John Reynolds – Violin, Mandolin and Vocals
John’s first memory of music was singing ‘Davy Crockett’ with his mother, a Julliard graduate in piano. He began to play trombone in 5th grade, winning the John Phillip Sousa award as a senior in high school, then put that away in favor the guitar, and finally violin and mandolin. Sitting in with bands in the early 1970’s on fiddle and mandolin, taking a few lessons from a retired nun, Reynolds joined his first band in 1975, Gopher Broke, based in the Warren Ohio area. In 1977 he moved to Kent to attend music school, joined the band I Am A Tattoo, playing violin, mandolin, tenor banjo and trombone. John also worked with his good friend Jack DiAlesandro playing Blues and Ragtime. Reynolds studied ethnomusicology at Kent State, ran
the Kent State Folk Festival and began working the Folk Festival Circuit, including the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife, in 1985 taking a job
as the Director of Folklife Center of International House in Philadelphia, and in 1987 as Cultural Arts Director for the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The next ten years saw a lot of Reynolds’ musical development tied to being a professional arts administrator, festival director, audio and
recording engineer, meeting and working with many artists. Some favorites were Howard Armstrong, Jethro Burns, Johnny Gimble, Stephan
Grappelli, Mick Moloney, and the Sons of San Joaquin. Other influences are jazz masters FatsWaller, Louis Armstong, Joe Venuti, and Stuff Smith.
These days John performs with The Crooked River Stompers, RIO Neon, Howard Armstrong Legacy, and has been known to perform mandolin
concertos with an orchestra, the latest will be in the fall of 2024 with the Hiram Chamber Orchestra.

Jack DiAlesandro – Guitar, Piano, Banjo, Mandolin, Harmonica and
Vocals Jack DiAlesandro plays guitar, piano, banjo, mandolin and harmonica and has performed throughout the United States as a solo
performer as well as an accompanist to many well known traditional artists such as Johnny Gimble, Jethro Burns, Kenny Baker and Josh Graves.
Along the way in DiAlesandro’s musical career he has played the Kent Stage, First Night Akron (Solo and with the Rhythm Bottom Bushwhackers),
the Kent State Festival just to name a few. For ten years Jack had performed at the Cleveland Zoo as part of the Austrialian Exhibit. Since
1972 he has been actively performing at northeast Ohio bars, restaurants, coffee houses, bookstores and Arts and Crafts fairs. Besides keeping up a
busy performing schedule, DiAlesandro has long been a much sought after teacher of the complex fingerpicked Ragtime-Guitar styles of Reverend
Gary Davis and Blind Blake. Jack has released three recordings as a soloist and a number of others with various bands he’s worked with over
the years.

The two artist have been playing together for nearly 50 years as Ragged and Ridiculous, the Johnny Boys (Irish) and the Crooked River Stompers,
the latest iteration that has guest artists at times. Also there has been a recent collaboration with violinist and arranger Tim Staron performing
classic ragtime with Violin, Villa, and Cello. Jack and John will reprise this ensemble a few times this year and with the full Hiram Chamber Orchestra
late fall.