The Frank Hamilton School is excited to kick-off its inaugural concert series with a journey back to 1920s old-time and country music with The Georgia Crackers and a performance by one of the more eclectic, genuine musicians Atlanta has to offer in Jeff Mosier! A portion of the proceeds will benefit FHFS and its continuing development & community involvement!
$12 Adv – $15 Door
Doors @ 7 PM
All ticket sales are final. No refunds.
Take a trip back in time to the early era of Country Music. Before Hank Williams or Bill Monroe & his Bluegrass Boys, Georgia musicians such as Fiddlin’ John Carson, Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers, and many others pioneered the golden age of “Hillbilly Stingbands”. The Georgia Crackers faithfully re-create the vintage sound of the 1920s, while keeping alive the spirit of spontaneity and improvisation. Their irreverent stage banter is always a crowd please. Along with old time singer, Kenneth Johnson (Pea Ridge Ramblers) on guitar and Chip Corbitt on clawhammer banjo, this rhythm section holds it down for Fiddlin’ Mick Kinney. Kinney has a unique but authentic fiddle style. When asked for his secret, Mick says, “steal licks from the best” and “keep it hot and greasy, but take it easy”. The Georgia Crackers reach back for that old time feel and surge forward in a rush so entertaining it’s mesmerizing.
The Georgia Crackers on Facebook
The Georgia Crackers on ReverbNation
Jeff Mosier is the conceiver and leader of the psychedelic hick-hop sound that is Blueground Undergrass. Before forming BGUG in 1998, he primarily played banjo alongside brother Johnny Mosier in their band Good Medicine for nearly 23 years. Also with Johnny, Jeff co-hosted the popular bluegrass radio show "Born in a Barn" for 14 years on 89.3 FM WRFG in Atlanta. In the late 1980’s, Jeff got his first experience playing rock n’ roll when he joined Col. Bruce Hampton’s Aquarium Rescue Unit. Mosier continues today with song-driven rock / bluegrass ensemble, The Jeff Mosier Band, that also includes guitarist extraordinaire Matthew Williams.
Jeff's special ability to combine bluegrass with trance, jazz and rock have made him an icon in the jam band world. The Reverend has shared the stage with Leftover Salmon, Widepsread Panic, Vassar Clemments, and many more. In 1994, he toured with Phish while teaching the band all about the world of bluegrass.
To add to an already eclectic musical career, Jeff also performs for senior citizens and Alzheimers patients, as well as children. He is active in public service, combining his musicianship with speaking engagements.
The Mosier Brothers Official Site
The Mosier Brothers on Facebook
The Mosier Brothers on iTunes
Blueground Undergrass on iTunes
The Frank Hamilton School is modeled on the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. Founded by folk musicians Frank Hamilton and Win Stracke, the School opened in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago in 1957. It began modestly by offering guitar and banjo lessons in a communal teaching style and hosting performances by well-known folk musicians. As a teaching and performing institution, the Old Town School of Folk Music launched the careers of many notable folk music artists. Currently the school has an enrollment of about 6,000 students per week, 2,700 of them children.
Win Stracke was a classically trained singer and Frank Hamilton, a young multi-instrumentalist and teacher of folk music; Frank had previously studied under Bess Lomax Hawes, daughter of folklorist John Lomax. The two met at the Gate of Horn nightclub in Chicago where they were both performing. Together Frank and Win developed a classroom technique based upon traditional oral and folk teaching methods: listening, watching, trial and error, and playing by ear. Where other music schools taught sight reading and performance, Win and Frank wanted the Old Town School “method” to retain its emphasis on participation and development of aural skills.
“We wanted to make music accessible to everyone, we wanted to bypass the formal educative type of note-reading you’d get in a music academy and emphasize the social aspects of music. We wanted to see involvement by people who wouldn’t normally think they had musical talent, and bring out whatever they had,” says Frank Hamilton, once a member of the iconic folk group, The Weavers. Frank is an Atlanta resident, and a key player in the establishment of the new Frank Hamilton Folk School.
Throughout its existence, the school in Chicago focused on offering both instruction and performance with many performing musicians also acting as teachers and mentors. It also proved a rich ground for collaboration. The late 1960s was a “golden era” as several musicians associated with the Old Town School rose to national prominence, including Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, Steve Goodman, John Prine, and Bob Gibson.
Today, the Old Town School has grown immensely and continues to offer music, dance, art and theater classes and performances for adults and children at two locations, plus children’s classes in some suburban branch locations. Atlanta’s Frank Hamilton Folk School offers music classes in several instruments at the Epworth at Candler Park UMC. Atlanta Area Friends of Folk Music, the parent organization for the Atlanta school, also holds its monthly coffeehouse concert, “Fiddlers Green” at the same location.
Frank Hamilton Folk School Official Site
Frank Hamilton Folk School on Facebook