Jeff Little played Stecoah’s old upright piano during his first few concerts there.
This Saturday, July 20th, The Jeff Little Trio will perform on Stecoah’s Grand Old Stage for the sixteenth straight year in a row – and with good reason he knows how to entertain an audience! (Click here for concert details.) Today we are sharing the first of a two part series from our An Appalachian Era publication celebrating 25 years of mountain music through the Stecoah’s An Appalachian Evening concert series. This series, titled Rule Breakers, introduces readers to two annual concert series performers who bring very unique approaches to traditional mountain music – Jeff Little and the Kruger Brothers (p. 32-35). You may purchase this commemorative publication either at the Stecoah Valley Center or the Welcome Center on 474 Rodney Orr Bypass.
Jeff Little’s Story
The late Janene Hardy would always say as she gave a tour of the building that if you look on a bright day you can see the grooves worn into the floor left by rolling the piano on and off stage. The ornate upright instrument which captures visitors’ attention has stood at the end of the hall for decades, facilitating many community events. During the summer concert season, one artist in particular rolled it back into the spotlight.
Jeff Little was raised around his family’s music store in Boone, NC. His father played “a little bit of everything” and plenty of musicians, mostly guitarists, congregated there. But it was the piano rather than the guitar that Jeff was drawn to – the only instrument besides the blues harp he ever played. In that environment he was exposed to a variety of musical genres –fiddle tunes, blues, as well as roots and Americana. There were few people playing piano leads in those styles, but that didn’t hinder Jeff. “It wasn’t something I planned for. It was just kind of emulating the sounds I heard from those other instruments. What I found, though, was that it worked really well.”
You might be skeptical of the phrase ‘fiddle tunes on a piano’ unless you’ve attended one of Jeff’s concerts. He quickly quells any skepticism and leads banjos, guitars, and mandolins through a variety of material that he learned in that music shop. “I did learn a lot from my father, and everything I do is by ear. I was just around a lot of really good musicians.” The company he kept in his family’s shop tells you all you need to know. “Doc Watson would be in a lot and Wayne Henderson would be in there a lot, so I think a lot of my piano style came from listening to them.” Little would go on to many performances with Doc later on – enjoy this wonderful moment of Jeff performing Old, Old House with Doc Watson at a Wayne Henderson Christmas party. PBS North Carolina also produced an episode of My Home about Jeff Little which is a worthwhile watch – check it out below.
How Jeff First Came to Stecoah
Master picker and celebrity luthier Wayne Henderson was no stranger to Stecoah through the Junior Appalachian Musician (JAM) program, and joined the An Appalachian Evening series as a performer in its sixth year. The following year he brought JAM founder Helen White to accompany him on fiddle, but it wasn’t until the ninth summer that he brought along Jeff Little for his Stecoah debut. That evening the old upright made tracks once again to the stage and the Stecoah audience encountered Jeff Little’s personality and versatility for the first time. “I played the upright piano my first couple of years there. It was really cool to play the piano that was in the building.” Even though there was little life left in that old instrument, Jeff Little had found a captive audience.
Following those initial performances, Little formed his own trio with talented musicians Steve Lewis playing banjo and guitar and Jeff’s son, Luke, on the mandolin. The Jeff Little Trio is unique in that it is unusual to experience flat-picking guitar and fiddle tunes on the piano. Over the years, Jeff has played a lot of old tunes that surprised people, but he’s been playing there so long that audiences now know what to expect. “We’re very blessed to get to choose songs that we love to play, but we also play with the fiber and certainty of where we’re from. Even on the piano. The times I worked with Doc, I always appreciated how he would choose any type of material – but it was definitely his take on whatever he was performing. I think that’s the key.”
(Jeff performing Orange Blossom Special on the piano – a part of almost every performance.)
Jeff Little Has Taken Mountain Music Around the World
Music and craft have the nearly exclusive ability to allow people who don’t play the same instruments or styles to relate. You see a look of knowing and acknowledgement from the other player without knowing each other’s histories, training, or experiences. “Our style is pretty broad and it allows us to play a lot of different types of venues. Over the years, I had a lot of opportunities to do things for programs like NPR and PBS. We do a lot of work with the National Council for the Traditional Arts, which puts on wonderful folk festivals like the National Folk Festival, the Montana Folk Festival, and other places. I had the opportunity to tour in France. The United States Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs would send artists to countries that didn’t normally get American culture. So we performed in some pretty interesting places like Sri Lanka, Oman, Bahrain, Tanzania, places like that. On those trips we found that music is one thing that can communicate, even if you can’t speak to one another.”
Experience Stecoah Through A Jeff Little Concert
Jeff Little is booked in this summer’s An Appalachian Evening series for the sixteenth year in a row – Graham County and Boone must speak each other’s languages pretty well. “We just love coming back every year because we know what to expect. Everything surrounding the logistics of the gig – when you arrive, to soundcheck, till you leave. It’s just nice and laid back. I love the acoustic warmth of the room. We’ve been lucky to have wonderful audiences all those years – hopefully, they just really enjoy our music.”
As you enter the auditorium this summer and walk by the old upright piano with your ticket in your hand, remember its story. While you sit in your seat it will remain on the other end of those grooves and resonate the music it made for so long. Ticket information for this weekend’s concert is available at StecoahValleyCenter.com.
