News

This is the place for news about the Clifftop Trilogy, the players and the music.

Big Ears is Finalist in IMA Awards—World Traditional Album! Please vote for us!!

BREAKING NEWS! Clifftop Notes Vol. 2- Big Ears is a finalist in the IMA Independent Music Awards, in the category for World-Traditional Album. This is a major contest sponsored by the folks who publish the Musician's Atlas. It's a great honor to have traditional (well, actually original) old-time music honored in this contest. We need you to go visit the IMA Website Jukebox and vote for Big Ears, so that we have a chance at the Vox Populi part of the contest. Judged winners will be announced in mid-December.

Big Ears Music set to choreography by Darrah Carr Dance Company

New choreography set to music from Big Ears was premiered by the Darrah Carr Dance Company at Manhattan's Duke Theater in Spring '07. Mark Simos is a pioneer neo-traditionalist songwriter, composer, tunesmith, fiddler, accompanist, and educator, whose larger-scale compositions build on and extend traditional forms and materials. In recent years Mark has collaborated extensively with choreographers, including Darrah Carr, Kieran Jordan, Daniel McCusker and Molly Gawler. Mark Simos and Darrah Carr met as members of UnBeaten Path, an innovative Celtic dance and music collaborative that had its debut performance at Boston's BCMFest in January 2006, featuring choreography to a number of Simos Celtic compositions.

Music for the Duke Theater performance by Darrah Carr Dance drew from two albums of Mark's original old-time style fiddle tunes: Race the River Jordan, which Art Menius of Bluegrass Unlimited dubbed “campground tunes for the 21st century…”; and Clifftop Notes Vol. 2: Big Ears, which completes a trilogy of albums of traditional and original fiddle tunes inspired by the annual festival at Clifftop, WV. Proceeds from sales of Simos' CDs at the concert will support future collaborations between Darrah Carr Dance and Mark Simos.

Mark Simos starts Appalachian Old-Time Ensemble at Berklee College of Music

Mark Simos, the creative force behind the Clifftop Notes project, is an Assistant Professor in the Songwriting Department at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. In Fall of 2006, Mark inaugurated a new ensemble at Berklee specifically focused on traditional (and contemporary) Appalachian/old-time music.

Even though there are already several bluegrass ensembles (as well as Celtic, gypsy jazz, and other roots ensembles) the old-time ensemble has created a stir among the students, filling quickly in each of the first three semesters. Students respond to the music, as well as to the relaxed session format, the chance to learn tunes by ear instead of exclusively from sheet music, and exposure to the many archival sources for old-time music available in the new digital landscape. Many of the tunes from the Clifftop Notes CDs have become favorites of the ensemble, and are making their way into the repertoire of the new crop of neo-trad fiddlers about to launch their careers.