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

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

NOW 
ACCEPTING 
CONSIGNMENT 
for our upcoming 
auction April 3

WE ARE OBSERVING ALL STATE COVID-19
GUIDELINES & RESTRICTIONS

Let our experienced team at Le Shoppe Too 
& 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

Your items of high value can be:

Auctioned • Consigned
We offer hands free estate sales

