The Contrarians Ensemble

The Contrarian Ensemble: A Short History

 

Our repertoire is wide and varied with music by Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, Django Reinhardt, English and French tunes from the 1300’s-on, jazz standards, originals by the group, John Hartford, Jerry Douglas, Ron McCoury and more.

 

The Contrarian Ensemble began in 1996 when Mark and Sally Wingate moved to Nashville Tennessee from Winston-Salem North Carolina. They had been playing Bluegrass, contradance and English country music for gatherings.

 

With Mark on fiddle and Sally a championship Bluegrass banjo player on guitar they recruited Accordionist Bruce Baxter, John Hedgecoth on the mandolin, Noa Soloman playing recorders and penny whistle and Chris Moore on the octave mandolin. They recorded and released a CD of music recorded live at the Tennessee State Museum.

 

They continued to play contradances, English country dances, The Shakespeare Festival, The Frist Art Museum, Weddings, Funerals and various other celebrations of dance and music in Middle Tennessee.

 

Mark and Sally eventually moved back to North Carolina and their places were filled by Sven Thomsen on fiddle, Larry Jeffries followed by Mike Teeney on guitar and accordionist Tim Murphy.

 

After a COVID break in March 2020 the group reformed with John on Mandolin (and sometimes banjo) Svend playing fiddle, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Tom Patten, and Harry Robinson on Dobro. 

 

Our musical aim is to “Banish Misfortune!”