48 | JANUARY 27 • 2022

T

he three members of
the Corn Potato String
Band began playing
fun country music together
in 2012, but it’s been almost
three years since they’ve been
able to appear in person as a
trio.
With entertainment venues
opening again, they’re glad to
resume taking their song styl-
ings around Michigan with an
appearance Thursday, Feb. 10,
at The Ark in Ann Arbor.
Sensing their energy geared
up, the three dubbed this the
“No Spaghetti Arms Tour.”
“The main way I’m feeling
liberated since the pandemic
is by setting time aside to play
music with my really good
friends,” said Detroiter Aaron
Jonah Lewis, a multi-instru-
mentalist joined by another
Detroiter and multi-instru-
mentalist, Lindsay McCaw,
and banjo player Ben Belcher
of Alabama.
“Getting in front of people
and sharing that experience
has always been really import-

ant to us, and it’s been hard to
go without it.”
The instruments the trio
plays include fiddle, guitar,
bass and mandolin. They joke
about what their title rep-
resents about themselves and
their choice of songs: the ears
and eyes of America as the
starches of the New World.
“We do traditional songs,
some new songs and tell the
stories that go with the writing
of the songs,” said Lewis, a
Midwestern-bred entertainer
whose immersion in Southern
music came after the classical.
“We try to do some songs
that people will recognize and
relate to as well as songs they
haven’t heard before. An idea
is to unearth gems from the
musical past.”
An example of their style is
the presentation of two ver-
sions of a tune based on the
fight song of Washington and
Lee University in Lexington,
Va. Lewis does “Washington
County” learned as a fiddle
arrangement once recorded

Old-Time Country

ARTS&LIFE
MUSIC

CORN POTATO STRING BAND

Corn Potato String Band performs
at The Ark.

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Aaron Jonah
Lewis, Lindsay
McCaw and
Ben Belcher

Michigan Writer
Tells His Father’s
Story in New Novel

"This is the life story of one
man, but it parallels the
stories of millions of Jewish
people who tried to escape
from increasingly hostile
Europe to someplace safer"
says Louis Finkelman.

Available for purchase at BarnesandNoble.com,
Amazon.com and IUniverse.com

Michael is available to schedule book
club appearances and/or author signings!

Call 248-765-5880
for availability and scheduling.

A Stitch
A Stitch in Time:
in Time:

Stay in the know
with all things Jewish...

Get The Detroit Jewish News print edition delivered
to your door every week for less than $2 per issue.

thejewishnews.com/subscription

Get The Detroit Jewish News print edition delivered
Subscribe Today!