Sunday, February 23, 2020 – 2:30 PM
Cabaret Room, Triad Stage232 South Elm Street
Greensboro, NC
Featuring:
Zoo City Pickers
Zoo City Pickers is based in Asheboro, right in the middle of North Carolina. We are: Barbara Bartos on banjo, Bernie Bartos on upright bass, Terry Lawrence on guitar and mandolin, and Perry Coble on harmonica. We all sing and especially love to blend our voices in harmony.
The past year has been especially busy, with ZCP appearing several times at the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, Tunes@Noon in LeBauer Park, the Fall Festival at Ingram’s Strawberry Farm, a special community event at The Table in Asheboro, and capping it all off at Greensboro’s Festival of Lights in December. We were especially tickled to be part of the Pickin’ at the MARC Fiddlers convention in November, where we placed fifth for bluegrass bands, what a fun evening with great people!
Barbara and Bernie formed Zoo City Pickers in 2017, with the current members playing together since the start of 2019. Some background on all of us:
Bernie and Barbara Bartos are originally from Massachusetts and New York, respectively. Yes, they are d—— Yankees but don’t hold that against them! Barbara’s family is from Wilkes County, so they’ve always had one foot in the south. And as the saying goes, they got here as soon as they could. That journey took place about eight years ago when they moved to South Carolina. A couple of years later, Barbara fell in love with the sound of the banjo and started lessons with Jim Fraley of A Deeper Shade of Blue. You all know Jim, what a wonderful picker and proud to call him friend. A couple of years after that, Bernie and Barbara relocated to central North Carolina to be closer to the music they loved, where they could hear it and play it often. During that time, Bernie had mentioned to a friend that he’d always wanted to learn to play bass, and the next thing you know, that same friend gifted him with a bass! She had also been given that bass, never played it, and knew it would finally be in it’s forever home. And so, it was.
Terry Lawrence is originally from Tampa, Florida, and has lived in North Carolina for 33 years. He and his wife, Bev, have lived on their farm for 31 of those years. His early music training was in playing trumpet in the school orchestra, marching and jazz band. Right around the time he was finishing high school, Terry started playing bass guitar, then acoustic guitar. From Terry: “I’ve always had a liking for organically sounding acoustic music which is what took me through folk, pop, country and now Bluegrass. I enjoy playing guitar and occasionally mandolin with our group, The Zoo City Pickers and have been with the band for close to a year. I look forward to this new year and the opportunity to play together.” Terry also plays trumpet in the Randolph Jazz Band, bass and guitar in First Presbyterian Church Worship band “Psalm 150”, and sings tenor at the traditional service. The Randolph Jazz band plays at several local venues and has appeared at the Sunset Theatre in Asheboro.
Robert Perry “PBob” Coble grew up in the Grantville community 8 miles east of Asheboro NC. His entire family was musical: Grandpa Wesley Spivey (maternal grandfather) played fiddle, Dad played guitar and Mom played piano and organ. His older brother Roy and youngest brother Warren both play piano and organ, while his younger brother Sydney plays guitar. Roy and Sydney were music ministers, leading large choirs and writing/publishing many original Southern Gospel songs. PBob took piano lessons for a couple of years while very young, but never developed either skill or interest in the instrument. He began playing rhythm guitar in his teen years, playing off and on throughout life. In 2001 at 53 years of age, his wife Jabet suggested learning to play harmonica. He began teaching himself, with lots of help with music theory from Roy via many long-distance late-night telephone calls. He became a regular member of two large harmonica clubs in the Tidewater VA area. He and Jabet moved from Williamsburg, VA to Grantville NC in 2005 (after living out of NC for 40 years).
PBob (on harmonica), Roy (on keyboard) and cousin Edward Hammer (on upright bass) began playing gospel music in retirement communities and churches as The Up The Creek Boys, so called because PBob and Roy grew up literally “up the creek” (along Richland Creek) on adjoining farms with the Hammer family, . He and Edward also actively support the Good Times Jam on Thursday evenings at the Randolph Arts Guild (RAG); this jam was created over 45 years ago by Edward’s uncle Clinton Brown, the original fiddler in the local bluegrass group The Good Times Band. PBob also hosted a harmonica club at RAG for several years. In 2017, he retired and was asked to join the Zoo City Pickers. He has been playing “pneumatic fiddle” steadily with them ever since. He is currently learning to play dobro. His primary goal is to have lots of fun playing music with and for other people.
