About Us

Ruth Sternemann and Mark Thone began playing together at the local Delafield library fundraising event and the local farmer's market on Saturdays; soon thereafter Rich Schwartz joined us.

Mark sings lead with a wonderful tenor voice as well as rounding out many of our harmonies. Mark has a talent for playing many different instruments. He's on the bass most of the time, but can fill in with the sounds of banjo, guitar, dobro, and octave mandolin.

Rich primarily plays mandolin and then pulls out the sweet sounding Irish whistles when we play Celtic tunes. When he plays his banjo-mandolin it is a real treat, since it's a vintage instrument from the 20's and has some flair to it's sound. Rich also sings lead on a few songs with a rich (no pun intended) baritone sound and harmony on the rest.

Ruth oftens adds a high harmony to any of the leads that are sung or has been known to be talked into taking a lead when it's out of everyone else's range. She brings the unique sounds of the hammer dulcimer and the mountain dulcimer to the mix as well as playing rhythm guitar. Every so often you'll see her being talked into playing the bass to give Mark a chance to play some of his favorite instruments.

While the rest of the group seem to think Ruth is running the show and they fondly call her the cattle baroness, they have yet to see her wielding her cattle prod at them. (Or at least not for very long.) <grin>

Special thanks to Emily who helps us with our sound checks.