Album Notes

"Versatile, funny, melodic, and excruciatingly rhythmic. When they're cooking, you can't stop dancing. It's how I want to die."
-- Reta Lockert

The Hotpoint Stringband is first and foremost a dance band, characterized by their own brand of sizzlingly hot contradance tunes, high-energy squares, and string swing.

Playing an eclectic mix of high-energy original and traditional old-time and Celtic fiddle tunes, Hotpoint is known for their ability to maintain a deep groove at any tempo. The core of the band is the driving fiddle and clawhammer banjo of Mark and Hilarie Burhans, who have been playing music together for 28 years. Add to this the solid piano of Marlene Shostak and incomparable percussion (doumbek, djembe, kanjira, bones, shakers -- you name it!) of Mark Hellenberg, firmly grounded by Joe Crum on bass and didgeridoo, and you have a band whose legendary energy has made them a favorite at contradance weekends across the country. Some of these include:

Northern CA Dance Awakening • Cincinnati Pigtown Fling • LEAF (Lake Eden Arts Festival) • River Rendezvous • Pittsburgh Fall Dance Weekend • Charlotte, NC Gypsy Meltdown • Montana Bear Hug • American Fall Dance Weekend at Buffalo Gap • Nashville's Music City Masquerade • Michigan Looking Glass Weekend • Missouri Solefest • and many more

The June '00 edition of Dirty Linen had this to say about Hotpoint's 2000 release Steppin' on Cords:

If you start in the centre of Ohio and drive south, past the outlet malls and insurance companies, after a couple of hours you'll end up in a vibrant pocket of culture and musical talent known as Athens, Ohio. This hotspot is the home of Hotpoint, a six-piece contradance band who sure know the importance of a good rhythmic groove. Steppin' on Cords (named after the dance that acoustic bands do when they play on stage with amplification) is their first CD release. But Hotpoint is not like those contradance bands where all of the instruments play the melody line together (in the old ceili band style). Rather, the instruments come and go more thoughtfully, sometimes even sporadically - the banjo will start, then bass will join, followed by a percussive backdrop, then the fiddle might wander through chased by the piano in mid-stride. This isn't "just" git-up-and-dance music, this is dandy sit-down-and-listen music as well.

Instrumentally, Hotpoint offers frailing banjo, fiddle, guitar, piano, bass, didgeridoo, and various percussive items (such as the doumbek, djembe, bodhrán, kanjira, and bones). The 12 tracks of the CD are mostly sets of a mixture of original and contemporary material. This includes contradance favorites like "St. Anne's Reel," "Tam Lin," and "Gaspe Reel," as well as some lovely waltzes. The band's material also shows a sense of humor, with the occasional snippet of an unlikely song (such as "Secret Agent Man") in the midst of a set, or a tune learned from a Game Boy. You don't have to be a dancer to like this band, but I'd guess there are few who will listen to them without taking to the floor for a turn or two.

Ivan Emke