Too Tall String Band To Be Showcased In Final Curbside At Harborside Concert
Plattsburgh – One of the North Country’s most beloved bands will conclude the 14-concert Curbside At Harborside season on this Saturday, Sept. 4, at 7:30 p.m. on Plattsburgh’s Harborside Stage, marking the twenty-fifth concert presented since this unique series began amid the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
The Too Tall String Band — Rod Driscoll, Bruce Lawson, and Hap Wheeler — has been one of the most popular professional musical ensembles in the North Country since its formation in 1984. They have headlined concerts at many regional musical showcases, including the Goodwill Games in Lake Placid, the Adirondack Folk Music Festival, the Watertown Goes Green Irish Festival, Concerts on the Bluff, First Night in Saranac Lake and in Bristol, Vermont, and the JEMS Concert Series in Jay.
Attendees have the option of bringing lawn chairs or blankets and listening to the music outside of their car or remaining in their vehicle and listening to the music broadcast over their car radio directly from the stage. Individuals who are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 do not need to wear face masks outside of their vehicles. Audience members are respectfully requested to refrain from bringing alcohol or pets (service animals are welcome) into the Harborside Lot.
For the past 15 years, the band has entertained audiences during the Battle of Plattsburgh commemoration weekend as the Saturday night headliners at Israel Green’s Tavern. They have performed frequently at Plattsburgh’s Palmer Street Coffeehouse since the popular venue’s inception and have been featured multiple times at the Winter Carnival in Saranac Lake.
From ragtime music to Celtic folk tunes, early country and string band music to bluegrass and 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s Americana classics, The Too Tall String Band is one of the most versatile small ensembles on the region’s performance scene today. In the course of a single concert, audiences can hear the three performers on a dizzying array of instruments, including the banjo, bodhran, dulcimer, hammered dulcimer, six- and twelve-string guitar, mandolin, dobro, and even the Greek bouzouki. The band’s most recent album, While We Are Together, features a variety of pub tunes, fiddle tunes, and sea shanties with origins from Great Britain to the Adirondack Mountains.
Rod Driscoll, the group’s founder, has been active as a performer and promoter of folk music in the Adirondacks for more than 40 years. He performs his vast and varied repertoire on the hammered and lap dulcimers, guitar, banjo, bouzouki, bodhran, and bass, as well as singing lead and backup vocals. He also performs with the Old Mountain and Friends Union String Bands as well as many solo appearances over the years. As a promoter of music in the North Country, he helped start the Plattsburgh Concerts in the Park series, created the Peru Coffeehouse series, and organized many other benefit concerts over the years such as the concert to aid victims of the great North Country ice storm of 1998. Rod builds the dulcimers he plays at his workshop “O’Driscoll Folk Instruments” located at his home in Peru, NY.
Bruce Lawson, the band’s bass player and “country music specialist,” has a wealth of experience in the music field as a performer, producer, and studio owner/operator dating back to his college years, when he toured throughout New England in a professional band. His work in music ultimately guided him to a career in media, serving for several years as the sales manager for WPTZ and WNNE television, the NBC affiliate stations for the Plattsburgh and Burlington market. Since his retirement from this job, Bruce has served as assistant to the mayor of the City of Plattsburgh and is a member of the board for the United Way of Clinton County and the Lake Champlain Commission.
Bruce has always remained an active member of the North Country’s musical community, running the Palmer Street Coffeehouse with his wife, Jody, for many years. In addition to his work with The Too Tall String Band, he performed with Jen Carter-Kelly for several years in popular acoustic folk duo Crossing North.
Hap Wheeler, whose instrumental expertise includes banjo, dobro, guitar, mandolin, and bodhran, has been a North Country musical mainstay for decades, dating back to his artistic leadership in the popular band Happenstance. Serving as the computer network manager at SUNY Plattsburgh by day, Hap has been featured throughout the region with several talented bands, and also has taught lessons to the musicians of the future in the “Bluegrass for the Next Generation” program at SUNY Plattsburgh and the 4H “Bluegrass For Kids” program.
Hap is an avid fly fisherman and naturalist. He is very active in Trout Unlimited, having served as its president and delivering many presentations promoting fishing and preservation of habitat in the Adirondacks. His hand-tied flies are works of art. Hap also has an extensive jackknife and tool collection, along with a diverse collection of musical instruments, with band members joking that he has two of anything ever made.
Gates open at 6:30 p.m. for this concert, with the performance starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 per carload (not per person) and will be available on the evening of the performance at the Harborside Lot entrance adjacent to the City of Plattsburgh Marina, behind the D&H Railway Station. (2 Dock Street is the best GPS address to use for finding this lot). All of the ticket sale proceeds go to the artists.
Tremendous gratitude goes to concert sponsors RE/MAX North Country and The Mariner Bar & Grill, whose generous support of this concert has allowed this program to be presented as an affordable musical offering in our region. The Mariner is sponsoring this concert in honor and tribute to all of the first responders of the North Country who have worked tirelessly to save lives and enhance public health during the COVID-19 crisis.
For more information, please contact pomerance.benjamin58@gmail.com.
Posted: August 31st, 2021 under Arts and Entertainment, Northern NY News.