Portland’s Whiskey Deaf, featuring singer-songwriter John Kael, center-right, and nationally-acclaimed fiddler Annie Staninec, second from left, will be returning to the Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis on Saturday, Feb. 11, for a 7 p.m. concert.
Portland’s Whiskey Deaf, featuring singer-songwriter John Kael and nationally-acclaimed fiddler Annie Staninec, will be returning to the Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis on Saturday, Feb. 11, for a 7 p.m. concert.
Tickets are available for $10 donations and include free admission to museum exhibits before the concert and during intermission.
The event is sponsored by the Washington Bluegrass Association and Goebel Septic.
“We had 100 tickets sold before the first of the year,” said WBA board member Jamie Guenther, “and I was hearing about 50 were left last week, a month before the show. We may have a sold-out house before we even open the doors.”
Kael plays guitar, sings harmonies, writes songs (including “Handmade Cross,” which appears on Doyle Lawson’s Grammy-nominated “Hard Game of Love” album) and teaches bluegrass and other traditional music at camps and workshops across the continent.
Staninec began violin lessons at age 4 and has gone on to tour and record with some of the biggest names in bluegrass and Americana music, including Mike Marshall, David Grisman and Kathy Kallick. She released a self-titled CD in 2015, the year she won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Momentum Award, and has played with Rod Stewart’s band over the past year at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas and on tour in Europe.
A video of Staninec playing “Orange Blossom Special” is nearing 1 million views on YouTube.
Whiskey Deaf’s lineup is rounded out by Jamie Blair on banjo, mandolinist Ethan Lawton and bass player Dorothy “Dee” Johnson.
An Ohio native, Blair was a member of the legendary northwest band Ohop Valley Boys. Lawton has played with a number of groups over the years, touring Europe last year with country band Western Centuries.
The group’s rhythmic heartbeat is provided by Johnson, who has played with Mountain Honey and GrapeVine (with Blair and Horton) as well as Whiskey Deaf.
“These guys are just a strong, solid group,” said WBA president General Cothren. “People loved them when they first played up here in 2015 and they sold out our first show here (at the museum). They’re all excellent musicians and you can tell they like playing together by the fun they have onstage. You just go home smiling.”
Doors for the February concert will open at 6:30 p.m. Intermission last half an hour to allow attendees to visit the museum downstairs, and free refreshments will be served.
