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Dale Manning
Dale started playing classical violin at the age of 6 in his hometown
of Burlington, NC but by middle school the embarrassment of having to
go to violin lessons was too much so he quit to play baseball. Peer
pressure, in the end, could not keep him out of the marching band in
high school and jazz band in college. Attending bluegrass festivals
and shows became a hobby and eventually led to the purchase of a
mandolin. With Junior League, Dale has once again started playing
music and plays mostly mandolin but also a little guitar, fiddle, with
lots of persuasion, even trumpet.
William Waikart
When Will was a child he got his head stuck between the automatic sliding doors
of a local hardware store. It was during this traumatic experience that he decided
he should probably take up the drums. Many years and musical endeavors later
Will received a bachelors degree in Music from George Mason University. After
graduating will laid on his couch for a few months until he was approached by
Lissy and eventually joined Junior League.
Lissy Rosemont
Born and raised in Atlanta Georgia, Lissy Rosemont came to Washington
DC to pursue her graduate degree at Georgetown. Lissy grew up with
three distinctive musical influences 1) her mother waking up the house
every morning by playing hymns on the piano 2) her father waking her
up in the middle of the night to sing his favorite Hank Williams tunes
to his buddies and 3) her family's fiddler's festival in Union Grove,
NC where she has been performing or watching her father perform since
she was a child. Alison Krauss's "Baby Now
that I Found You Collection" was in constant rotation in her Atlanta
home, coming out of every sibling and parent's room, and is considered
(along with Pearl Jam) the largest influence on Lissy's love of
vocalists. In 2000, after high school graduation, Lissy and three
Georgia friends followed Pearl Jam around western Europe and the
Southeast on the "Binaural" tour, confirming her deep love for rock
music and poltical activism. In college, when Lissy was introduced to
Bela Fleck, Lissy bought a banjo at Ben Harper's mother's folk music
store while visitng a friend in LA, though she didn't begin official
lessons in music theory and picking until 2006. While working as a
federal employee at the National Institutes of Health, Lissy was
briefly in the "Rosemont Family Reunion", an americana obscura rock
band based out of a co-op housing basement in DC's Columbia Heights.
When the band decided to split in November 2006, she and her now
fellow Junior Leaguers begat this band. Lissy still performs with her
father, Hal Beaver and Blackgrass, at Union
Grove every memorial day in North Carolina.
Martin Thomas
Martin grew up in western Pennsylvania where his
parents tried to
make him learn to play the violin and piano.
Unfortunately, they didn't
realize that he was destined to play second base for
the Pittsburgh Pirates and needed to devote his time
to baseball practice. They also made the mistake of
keeping a Pete Seeger song book in the house, and were
forced to abandon all hope when he picked up a
harmonica. He also likes riding a bike and annoying
people with a banjo, though not yet simultaneously.
Alex Platt
Alex Platt rocks the upright and electric bass. Hailing from the pioneer valley in western Massachusetts where his earliest musical interests were formed by the vibrant local scene, he played with original soul/rock heroes Apparatticus and later with the funk/fusion outfit Is it Fresh?. He moved to NYC in 2002, where he studied jazz under Brad Jones, Ben Waltzer and Steve Wilson, and also played with indie-rock group The Folk, and down-home-groovers (and cult icons) The Body Politik. In 2006 he left the big city behind and headed out to Boulder, Colorado, where he discovered old time, country and bluegrass music and also toured briefly with the party-funk outfit Morsoul. He moved to DC in February 2007 where he hosts regular old time jam sessions at his apartment in Columbia Heights.
Elias Cohn
Elias Cohn hails from the sprawling metropolis of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he grew up listening to his father’s finger-style delta blues, ragtime, and gospel guitar arrangements. After receiving his first Jimi Hendrix album at the age of 12 he promptly demanded an electric guitar for his next birthday and spent the next 5 years mercilessly treating his friends, family, and neighbors to blistering renditions of Red House and Voodoo Chile. Upon moving to Colorado, he started writing, performing, and recording with two brilliant singer-songwriters, Alaina Mulawka and Caitlin Ryan, who brought him back to his blues and country roots. Several years later, Elias headed eastward to Washington D.C., where he began playing bass in a local cover band and jamming in the old-time sessions that his housemate and landlord—Junior League member, Martin Thomas—periodically held in his living room. After one particularly long week of drinking, Elias found himself on a street corner in Brooklyn playing bluegrass fiddle rigs with several members of Junior League. His family and friends have been trying to figure out what happened to him ever since.
Kailin Yong
Visit Kailin's web site at kailinyong.com |
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