The Wheelhouse Presents: Yonder + Friends
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About the event
Join us for an intimate evening of live music in The Wheelhouse with Yonder + Friends!
LaNelle Davis, Billy Willis, and special guest Al McCanless have a special performance prepared just for you.
Billy Willis and LaNelle Davis took different but parallel musical paths before coming together as Yonder in 2022, each shaped by decades of performance and tradition.
Billy picked up his grandfather’s guitar at age 17 and by 1972 was already performing regularly in Raleigh’s coffee houses and bars. While a student at NC State a collaboration with banjo player Stan Brown led to the bluegrass band, The Wahoo Review, which recorded and played festivals along the East Coast. Ever a student of musical genres and styles, his repertoire expanded from bluegrass to include rock, blues and traditional music along with extensive experience with session and studio work
LaNelle’s journey started in traditional dance, touring extensively with The Apple Chill Cloggers and The Cane Creek Cloggers. In the 1980s she began calling square dances in the Chapel Hill area and throughout North Carolina. In 1988, picking up the bass shifted her focus to playing old time music, leading to years of performing and recording with numerous groups like The Tar Heel HotShots, Big Medicine, The Shelbys, and Chatham County bluegrass legend, Tommy Edwards.
Together, they bring a deep well of experience to Yonder, blending roots traditions with a shared musical sensibility.
Fiddlin’ Al McCanless has over 50 years of performing experience. Starting on harmonica and guitar at Boyden High School in Salisbury, N.C., Al took up fiddle as a sophomore at the UNC-CH School of Pharmacy.
He was a founding member of legendary New Deal String Band and was a member of The Bluegrass Experience off and on for 50 years.
Al spent years learning Irish-Celtic fiddle tunes and has made two recordings with his group Celtic Jam.
He appeared on the first Red Clay Rambler Folkways recording, “The Red Clay Ramblers with Fiddlin’ Al McCanless.”
He now plays fiddle with Hindsight Bluegrass, The Boys of the Haw, and several other groups.
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