Roundhouse Band performs music from a variety of genres using bluegrass instruments including stand up bass, guitar, mandolin, and banjo. Duet, trio, and quartet harmonies are integral to their sound.
They work out interesting and unique arrangements that are of special interest to the band members. Bluegrass, folk, southern, and classic rock, as well as a capella, gospel, and country blazing instrumentals, and original compositions all appear in the band’s repertoire.
They are on stage now at Weiser Fiddle Festival until 8 pm and tomorrow, Wednesday June 19th, from 7-8 pm. Please check them out!
I first met Robert Crist, better known as Brother Bob or BBQ Bob, depending on who you ask, in 1999. He is a bass player that has played with us on some of our Celtic music. Cindy Emery is a sweetheart with golden locks of blonde hair and a darling mandolin player that plays with a side project called Uke*A* Ladies. They are working together these days in a project called “Brief & Breezy.” Brother Bob plays in a side project called “The Nocturnals.”
“The Nocturnals” feature John Cleary on guitar and vocals, Robert Crist on bass and vocals, and Cindy Emery on mandolin and vocals. They are all from the Boise area. The music selections are written by John Cleary and a large selection of 70s San Fransisco folk rock gleaned from college radio stations of that era.
John Cleary
Brief and Breezy covers songs from Tin Pan Alley, Ragtime, and popular jazz tunes from the 20s to the 70s. They focus mostly on Broadway Tunes from the 20s. The members are Robert Crist and Cindy Emery.
Robert Crist played bluegrass with Rocky Mountain Ozone Band and The Hills Brothers band from 1975 to the present. From 1979 to 1982 he played in a casino circuit with Stir Crazy and from 1982-1985 he played with Lewiston Civic Theater Orchestra. After that, he did a solo act from 1985-1991. He played with The Tourists from 1991-1996.
He continued playing in various blues bands with Cindy Lee and Streetwise, Neighbor Dave and The Kings, The Solution Brothers, The Blue Rays, and Nocturnal Wedge from 1999-2006.
He soloed from 2006-2012 and joined up with Freudian Slip from 2005-2015 and Best Lyres from 2014-2018, Nocturnals 2016 to present, and lots of solos and duets in between. His main genre is the 1920s to 1940s Tin Pan Alley, jazz-pop (Broadway, Movie) music and San Fransisco Rock. He failed to mention that he played with CYMRY in the 2000s doing Celtic and classic rock and blues.
He’s an amazing musician and Cindy is very lucky to have him. He is beyond a bass player. He does great lead guitar and is very talented. He is one of my best friends and an amazing musician!
Jaz and Mike have been performing together since 2002. Jaz started out on the violin playing in the orchestra with classical music. She switched up to guitar when she was 15, but has always been a lead vocalist. They will perform on Saturday night at Weiser Fiddle Festival from 8-10 pm June 22nd.
Mike has always played guitar in one form or another and took a break when he had kids, Tasha and Michael. Now he is on board with his lead breaks and rhythm tracks. They found each other by accident. They have been playing together for 17 years.
The style Jaz writes is more in the line of Celtic/Folk/Blues. In fact, if you ask her, she says it’s confused. It’s not what anyone would write, they are weird chords, coupled by strange progressions, just different chords altogether. “I don’t quantify what I write. It’s unusual at best. It is not A G D, and E it’s more like C minor 7, and different because I write in 11ths also. It’s off the wall writing. I guess that’s what makes me different as a songwriter.”
Jaz does all of the song arrangements and a majority of the songwriting, but Mike is really the icing on the cake. His lead guitar adds so much to the final product. He has a Mark Knopfler feel to the way he lays in his guitar. He’s an amazing lead guitar player.
They have a new CD out this year that they just finished up at Cunningham Audio with Don Cunningham who has been the producer for Jaz since 2001. The CD is titled “Dragonfly” and features 13 songs, 10 of which are originals. Her daughter Kira did the artwork for the cover of the album. The album is a compilation of Jaz’s original songs covering about 20 years of songwriting. Some of the songs are remakes from her solo album “Sublime Evolution” that was released in 2002.
Jaz and Mike have had the honor to work with some really great musicians through the years including Doug Slagle on mandolin, fiddle, and banjo. They released an album a few years back called “The Celtic Collection and Other Stories” which includes many songs from her Welsh background and has songs that are sung in Welsh like “Dacw Nghariad,” “Llongau Caernarfon,” and “Llosgi Yn Fflam.”
Jaz Fagan and Doug Slagle at Gelato in Meridian
After they play Saturday night at Weiser Fiddle Festival at Memorial Park they are headed to Malad to perform at The Welsh Festival for a two day engagement for an eisteddfod where they will be performing Welsh songs as well as the originals off of the new album. Jaz’s great grandmother and great grandfather came over from Cowbridge, Glamorganshire, Wales and settled in the Malad area in the 1800s. Her great grandfather was a fiddle player and used to drive her great grandmother crazy with his fiddle playing on the back porch.
Right after that, they are headed to her birth town of Salmon, Idaho situated in Lemhi County to perform at her Uncle Gary’s bar called The Lantern. They will perform for 2 nights on July 19th and 20th. Right after that, in August, they are scheduled to do a performance for Snake River Correctional Institution. This will be their 3rd performance there. This time it’s for an employee picnic instead of for the inmates.
We would be remiss if we didn’t mention some of the great players we have had the honor to work with including, Bobby Day (passed away), Don Cunningham, Doug Slagle, Kevin Day, Allan Sluder, Josh Day, Marc Carlson, Brother Bob Crist, Jim Bateman, and Mike Camario, just to name a few.
What can you say about Gary Eller? He is a busy man! He’s handling Chicken Dinner Road, Slim and Jay Unplugged, The Story Tellers, The Old Farthings, and Idaho Songs Project. This adorable man is 72 and doesn’t show any signs of stopping anytime soon.
For the Idaho Songs Project, he travels all over the stage for Idaho Humanities Council and Idaho Commission on the Arts. He presents programs of historically based Idaho songs and collecting early songs that are pre-1923. He was recently inducted into the Wetzel County Hall of Fame, his birthplace, for 2 CDs and booklets about Wetzel County, West Virginia.
His dear friend John Larson is one of his Idaho heroes. John Larson is a pure Idaho musician, he is very colorful, and an amazing friend to Gary. He is also a historian from Owyhee County and helped Gary with books and CDs about Owyhee County.
“The Old Farthings is a group of “seasoned” friends who have played American roots music for 100s of years (combined) and love the plunk of banjos and banjo-like instruments of all descriptions. Some would say that the group name derives from not being worth a cent, but we don’t care, we cherish our second Tuesday afternoon gatherings at Crescent Brewery in Nampa where we can tell lies, drink beer, laugh, and play songs. We play songs from old acoustic and pre 1970 hillbilly country music traditions, with a heavy emphasis on instruments that have a banjo head on them.”
“To be a Certified Old Farthing, (COF), you must be at least 70 years old, play a banjo-like instrument, and know 100s of old songs, preferably humourous or a bit “off normal.” We do have some probationary and auxiliary members who do not fit these criteria.”
The full members are Gary Ellis, from Pickles Butte, Idaho, Charley Simmons from Boise, Idaho, and John Larson. The probationary and auxiliary members include Marv Quinton, Jay Fromlath, Doug Jenkins, and Legs Alice.
“The Idaho Songs Project was started in 2006 for the purpose of finding, interpreting, and preserving songs written before the radio era (before 1923) about Idaho’s early people, places and events. Such songs provide unique glimpses into the culture of early Idaho from the bottom up. To date, more than 200 songs of this type have been documented, almost always from archival sources such as university special collections and museums. Hundreds of more songs that are of less interest to the Project mention “Idaho” but are more recently written than 1923, and generally are so nonspecific they could be about almost any western state. We are constantly on the search for songs of early Idaho that are unknown to us.”.
The Storytellers are a newly formed Treasure Valley, Idaho acoustic band that specializes in what bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe called “true songs.” The group consists of four seasoned musicians who are well known in the southwest Idaho acoustic music scene.
The members include:
Gary Eller- Has played banjo and guitar since childhood in West Virginia and currently is banjoist for the popular regional progressive bluegrass band Chicken Dinner Road. He also is a prolific singer/songwriter and noted authority on pre-radio era songs of Idaho and West Virginia, some of which enter the repertoire of The Story Tellers.
Gary Eller
Becky Blake- She is an Indiana native. The Storytellers are blessed with her wonderful voice, powerful stage presence and deep, broad musical experience developed during her former career as a professional singer.
Becky Blake
Lloyd Blake- He is a talented multi-instrumentalist who plays mandolin and guitar in The Storytellers. He also plays bass and is an expert traditional percussionist. Lloyd grew up in New York City.
Lloyd Blake and Becky Blake
Jay Fromlath- He is a southern California native who played bass in the Ash Street Ramblers bluegrass band for many years. A late musical bloomer, he started playing at age 46. Jay also sings and plays guitar.
Jay Fromlath
You can catch The Old Farthings on Tuesday, June 18th at Memorial Park in Weiser during the festival from 6-7 pm and be sure to catch Storytellers from 8-9 pm on June 18th. If you miss that show, Storytellers will have another show from 8-9 on Wednesday, June 19th.
I haven’t had the honor to meet Ken Worthington, but I have talked to him on the phone, and he is the most honest and sweetest man I have had the honor to meet. He reminds me of my Grandpa Tuff, who was a fiddle player. He is absolutely a great addition to the Weiser Fiddle Festival. There is a wonderful amount of knowledge to be learned from him.
Ken Worthington was born in the cold month of December 1935, in Gannett, Idaho. He attended one-room country schools from 1st to 6th grade. He graduated from Bellvue High School in 1953. Ken went on to the University of Idaho and graduated with two BS degrees in Animal Husbandry and a minor in Education.
Ken bought his roommate’s guitar and drove him batty (not really) learning chords, etc…He is self-taught by listening to tapes, other players, and using instructional books. “I have never yet failed to learn something when playing in jams or one-on-one. You never stop learning.”
He started teaching in 1958 and retired in 1996. He joined the Idaho Old Fiddlers and played with them until they broke up. At this point, he joined up with Fiddlers Inc., heading them through the present time.
“We host Mannie’s Jamboree the second Saturday in July.” This is in honor of the fiddle legend Mannie Shaw. “The Idaho State Fiddle Contest the second weekend in April. Everyone is welcome to play and participate in all of their activities!”
You can catch Ken and friends Thursday, June 20th, at Memorial Park from 2-3 pm at Weiser Fiddle Festival. Be sure to check him out it will be unforgettable.
Damian Regalado is opening up for us on Saturday, June 22nd, from 7-7:30 pm at Memorial Park for the Weiser Fiddle festival. I think that is the coolest thing ever! I would love him if he could make my wrinkles disappear! At any rate, he is a sword swallowing, fire eating, extraordinary magician!
Damian Regalado’s magic show is far from a typical magic show. Since the age of seven, he started performing magic after watching a YouTube video on how to make a card float. After that, he went on to learn as much as he could and created his own show to perform for neighborhood kids. Since then, he has gone on to create slightly better shows.
With his unique combo of mixing sleight of hand magic, with genuine sideshow skill, he creates an experience unlike anything seen before. In one show he’ll swallow swords, eat fire, read minds, perform sleight of hand, swallow needles and bring them all back tied onto a foot of thread, and so much more. And at the age of 18, he is one of the youngest professional sword swallowers in the world.
So, come one come all! If you ever wanted to see a one-man circus. Minus the clown look of course.
Jim Bateman performing at The Sandbar in Marsing, Idaho
We met Jim Bateman for the first time at a showcase we were hosting for local talent at Powderhaus Brewing Company in Garden City. This sweet hearted musician is always smiling. One of the things I find so endearing about him, beyond his personality, is that I could always tell when he makes a mistake because he gets this funny smile on his face. He has also performed with us at The Dale Grovesnor’s Car Show in Parma and The Sandbar in Marsing. We adore him!
Jim Performing at Powderhaus Brewing Company
Jim’s Story
” I started out with music by being amazed at the way my mom could play the harmonica, sing, and dance around the house when I was knee-high to a grasshopper. My dad could play harmonica, too, but not like my mom. She used to play a song called “Old Shep”, which made me cry every time because it was so sad.”
“When I was in the 6th grade, we owned a grocery store in Norland, Idaho. One day a couple that was down on their luck came into the store wanting to swap a guitar for some groceries. Of course, my folks went ahead with the deal, and that started my music career.”
“I used to run the checkout stand, and we had that guitar sitting behind the counter. One day a cowboy who worked at the Bruneau Sheep Company herding cows came in and asked if he could play a song on our guitar. I said, “Sure.” Man, that guy could play! I was totally amazed and wanted to play like him!”
“I met a guy my age named Jimmy Pena, and he taught me a couple of chords, E, A, and D, and off I was into the music. I learned the rest of the chords and practiced. By the 8th grade, we had a group called “The Precious Few.” We played at a talent contest at the high school and really sucked, but I kept on playing.”
“One of the guys from that group, Delphino Martinez on rhythm guitar, his brother Cedro on bass guitar, a guy named Neil Lewis on lead guitar, and myself on drums started another group called “The Sun Cycle.” We became pretty tight. We played a couple of weddings, a couple of small get-togethers, and also played in a Battle of the Bands in Jerome, Idaho. We came in 3rd place out of 3 bands, but we sounded pretty good.”
“Our band broke up, and I sold my drums to go see Jethro Tull in Salt Lake City, Utah. I kept on playing my guitar and bought myself an acoustic Yamaha. I kind of let my music take a back seat to work and raising a family. I got pretty rusty, but I continued to play occasionally.”
Wyatt, Kristi, and Jim at Powderhaus Brewing in Boise. Photo by Jaz Fagan
“I played rhythm guitar with a worship band in Boise and really began getting serious about music again. We started a band called “The Third Tradition” playing at dances. After playing four dances, our bass player quit to go out long haul truck driving and our band broke up. We were really starting to get good.”
“My brother and I started up a trucking company. We went out long haul truck driving and, all of a sudden, I began writing songs. I’m pretty much about writing about God in my music because I probably wouldn’t still be here if it weren’t for God. Not all of my songs are about God, but some of the best songwriters I listen to like, Bob Dylan, The Doobie Brothers, and many others write about God.”
“I love music and would like to just write, play, and perform, but I haven’t quite got to that point yet. I guess you could say that God isn’t done working on me yet. Music is part of my soul and keeps me out of the blues, it rejuvenates me, and I just love music.”
You can catch Jim at Memorial Park during Weiser Fiddle Festival on Wednesday, June 19th, from 3-4 pm, and again on Saturday, June 22nd, from 6-7 pm where he will be opening up for Saturday night’s headlining band “The Sofisticats,” You can also go to https://www.reverbnation.com/silverado9 to listen to some of his wonderful songs.
I first met Walt and Teresa Huntsman when we were hosting a showcase of local talent at Powderhaus Brewing in Garden City. They are a very talented couple. I think that one of the things I found most unique about them was that Teresa was playing guitar and Walt was singing. You don’t see that often, if ever, usually it’s the other way around. The guy plays guitar and the girl sings. You can catch their act at Memorial Park during The Weiser Fiddle Festival on Saturday, June 22, from noon-1 pm. All the events are free for this week long festival.
Walt Huntsman is originally from Seattle and does the lead vocals, percussion, and harmonica. Teresa is from the deep-south and plays acoustic guitar and does backing vocals. They serve up an acoustic stew of folk-pop, seasoned with a dollop of blues, and a dash of country. Their original songs are crafted from everyday events, stories inspired by the past, and observations about life and love.
If it crosses Walt’s mind, there’s a good chance it will end up coming out of Teresa’s guitar. This year they have taken the band name “Seattle Goes South.” They cover tunes from artists who inspire them such as James Taylor, Tom Petty, John Prine, and many others.
Walt Huntsman
“Music was pretty much the one constant in my life growing up. After I was born in Seattle, the family moved to Portland, Oregon for a short stay, then on to Los Angeles. After my parents divorced, my mother remarried, and we moved to Rosamond, California, a small city west of Edwards Air Force Base. When I was 12, my mother, my sister, and I moved back north to Seattle.”
Walt and Sister Laura
“During this time, I gravitated to classic singers such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, and Sarah Vaughan. I also had a real affinity for big bands, like Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Buddy Rich, and Duke Ellington. In fourth grade, I began my first forays into music, taking up the alto saxophone, an instrument I played until I finished high school.”
“My musical tastes are somewhat eclectic. My record collection of over 500 albums and later several hundred CDs ranged from ABBA to ZZ Top. I listened to everything from Barry Manilow and John Denver to Jethro Tull, Robin Trower, and David Bowie. In more recent years, I have begun listening to more artists that aren’t as well known, such as John Gorka, Mary Black, and Luka Bloom. I’ve also developed a real affinity for the music of Leonard Cohen and John Prine,”
“After I graduated from high school in 1974, I began my first attempt at a college education. This is when I began writing really bad song lyrics. By now, I had also started listening to more contemporary artists. In 1978, I began a life-long love affair with the music of Elvis Costello. In 1978, I left college without a degree to seek fame and fortune in broadcasting, taking a radio announcer job in Raymond, Washington.”
“When the station was sold, I left and worked in retail for several years before landing a television job in Miles City, Montana, (once again) resuming my search for fame and fortune. Ten years later, after stops in South Dakota, Louisiana, returning to Montana and Louisiana, and on to Alabama, I ended my broadcasting career, having found neither fame nor fortune.”
“By this time, I had begun to take a more active role in music, joining one of the church choirs at a Catholic church in Madison, Alabama, where I met Teresa. Throughout this time, I had continued to write lyrics. In 1993, when Teresa and I were engaged to be married, we collaborated on the music for our wedding, which was a full wedding Mass. After marriage, I continued to write lyrics, although I still wasn’t doing anything with them. (I returned) to college and pursued the degree I had abandoned in 1978.”
“I stopped writing lyrics for several years and only wrote sporadically after we moved to Idaho in 2003. It was after attending a concert at Lucky Peak Park in September 2014 and learning about the Idaho Songwriters Association that I began writing again with an actual goal of one day sharing my songs with others. Up to this point, they seemed more like journal fodder.”
“With Teresa’s help that became a reality when we stepped on the stage of The Sapphire Room at the Riverside Hotel for the first time in February 2015. Since then, I’ve continued to write and have since begun learning how to chord and arrange some of my songs. Over the years, I have written lyrics for an estimated 1,500 songs. We currently have more than 100 original songs chorded and arranged that we can perform with more coming all the time. Now that I have some mileage under me, I feel I am writing the best songs of my life at this stage. I hope the people who give us a listen will agree”
Teresa Huntsman
Teresa grew up in the ’60s and ’70s in south Alabama listening to her sister’s Herman’s Hermits, Tommy James, and Gary Lewis & The Playboys mixed in with her brother’s Cream, Johnny Winters, Seals & Crofts, Three Dog Night, and Leo Kottke records. In 1972, Teresa discovered Chicago in the midst of their classic influential jazz-rock years and began her life-long love affair with their musical stylings.
Teresa Huntsman
Two years later, she started to play rhythm acoustic guitar at age 14 and played in the church choir through high school and college where she attended Auburn University and got a degree in industrial engineering. Over the years, she played with different guitarists and pianists, learning, growing, and progressing with every musician.
Her favorite past time as a teen was to record pop music off the radio onto a cassette player to try to figure out the words and chords so she could play the songs. This skill was to become a big part when, in 2014, Walt resumed his songwriting. Since he could not play the guitar, he had not learned yet how to use chords.
Walt would sing his song creations to Teresa, and she would figure out how to play them on guitar. Later, Walt took guitar lessons and over time increased his ability to chord his own music. Teresa continues to come up with chord progressions and rhythms that inspire some of his songs. Teresa still loves learning new songs after researching them on the internet and perfecting them, and Walt has become more prolific in his songwriting.
In 2015, they began to perform occasionally in the Boise area. Today they perform over 100 originals and nearly 300 songs by over 150 different artists. These songs range from tender love songs to pop and rock tunes. Please, check them out at The Weiser Fiddle Festival on Saturday, June 22.
Idaho Gazette 