The Berkeley Old Time Music Convention (BOTMC) presents a triple bill concert featuring innovative string band heroes Jake Blount, Judy Hyman & Jeff Claus (in various combinations!), Kentucky dulcimer goddess Sarah Kate Morgan, and Suzy Thompson in a rare solo appearance. Hosted jamming in front of the Freight from 5-6PM; doors open at 6PM; showtime at 7PM. The BOTMC runs Sept. 17-22 with concerts, dances, string band contest, instructional workshops, activities for families and lots of jamming! Many free events too.

Jake Blount, Judy Hyman and Jeff Claus will perform in various combos, including solo pieces by Jake. At the Saturday night square dance at Ashkenaz, they’ll again join forces to form the core of a kick-ass old-time band. Judy Hyman and Jeff Claus met Jake Blount when he was a student at Hamilton College who would occasionally come to Ithaca, NY (their home town) for events. He was playing banjo then and getting started on fiddle. A very dedicated and quick learner, it was apparent his playing was growing fast. For Jake’s senior thesis, a history and cultural study of the fiddle music scene in Ithaca, he interviewed Judy and Jeff, and they became friends. Later, Jake asked them to help him produce his first album after college, Spider Tales. Judy and Jeff say: “We were honored and loved the collaboration and depth of the experience of working with Jake. We’re good friends now, and we love and respect him for his stellar musicianship and his skill as an artist, scholar, and activist. We always look forward to talking, seeing, and playing with him and to watching him make his wonderful way in the world."

Website

Jake Blount 

Jake Blount – an award-winning and genre-defying Black and queer multi-instrumentalist and singer – has received many honors including the Steve Martin Banjo Prize and has performed at venues from Carnegie Hall to Library of Congress to NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts. He has lectured on the history of Black string band music at Yale University, Berklee College of Music, and the Smithsonian Institute. Currently, he is working towards a Ph.D in Musicology and Ethnomusicology at Brown University. Blount is interested in the ways in which African Americans have “shaped and defined the amorphous categories of roots music and Americana” — something that is evident throughout his music. His first album Spider Tales was named one of the year’s best by NPR, highlighting Black and Indigenous histories and reviving songs that had been forgotten over decades of whitewashing. Blount views his music as connecting past histories, the present moment and our future; according to his website, he believes that “the more we learn about where we’ve been, the better equipped we are to face the future.”

Judy Hyman and Jeff Claus

Judy Hyman and Jeff Claus, from Ithaca NY, are founding members of the hugely influential alt-folk string band, The Horse Flies. Jeff grew up in a small town in rural Illinois. His mother bought him his first guitar from the only music store in town, paying it off in small monthly installments. Judy grew up in New York City and New Jersey and was steeped early in a rich combination of classical violin,urban soul, R&B and jazz (her father is the renowned pianist Dick Hyman). She discovered Southern traditional American fiddle music in college (which is where the two met) and has been playing it ever since. Judy plays fiddle/violin, has recorded and toured with Natalie Merchant, and received an Emmy award for one of her many film scores. Jeff plays guitar and banjo ukulele, writes songs and sings. His music has been used by Natalie Merchant, MTV's Rock the Vote, the band Fiery Furnaces, film director Oliver Stone and others. Together they played in The Horse Flies and the indie rock band, Boy with a Fish, and now they spend a lot of their time composing and recording film scores for feature films and television documentaries (J2 Film Music). They also perform and teach workshops and classes at traditional music and other programs and festivals. As a duo, they play original and traditional fiddle tunes, songs, and waltzes.

Sarah Kate Morgan 

Well-known and widely respected as one of the leading experts of the mountain dulcimer, Sarah Kate is also a first-rate singer and songwriter. Born in Sharps Chapel, Tennessee, she began playing dulcimer at age 7, on an instrument built by her grandfather. At 18, she placed 1st at the 2012 National Mountain Dulcimer Championships in Winfield, Kansas. Sarah Kate has performed and/or recorded with artists like Tyler Childers, Amethyst Kiah and Erynn Marshall & Carl Jones, and is an accomplished scholar who graduated from Morehead State University with degrees in Traditional Music, Appalachian Studies, and Arts Administration. Currently based in Hindman, Kentucky, she practices, cultivates, teaches, and preserves Appalachian folk traditions in her role as a community music educator at the Eastern Kentucky nonprofit Appalshop. Whether calling square dances, playing the mountain dulcimer, or making music and creating art with Appalachian youth, Sarah Kate Morgan’s work centers on a lived belief that art and tradition are living, breathing tools that foster hope, build community, and create change.

Suzy Thompson 

In a rare solo set, Suzy Thompson bids her farewell as Director of the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention, having founded the festival in 2003. Suzy’s long involvement with old-time music began in the 1970s and includes performances and recordings with Any Old Time String Band, Blue Flame String Band, California Cajun Orchestra, Thompsonia, Bluegrass Intentions and other bands, as well as duets with husband Eric. She has worked with many old-time and bluegrass greats including Alice Gerrard, Mac Benford, Rafe Stefanini, Kate Brislin & Jody Stecher and Bill Evans; with Cajun icons including Ann Savoy, Michael Doucet, Steve Riley, Cedric Watson and Danny and Edward Poullard; and with blues and jug band heroes like Geoff Muldaur and Jim Kweskin, Maria Muldaur, Del Rey, Mary Flower, Meredith Axelrod and Craig Ventresco. She served as Artistic Director of Festival of American Fiddle Tunes from 2010-2016, and later worked with Angela Wellman (Oakland Public Conservatory of Music) to design and implement the Black Banjo & Fiddle Fellowship, an innovative apprenticeship and teacher training program. Her most recent recording, “Suzy Sings Siebel” reached #2 on the Roots Music Report Traditional Folk Album chart. It is a complete departure from her extensive catalog of traditional roots music: a tribute to 1970s singer-songwriter Paul Siebel, featuring Suzy’s singing and guitar playing with a supporting cast that includes Cindy Cashdollar, John Sebastian, Molly Mason, and many others.