JANUARY 27 • 2022 | 49

by the late famed fiddler
Kenny Baker. McCaw does
“Washington and Lee Swing,”
a jazz version early on per-
formed by Louis Armstrong.
“We love to revel in the
history and connection to
the past, but we’re also very
much about entertainment
and humor,”
explained
Lewis, whose
group has
appeared in
and out of the
U.S. “It’s funny
how we’ll find
a song that’s
been played by
some kind of
hillbilly string
band in the ’20s
and ’30s, and it
turns out that
it was written by professional
composers on Tin Pan Alley
years earlier.”
Lewis, 40, who also teaches
instrumental music to private
students, was a violin perfor-
mance major at Interlochen
before being introduced
to folk styles and country
performers by a friend met
through a Habonim Dror
program in Israel.
After working with dif-
ferent bands and getting to
know different musicians,
Lewis asked Belcher and
McGaw to form Corn Potato.
He had met Belcher through
connections made during
the program in Israel, and
he got to know McGaw
through participation at an
Appalachian String Band
Festival in West Virginia.
“We’re kind of like a niche
of a niche,” Lewis said. “We
most closely fit in with what
people call old-time coun-
try. We don’t sound quite
the same as anyone else.
Although we do think of it
as country music, it’s bolder

country music. It spans the
time period from before
recorded technology was
available.
“We’re not trying to play
what people have heard 1,000
times. It’s a little bit of edu-
cation. We’re trying to share
things that they may not have
heard before
and tell the
background.”
During the
pandemic,
Lewis start-
ed work on
a recording,
“Ragtime Banjo
Revival,” inde-
pendent of his
Corn Potato
partners. It will
have 27 pieces
arranged for
banjo and other instruments
and feature 10 different
ensembles across the selec-
tions.
The numbers reach from
“Maple Leaf Rag” popular-
ized by Scott Joplin to “Pearl
of the Harem” by Harry Guy,
a Detroit composer going
back 100 years and into rag-
time.
While planning for the
upcoming tour, Corn Potato
members will include some
visuals designed and crafted
by McCaw. Moved as a scroll
mounted on a couple of rods
to make up what is known as
a crankie show, the images —
abstract and representational
— will roll through to accen-
tuate the music.
Two songs accompanied
by images are “You and a
Canoe” by Emile Grimshaw
and “Freckles” by Joe Morley,
which is on Lewis’ latest
recording, Mozart of the Banjo:
The Joe Morley Project.
The audience joins in by
imagining for themselves
how the images relate.

Details
The Corn Potato
String Band will
appear at
8 p.m. Thursday, Feb.
10, at The Ark, 316 S.
Main Street, in Ann
Arbor. $20. (734)
761-1800. theark.org.
For more information
on the group and
tour updates, go to
cornpotato.com.

PHOTO CREDIT: JAMIE BUSH + CO. AND LAURA HULL

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WE ARE OBSERVING ALL STATE COVID-19
GUIDELINES & RESTRICTIONS

248.709.9648

Let our experienced team at Le Shoppe Too & Changing
Hands handle your Estate Sale needs. Your items can
be valued and consigned or auctioned at our store.
We offer hands free-hassle free estate sales.

Call Leslie Weisberg today for a free consultation

changinghandsestates.com

3325 ORCHARD LAKE RD, KEEGO HARBOR, MI

248.481.8884

www.leshoppetoo.com

UPSCALE CONSIGNMENT & AUCTION HOUSE

ICONIC 20th CENTURY FURNITURE,
FINE-ART, HOME DECOR & LIGHTING

Support Local
Businesses

HOURS

TUES–SAT Noon–5pm | MON closed
SUN & evenings by appointment only

FREE
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& Changing Hands handle your Estate Sale needs.

PHOTO CREDIT: JAMIE BUSH + CO. AND LAURA HULL

WE ARE OBSERVING ALL STATE COVID-19
GUIDELINES & RESTRICTIONS

248.709.9648

Let our experienced team at Le Shoppe Too & Changing
Hands handle your Estate Sale needs. Your items can
be valued and consigned or auctioned at our store.
We offer hands free-hassle free estate sales.

Call Leslie Weisberg today for a free consultation

changinghandsestates.com

3325 ORCHARD LAKE RD, KEEGO HARBOR, MI

248.481.8884

www.leshoppetoo.com

UPSCALE CONSIGNMENT & AUCTION HOUSE

ICONIC 20th CENTURY FURNITURE,
FINE-ART, HOME DECOR & LIGHTING

Support Local
Businesses

HOURS

TUES–SAT Noon–5pm | MON closed

SUN & evenings by appointment only

FREE
preliminary
art appraisals
Wednesday’s 12-4
with Terri

DFAA:

248.672.3207
DetroitFAA.com

DetroitFineArtAppraisals@gmail.com

Call Leslie Weisberg today for a
free consultation: 248.709.9648
changinghandsestates.com

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