Author: Susan Sorensen

The only reminder of a once-thriving Orange County town is a sign: Scuffletown Road. And while the place may be gone, it’s certainly not forgotten, thanks to John Whitlow, Marc Carraway and Vaughan Mairs, the guys who make up Scuffletown, a high-energy acoustic trio.

“During the Depression, Scuffletown was a lively, blue collar place that eventually fell off the map,” explained Whitlow, adding that whenever he drove past the road sign in Barboursville, he thought, “That would be a pretty cool name for a band.” In the mid-’90s, Whitlow, who plays harmonica, flute and accordion, met Carraway, a singer and guitarist, and that thought became a reality. Several years later, standup bass player Mairs joined the pair.

The threesome has brought its take on roots, jazz, world, bluegrass and original music to venues throughout the Mid-Atlantic. In recent years, however, Scuffletown’s stuck closer to home, which is fine with Whitlow, who doesn’t miss the traveling and said nothing beats being a community musician because there’s so much joy “in a good, local fan base that you have a relationship with.”

“One of the great things about Scuffletown, is that we are all really different in terms of what we bring in musical ability and background,” said Carraway when asked why the band has endured for nearly two decades. “Vaughan has such a great wealth of traditional and classic swing tunes, and John brings a variety of instruments and styles like blues and zydeco, so we never get stuck in one musical style.”

Plus, “we thoroughly enjoy what we do,” Mairs said. “There’s a Scufflezone that we fall into, and I think that’s infectious to our audience. We play fun songs.”

On March 6, those songs will hold extra meaning for the band when it performs them at the fourth annual Dance for Life, a fundraiser for the Marty Whitlow Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. The event, which also features Terri Allard and The Gladstones, was started after Whitlow’s wife, an Albemarle County kindergarten teacher for more than 30 years, was diagnosed with advanced stage ovarian cancer.

Instead of giving up, Marty decided to give back and turn a negative into a positive by raising money for and spreading awareness about ovarian cancer, known as a silent killer of women because only 19 percent of cases are caught before the cancer spreads beyond the ovary. During her treatment at UVA, Marty became close to her physician, Dr. Amir Jazaeri, and when she asked him what she could do to help, he told her he needed money to support his research.

After a series of small fundraisers, the Whitlows decided to put together a major musical event, and, with plenty of help from both their musician and non-musician friends, Dance for Life was born.

“Within the first three years, Marty had raised $100,000, which is a testament to the love for her as much as for her cause,” a visibly moved Whitlow said of his wife, who passed away last fall. “She really became the face of ovarian cancer in Charlottesville, and her doctor was so inspired by her spirit that he named a research project The Marty Project.”

Friday’s show will be difficult, he said, because it’s the first time Marty won’t be there. “This is a special one,” Whitlow said.

After his wife got sick, “music was about the only thing that felt normal to me,” he added. “Still does. Music was a space that I could get lost in. I could move out of the cancer zone.”

Scuffletown’s fourth CD, a mixture of original songs and “great tunes from other songwriters we love,” will be out later this spring, and “we’re as busy as we’ve ever been,” Whitlow said. This, despite the fact that local musicians sometimes struggle “because they’re competing with national acts,” he said. “There are a lot of great musicians in Charlottesville whose playing options are sometimes limited because listening and dance venues are difficult to find. But on the flip side, wineries and breweries have provided a lot of opportunities for acoustic musicians.”

The best opportunity by far, though, is performing four or five times a month with his friends, Carraway and Mairs. “We look at each other all the time and say this is just too much fun; we can’t believe we get paid to do it,” he said. “And we get free beer.”

Dance for Life featuring Scuffletown livens up the Holiday Inn University Area on March 6.

Craig Jennings didn’t know Hannah Graham. But last fall, “after she disappeared under the eyes of cameras on the Downtown Mall, I couldn’t stop thinking about what her family was going through,” said Jennings, the choral director at Burley Middle School. That feeling grew stronger as days turned into weeks, and Jennings watched his students struggle to articulate their feelings of fear and confusion while they tried to understand what had happened. As an adult and a teacher, Jennings said he sometimes felt helpless because he couldn’t answer the kids’ questions about how and why this tragedy occurred in Charlottesville.

The more he thought about it, the more Jennings realized he needed to do something. So last fall he reached out to area choir directors and proposed an all-women concert where each ensemble performs a piece or two of its own, and everyone joins together at show’s end to sing the final number. Jennings told his colleagues he envisioned an evening of “music, encouragement, inspiration, belonging and empowerment.”

On Saturday, January 17, hundreds of female singers from Albemarle County, Charlottesville and the University of Virginia will gather at Monticello High School for Winter Songs, “a concert of sisterhood, song and healing,” the profits from which will benefit the Shelter for Help in Emergency (SHE).

In addition to “raising an enormous amount of money for SHE,” Jennings said he hopes the event, which will begin at 2pm when singers gather to socialize and rehearse ahead of the 5pm concert, will be “one of those oh-my-gosh days that will go in everyone’s lifetime scrapbooks.”

Jennifer Morris, Albemarle High School’s choral director, is bringing two ensembles—No Fella A Cappella and Take Note! —to MHS on Saturday. She said she’s looking forward to the day because “all-female ensembles can be the most powerful of groups. Treble music has such a different aesthetic; there is a strong emotional connection between the girls that is unique.”

Thirteen-year-old Sarah Garretson agrees. A member of the girls-only Burley Bearettes since sixth grade, Garretson has come to rely on “the huge sense of friendship and trust in the group. We know we can be ourselves and that we’ll be supported, no matter who we are.” She said the Bearettes are excited about singing in the show, “even though we’re coming together because of something sad.” But she quickly added that “music can help people feel better,” and the concert is a good way to emphasize girl power.

Cartie Lominack, executive director of SHE, said the age group that is participating in the event is an important one to reach. “Working with Craig opens up the opportunity to inform young women about what healthy relationships look like, and the signs to pay attention to if one is feeling unsafe,” she said.

Lominack added that a concert is also a good way to remind the community about the issue of domestic violence and the services offered by SHE, which include a 24-hour hotline, emergency shelter, counseling, legal advocacy and court accompaniment, and programs for children and teens. To date, Winter Songs has raised more than $500 for SHE through a capital campaign, and while admission to Saturday’s concert is free, donations will be accepted at the door.

When Jennings approached KaeRenae Mitchell, director of the Virginia Women’s Chorus, about participating in Winter Songs, she immediately said yes because “music can be a powerful healer when it embraces a person’s spirit or soul or emotional body, as well as the intellect. That potential, combined with the voices of young women, can move and unify people, and bringing the choruses together from different schools will, in and of itself, create and foster community.”

Mitchell suggested the show’s name when she learned that Jennings was working on an arrangement of the Ingrid Michaelson/Sara Bareilles duet “Winter Song,” which the entire group will sing to conclude Saturday’s show. “There are several lines from the Bareilles/Michaelson song that convey strong imagery of using our voices to inspire and embolden,” she said. “My voice, a beacon in the night/my words will be your light,” for example, and “I’ll be your harvester of light and send it out tonight.”

Despite the serious and somber genesis of the Winter Songs concert, Jennings emphasized the informality and joyfulness of the evening, comparing it to TV’s “The Sing-Off” because as each ensemble takes the stage to perform, there won’t be anyone backstage; everybody will be out front, watching and cheering. “I want the audience to laugh and cry,” he said. “We often can’t answer how or why things happen, but maybe a day for sharing art and community, a day that’s about the commonalty of music, will help us cope.”

On an 80-degree October afternoon, it was beginning to sound a lot like Christmas at the Charlottesville Senior Center. “Angels We Have Heard on High” flowed into “O Come All Ye Faithful,” followed by “Jingle Bells” and “Go Tell it on the Mountain,” as the Second Wind Band rehearsed for its December 7 holiday concert.

Greg Vaughn, the band’s conductor, is decades younger than many of his musicians, but that didn’t stop him from scolding his elders: “You guys played this much better last week,” he said. “Today we’re all over the place. Let’s see if we can get to measure 18, getting it right.”

Eventually, the band does just that. “Next week we’ll continue to try to clean some of these things up,” a much happier Vaughn announced as another two-hour Tuesday practice session drew to a close. “We only have a few more rehearsals,” he added, “so try not to miss any of them.”

As 60-, 70-, 80- and even 90-some-year-old musicians cleaned and put away their clarinets, trumpets, trombones, flutes and saxophones, Liz Allan, a clarinetist who’s been with the Second Wind Band almost since its inception, explained that some of the folks in the room also play in a smaller swing band called The Flashbacks. And for those interested in learning an instrument—or returning to one they played many years ago—there’s the First Wind Band. All three bands will perform at Sunday’s 3pm concert at the Senior Center.

“The band experience here is a very special one,” said Allan. “It has allowed the members to share their love of music and to participate in the fun of performing together.” The group is one of only two Virginia-based bands that are part of New Horizons Music, a project developed by the Eastman School of Music’s Dr. Roy Ernst to promote lifelong learning through music.

Warren Shaw began playing the trumpet at age 10, and he continued until he graduated from college, which is when he put his horn away—for 45 years. But after he retired, he “had more time,” and picked up the instrument again. “I’m never gonna be as good as I used to be,” he said with a smile. “But I don’t have to be.”

Frank Boone nodded in agreement. “My trombone sat in the case for 43 years,” he said. Boone pulled it out again last summer and “found out that I could still make it work like it used to. I started [playing] with the First Wind Band, which led to Second Wind, which led to The Flashbacks.”

Howard Lowenstein said he’s a better saxophone player now then when he was younger “because I practice a lot more. An hour-plus every day.”

“It’s a matter of trying to get them to remember what they knew when they were younger,” said Vaughn. “Plus they want to be here, and attitude makes a big difference; they want to learn and have fun and play good music.”

While a positive attitude and a willingness to practice come easily to band members, there are other challenges: “These are wind instruments,” one musician explained, “and at our age, our wind is not as good as it was in college.” Nor is their eyesight, they admit. And one of the biggest differences between the adolescents Vaughn has conducted and members of the Second Wind Band is that “the middle school kids wouldn’t listen, and these guys can’t hear me,” he said with a laugh.

Jokes aside, Paul Richards, a trumpet player and composer who will conduct a march on Sunday that he wrote for the Second Wind’s 20th anniversary, said the band is about more than music. “It’s social; you get to meet so many people, which is satisfying,” he said. “And when you play with different people they know different things, and everyone’s willing to share and learn from each other.”