’s nephew, and was a particularly strong inspiration for the young Travis.  “I remember him from when I was a ked.  He’d sit around the kitchen table, or out in the yard under a shade tree, and play all the old tunes.  We’d all be peeling apples or peaches and someone would ask him for a tune, and he’d play all those old songs you never hear anymore, songs like “Watermelon on the Vine” and “The Old Blue Mule.” 

Inman, from Cole Camp, MO, said his teachers were many, particularly when the family would invite everyone over for a Friday night “jam session.” 

“We had these gatherings when I was a kid where everyone would come over on a Friday night , and the women would bring pies and cakes and all kinds of snacks, and the musicians would start playing along before dark, and play until two or three in the morning.  There was no alcohol or anything like that.  Everyone just swapped stories, swapped songs and swapped recipes.”

As a small child, Inman wasn’t encouraged to learn the fiddle, but his father and uncles soon put him to work playing rhythm guitar for their own fiddle playing.  For a while he was content with that.  And then, in 1974, he got the opportunity to hear some real fiddle playing at an old time fiddler’s contest at Warsaw, MO.  Inspired by those “real fiddlers” he decided he had to get into the fiddle.  But that was easier said than done.  Although his father owned several fiddles and did repairs on them, he didn’t react kindly to anyone else touching them.

“If he caught you touching a fiddle of his, he’d thrash you.  So I waited until my mom was outside hanging laundry one day and I climbed up and looked in the cabinets and found an old fiddle that he been taken apart.  It had no keys and no strings.  I rummaged around in dad’s spare parts and found the keys and put strings on.  But I didn’t have any idea how to tune it. I had to get dad’s fiddle out of its case to find out how to tune it.  And I used his bow and started sawing.  After awhile, I could make it bounce like you have to do, and then I went over to my uncle’s and he showed me some easy tunes.”

Three months later, he entered the fiddling contest in the junior division.  It wasn’t until then that he worked up the nerve to tell his dad what he had been up to. 

“He just flat out didn’t believe me.  I had to get the fiddle out and play the tunes for him.” 

He played the same tunes at the contest, and won.  “You only had to play three tunes in the competition.  It was a good thing, because that’s all I knew.”

Today, at age 43, Inman sports eleven state championships, three regional championships and over 140 trophies.  He has inspired and taught many a young fiddler, was a master artist in the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program with the Missouri Folk Art Program and continues to play music in and around the Cole Camp-Sedalia area as often as he can.

Travis will perform on Sunday, at 2 PM on the court square stage.  He will be joined by Junior Marriott, also a champion fiddler, from Ava, MO, and Fred McKinney from St. Louis, MO, on the upright bass.  Travis and Junior will also conduct a fiddle workshop under the Brush Arbor on Sunday at 1 PM.

Baled Green & Wired Tight

The name of this group refers to making hay.  And baling green and wiring tight is something you don’t do without risk of setting the barn on fire.  They play at such venues as the farmers’ market, contradances,  Missouri Chautauqua programs, the county fair, ice cream socials, art shows, the Chicken House Opry and other local music shows. 

They play old time traditional music which often came to the Ozarks through Appalachia or sometimes down the river from Canada.  Their musical influences are from family (Lee Ann’s dad sang harmonies with his family as they picked cotton in Oklahoma, Brandon’s mother and uncle sang in a folk group)  and friends (Lee Ann learned some fiddling from Cactus Jack McMurray who was a fiddler, gunsmith and bootlegger.) 

You may ask yourself “Why do modern day pizza eaters sing of treeing a possum?” Each member of the group is mysteriously drawn to play old time music.  If fact, each one in the group may be a missing link to old timey ways as evidenced by the following:
Jack has a fascination with chipping at stone and spends countless hours doing so (a stone sculptor.)  Lee Ann is a spinner/weaver.  Brandy has an interest in fire and its uses in cooking.  And Brandon has continuing involvement with the wheel (truck driver.) 

The group consists of Brandy Wooden on bass and vocals, Brandon Wooden on banjo and vocals, Lee Ann Sours on fiddles, and Jack Sours on guitar. 

Samples of their music and their schedule can be seen on myspace.com/baledgreenandwiredtight.

The Bob Holt National Old Time Jig Dance Competition

Celebrate Howell County's Sesquicentennial
Re-enactment of the Civil War skirmish at the Howell County Courthouse

Performances: dulcimers, autoharps, drop thumb banjos, string bands, pickers, ballads, shape note singing & more.

Exhibits & Activities:
Work is Art and Art is Work: The Art of Handcrafted Instruments
This Contest is for Real Hands: Rodeo Photographs from the 1930's
What's Cookin' (food arts stage)
1880s Era Rendezvous
Marine Corps Legacy Museum
old time square and jig dancing
workshops in traditional music
jam sessions, pickers welcome

Artisans in Action: Blacksmith, spinners & weavers, quilters, candle makers, traditional basketmaking & more.

Music from 2003 Festival
  Hard for to love 
by Kim & Jim Lansford
  It was sad 
by The Graves Family

Photography, Festival program guide, and newspaper coverage.
Many of the photos on this site were taken by Quill staff photographers.