Pocahontas Opera House Hosts The Onlies Friday Oct 25th
“The Onlies are an old-time string band, a group of old friends.”
That’s Riley Calcagno, one of a quartet of musicians that make up the group, the Onlies. They’ll take to the Opera House stage this Friday at 7pm.
“The band was started in Seattle, Washington, so pretty far from where Appalachian music comes from, started by three friends, [and] I’m one of them,” said Calcagno. “We were seven years old when we started the band, playing fiddle music busking at festivals in the Seattle area. And since then we’ve added a fourth member from Lexington, Virginia names Vivian Leva and we’ve been playing ever since.”
Riley explains how Vivian came to join the group.
“We met Viv at a festival out in the Pacific Northwest called Voiceworks which is associated with the festival called American Fiddle Tunes,” he said. “Her dad’s a fiddle player named James Leva and her mom’s an amazing singer named Carol Elizabeth Jones. We were fans of their music and then we got to meet Viv, who’s our age, and we were really excited to meet her because we were all young people playing this old music and she was also doing that.”
He says one thing lead to another and the trio became a quartet. Riley and Viv have played at the Pocahontas Opera House – as the Viv and Riley duo around two years ago. This time around their joined by fellow band members Sami Braman and Leo Shannon. The Opera House show is one of only two locations for this very short tour, with a second show in Charlottesville on Oct 26th.
“Viv and I tour many, many dates a year, the Onlies, we all have other projects,” said Calcagno. “Sami plays with someone named Willie Watson, Leo is the collections manager at the Appalshop Archive in Whitesburg, Kentucky, and we all also are the Artistic Directors of the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes where we met out in Port Townsend, Washington.”
Riley says they’re excited to be coming back to Pocahontas County.
“For us, it’s special to be in Pocahontas County, all of us love music that comes from that part of the world,” said Riley. “The Hammons family and more; it feels very poetic and special to get to visit y’all’s county and get to play this music. I hope people will come out cause I think it will be fun evening, it’ll be a party. We like to play fast and play the old tunes and we’ll try to do ‘em justice.”
You can hear the Onlies unique take on old-time string music at the Pocahontas Opera House, Friday, October 25th at 7pm. Tickets are $10.00 and are available in advance from the 4th Avenue Gallery in Marlinton, and online at pocahontasoperahouse.org. They will also be available at the door the night of the concert.
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