That Finger Lakes Sound
by Ben Haravitch-
“What is the musical dialect endemic to our region? What is the sound of the Finger Lakes? Who shaped this sound? These questions led to answers. And the answers keep coming. “
The first time I heard Richie Stearns play the banjo was at a backyard house party in Ithaca in 2006. He was sitting in with a motley reunion of Plastic Nebraska, a local alt-country band. I’m still not sure what ‘alt-country’ means. I was an undergraduate geology student at Cornell and was preoccupied with the things a 21 year old fella tends to preoccupy himself with. At the time, the interplay between clawhammer banjo and piano accordion happening before my unawakened ears didn’t make much of an impact on me. I had no context for understanding why this region or its music are so unique.
Two years later, while living in Los Angeles, my now-friend Miller was introduced to me as ‘another bass player from Ithaca.’ Musicians, three thousand miles from home with a handful of shared acquaintances, we were fast friends. In addition to being a fine bassist, Miller was a wild banjo player. I never heard a banjo make the sounds his did. It was funky and folky at the same time and it spoke to me loud and clear. I asked him who his influences were and he named only one: Richie Stearns. I remembered the backyard party two summers prior and my lack of amazement. Miller was surprised to hear this and insisted that I give Richie another chance.
With fresh perspective, it wasn’t long before I became obsessed with the clawhammer banjo. Learning mostly from Richie’s recordings with The Horseflies and Evil City String Band – both bands birthed and sustained by the Finger Lakes culture. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, but this music made me yearn for my homeland, the hills between Honeoye and Canadice lakes. The way the fiddles and banjos sang with each other took me to the nights I had spent laying in my kayak under the stars, watching thunder storms sweep across the lake, the autumn fog. It took me back to the first CD I ever owned and loved: Crossing Lake Riley by The Wilderness Family (given to me by my next-door neighbor from childhood, G. Elwyn Meixner, a former member of The Colorblind James Experience).
Once I moved back to the area in 2011, I was determined to learn what it is that makes the music from these hills so compelling. It’s honest music made by honest people. My love for local fiddle and banjo music led me to become friends with many of them and has allowed me to share music with the community that summoned me home. The culture is strong and vibrant. I’ve experienced it at an annual jam session in Hemlock that lasts til morning where one room in the house might hold a bluegrass jam, another boasts an Irish jam, in the kitchen there are Cajun fiddle tunes, and swing dancing in the garage. At shows in local bars, theaters, and cafes I’ve felt the honest exchange of energy fostered by our region’s greatest musicians. Seasoned legends like Donna the Buffalo, Mac Benford, The Henrie Brothers, The Dady Brothers, the late, great Colorblind James… and young torch-bearers like Aaron Lipp, Rosie Newton, Rockwood Ferry, Folkfaces, and Driftwood. All pulling from what has come before them and pushing it forward with their own voices, all of our voices.
“You need to have a vocabulary… It’s always best to start with what you should know – things from your region, then national things… But if you don’t know your own language, your own vocabulary, forget about learning someone else’s.” – Wynton Marsalis, To a Young Jazz Musician
About ten years ago, when I read this quote, I was at the outset of a perpetual quest to ‘find my own voice’ as a musician. This message sent me down a golden road. It got me thinking. What is the musical dialect endemic to our region? What is the sound of the Finger Lakes? Who shaped this sound? These questions led to answers. And the answers keep coming. Join me here each month where I’ll accentuate and contemplate the textures of the tapestry that is our regional music culture. And, when I’m lucky, I’ll talk about it with some of its weavers.
Ben currently lives in Warsaw, NY. He teaches banjo, records music made by his friends, and performs with a variety of roots-based bands throughout the Finger Lakes region.