Music at the Best Show on Tracks

Bluegrass and acoustic string music will be featured daily from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Best Show on Tracks, June 20-22.

Yolo County’s Putah Creek Crawdads will start the entertainment on Friday. The Crawdads, notorious in Yolo County for four decades as four gents with acoustic instruments harmonizing traditional tunes, now number six. In addition to two guitars, a banjo and a bass, they now boast a fiddle and a mandolin—but still have the same repertoire, an amalgam of folk, country, cowboy, bluegrass, gospel and old-time favorites.

The Putah Creek Crawdads are Ray Coppock, guitar; Marc Faye, bass; Wayne Ginsburg, mandolin; Kate Laddish, fiddle; Oliver “Chip” Northup, guitar; Cap Thomson, banjo.

Then at 11am, the Solano-Yolo County-based Matt & George and Their Pleasant Valley Boys will take the stage. They are a contemporary country music outfit directly inspired by the exciting acoustic country music of the late 1940s that has come to be known as “Bluegrass.” Their program also features the gospel singing stylings of the Pleasant Valley Quartet. The Boys frequently entertain for weddings, corporate events, parties and the like and the crowds are universally pleased, always having a blast!

The Pleasant Valley Boys are Matt Dudman, mandolin; George Goodell, banjo; Jenny Lynn, guitar; Jim Allison, fiddle; Mark Eagleton, bass.

 

On Saturday, the California Historical Artillery Society brass ensemble, the Fort Point Garrison Band, will start the music at 9:30 a.m. Photo Below

Woodland’s Notorious Shank Brothers will cap the entertainment offering on Sunday. If you like hard-core traditional Bluegrass, you’ll like the solid combination of classic songs and instrumentals dished up by The Notorious Shank Brothers. They draw the bulk of their repertoire from Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, The Stanley Brothers, Jim & Jesse McReynolds, Red Allen & Frank Wakefield and Don Reno & Red Smiley, with a few newer numbers that are still true to the original concept.

The Notorious Shank Brothers are Erik Shank, banjo; Al Shank, mandolin. Back row: Kern Breaux, bass; Ken Eldridge, guitar; Dave Rietz, fiddle.