Artist description A loose-knit family band hailing from Michigan's Upper Peninsula. We play for family gatherings and hunting camp entertainment a few times a year and have never practiced. If you're looking for polished, over-produced music, you ain't gonna find it here. We're just having a hell of a good time playing the music we've always played and can never get quite right. Oh well. We've been told that these live recordings have the raw feel of an old Folkways record. Bluegrass in Northern Michigan? Let's just say the grass still grows when it's 30 below.

Music Style old-time, folk, country, bluegrass

Musical Influences Bill LaVallie Sr.

Similar Artists Bernier's Camp Band (Listen.com says we sound like Flatt and Scruggs, the Dillards, and Bill Monroe)

Artist History Old-time music has been played by the LaVallie clan as long as we can remember. Our inspiration is Bill LaVallie Sr. (mp3.com/billlavalliesr), Terry's father, a great singer, songwriter, and all around wonderful man. Bill picked up many of these songs as he performed with the WLS Barn Dance Troupe during the Depression. He's the one we learned them from, and he was our bandleader till he passed away in 1996. KLM is the name of our hunting camp, a great getaway near Cornell, MI on the banks of the Escanaba River. The tunes on the "Rags to Breakdowns" CD were recorded live in John's basement on a few freezing afternoons, with the encouragement of some of his fine homebrews. The songs on the CD "A Night at the Camp" were recorded one night during deer season, November 2000, with similar encouragement.

Group Members Various family members play each time. On these recordings, the players are: Terry LaVallie (Iron Mountain, MI): bandleader, fiddle, banjo and mandolin.Brad LaVallie (Terry's son, Green Bay, WI) guitar and mandolin.Chad LaVallie (Terry's son, Chicago,IL) guitar.Jeff Krebs (Terry's nephew, San Francisco, CA) guitar and tenor banjo.John Beck (Jeff's brother-in-law, Escanaba, MI) tenor banjo, 5-string banjo and accordian. With the amazing Jordan Beck (John's son) on train whistle.

Albums Rags to Breakdowns: 14 rough-sawn tunes for the price of a couple of pasties! On sale now for only $7.99! You won't find a better deal this side of Cornell. Due to recent copyright complications, our popular version of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" is now only available on the CD. New CD also available now, "A Night at the Camp".

Press Reviews Listen.com (noted as a "Listen Pick"): Nearly perfect old-time Country-Folk and Bluegrass performed by a bunch of guys who get together and play whenever they are camping. Like the true Bluegrass groups of yesteryear, this band simply improvises on minimal chord jams as well as old traditional standards that fall under public domain. What's interesting in these live recordings is that you can actually hear the songs come together at a certain point in their beginnings. A lone fiddle will come in as someone yells for a chord change, and then acoustic flatpicking and sporadic banjo plucks are layered on top, and soon enough a song takes form and begins to fly with Appalachian-influenced vocal harmonies fueling the propulsion. Most songs like these were played on hillbilly porches and just disappeared into the air.

Additional Info Bookmark as we have many more free tunes on the way! Thanks to all of you who have listened (over 38,000!), bought cds, signed our guestbook and emailed us. Be sure to check out KLM Camp Band members John (mp3.com/johndbeck) and Jeff (mp3.com/jeffkrebs and mp3.com/iamtrad) mp3.com sites, as well as Bill LaVallie Sr.'s (mp3.com/billlavalliesr). You betcha!

Location Escanaba, MI - USA

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