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Band Bios
Jeff White
Born and raised in Fife Lake, Michigan and started playing
music at a young age but gave it up for years. He started playing again in
'98 forming Straight Forward Bluegrass Band with a cousin and a neighbor, then
built the band to what it is today. He's a member of the original Michigan
Fiddler's Association, Chairman of Springfield Parks and Recreation, writes a
lot of the original material for the band, and lives and breathes bluegrass and
old time music. He's the guitar player, lead singer, promoter, and front
man for the band.
Terri White (aka "Ma")
Born and raised in South Boardman, Michigan and married to
Jeff White with three daughters. She started playing upright bass in
October of 2002 (with no prior musical experience), figuring "If ya can't beat 'em,
join 'em" (after putting up with Jeff being gone playing music most of the
time). She now plays autoharp along with the bass. She'll leave them
out of the cases around the house picking one of them up and playing a tune or
two taking breaks from the housework routine. Terri is now the back-bone
rhythm of the band.
Karl Malin
Born in the U.P. of Michigan. Raised in Marquette and
moved to Traverse City, MI to teach Culinary Arts at TBAISD. He started
getting serious about the banjo in '99 playing Scruggs 3 finger style and
clawhammer mountain style. He also does the harmonica work for the band,
enjoys going to banjo camps, workshops, and large music festivals. He's
also a darn good chef.
Andrew Sias
Raised in Cedar Lake, MI. He moved to Cadillac in 2002. He met Jeff at a performance in Cadillac asking about mandolin lessons and ended up in the band with mandolin duties sometime around January of 2003. He now sings bass and baritone harmony parts. He maintains the website in between teaching, spending time with his wife and kids, writing, and working on his old Mercedes diesel and bio-diesel processor.
John Richey
Raised in Wisconsin and now resides in Boyne City, MI.
He has been playing fiddle for over 15 years. He played bass in a
bluegrass band early in his music career, back-up guitar for fiddle players, and
then started playing fiddle himself. He has a strong background in Celtic
music, and was a member of the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra. He still
plays occasionally with the Long-goodies of Wisconsin. He started playing
with the band in March of 2005. Plays a wicked bluegrass fiddle and does
excellent vocal work.
Played with the band from March 2005 to February 2006.
Bob Saddler
He began violin lessons at age 7, and continues to play classical and
traditional music to the present time. He presently plays in the Cadillac
Symphony Orchestra, a Celtic band, and several traditional groups and teaches
fiddling in the Cadillac Strings Program.
He performed and judged at numerous national, regional and state fiddling
competitions and won or placed highly when everything went well (Illinois State
Champion one time, Florida State Champion 4 times, National Fiddling
Championships [Weiser, Idaho] Top Twenty about 6 times [from a field of 300-400
contestants], Southeast Regional Champion once or twice).
He performed in bluegrass and traditional string bands in California and
Florida, at dances, on the main stage at Kodiak Bear Festival (Alaska), Hiawatha
and Blissfest Music Festivals in Michigan and gave fiddle workshops at the
Michigan and Florida Festivals. Through the years He has been fortunate to have
played with legendary fiddlers such as Benny Thomasson, Mark O'Connor, Tracy
Schwartz, Alisdair Fraser, Brenda Stubbert, David Greenberg, Kenny Hall and many
others.
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