Floyd County Live

Two Performances for the Price of One

Last Friday, Gretchen and I broke away for a few hours and managed to catch Mac and Jenny Traynham playing at Oddfellas Cantina. They are fine performers and have been active in the performance and preservation of the music of Appalachia. We make it a point to hear them whenever we can.

Mac is a true professional. This particular night he was playing up a storm even though he was feeling poorly. But he brought along a young couple to play the second set and they did a great job.

Jackson Cunningham and Anya Hinkle played a set of high energy country music.

I was not able to find out much about Jackson other than he is a competent guitar player with a good singing voice.

But, like so many of the people we meet in Floyd, there is far more to Anya Hinkle than a violinist with a great country voice. An avid cyclist, she competed in NCCA road races while she was getting her Ph.D. at UC-Berkely. She is now a post-doctorate fellow in the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech.

I hope we have a chance to hear Hinkle and Cunningham again. Their performance was a nice follow-on to the Traynams.

Swordfish at Oddfellas Cantina

Ah, mercy! This swordfish was amazing! It was unlike anything I have ever eaten.

Paulina pan-seared this swordfish and finished it with olives, capers, and a light marinara sauce according to the menu.

Since it tasted nothing like the usual marinara sauce, I had to go into the kitchen and ask how she achieved that result. Paulina explained that the sauce is more like a puttanesca sauce.

A treat for the eyes and ears at Oddfellas Cantina

Last Wednesday, Gretchen and I wandered into Oddfellas Cantina to hear Bernie Coveney and Chris Luster playing with Rob Neukirch. 

We never know what we are going to hear on Wednesday nights because that's the night the musicians try out new songs and invite musicians in the audience to participate.

We were sitting there enjoying the music when we were joined by photographer and blogger Doug Thompson and his wife Amy. The band kept jamming and were having so much fun that Doug and I started shooting pictures.

It was one of those nights where the music was so good and the songs were so entertaining that I began to lose track of time.

Sally Walker dropped by from the Cafe Del Sol about then and we persuaded her to join us.

We were having a great old time and it felt like the evening couldn't get any better, when Rob and Bernie persuaded Sally to take the stage and sing.

The fact they were playing something she had never sung didn't stop Sally. She took the mike and swung into action without missing a beat. She is an expressive and talented singer and her singing that night was just magic.

We had such a great time that we stayed until closing. I think we are making up for years of living in places which didn't have any local entertainment.

That seems to be one of the big differences between Floyd and other places we have lived. We can live, work, and play in Floyd. We don't have to drive miles into the big city to hear top rate musicians. Furthermore, there is live music in this town six nights a week.

The biggest problem we seem to run into is deciding which of our friends do we listen to on any given night. When you have good friends playing at several places, it makes for an interesting dilemma.

While the band was warming up, we noticed that one wall displayed watercolors by a new artist, Chris Bazeley. Chris is an English illustrator with a touch of cartoonist in his makeup. According to the artist's brother, who lives in Floyd, the exhibit will hang on the wall for two months.

I would cheerfully hang any of these watercolors in my office, but this one, Reading Light, was one of my favorites.

You can see from the detail that his pictures have a subtle humor. I find it quite appealing.

Go to Chris Bazeley's website to see more of his fine art, including Flying School and Inflight Refueling.

Friday Night at Oddfellas Cantina

It's Friday night at Oddfellas Cantina and we are listing to smooth jazz from the Floyd Montgomery Jazz Project. Gary Everett on saxophone, John Winnicki on guitar and Bob Thomas on bass have just finished playing a tasteful rendition of Bye, Bye, Blackbird.

I caught them in a light moment that captures the relaxed way they handle themselves onstage and off.

One of the joys of listening to music at Oddfellas is that you are up close and personal with the performers. You not only get to watch superlative performances, you get to experience the musicians as people. There is usually a lot of interaction between the performers and their friends in the audience.

Oddfella's Cantina does it right!

It's freezing outside, but the warm hospitality and great food at Rob Neukirch's Oddfella's Cantina has captured our hearts. While we eat roast duck, Rob and a trio of local musicians are filling the place with joyful sounds.

The group above consists of Chris Luster on bass, Rob Neukirch at the microphone, Abraham Goorskey on mandolin and Bernie Coveney at the far right on guitar. Bernie Coveney played with Emmy Lou Harris for several years.

They played selections ranging from Route 66 and Tipsy Gypsy, to original compositions like Young Ladies I Used to Know.

We can thank the 1987 Northridge earthquake for giving our host the necessary nudge to move from Playa Del Rey, in sunny southern california to the one stoplight town of Floyd, in southern Virginia.

Rob, a former actor, is a singer/songwriter/restauranteer who provides a weekly venue for live music and poetry at his colorful restaurant at the intersection of routes 8 and 221.

The groups I've heard at Oddfella's have shown an effortless ability to entertain without overwhelming. Their phrasing and talent has been a welcome relief from the barrage of sound that passes for music in some venues.

The audience had some sleepers. A woman at a nearby table was persuaded to sing with the group and she was belting out songs in a matter of moments. Her name is Sallie Walker and when she is not running a nearby coffee house, she sings with a group called, Diva and the G Strings.

Chickenwings and Gravy

Life just doesn't get much better than this. Good music in an intimate venue that provides great food and genuine hospitality.

Gretchen and I and Doug Thompson are discussing the fate of the world over dinner at Oddfellas Cantina while Bill Smith and Rich Rittenhouse play original and classic blues tunes.

Bill and Rich, also known as Chicken Wings and Gravy, play the blues in a way you will not soon forget. Their understated competence showed these two to be masters of their art.

I have seen too many blues groups which relied on histrionics and flashy vocals to capture an audience's attention, so it was a complete surprise to encounter the arresting performance that these two put on.

They didn't introduce themselves, they just started playing quietly and purposefully, but you knew immediatly that these guys were something out of the ordinary because you couldn't take your attention off them. They didn't speak much at all, they just let their music do the talking for them.

You can read more about them on chickenwings and gravy.com.

Old Time Music Night at Oddfellas

On the second Thursday of the month, Oddfellas Cantina hosts an old time music night. When they bill it as old-time music, they aren't kidding. This music is before Bluegrass, before Carter family music, even before Gospel. The tunes you will hear are early Scottish and English melodies, mostly reels and other dances.

This group consists of a core of regular players and a lot of others who walk in and start playing as the mood strikes them. The level of skill was quite evident as the music never faltered as players joined in or left the stage to eat their suppers. The old-time music just kept on coming.

Phil Woddail is one of three core members of this group. He coaxes more music out of a harmonica than I thought possible. Lester Gillespie is another of the original members and plays the bass. Mac Traynham, not shown here, is the third member of the core group and plays the fiddle.

Chris Youngblood, the blond guitar player, is the only other member of the group that I could identify. If you readers know the names of the other players, please let me know and I will see that their names are added.

Rob Neukirch, the owner of Oddfellas Cantina hosts live music five nights a week. That's pretty spectacular for a county that has only one stoplight, but then again, Floyd, VA is a different kind of place...