Elderly Instruments and Ten Pound Fiddle Reunite This Friday

Above: Andy Wilson, second from left, with his quartet The Springtails.

Two longtime institutions are set to reunite for the first time in a long time this Friday night, when Elderly Instruments and the Ten Pound Fiddle Concert Series get together for a night of roots, blues, and Americana music.

The show, Strangers In The Night: The Bands of Elderly Instruments, is the brainchild of Sales Manager Andy Wilson. Wilson, who is also a member of The Springtails and Steppin’ In It, has recruited fellow musicians and Elderly employees for a variety of musical ensembles.

Music is set to kick-off at 7:30 p.m. at the MSU Community Music School at 4930 Hagadorn Road in East Lansing.

Elderly Instruments bands set to perform include Strangers In The Night, The Springtails, The String Shop Brass Band, The Fabulous Heftones, and Hatchet Man and Frog.

“Sally Potter approached me about doing this project,” Wilson said. “Apparently it has been done in the past, although I’ve never been a part of it. The Strangers is a band comprised of current and former employees of the store. I’m not sure how long the band dates back, but I joined around 1999, and I’m still one of the new guys. It is the Elderly Instruments house band.”

The Strangers band is comprised of Elderly employees: Stan Werbin on guitar, ukulele, and vocals; Chris Reitz on guitar, slide whistle, and vocals; Doug Berch on accordion, harp, slide whistle, banjo, and vocals; Dave Matchette on harmonica, harp, and vocals; Wilson on harmonica, harp, trumpet, and vocals; Steve Szilagyi on bass guitar and vocals; Brian Hefferan on ukulele, mandolin, saxophone, and vocals; and Ben Hassenger, rounding out the line-up on ukulele as well as vocals.

The world-renowned Elderly Instruments, located in Lansing’s Old Town, was founded in 1972. Elderly is a destination store for musicians around the world, and many famous musicians have shopped there, including Bob Seger, Warren Haynes of Gov’t Mule and The Allman Brothers, and Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins, to name a few. The store specializes in new and vintage music equipment, musical accessories, and there is an on-site repair shop.

The store also regularly hosts in-house concerts and workshops which have become the stuff of legend, according to Wilson.

“I’ve dealt with some big names like Brian Setzer and Seger, but my favorite appearances have been by musicians far from the status of household name,” Wilson said. “John Hartford played with The Good Old Boys. Aoife O’Donavan and Rushad Eggleston played with their ‘Wild band of Snee,’ and my brother and I got to sit in and perform with them. Leftover Salmon also performed acoustically and let me sit in! Bill Kirchen performed, and then grabbed a trombone and led all employees in a parade. We were ready as he called ahead and said ‘get everybody ready to play.’”

Wilson’s enthusiasm for music helped him put together the night’s festivities, and served as the guide to all of bands that are set to perform at the show Friday night. It’s hard for Wilson to pick one favorite act he’s looking forward to hearing at the show, but there are a couple that stand out for him.

“Hatchet Man and the Frog are a long standing duo of Dave Matchette and S.J. ‘Frog’ Forgery, both local legends,” Wilson said. “They play traditional acoustic blues. Dave works in photography, and Frog works in appraisals at Elderly. The Fabulous Heftones are a husband-and-wife duo. They focus on the music of the early 20th century. They rarely play a song written more recently than 1930. Lynn plays a unique upright banjo bass invented by Brian’s father, which is called The Heftone. Brian handles Elderly’s web site.”

Forgery, who is best known from his longstanding blues band Frog and the Beeftones, is a local fixture in the mid-Michigan blues and rock scene. Frog will be making his debut at the Ten Pound Fiddle with Hatchet Man and as part of The String Shop Brass Band.

Frog, who has been performing in the area since moving to Lansing in 1976 and has been an employee at Elderly since March of 1986, is looking forward to finally performing at a Ten Pound show.

“They certainly have kept it going and it's a landmark for a lot of people,” Forgey said. “This is the first time I've played one of their shows, and as the wise guy says, what took 'em so long?”

Functioning as both co-workers and band-mates, one has to wonder, are there any conflicts? Or how does both work and play make its way into each other’s music?

Wilson has the answer.

“I find it easy to perform with my colleagues,” Wilson said. “If there is any difficulty at all, it is finding a time to rehearse, since we all are employed, have families, and there isn’t much spare time. Working at the store, we discuss music constantly, and I think we all know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Music is a language, and we all speak it in some dialect.”

According to Wilson, it was an honor to be asked by the Ten Pound Fiddle to put a show together, and he believes it will be a natural fit for a night of amazing music.

“The Fiddle is an outstanding organization, and I’m happy to do a show for them,” Wilson said. “I’ve never been a member, but I’ve been involved for 20 years or more. Sally and I do a great set with some other musicians at the Wheatland Music Festival every year for the Community Sing Project, and enjoy it heavily.”

Tickets are $18 for the general public, $15 for Fiddle members, and $5 for students. For more information, visit tenpoundfiddle.org.

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