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Jeff
White
Born
and raised in Fife Lake, Michigan and started playing music
at a young age but gave it up for years.Ê He started playing
again in '98 forming Straight Forward Bluegrass Band with
a cousin and a neighbor, then built the band to what it
is today.Ê He's a member of the original Michigan Fiddler's
Association, Chairman of Springfield Parks and Recreation,
writes a lot of the original material for the band, and
lives and breathes bluegrass and old time music.Ê He's the
guitar player, lead singer, promoter, and front man for
the band.
Terri
White
Born
and raised in South Boardman, Michigan and married to Jeff
White with three daughters.Ê She started playing upright
bass in October of 2002 (with no prior musical experience),
figuring "If ya can't beat 'em, join 'em" (after putting
up with Jeff being gone playing music most of the time).Ê
She now plays autoharp along with the bass.Ê She'll leave
them out of the cases around the house picking one of them
up and playing a tune or two taking breaks from the housework
routine.Ê Terri is now the back-bone rhythm of the band.
Karl
Malin
Born
in the U.P. of Michigan.Ê Raised in Marquette and moved
to Traverse City, MI to teach Culinary Arts at TBAISD.Ê
He started getting serious about the banjo in '99 playing
Scruggs 3 finger style and clawhammer mountain style.Ê He
also does the harmonica work for the band, enjoys going
to banjo camps, workshops, and large music festivals.Ê He's
also a darn good chef.
Andrew
Sias
Raised
in Cedar Lake, MI.Ê He moved to Cadillac to teach art at
Mesick High School in 2002.Ê He met Jeff at a performance
in Cadillac asking about mandolin lessons and ended up in
the band with mandolin duties sometime around January of
2003.Ê HeÊ now sings bass and baritone harmony parts.Ê He
maintains the website in between teaching, spending time
with his girlfriend and kids, and working on his old Mercedes
diesel and bio-diesel processor.
John
Ritchie
Raised
in Wisconsin and now resides in Boyne City, MI.Ê He has
been playing fiddle for over 15 years.Ê He played bass in
a bluegrass band early in his music career, back-up guitar
for fiddle players, and then started playing fiddle himself.Ê
He has a strong background in Celtic music, and was a member
of the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra.Ê He still plays occasionally
with the long-goodies of Wisconsin.Ê He started playing
with the band in March of 2005.Ê Plays a wicked bluegrass
fiddle and does excellent vocal work.
Bob
Saddler
He
began violin lessons at age 7, and continues to play classical
and traditional music to the present time. He presently
plays in the Cadillac Symphony Orchestra, a Celtic band,
and several traditional groups and teaches fiddling in the
Cadillac Strings Program. He performed and judged at numerous
national, regional and state fiddling competitions and won
or placed highly when everything went well (Illinois State
Champion one time, Florida State Champion 4 times, National
Fiddling Championships [Weiser, Idaho] Top Twenty about
6 times [from a field of 300-400 contestants], Southeast
Regional Champion once or twice). He performed in bluegrass
and traditional string bands in California and Florida,
at dances, on the main stage at Kodiak Bear Festival (Alaska),
Hiawatha and Blissfest Music Festivals in Michigan and gave
fiddle workshops at the Michigan and Florida Festivals.
Through the years He has been fortunate to have played with
legendary fiddlers such as Benny Thomasson, Mark O'Connor,
Tracy Schwartz, Alisdair Fraser, Brenda Stubbert, David
Greenberg, Kenny Hall and many others.
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