You never know who's going to show up at Jay and Molly's house.
Last Sunday, we were lucky to catch the second-ever performance of the Silver Hollers, at the Ashokan Center in Olivebridge, and we took some video at the show.
The Silver Hollers, who only just adopted a band name, are a collaboration between five beloved fixtures on the local music scene. Everybody has at least one other band: Amy Helm (daughter of Woodstock legend Levon Helm, and a regular at his Midnight Rambles) is in Ollabelle. Elizabeth Mitchell and her husband Daniel Littleton, both founding members of the indie-folk band Ida, record children's music on the Smithsonian Folkways label. Bassist Chris Wood is better known as the Wood in funk-jazz trio Medeski, Martin and Wood, and also plays with his brother Oliver in the Wood Brothers. And Ruthy Ungar, who inherited her prodigious fiddling powers from her father Jay, performs with her husband Mike Merenda in the folk duo Mike + Ruthy.
In a cameo that was a surprise to the audience (if not the band), fellow Hudson Valley musician Natalie Merchant joined the Silver Hollers for a couple of songs. Here she is on "Mary Don't You Weep," an old spiritual made famous by Pete Seeger (and more recently, Bruce Springsteen):
Despite its star-studded lineup (and the torrential rain that forced the show indoors at the last minute) the show had a relaxed, down-home feel: the audience on wooden benches, kids camped out on the floor in the front, and Ruthy's three-year-old son Will occasionally wandering onstage to accompany the band on what appeared to be the world's tiniest violin.
The Ashokan Center, which was bought from SUNY New Paltz by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason's Ashokan Foundation in 2008, has become a hidden gem of the local-music scene: a place where you can catch top-notch folk music in a cozy setting, dance the night away near the mighty Ashokan Reservoir, and camp out afterward under the stars if you're so inclined.
"It's really cool to have community concerts there, especially for families with kids," said Ruthy. "It's not like a concert atmosphere where you feel awkward to bring your kid. You can go out and look at frogs and come back in. There's something so special about that."
