Musicians and Schedule
At the 2025 New Deal Festival, we are excited to feature the best local West Virginia folk, old-time, and country bands on our stage throughout the day. We will also be having the Rich Family Memorial Old-Time Fiddle Contest, showcasing fiddlers from throughout the state and beyond!
11:00 AM – 11:45 PM: Born Old
Born Old is Paul Gartner (banjo, guitar & vocals) and Doug Van Gundy (fiddle, guitar, mandolin & vocals). They perform regularly throughout West Virginia and surrounding states and have been featured at many regional music festivals including the Appalachian String Band Festival (Clifftop), the Vandalia Gathering, the Nelsonville Music Festival and many others. Paul and Doug have also taught at many music camps, including the Augusta Heritage and Allegheny Echoes workshops.
The duo plays traditional old-time music from West Virginia, as well as early country classics from the great artists of the 78 rpm era, including The Carter Family, Charlie Poole, Uncle Dave Macon, and others. Gartner and Van Gundy have been making music together for 28 years, giving performances that are traditional and informative without sacrificing a very high energy, raucous, fun factor.
12:00 PM – 12:45 PM: Appalachian Soul Man Aristotle Jones
Appalachian Soul Man, Aristotle Jones, has become a fan favorite in the Central Appalachia, Mid Atlantic Region and beyond. Influenced by rural soundscapes and the music of West Virginia natives and Rock n Roll Hall of Fame Legends Johnnie Johnson l Legend Bill Withers, Aristotle Jones combines the folksy elements of growing up in Appalachia, with the soulful storytelling, and funky pocket of Black American Music.
Coining the sound “Appalachian Soul”… Jones, carries on the tradition of the making soulful, high energy folk music that was found in juke joints along a network of Black boom towns, venues and and churches throughout the American South, and Appalachian Region in the 20th Century. Jones and his ensemble utilize both traditional and contemporary sonics to create a “Modern Throwback” sound that pushes that narrative of Appalachian Soul music forward into the 21st Century.
1:00 PM – 3:45 PM: The Rich Family Memorial Old-Time Fiddle Contest
Arthurdale Heritage is thrilled to host the first Rich Family Memorial Old-Time Fiddle Contest during our New Deal Festival in 2025. This contest is a celebration of Arthurdale’s history of traditional music-making with the goal of encouraging and sustaining traditional fiddling styles in North Central West Virginia. Learn more about Arthurdale’s traditional music-making history here.
3:45 PM – 4:30 PM: Open Jam in Stage Area
Anybody is welcome to get their instruments out and jam in the courtyard space or on the Center Hall porch until the scheduled musical acts resume at 4:30pm!
4:30 PM – 5:15 PM: Big Fiddle
An accidental band formed after countless nights spent picking tunes and sipping moonshine, Big Fiddle is equal parts hillbilly dance band, folk singer-songwriter, and genre-hopping Americana. The very vocal trio consists of Niko Kreider on cello, Alex Heflin on tenor guitar, and John Posey on mandolin/mandola.
Avid fans of traditional string band music may notice a less than traditional instrumentation, but all their pickers have spent the better part of the last decade immersed in the roots music scene around Morgantown, WV. With all those hours of picking and singing, audiences have come to expect some high energy acoustic music with quite a few belly laughs…and maybe a tear or two for good measure.
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM: The Annie Neeley Band
Annie Neeley writes songs on the folkier side of country. Her 2010 Nashville debut, Cold Heart Blues, features the type of songwriting that can coax tears from stone. While that album was more of a bluegrass affair, on her 2021 release, Big Old Moon, Neeley pulls out all of the roots/folk/blues/Americana stops, to great effect. With a voice that is both sweet and powerful, Annie Neeley seriously delivers.
Annie has recently recorded a new EP with producer Chance McCoy, the “triptych of love songs,” which will be released in 2025. She continues to collaborate and harmonize with West Virginia musicians Sarah Rudy of Hello June and Andrew Adkins & 1863. You can find her performing all over West Virginia and beyond with her band featuring: Ammed Solomon (Mountain Stage Band) on drums, Randy Gilkey (The M.F.B./The Boatmen/John Inghram Band) on keys, Travis Egnor (The Horse Traders) on guitar, Alasha Al Qudwah (QIET/Minor Swing) on fiddle, Jeremy Batten (William Matheny) on keys and guitar and her husband, songwriting partner and musical co-conspirator, Dave Kirkpatrick (Good Americans/D Striker) on bass.