Barnstormers and Rock Candy Cloggers

On Saturday the 18^th, the Barnstormers and Rock Candy Cloggers performed together at the Appalachian Festival located in Frostburg, MD. The members of the Barnstormers were Tom Jolin, Slim Harrison, Joe Herman and Sam Herman. The members of Rock Candy Cloggers are Rock Howland and Candy Ranlet. Their performance was a mixture of old bluegrass and folk music songs, along with some demonstrations of clogging along with certain songs. The audience was very intrigued by the song selections and the clogging being performed by the two groups. Rock and Candy not only demonstrated their clogging abilities but also performed alongside of the Barnstormers. Rock played the fiddle, while Candy played the bass.

            The selection of instruments varied between the performers of the Barnstormers. Some of the instruments played were the fiddle, the banjo, the acoustic guitar, the harmonica, and other instruments that you would imagine being used within a bluegrass/ folk music group. These kinds of instruments had their own interesting sounds that would surely entice people to stop and listen to what music they were playing, if even only for a brief minute. The beat of the music being performed by these groups were very upbeat and something you would expect to hear people line dancing too. When Rock and Candy were performing, the energy radiated off of them. Which as a result probably persuaded some members of the audience to look into the art of clogging.

During the performance Rock and Candy listed some of the places where they have performed before. Candy had stated that at one performance it was “hot enough that it felt like her shoes were melting”. They have also been asked to perform at birthday parties and even one time on top of a hay wagon with hay still on it.  A member of the Barnstormers stated that “they have been doing this for almost 50 years.” To be able to do this kind of dance for that amount of time is very impressive. You can tell during their routines that Rock and Candy enjoy clogging very much and are very diligent about continuing to perform. Many of the audience members would clap along with the different beats of each song, almost like they were about to get up and dance themselves. One audience member Audrey A. stated that, “Even though this is not something I would normally attend, I am very happy I decided to attend this show because it was a new cultural experience for me.”

Even though many of the audience members were older, a couple of families brought small children to this show. This allows for the appreciation of bluegrass and folk music to live on through the years. Especially since those types of music are not something many people today choose to listen to in their daily lives. Events like the Appalachian Festival allow for many different types of people to experience new cultural things.

Pictured above is Rock Howland and Candy Ranlet performing a clogging routine. While Sam Herman, Joe Herman, Slim Harrison, and Tom Jolin perform a folk song.