Clarke Buehling & "The SkirtLifters"

Clarke Buehling & "The SkirtLifters"

April 14, 2011
Woodlands Auditorium
7:30 p.m.

$15.00

For good-spirited, old-time American string band music, "The SkirtLifters" beats all comers hands down. The name "Skirtlifters" comes from the way long skirts gracefully flared out while women danced to this spirited music.  Whether performing Civil War jigs and reels or Gay 90’s stage music, they do it all with enthusiasm and fine humour. Their material is thoughtfully arranged and performance styles are carefully considered. The group has drawn encores and accolades everywhere from Savannah to Minneapolis, and internationally in Ireland, Belgium and Switzerland, and have brought young and old alike onto the dance floor in many a one-horse town (ladies can be assured that no offensive material will ever find its way into their program).

For over twenty years, led by internationally renowned banjoist Clarke Buehling, the group has authentically recreated the music of the 19th century riverboat, stage and parlor, enlivened by period humor, skits, songs and percussive dance. Taking the stage in the formal duds of the late 1800’s, Mr. Buehling and the other “SkirtLifters" (banjoist/fiddler/ historian Tom Verdot on violin and banjo, Thom Howard on guitar, mandolin and vocals, and Kent Beyette, dancer and percussionist) offer a unique and knowledgeable performance in period costume of historical and entertaining music that is too rarely heard in the modern day.  Performing primarily on well-maintained contemporary instruments, the group’s combination of music and voices comes through acoustically even in fairly large theaters. “We actually prefer to play unamplified whenever possible,” says Mr. Buehling. “That’s the way it’s meant to be heard. It’s truly acoustic music [which] comes from a time of traveling shows, gaslights and minstrel stages.”

Audio track:  Hi Flyer Stomp by the SkirtLifters