Bedlam Brothers String Band

The Bedlam Brothers String Band has been together in one form or another for over 40 years and the quartet of Jeff McHugh (banjo), Dave McCann (fiddle), Mike Kachuba (guitar, hammered dulcimer, accordion) and Geoff Kooris (steel guitar, bass) is still at it. The nucleus of the band formed in the early ‘70s when the members were just a few years out of college and met quite by accident; they happened to live in the same neighborhood without knowing it.

FORMATION, OLD-TIMEY REPETOIRE

It all started by getting together to play music on Sunday mornings at each other’s houses, where they focused on old-timey music over other acoustic-folk forms. The genre, which existed long before bluegrass, is a blend of influences (most notably traditional tunes) born out of slavery and played by African-American string bands before being adopted by white musicians in the American South. Even the banjo, a staple of old-timey and bluegrass music, is a direct descendant of several African instruments, among them the banjar and the akonting. The other major component is the wealth of Irish, English and Scottish fiddle tunes that came over with people who settled in the American rural South and Appalachia. Add to that the singing traditions that came with those immigrant groups and you’ve got a wonderful, inspiring mix.

More than four decades later, with band members and band names having come and gone, McHugh, McCann, Kachuba and Kooris still play these old-timey tunes. Along with traditional songs from Appalachia and the UK, Uncle Dave Macon, Gid Tanner and The Skillet Lickers, Charlie Poole and countless others are the sources of many of their song, in addition to a smattering of others written by one of the Bedlam Brothers or a contemporary songwriter that they play in their own style. Fats Waller, Merle Travis and the Carter Family also find a place on the set lists, along with Steve Earle, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, Stephen Foster and a few others.

ORIGINAL MATERIAL, VENUES

In addition to traditional arrangements and other artists’ material, guitarist Kachuba, a former Connecticut State Troubadour, has written more than a few great songs that the group has included on their CDs. Each band member loves to sing, so they work things out in four-part harmonies and traditional Southern-gospel tunes, sea shanties, work songs and country music from the 1920s through the 1940s are common elements of their shows. The Bedlam Brothers have played at coffeehouses, festivals, town concert series, churches, synagogues and a few pretty strange events I won’t bother to mention here. Audiences have ranged from as few as 20 to north of 3,000.

Sometimes they look at pictures of themselves and can’t believe that they’ve been making music and have been friends for this long, they say. Many years ago, a concert promoter told them that they were great at what they do, but that they’d made a terrible choice by deciding on music as a career. I guess the Bedlam Brothers just couldn’t help themselves!