Podcast appearances and mentions of jake schepps

www.patreon.com/banjopodcast   For this Bonus episode, I have a quick chat about the upcoming Banjo Summit with Jake Schepps, an extraordinary banjo player in his own right, and the Director of the Banjo Summit! About Banjo Summit: 2-day online banjo workshop aimed at teaching accessible techniques to add color to your traditional playing or take you beyond bluegrass. Regardless of your favorite styles, the Banjo Summit will expand your expertise and inspire countless new ideas that will raise your playing to new heights.    Faculty include BB Bowness, Wes Corbett, Matt Flinner, Adam Larrabee, Greg Liszt, Jayme Stone, a concert with Jake Blount, and a special guest lecture from the indomitable Jens Kruger.     Visit www.banjosummit.org to enroll and learn more.   *** Use code “Pickyfingers” for a 10% discount ***   Contact the show: pickyfingersbanjopodcast@gmail.com

This week on Inside Appalachia we'll visit a luthier's shop where old instruments get new life, and hear about a new comedy film set in Beckley, West Virginia. We'll also hear from author Neema Avashia, whose new book is "Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer And Indian In A Mountain Place."  Comedy Film Set In Beckley, West Virginia The upcoming slapstick comedy “Ambrosia” is set in a quirky bed and breakfast in Beckley, West Virginia. It's a feature-length movie, but it's not a Hollywood movie; the two directors are from West Virginia, along with nearly the entire cast and crew. The film is set to debut at the Raleigh Playhouse in Beckley this spring. Our Folkways reporter Clara Haizlett spoke with Beckley filmmakers Shane Pierce and Dave Gravely about the movie.. A Guitar Surgeon Gives Old Instruments Their Voices Back Bob Smakula of Elkins, West Virginia, has made a career out of fixing old musical instruments so modern musicians can keep playing them. He tries to make repairs to fix an instrument's problems while also staying true to its history.  “I've definitely honed my skills to try to be invisible,” he said.  “I don't want anybody to know I was ever there, except to go ‘Hey, this plays better than they usually do,' or ‘This sounds better than they usually do.'” Smakula has been honing his invisibility powers for a long time. Folkways reporter Zack Harold spoke with Smakula about his career for this week's episode.  Coming Up Queer and Indian In A Mountain Place Author Neema Avashia grew up in a neighborhood in Kanawha County, West Virginia as the daughter of immigrants. Her new book, "Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place," is a collection of essays that describe her experience growing up as an Indian American — who also happens to be queer — and an Appalachian. Co-host Mason Adams talked with Avashia about the book and about her experiences.  Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Blue Dot Sessions, Jake Schepps, and Dinosaur Burps. Roxy Todd is our producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Alex Runyon is our associate producer. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. Zander Aloi also helped produce this episode.  You can find us on Twitter @InAppalachia.

What is Appalachia? This week, we're re-airing a December 2021 episode that seeks to answer this question, with stories from Mississippi to Pittsburgh.  Appalachia connects mountainous parts of the South, the Midwest, the Rust Belt, even the Northeast. Politically, it encompasses 423 counties across 13 states — West Virginia is the only state entirely inside Appalachia.   That leaves so much room for geographic and cultural variation. This week, we ask people from five Appalachian states if they feel like they're in Appalachia.   Mississippi Bob Owens, locally known as 'Pop Owens', standing in front of his watermelon stand outside New Houlka, Miss. Pop said he was aware that Mississippi is part of Appalachia, but that no one in the state would consider themselves Appalachian. Caitlin Tan/WVPB Bob Owens is a watermelon farmer outside New Houlka, in the northeastern part of Mississippi. Owens said he was aware that Mississippi is part of Appalachia, but that no one in the state would consider themselves Appalachian.  Shenandoah Valley  In the 1960s, while some localities were clamoring to get into Appalachia, on the eastern edge of the region some lawmakers fought to keep their counties outside the boundaries, including politicians in Roanoke, Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. Appalachian Studies associate professor Emily Satterwhite said explaining to her students why some counties in Virginia are included in Appalachia, but others aren't is confusing.  Pittsburgh  Appalachia's largest city is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When we asked people from that city to tell us if they consider it a part of Appalachia, about half said no.  “I definitely do not feel that I am Appalachian culturally,” said Mark Jovanovich, who grew up just outside Pittsburgh's city limits in the Woodland Hills area. “Personally, I would consider the city of Pittsburgh is sort of like a mini New York City. I guess we'd probably be lumped in as like a Rust Belt city, which makes enough sense, but definitely not Appalachian culturally.” Writer Brian O'Neill disagrees. He wrote a book called “The Paris of Appalachia: Pittsburgh in the Twenty-First Century.”  What Do You Think? How about you? Do you call yourself an Appalachian? Why or why not? Send an email to insideappalachia@wvpublic.org or Tweet to us @InAppalachia.  Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Amythyst Kiah, Jake Schepps, and Jarett Pigmeat, courtesy of Appalshop and June Appal Recordings and Dinosaur Burps. Roxy Todd is our producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Alex Runyon is our associate producer. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. Zander Aloi also helped produce this episode. Jess Mador, Shepherd Snyder and Liz McCormick contributed to this episode.

Lawmakers across Appalachia are debating how issues of race are taught in public schools, but the U.S. isn't the only country with an unsettling history to deal with.  In Germany, teachers are mandated to include lessons about one of their nation's darkest chapters — the Holocaust. This week on Inside Appalachia, we look at those discussions, and hear from people in Germany, about how they teach their difficult history. And we learn about some of the often overlooked stories of Black Americans during and after the Civil War. Seizing Freedom With Kidada Williams Kidada Williams is host of the podcast Seizing Freedom from VPM and Molten Heart. Its first season includes stories of enslaved Black Americans whose lives were radically changed when the Civil War broke out. As the Confederacy started to fall, Union soldiers occupied  parts of the South, which gave some enslaved people ideas about a way to escape to freedom. Our producer Roxy Todd spoke with Williams to learn more. A Critical Moment Audio Documentary While at least nine states have already banned teachers from bringing up certain topics about race in the classroom, others have legislation in the works around the issue. But, the U.S. isn't the only country with an unsettling history to deal with. In Germany, teachers are mandated to include lessons about the Holocaust, one of their nation's darkest chapters. WFPL Arts and Culture Reporter Stephanie Wolf traveled to Germany to explore how the Holocaust is covered in schools there, and she produced an audio documentary about what she learned. Wolf teamed up with her station's education reporter, Jess Clark, to compare Germany's approach to teaching about the Holocaust with the debate in Kentucky about how our own uncomfortable history is covered in schools. Their audio documentary is called A Critical Moment.  Banning Books in Public Schools The debate around Critical Race Theory is spilling into debates about what books are included in public school curricula, and even in school libraries. This issue has been front and center in Tennessee, where a school board removed a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust. Our co-host Mason Adams spoke with Blaise Gainey, a reporter who covers the state capitol in Nashville for WPLN, about the controversy. Email us at insideappalachia@wvpublic.org. Tweet us @InAppalachia.  Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Wes Swing, Jake Schepps, and Dinosaur Burps. Roxy Todd is our producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Alex Runyon is our associate producer. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. This episode was produced with assistance from Aileen LeBlanc and the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps, funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — a private corporation funded by the American people. Zander Aloi also helped produce this episode.  You can find us on Twitter @InAppalachia.

Jake Schepps is an uncommon banjoist & composer creating music for the traditional American string band that is anything but traditional. In this episode, he speaks with host Matt Brown in his capacity as director of the Banjo Summit, a progressive 3-finger banjo workshop for intermediate, advanced, and professional musicians. The next Banjo Summit will be held February 11-13, 2022 on Zoom. It features an extraordinary cast of banjoists including Kristin Scott Benson, Noam Pikelny, Bill Evans, Wes Corbett, and Jayme Stone. Jake also describes his recent online camp featuring the band Hawktail, and forthcoming banjo transcription books he will publish featuring the original music of Béla Fleck, Wes Corbett, Adam Larrabee, and Max Allard. Jake has taught at NimbleFingers, Berklee College of Music, Steve Kaufman Acoustic Kamp, British Columbia Bluegrass Workshop, University of Northern Colorado, and produced an instructional DVD entitled Modern Banjo Ideas & Techniques.

This week's episode of Inside Appalachia explores stories about families, friends, and how people on opposite ends of the political spectrum connect through music, food and conversations about tough topics. We'll hear the story of one of the world's best fiddlers, Clark Kessinger, from St. Albans, West Virginia. We'll learn how he inspired his nephew, Robin Kessinger, to play the guitar.  We'll also talk about how East African immigrant communities in a small town in West Virginia are connecting back to their home traditions through coffee ceremonies.  Kessinger Brothers Robin Kessinger is a national award-winning flatpicker, and yet he still spends his days teaching kids and adults their first chords. One of his main musical mentors was a music legend in his own right. Inside Appalachia folkways reporter Zack Harold has the story. Coffee Ceremonies  Moorefield, West Virginia, is home to about 3,300 people — about one in 10 are immigrants. That includes a small community from Eritrea and Ethiopia. Many of them work at the chicken processing plant in town, Pilgrim's Pride. The hours there are long and don't leave much time for socializing. Still, members of that East African community continue to practice a tradition they've brought from home: the coffee ceremony. Folkways reporter Clara Haizlett brings us this story, with help from former West Virginia state folklorist Emily Hilliard.  Young Farmers Struggle To Find Land For generations here in Appalachia, fall has been a time of harvest. On farms, there's a mad rush to get all the last crops in before that first hard freeze. It's a tough time of year in an already difficult job. For a lot of folks, farming is a constant uphill battle to get out of debt. And yet, people still want to farm, including a growing number of young people. But one of the biggest barriers to young farmers is accessing affordable land. WESA's An-Li Herring reports.   Virtual Dinner Party  We're in the midst of the holiday season, nearly two years into the pandemic, and some of us are getting to see our families for the first time in a while. But family get-togethers, even during non-pandemic times, can also be stressful, especially if you have family members who have political views that don't quite line up with yours. Our colleagues at the Us & Them podcast started a tradition last Thanksgiving — a virtual dinner party of people with different political views. They returned this year with another holiday dinner party to talk about issues with the intention of finding some common ground between servings of turkey and pumpkin pie.  Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Blue Dot Sessions, Jake Schepps, Wes Swing, and Dinosaur Burps. Roxy Todd is our producer. Our executive producer is Andrea Billups. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. Zander Aloi also helped produce this episode. You can find us on Twitter @InAppalachia. You can also send us an email to InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.

Jake Schepps joins Martin for a discussion about the new paths of Acoustic music. Jake's new record "Entwined" features classical works composed specifically for a "Bluegrass Quintet" of instruments. Martin and Jake discuss exploring new musical ground, the music business and reimagining traditions. Visit Jakeschepps.com for more information.

Blame it on Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring or perhaps the ridiculous virtuosity that is characteristic of so much bluegrass playing. In the past decade, growing numbers of classical musicians have been mixing it up with fiddlers, banjo players and mandolin pluckers. Yo-Yo Ma has worked with bluegrass players in the Goat Rodeo Sessions; mandolin wizard Chris Thile has played his own concerto with several American orchestras and released an album of Bach partitas. The latest group to explore this hybrid is the Jake Schepps Quintet, a string band whose members are steeped in bluegrass spontaneity but whose repertoire – yes, repertoire – is by composers from the modern classical tradition. They include Matt McBane, Marc Mellits, Gyan Riley, and Matt Flinner. Led by Schepps, a Colorado-based banjoist, the group came to WQXR to play three pieces from "Entwined," their debut album. "Most of the instruments in the string band aren't foreign" to classical composers, said Schepps, in an interview with host Terrance McKnight. "Most classical composers have written for violin, guitar, and bass, and a mandolin is tuned like a violin so it's familiar territory." The quintet's set began with Flatiron VII: Planetary Tuners by Mellits, a Chicago-based composer whose works have been performed by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Kronos Quartet, among other groups. Schepps has been at the forefront of melding bluegrass with other genres for several years. He previously recorded an album of Béla Bartok's music arranged for a string band, "An Evening In The Village," and says he wants to play the music of Henry Purcell for a future project. "I fell in love with his three and four-part fantasias," he said. "I love Baroque music and Bach. I'm always curious for places that I can take string band instruments into new terrain." Schepps added that it's a "lateral step" to transfer pieces from Purcell's viola da gambas to the five-string banjo. The quintet's next selection is the album's title track, by Matt McBane, a Brooklyn violinist and composer who directs the Carlsbad Music Festival in California and whose music has been played by a number of new-music groups. Flinner, who plays mandolin in the quintet, composed the last selection in the set, called Migrations. He tells McKnight that his challenge "was trying, as a bluegrass musician, to write across that line in a long-form manner. Classical music goes so many different directions these days. One thing that we could use more of is more American roots elements added to that. Bluegrass is a uniquely American art form. It feels like it's getting more respect." Schepps added: "My hope is that a classical audience will come to find something interesting about bluegrass." Listen to the full interview and performances at the top of this page. Jake Schepps Quintet Personnel: Jake Schepps: five-string banjoMatt Flinner: mandolinRyan Drickey: violinJordan Tice: acoustic guitarAndrew Small: double bass Videos: Kim Nowacki; Audio: Irene Trudel; Production: Brian Wise; Interview: Terrance McKnight; Production Assistance: Rebecca Stein

JAKE SCHEPPS has made a name for himself as a banjo renaissance man, an artist with not only an adroit touch on his instrument but an intrepid, imaginative vision for contemporary stringband music. Although a student of traditional and progressive bluegrass styles as a player, Schepps has stretched beyond those genres to take his place alongside the Punch Brothers, Matt Flinner and other notables in a field the Colorado-based banjoist likes to call simply "new acoustic music." His venturesome new album, 'An Evening in the Village: The Music of B�la Bart�k,' finds common ground between the piquant beauty of the great Hungarian composer's take on Eastern European folk melodies and the big-sky vibrancy of new American acoustic music. HARPETH RISING is a group of four young classically trained musicians exploring the Americana genre. With a banjo and fiddle, you might think they're traditional bluegrass, but think again: cello and hand drums round out the group, creating a truly new sound. A little bit bluegrass, a little bit folk, a little bit classical and whole lot of original, Harpeth Rising is a band to watch. The band just released their second album, with Grammy-award winning producer Bil VornDick, entitled 'Dead Man's Hand'.

1 - "Dance" da/from "Three-Piece Suite" (Michael Hurd). John Turner, flauta doce/recorder. Manchester Chamber Ensemble. 2 - "Tucto il mundo e fantasia" (Johannes Hesdimois). Ulrike Hofbauer, soprano. Modena Consort. 3 - "Inquietude" de/from "Feuilles d'album, Op. 20" (Henrique Oswald). Maria Inês Guimarães, piano. 4 - "Simply beautiful" (Al Green). Al Green. 5 - Canto do bicudo/ Brazilian birdcall. 6 - "An Evening in the Village" de/from "Hungarian Sketches" (Bartók). Jake Schepps, banjo. Ryan Drickey, violino/violin. Matt Flinner, mandolim. Ross Martin, violão/guitar. Ben Soller, cello. Eric Thorin & Greg Garrison, contrabaixo/bass.