The Old 78's - Curly & Carole Anne's new CD in collaboration with Clarke Buehling (pictured above, on the left) is now available! It features many unusual pieces from Clarke's highly regarded sheet music library, the Classic Banjo Orchestra talents of the 3 musicians and Clarke's Minstrel Banjo gems. Curly's fiddling of Ragtime tunes from the great Hillbilly fiddle bands, round out the program. You can order it from Elderly, County Sales, off of this website and CD Baby!

Curly Miller and Carole Anne Rose play "Extreme", pumped-up rowdy Old Time fiddle and clawhammer banjo, Hillbilly Fiddle Rags, Classic Banjo duets, Celtic, World and historic music, featuring the duo's unique combination of talents. Curly is one of the premier fiddlers in the country today whose tone, texture and abilities, especially in the flatted keys, have broken new ground in exploring the old tunes. Curly has the unique ability to capture the raw essence of peasant dance and party fiddling from remote, indigenous fiddlers from European and North American cultures. Carole Anne's own intense clawhammer technique is combined with her custom designed banjo/guitar that has an 1893 S.S. Stewart 12 1/2" Imperial Banjeaurine pot. The power and drive that she achieves together with Curly, has been described "like a freight-train coming through your living room!"

Together, their music recreates the wild energy and driving force of the great Hillbilly Bands of the 1920-30's including the obscure flatted key Rags of the South Central US. The duo also presents banjo and kazoo arrangements of the humorous songs and melodies from the Charleston and Jug Band era. They are also widely known for their Classic Banjo Duets from the early Ragtime period, a 3-finger style that was all the rage from about 1885-1915. They have popularized the 5-string Cello Banjo now available from Gold Tone (www.goldtone.com). Both players have farm-grown strength that translates into some powerful playing! They have been farming and playing music together since 1987.

Their organic farm, Sweden Creek Farm —where they grow Shiitake Mushrooms, herbs, and Edible Flowers — has kept them incredibly busy but, in recent years, they have managed to get away for big festivals, concerts, teaching camps, Irish dance (Feis) competitions, and contradances.

Their current schedule includes performances at highly regarded festivals (Merlefest, Wheatland, Winfield, etc.) and prestigious teaching camps (Jay Ungar's Ashokan Southern Week, The Swannanoa Gathering Old Time Music & Dance, Mars Hill, etc.). The duo has been featured in performances with Phil Jamison, Rafe Stefanini, The Canote Brothers, Gordy Hinners, Alice Gerrard, Kirk Sutphin, etc. They have taught and performed at the Ozark Folk Center since 1990 at various events with Mike Seeger, Tom Sauber, Brad Leftwich, and Alice Gerrard (Tom, Brad, and Alice), Tracy Schwarz and Ginny Hawker, and contradance events with callers Phil Jamison, Beth Molaro, Glen Morningstar, Steve Zakon, and Kathy Anderson. They have been selected several times to Showcase at The North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance. Their CDs have received rave reviews in The Old Time Herald, The Banjo Newsletter, Fiddler Magazine, Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange, and The 5-String Quarterly, and are played on radio stations across the US and abroad. They were featured on the cover and in an article in The Old Time Herald (www.oldtimeherald.org). the duo was filmed for an AETN educational program featuring their music, for various documentaries, and for the Hollywood production, Frank and Jesse, starring Randy Travis and Rob Lowe.