Midwestern January "Snow-Season" Tour...

Hello Everyone,

The Dust Busters are taking to the road again for our January 2011 Midwestern "Snow-Season" tour. Its gonna be a great tour, with a number of really cool shows on the schedule! See ya out there in the world...

Wednesday Jan. 19th- Hiram College, Hiram, OH. 

Thursday Jan. 20th- House Concert in Cleveland, OH sponsored by Roots of American Music.

Friday Jan. 21st- Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago, IL - Trad Fest with Bruce Molsky and the Foghorn Stringband.

Saturday Jan. 22nd- Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago, IL - Trad Fest with Bruce Molsky and the Foghorn Stringband.

Sunday Jan. 23rd- Independent Media Center gig in Urbana, IL with the Foghorn Stringband.

Tuesday Jan. 25th-  Rachel's Cafe Bloomington, Indiana.

Thursday Jan. 27th- Greenline Cafe, Philadelphia PA with Noggin Hill.

Saturday 29th- Cafe Nola, Frederick, Maryland with Lydia Martin of the Martin Family Band and The Woodshedders.

Sunday Jan. 30th - Windup Space with Stephen Strohmeier and Walker & Jay, Baltimore, MD.

The Dust Busters with Patti Smith, New Year's Eve Photos

Here's some photos from New Year's Eve at the stroke of midnight.  We opened for Patti Smith for 3 nights at the Bowery Ballroom here in New York.  They were great, really fun sold out shows.  We had a really great time!  Here we are on stage with Patti and her band, sitting in with them for the finale as the clock struck midnight and we started the year 2011.  Happy New Year!

"Prohibition is a Failure" Liner Notes

Here's the liner notes for the EP album "Prohibtion is a Failure" by The Dust Busters with John Cohen, 2010. Click image to enlarge...

Albums For Sale...

The Dust Busters music is for sale and you can download it on the internet!

Click the images below to be taken to the sales page...


The Dust Busters with John Cohen on Folkways!

Old Man Below

The Dust Busters with John Cohen SFW40206

On Old Man Below, The Dust Busters point the way for a new generation of old-time music devotees. Standing squarely in the lineage of the New Lost City Ramblers, their reverence for tradition runs deep while their interpretations bring fresh meaning and a sense that their music is as contemporary as any other. Dust Busters mentor and Ramblers elder John Cohen joins Eli Smith, Walker Shepard, and Craig Judelman in this solidly grounded, future-looking album of classic melodies that makes the legacy of yesterday the sound of today. 60 minutes, 36-page booklet with photos and extensive notes.

The Dust Busters with John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers.






The Dust Busters first album!

Roots n Ruckus!

[The Dust Busters at the Jalopy Theater.  Sketch by Robin Hoffman.]

Hey everybody,

   Come check out Roots n Ruckus this Wednesday, the awesome weekly folk music show at the Jalopy Theater in Redhook, Brooklyn- we'll be playing at 11pm! No cover!

The Jalopy Theater
315 Columbia Street
NY 11231
(718) 395-3214
www.Jalopy.biz

New Year's Eve at the Bowery!

Very happy to report that we are now playing all three nights, opening for Patti Smith at her end of the year Bowery Ballroom shows!  In addition to the 29th and 30th dates, we have now been added to the bill for the New Year's eve show, Dec. 31st!  We're really looking forward to it.  Gonna be fun!

Opening for Patti Smith at the Bowery Ballroom- Dec. 29th & 30th!

The Dust Busters will be opening for poet-singer Patti Smith for 2 shows- Wednesday Dec. 29th and Thursday Dec. 30th at The Bowery Ballroom.  Gonna be fun!  We're big Patti Smith fans and its a big honor to be able to open for her 2 nights of her legendary Bowery Ballroom end of the year shows!



The Bowery Ballroom is located at:

6 Delancey Street corner of Bowery
New York, NY 10002-2804
(212) 533-2111

Prohibition is a Failure - Dec. 12th CD Release Show!

 Hello everybody-

  Our brand new EP, "Prohibition is a Failure" is coming out on Sunday Dec. 12th, and we're proud as can be!  We'll be doing a CD release show that night at Southpaw here in Brooklyn.  Its gonna be a great show with a number of our favorite musicians joining us on the bill.  We recorded the album over the summer with John Cohen, a founder of The New Lost City Ramblers, one of our all time favorite bands and it was a huge honor as well as a pleasure to make a record with him.  This EP will be followed by a full length LP with more recordings from those sessions a few months down the road.  The album will be available for purchase on the internet soon enough... but come down to the show and get one hot of the press!

The Dust Busters and John Cohen Present: "Prohibition is a Failure" CD Release Party!

8pm - Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blues
8:45pm - Kristin Andreassen (of Uncle Earl and Sometymes Why) and Friends
9:30pm - The Dust Busters with John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers
10:30pm - Square Dance!

Sunday Dec. 12th
@
Southpaw
125 5th Ave btwn Sterling and St. Johns
Brooklyn, NY  
(718) 230-0236

Buy tickets in advance at: TicketWeb

John Cohen Photographs

The Dust Busters, photographed by John Cohen, Fall 2010.

The Dust Busters were photographed this Fall by our good friend and very favorite photographer, John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers.  We've been doing a whole lot of work with John Cohen of late including recording an album with him over the Summer which came out real nice- and we're releasing an EP from those sessions real soon!  The CD release show is set for Sunday Dec. 12th at South Paw here in Brooklyn.  Gonna be fun!  Look out for more info on that coming soon...

We were very honored to be photographed by John who among his many subjects has taken such stunning photos of so many of our favorite musicians over many years.

For more of these photos as well as lots more Dust Busters photos, visit our PHOTOS PAGE.

The Dust Busters, photographed by John Cohen, Fall 2010.

DBers w/ John Cohen, photo by John Cohen and Kehren Barbour, Fall 2010.

DBers w/ John Cohen, photo by John Cohen and Kehren Barbour, Fall 2010.

This Weekend!

Saturday Nov. 20th at The Jalopy Theater!

We'll be playing with John Cohen to celebrate the release of the new book about John's band The New Lost City Ramblers.

Gone to the Country: The New Lost City Ramblers and the Folk Music Revival by Ray Allen
Saturday, November 20
Show starts at 8:30pm

"Gone to the Country: The New Lost City Ramblers and the Folk Music Revival," is a new book by Ray Allen that chronicles the life and music of the New Lost City Ramblers, a trio of city-bred musicians who helped pioneer the resurgence of southern roots music during the folk revival of the late 1950s and 1960s. Formed in 1958 by Mike Seeger, John Cohen, and Tom Paley, the Ramblers introduced the regional styles of southern ballads, blues, string bands, and bluegrass to northerners yearning for a sound and an experience not found in mainstream music. Tonight, Ray Allen will show rare and fantastic photos of the band, while telling the story of the band and it's impact on music everywhere.


Friday Night at 25CPW Gallery

November 19, 6-9pm We'll be playing at 8pm with John Cohen as part of this wonderful art opening...

films-photographs-kinetic sculpture-woodcarvings
stringband music

EXHIBITION OPENING AND LIVE PERFORMANCES
on exhibit until November 28th

JOHN COHEN of The New Lost City Ramblers performing with The Dust Busters

BOB POTTS of the Highwoods Stringband
JOHN SPECKER of the Correctone Stringband

with additional photographs and video by Bess Greenberg

25CPW Gallery
25 Central Park West
New York, New York
10023
ph. 212.203.0250

More info below:

Square Dance!

Hello everybody,

We're playing a square dance on Friday, gonna be fun!  It's gonna be held at the House of Yes in Williamsburg.  We'll be playing a short set before playing for the dance at 11pm. Dave Harvey will be the caller, from nycbarndance.com.  Opening the show will be our friends, Cuddle Magic.

Friday, October 22nd

Show starts at 9pm

House of Yes
342 Maujer St
Brooklyn NY 11237

A Visit with Joe Thompson

[Photos by E. Smith]



On a beautiful day in early June The Dust Busters paid a visit to the home of Joe and Polly Thompson.  Joe Thompson is 91 and lives outside of Mebane, NC.  He has been playing fiddle since he was 5 years old, way back in 1923 and is perhaps the very last traditionally schooled African-American fiddler in the world. Joe is a World War II veteran and is long retired from his job at a furniture factory.  He continues to play music at home and at gigs including taking his music to Carnegie Hall in New York City, the National Folk Festival and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the International Music Festival in Brisbane, Australia.  In 2007 Joe Thompson was honored with the National Heritage Fellowship award from National Endowment for the Arts.  The Carolina Chocolate Drops have spent a lot of time with Joe and have learned a lot from him.  They continue to present many of his tunes in their performances.  We met Joe at the 2nd Black Banjo Gathering, held in Boone, NC in March of this year.


We sat around the Thompson's picnic table in the field behind their house and played a number of tunes as Joe recalled his musical family and his upbringing.  Joe and Polly were tremendously nice and hospitable and we were really touched and honored to spend time with them.  Here are some excerpts from the long afternoon that we spent at the Thompson's home.

Big thanks go to Joe and Polly's friend Larry Vellani for bringing us to their home that day, and a shout out goes to our friend Steve Kruger who joined us with his banjo and guitar.

Here's the songs we played that you'll hear on this recording:

I Shall Not be Moved
John Henry
Dona Got a Ramblin' Mind
Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad
Lights in Valley
Georgia Buck
Molly Put the Kettle On
Ladies on the Steamboat
Molly Put the Kettle On
I've Got Oil in my Vessel
Careless Love

More photos below:

Roscoe Holcomb at the Woodstock Film Festival

We were very pleased to play with John Cohen on Saturday following the screening of his new film, "Roscoe Holcomb: From Daisy Kentucky" at the 2010 Woodstock Film Festival. We were even more pleased that the film took the award for best short documentary at the festival!

Look out for John & The Dust Busters playing in support of the film again on Nov. 13th at the 34th Annual Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival at the American Museum of Natural History.


[Roscoe Holcomb with John Cohen, 1964]

Reviewed in Sing Out!

The Dust Busters self titled first album has just been reviewed in the Summer 2010 issue of Sing Out! magazine.  The very positive review says that we "embrace happy recklessness."  The reviewer goes on to say that, "I wish they could have put this record out on 78rpm; I'd love to play it on my grandmother's Victrola.  Authentically good stuff!"

We would like to start issuing 78rpm singles.  Sounds expensive.  Who knows, we'll work on it... 

Dock Boggs Festival

The Dust Busters are on our way to Norton, Virginia today, once home of legendary banjo player Dock Boggs and current home of the Dock Boggs Festival.  We will be playing there on Saturday Sept. 11th at 3pm.  At 5pm our friends The Tillers will also play.  Gonna be a great festival, check it out!