Yellow Jack - About

L to R: Keith Glass (bass+vocals); Warren namingha (percussion); Dennis Reed Jr (guitar, Harmonica+vocaLs); Andrew GiannI (mandolin, BANJO+vocals); Lainie REID (fiddle, banjo+vocals). PHOTO: CHRIS KALISIAK

ABOUT.

We play traditional folk and Americana, songs related to Western New York and Erie Canal history, original material, and occasionally amusing interpretations of rock and pop songs. We were pleased to be featured as an "Emerging Artist" by the Sportsmen's Americana Music Foundation in November 2019.

A CENTURIES-WIDE SAMPLING.

We try to cover a lot of ground with the songs we pick. We're all fairly obsessive about discovering music (of any era) and sharing it with each other and others. The oldest songs we play are English and Scottish ballads and reels of Appalachia, then onto the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Joe Hill, Charlie Poole and Woody Guthrie; into Dylan, John Prine, Violent Femmes and Michelle Shocked; up to modern artists like Bright Eyes and Old Crow Medicine Show. We are also increasingly writing our own material.

feel the BUFFALOVE.

The Niagara region has a rich history, some of which survives in song. “Buffalo (The Er-I-E is Rising),” “Low Bridge (Everybody Down!),” “Buffalo Gals,” “White House Blues” (about McKinley’s assassination), as well as lesser-known numbers can usually be heard in our set. Our own contributions to local history in song include “O! Mighty Niagara,” “The Legend of Black Hannah” and “The Battle of Buffalo (The Burning of the City).”

PHOTOS: