In record time: Building fresh material out of tradition and experience, Hawktail thrives on the combined talents of fiddler Brittany Haas, bassist Paul Kowert, guitarist Jordan Tice, and mandolin player Dominick Leslie. The low-key supergroup (members’ affiliations include the Punch Brothers, David Rawlings, Crooked Still, and “A Prairie Home Companion”) found its groove in the making of its second album. With a tight studio schedule and the clock ticking, the band decided to forgo an album of covers, and work out some fledgling ideas. Hass says they found a new joy in the result, Formations, written in two months and recorded over four days.
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Landscape photographer Karen Duncan Pape turns her lens to the page in “De-Circulated,” an exhibition of reconstructed covers of banned books on display at McGuffey Art Center through January 28. “Growing up in Southwest Virginia, books were extremely important to me, as they exposed me to other worlds and broadened my perspective,” says Pape. “I […]
Black Fiddlers
Take a deep dive into the culture and legacy of African American violinists in director Eduardo Montes-Bradley’s Black Fiddlers. The 60-minute documentary shares the stories and sounds of Black men and women throughout American history, like the late old-time fiddler Joe Thompson (pictured) and 18th-century Richmond virtuoso Sy Gilliat, an enslaved man whose opera melodies […]
Maura Shawn Scanlin
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