Tom McCarroll & Tammie
McCarroll-Burroughs
James T.
“Tom” McCarroll, born in 1928, worked in city maintenance in Lenoir City
for over 30 years, all the while playing fiddle, guitar, and banjo. His daughter Tammie, the only one of
Fiddlin' Jim McCarroll's 13 grandchildren to take up music, was making
45 rpm
records in junior high school, recording Rockabilly songs and some of
her own compositions, as well as playing with her grandfather’s band
throughout his life, later performing with her father in the “Bonnie
Lou and
Buster” show on WJHL-TV in Sevierville, and at RV rallies and parks
from
Florida to Ohio. In recent years they've been frequent guests at
the Laurel Theater and on WDVX, performed at the Festival
of American Fiddle Tunes, and released a CD Generations.
When Daron Douglas travels with her songs and
stories people ask, "Tennessee? Isn't that where all the snakes
are?" and (more logically), "Will you bring us some
moonshine?" The mountains have an exotic reputation. Daron returns to Jubilee to celebrate
her recording of the songs her great-grandmother Jane Gentry sang for
English song collector Cecil Sharp in western North Carolina in 1916 and
1917. Songs of love and silliness, warning and contemplation, frogs and
dangerous chores. Songs from an unbroken tradition come home.
Y’uns
is a goodtime acoustic band that blends jugband music with elements of
folk,
swing, country, and blues. They
boast more kazoo-playing & yodeling than any Knoxville band but will fulfill their
contract to play at least one down-in-the-coalmine dirge per set. Y'uns features Steve Horton & Stan Turner
from the Lonesome Coyotes, Danny Gammon from Music Therapy, J. Miller
from UT
Theater, & J.P. Reddick from the
mighty Mumbillies.
East
Tennessee native Leah Gardner sings soulful blues, love ballads, and
country folk tunes. Her sound is influenced by roots music, old time,
classic bluegrass and country, early R&B, and years of playing with a
range of fine folks in and around Knoxville. She has performed at
Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion Festival, Bonaroo, Nashville's
Loveless Café and the Ryman auditorium, Tennessee Shines, and several times here at the Laurel Theater.
Mike
Bryant
has
been
playing
old
time
fiddle for over 30 years. For
22 years he played with the award winning old time band The New Dixie
Entertainers, playing all aound the country and at fiddle conventions.
Mike has taught fiddle classes at Swannanoa and Augusta and also enjoys
teaching individuals at home in Tennessee. Over the years Mike has won
many awards for fiddling, most notably at Clifftop, West Virginia. Mike
enjoys playing old time tunes from all over the south. He also has a
good repertory of blues and rags on the fiddle. Mike
was
featured prominently in a recent issue of the Old Time Herald and in
the video series Songs of Appalachia. 
Anybody
remember the Newly Evicted Expo City
Ramblers? The Honey Wagon Dip
Sticks? They're still here, the
ever-lovin' Mumbillies, wearing the same hats and the one name
they
couldn't shake. Alleged to be the
oldest
continuing band in Knoxville, the
Mumbillies have stuffed old time fiddle tunes and banjo riffs into
every crack
in the Laurel Theater's walls for the last quarter century
and more.
Spending most of their lives in a larval state, the Hellgrammites are
Ken Bronson on fiddle, Larry Holt on fiddle, Todd Gladson on banjo,
Morgan Simmons on guitar and John Mahaffy on guitar. Members play
regularly with the Mumbillies and the Gladson Family Band.The
Hellgrammites are the house band for the Knoxville Square Dance held
second Thursdays at the Laurel Theater.
North
Georgia native Todd Gladson picked up fiddle from his great uncle
Harold Gladson and went on to become state banjo champ at Hiawassee.
Todd plays with the Pea Ridge Ramblers, Kinman's Old Time Serenaders,
the Hellgrammites and the Gladson Family with Julie and Harlan,
performing old time tunes and vocal harmony.
John Alvis, Juanita Johnson and other friends pay tribute to legendary fiddler Charlie Acuff of the Union County family made famous by Charlie’s cousin Roy. Charlie can't be with us this year but his many musician friends will carry his music as far as they can.
Check
Engine is Frank Bronson on fiddle, Dillan Teffeteller on banjo and
Thomas Cook on guitar. Founded in 2011, they've performed old time and
bluegrass music at the WDVX Blue Plate Special, the Friday Art Walk in
Maryville, at community centers, restaurants, house parties and street
corners.
People enjoying themselves in the basement of the
Laurel
