Mockingbird
Location: Little Rock, AR
Website: https://www.facebook.com/MockingbirdHillbillyBand
Biography: Birds of a feather flock together. From the weirdness capitol of America, Little Rock, Arkansaw, five diverse talents have united as Mockingbird, a Hillbilly Party Band. Fine purveyors of Hillbilly Psychedelia, Mockingbird is rooted in Ozark folk music and inspired by flying saucers and little green men, dirigibles, country cooking and country living, lightening bugs, J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, Unarius, agriculture and the Nation of Arkansaw. Kudzu (Byron Werner) is a collage artist who moved to Little Rock to escape the Los Angeles insanity, where he'd worked for 28 years in the special effects and animation industry. (He helped blow up the Death Star, y'all.) His artwork is in the collections of such notables as George DiCaprio (and his son Leonardo has a number of Kudzu's works as well), Danny Elfman, and Matt Groening. Kudzu and his beard bring to the band his love of all things psychedelic--the weirder the better. He specializes in making his own instruments, including the "Grunt Horn/Grumpet" and the "Whimsical." He's an expert 78-record player soloist. We like his weird noises. Blind Dog (Jeff) Clanton is a multi-instrumentalist from Conway, Arkansaw. He comes from a musical family--his father has been a folk musician for many years and is in a folk trio called "Happenstance". Old Blind Dog studied music at Hendrix College and was trained as a luthier in Saskatchewan. He grows his own veggies and brews his own wine and beer. He's an all-around generous guy and amazing musician. Bluesboy Jag (Bill Jagitsch) started out playing on a beat up Montomery Wards Global guitar (which he still plays as a slide guitar) over 30 years ago. He is known for playing his own hand made cigar box guitars and played in the usual rock bands before rediscovering hill country blues ten years ago. Jag's taken the long road to the blues & hillbilly music: He's been a short order cook, film developer, ad salesman, phone surveyor, retail manager, purchasing agent, shipping and receiving manager, tech support specialist, computer repairman and cigar box guitar maker. Jag plays a lot of instruments, too and he was the winner of the Arkansas River Blues Society Blues Challenge and competed at the International Blues Challenge two years in a row: 2008 and 2009. Dalbow (Michael Crenshaw) came from a classical music background. His mother was a founding member of Arkansas Opera Theatre, and still brings the crowd to tears when she solos at church. At 18, Dalbow went on the road with a successful alternative rock band with a real-live recording deal in the freewheeling '80s. When the band broke up, (screw you guys!) Dalbow attended Berklee College of Music in Boston where he was a street musician and made the hip coffee house circuit. Joonbug (Jessica Crenshaw) started singing in church when she was 5 years old in her tiny Ozark Mountain hometown. She learned her first folk song, "Poor Babes in the Woods" from her Aunt Veda, who accompanied her on the autoharp. Joonbug's great-aunt Noble Cowden was a noted Ozark Folk singer and much of her old tunes were the initial inspiration for Mockingbird's repertoire. Jessica and Michael married 9 years ago and have been playing music together ever since.
Website: https://www.facebook.com/MockingbirdHillbillyBand
Biography: Birds of a feather flock together. From the weirdness capitol of America, Little Rock, Arkansaw, five diverse talents have united as Mockingbird, a Hillbilly Party Band. Fine purveyors of Hillbilly Psychedelia, Mockingbird is rooted in Ozark folk music and inspired by flying saucers and little green men, dirigibles, country cooking and country living, lightening bugs, J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, Unarius, agriculture and the Nation of Arkansaw. Kudzu (Byron Werner) is a collage artist who moved to Little Rock to escape the Los Angeles insanity, where he'd worked for 28 years in the special effects and animation industry. (He helped blow up the Death Star, y'all.) His artwork is in the collections of such notables as George DiCaprio (and his son Leonardo has a number of Kudzu's works as well), Danny Elfman, and Matt Groening. Kudzu and his beard bring to the band his love of all things psychedelic--the weirder the better. He specializes in making his own instruments, including the "Grunt Horn/Grumpet" and the "Whimsical." He's an expert 78-record player soloist. We like his weird noises. Blind Dog (Jeff) Clanton is a multi-instrumentalist from Conway, Arkansaw. He comes from a musical family--his father has been a folk musician for many years and is in a folk trio called "Happenstance". Old Blind Dog studied music at Hendrix College and was trained as a luthier in Saskatchewan. He grows his own veggies and brews his own wine and beer. He's an all-around generous guy and amazing musician. Bluesboy Jag (Bill Jagitsch) started out playing on a beat up Montomery Wards Global guitar (which he still plays as a slide guitar) over 30 years ago. He is known for playing his own hand made cigar box guitars and played in the usual rock bands before rediscovering hill country blues ten years ago. Jag's taken the long road to the blues & hillbilly music: He's been a short order cook, film developer, ad salesman, phone surveyor, retail manager, purchasing agent, shipping and receiving manager, tech support specialist, computer repairman and cigar box guitar maker. Jag plays a lot of instruments, too and he was the winner of the Arkansas River Blues Society Blues Challenge and competed at the International Blues Challenge two years in a row: 2008 and 2009. Dalbow (Michael Crenshaw) came from a classical music background. His mother was a founding member of Arkansas Opera Theatre, and still brings the crowd to tears when she solos at church. At 18, Dalbow went on the road with a successful alternative rock band with a real-live recording deal in the freewheeling '80s. When the band broke up, (screw you guys!) Dalbow attended Berklee College of Music in Boston where he was a street musician and made the hip coffee house circuit. Joonbug (Jessica Crenshaw) started singing in church when she was 5 years old in her tiny Ozark Mountain hometown. She learned her first folk song, "Poor Babes in the Woods" from her Aunt Veda, who accompanied her on the autoharp. Joonbug's great-aunt Noble Cowden was a noted Ozark Folk singer and much of her old tunes were the initial inspiration for Mockingbird's repertoire. Jessica and Michael married 9 years ago and have been playing music together ever since.