Dana, the Stantons, and long-time musical buddies Dave Goldman and Joe Cleveland celebrate the rootsy music of a bygone American era

When they aren't presenting Dana's originals, Dana "Short Order" Cooke and Jeff and Judy Stanton can be found playing bluegrass, old-time, and classic country music. With Joe Cleveland and Dave Goldman, they have formed McWilliams Hardware, which debuted recently at Bill Knowlton's Bluegrass Ramble Picnic. They offer classic versions of many of their favorite trad/Americana tunes, ranging from Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs to the likes of Hazel Dickens and Gillian Welch. (And they're eager to appear at a venue near you to do the same!)

To get a sample of what they're up to, here are some videos from that recent Ramble Picnic appearance:

• "Walls of Time" (the Peter Rowan/Bill Monroe standard)
• "A Few Old Memories" (to celebrate what would have been the 100th birthday of Hazel Dickens)

More about the band . . .

Dana "Short Order" Cooke has been a prominent contemporary-folk singer/songwriter in Central New York since the mid-1990s. But in the early 2000s he found himself lured toward bluegrass music. (The one who lured was his then-playing partner, Joe Cleveland. See below.) Within a few years Cooke was given a mandolin (by Joe Cleveland; see below) and the transformation was well under way. His shift in tastes was shared by the gang of monthly jammers to which he belonged -- four of whom appear below. McWilliams Hardware was a natural outgrowth of these lurings.

Judy Stanton got her first violin and her first Beatles album at the age of seven, which set the course for her career as a freelance violinist/would-be rock star. Along the way she taught violin, composed music for school orchestras, wrote songs, performed improv comedy, and married Jeff. From klezmer to classical, from bluegrass to Broadway, Judy plays it all! (But not simultaneously.)

Jeff Stanton's bass fiddle playing is inspired by early string-band players like Amos Garren and Bill Wesbrooks. His gateway to bluegrass was the album/group Old and In the Way (which, incidentally, is the main nickname his friends use for him now). While keeping the beat, he can also tell three "light bulb" jokes about bass players.

Joe Cleveland proclaims himself a sleeper agent who has sworn fealty to the banjo's subversive agenda of love, liberation, and world domination. He first experienced the transcendent power of clawhammer banjo at a folk festival in Burlington, Vermont, when he was transfixed by the ringing bells and echoing clucks of Frank Lee (as part of the old-time string band, the Freight Hoppers). Joe has been in its service ever since, endeavoring to save your soul and make you like the banjo, too. (See here a previous iteration of McWilliams Hardware, featuring Joe and Dana.)

Dave Goldman started playing guitar when he was 12 years old, borrowing the hand-made, F-hole D'Angelico his father had received, brand new, for his 20th birthday. Dad played jazz/big band music, but Dave was inspired by the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, and learned to play the rock and roll, doo wop, and blues then on the radio. He's played in bands since high school (e.g., rock, folk, backing up a singer-songwriter on bass) and writes a few songs himself (featured on WAER's Common Threads radio show). He's a regular member of the jam group from which McWilliams Hardware arose.

As for the band's name . . . Cooke spent the first 10 years of his life in Morris, N.Y., where many members of his family -- both Cooke and McWilliams -- are still based. Throughout his youth, and some time later, his grandfather owned and operated the Main Street hardware store in Morris, and his brother operated the store for a while after grandfather Glen's retirement. The name McWilliams Hardware celebrates that memory.