Fiddle and Bow Country Dancers


	GREAT BEAR TRIO The Great Bear Trio is quickly becoming one of the most exciting and talked about contra dance bands in the nation. With a strong and growing fan base in their native northeast, Great Bear is now bringing their unique brand of high-energy folk music to festival stages, concert halls and dance floors across the country. Brothers Andrew and Noah VanNorstrand are both still in their teens but display a mature and seasoned musicality beyond their years. The core of Great Bear's instrumentation has always been twin fiddles and piano (ably supplied by mother Kim) but the line up is frequently augmented by mandolins, guitars, banjo and an assortment of percussion including the African djembe and the Australian didgeridoo. Andrew and Noah compose and arrange the majority of Great Bear's material, drawing heavily on Celtic and Appalachian fiddling traditions for their melodies but with plenty of room for improvisation and an occasional alt-rock or world beat groove creeping into the rhythm section. There are also some new original songs in their repertoire now, a welcome addition to their well-known instrumental skills. Great Bear's distinctive sound has won them fans all over the continent and they are continuing to shape the face of contra dance music in the 21st century.

	THE SKYTONES This combo brings together some of the best contra dance musicians south of the border, the New England Border, that is! Laura Lengnick is joined by Roger Gold of the Elftones fame on guitar and accomplished pianist and composer Paul Moore on accordion and piano in this band equally at home playing contra, English or swing. Together, these fine contra dance musicians make dance magic whenever they play. Add Mara Shea, the Elftones fiddler extraordinare to Land of Sky and you have the newest, most exciting contra band in the Southeast—The Skytones! Powered by the twin fiddling of Laura and Mara, this band can leap tall buildings at a single bound and take the whole dang dance floor with them.