The Cliffhangers- Rich Hartness' Liner Notes

The Appalachian String Band Festival held each August in the beautiful secluded hills near Clifftop, West Virginia, has become a favorite summer pilgrimage for the old-time music community, where like-minded folks from far away find each other and lose themselves in blissful exploration of the old tunes.

In this fertile setting, the Cliffhangers’ unmistakable "campground sound" emerged: Mark's infinitely creative fiddling; Brendan's percussive and fluid banjo style; the woody bumblebee texture of Jody's unique tenor guitar picking, matching the fiddle tuning for tuning, line for line; the solid rhythmic groove of Rusty's humming guitar locking step with Karen's elegant elephant stride bass. The Cliffhangers are a powerful Old-Time band of today, with a sound clearly on the edge of yesterday and beyond.

Rich Hartness