The Hot Seats have been playing stringband music throughout this country and the UK since the five musicians came together in Richmond eight years ago. This week, the high-energy ensemble brings their prize-winning entertainment to the Folklore Society of Greater Washington for an evening of irresistible rhythms.
The program opens with songs from their latest release, “EP 2010,” featuring traditional bluegrass and country ragtime from Southern sources. Specialists in old time Appalachian styles, they are not shy about taking their creativity to the limit, often moving into the unexpected with shades of rock ‘n’ roll, jug band, klezmer or perhaps traces of Frank Zappa to keep listeners sharp. They might even be persuaded to slip in some original numbers from their earlier album “Retreat to Camp Candy Temptation Island.”
The original numbers composed by Josh Bearman and guitarist Ed Brogan settle into traditional ragtime style alongside “Bully of the Town,” a favorite from way back when. Brogan and drummer Jake Sellers were classmates at Virginia Commonwealth University, as was fiddler Graham DeZarn, who learned his craft from his father, a professional Irish musician. The fifth member of the Hot Seats, Ben Belcher, plays both the three-finger banjo and the bass.
The Hot Seats
| » Where: Washington Ethical Society Auditorium, 7750 16th St. NW |
| » When: 8 p.m., Saturday |
| » Info: $15; fsgw.org |
“Our new EP is our first stab at traditional music from Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky, so Sunday’s audience should be up for some old time fiddling from Graham,” Bearman said. “We’ll play those songs along with a bunch of new material like John Prine’s ‘Sam Stone’ which we’ve worked up into a new arrangement.
“Jake often plays the drums with cymbals rather than drumsticks, but when we get into bluegrass, he switches to bass. Since three of us play bass, we practice at the home of the person who has it at the moment. When we travel overseas, we have an agent in the UK who rents a bass and bass drum for us so we don’t have to buy extra seats for the instruments.”
Growing up in Lucketts, Va., Bearman first played the guitar, adding the mandolin at 14, then the banjo and finally an upright bass, the only remaining choice in music class. He frequently visited D.C. to listen to bluegrass master Buzz Busby and other local folk musicians, an interest acquired from his parents who are Morris dancers.
“They showed me that it doesn’t matter if you make a fool of yourself as long as you’re having fun,” he said. “We use a lot of humorous commentary in our performances to keep things lively and send audiences away knowing they’ve had a great time.”
