North Carolina wedding musicians: live music is best!

Bob is half Finnish and half Albanian, I don't know how many other people in the world (besides his sisters) can say that. I met Bob in 1981 when I had just married and moved to North Carolina. You can read about our history together here: Pratie Heads.

Bob's gotten around a lot more than I have. He's performed and taught guitar at the Augusta Heritage Schools "Irish Week" , the Winnipeg Folk Festival, and the Black Mountain Music Festival, and shared stage and recordings with Seamus Eagan, Mick Maloney, Zan Mcleod, and Tommy Hayes (the percussionist for Riverdance).

Through the 1980s he and I were members of the N.C. Touring Artist Program, sponsored by the N.C. Arts Council and we're current members as well.

One of Bob's compositions was featured in Fingerstyle Guitar magazine and played on NPR's "All Things Considered."

He won a signed Wayne Henderson guitar for coming in first at the Wayne Henderson Music Festival and guitar competition.

While he and I weren't playing together, Bob toured with Freyda Epstein and Ralph Gordon in the group Acoustic Atta-tude. Their Red House recording Midnight at Cabell Hall was recognized as one of the three best folk recordings of the year by NAIRD. They toured with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and shared the stage with Tony Rice, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall and Mark O'Conner.NPR'

This was a friendly, informal space which used to be closed to non-members but now is open to outside reservations. The view is nice and the food was delicious!

Though it's called a march, this is actually a beautiful waltz which we have often played for bridal processionals and also "First Dance" - a waltz is a wonderful first dance for a couple that doesn't have the time or inclination to take dance lessons and perform a choreographed dance number as they enter the reception.

Ken Bloom deserves a whole lens to himself. I heard about him for years from my friend Pat Sky, who kept saying "you ought to meet my friend Ken, you guys share a lot of musical interests." I sort of ignored this until Jessie Cannon, president of Triangle Music International, told me when she hired us to play at the International Festival in Raleigh, "You ought to meet Ken Bloom, you share a lot of musical interests."

Not long after, she hired Ken to do a bandura concert - he's holding a bandura in this picture, it's a Ukrainian wire harp and he both plays AND BUILDS them! I went to the concert, said hello, and then Ken said, "oh you can sing along with me on the choruses of a few of these songs," and he wrote out the words in Ukrainian for me on a napkin and I sat in with him.

Ken is a life-long multi-instrumentalist and in earlier years toured and recorded with Steve Goodman and Linda Ronstadt. When he lived in LA long ago he was even one of the studio musicians behind the Monkees!

One website writes: "Ken's been a regular performer at the Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Owen Sound, Philadelphia, and Mariposa Festivals as well as appearing in major venues across the country and appearances on A Prairie Home Companion.

"He usually uses Concert zither, Northumbrian-smallpipes, guitar, clarinet, bowed dulcimer and Minstrel banjo, but he will often include other instruments as well."

Ken also participates in 18th century Living History events, providing period music on period instruments at National battlefields, Living History sites, Highland Games, and schools all over North and South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Many of these presentations focus on the role of Scottish Highlanders in the 18th century. this interest in history has led Ken to go back and reconstruct many of the instruments of the time and research the music that would have been played on them. This includes the gourd banjo and a detailed study of early antecedents of the mountain dulcimer. Ken's bowed dulcimer is the result of some of these studies."

Click the picture to be taken to the mp3 sample of Ken playing this wonderful instrument which he invented and which has a medeival or Renaissance quality to it. Perfect music for weddings!

Jim plays guitar, acoustic bass, and occasionally trombone with us, and has a fabulous tenor voice. I met him in 1993 after he had done a four-acoustic-bass show at the ArtsCenter in Carrboro, NC.

He performs with dance bands, symphonic orchestras, and jazz groups. He co-founded the group Oxymora, a "contemporary-traditional" group based in Northern Virginia and recorded on Philo Records. He has also recorded folk music and traditional Appalachian music for June Appal Records with such artists as Si Kahn and John McCutcheon.

He directs the string program and the guitar program at the Durham Magnet Center for the Performing and Visual Arts.

He has recorded recently with Michael DeLalla on the Falling Mountain Music label, and performs with the Headliners.

Click on the picture to hear us play the song (and download it if you like). First I sing the tune and then Beth does.

Don't short-change your wedding memories by bringing an iPod to the reception! Nothing can take the place of real, live musicians!

As I've been researching weddings for my daughter, I'm blown away by how much people are willing to spend for various aspects of the event. For instance, photographers routinely charge $4,000-6,000 for the day, cakes often cost $7.50 a slice, a venue can cost $15,000, a wedding dress is often priced in four figures.

So why, when it comes to musicians, are people suddenly so wary of the expense?

The fact is that in North Carolina, at least, you can get musicians (us, for instance) willing to play for your ceremony and/or reception for a cost as little as $150 and rarely more than $300 per person (unless you are very far away).

In our research we found quite a few wonderful photographers ready to take pictures at your wedding, and give you the negatives so you can print as many as you like, for less than $1,000. So why not take that savings and get some real honest-to-goodness fiddlers, guitarists, pianists, vocalists, or - go n.uts - bagpipers, harpists, cellists, whatever - for great, unusual music you and your guests can remember forever.

From Simmons 2001, USA Today 2002, National Bridal Service 2001, The Knot 2002, St. Louis Bride & Groom Magazine 2004:

• During the wedding planning, brides say their highest priority is their attire, followed by the reception site, with reception entertainment among the least of their priorities.
  
  
• Within one week after their reception, 78% of brides say they would have made the entertainment their highest priority.
  
  
• Almost 100% of brides say they would have spent more of their budget on the entertainment.
  
  
• When asked, 81% of guests say the thing they remember most about a wedding is the entertainment.