The Packers Are Back.

The Alferd Packer Memorial String Band will be returning for a second year at the Carthage Acoustic Music Festival this Friday and Saturday, June 12 and 13. This high energy group impressed last year’s audience with their musical ability and entertaining humor. The group will be featured in the pre-festival concert on Friday evening in the old High School Auditorium. Tickets for the concert are $8 and will also include a performance by Vern Young featuring Joe Smith on Dobro and Charlotte Mayall on bass.

The pre-festival concert kicks off the 8th Annual festival that includes an open stage on Saturday from 10 to 1 followed by nine hours of outstanding acoustic performances, ending at 10 p.m. The Packer Band includes the following members:

Lauralyn Bodle has degrees in math and psychology, and for her Master’s theses in architecture helped design and build an energy efficient home. She teaches Italian at the University of Kansas. Considered too smart to play with the Packers, she uses her math skills to count out the rhythm. When the rhythm wavers Lauralyn berates the band in Italian.

Fiddle, bass, vocals and big hair

Jim Brothers is the leader of the pack and chairman of the "wash" board. Jim founded the Alferd Packer Memorial String Band in 1979. Jim is also a prominent sculptor with works including the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA and a life-sized General Dwight D. Eisenhower in the U.S. Capitol. Jim likes to play with cars in his spare time.

Washboard, jaw harp, whistles, horns and guns

Matt Kirby’s picture is in the American Heritage Dictionary (American Heritage, 2nd college edition) next to "dulcimer". He is an artist by trade, with a degree from the Kansas City Art Institute. He plays the hammered dulcimer that he designed and built.

Hammered dulcimer, accordian, snare drum, bodhran, vocals and vocal impressions

For a day job Steve Mason is a luthier: one who repairs, improves and creates stringed instruments. To make a guitar he starts with a tree and carves away everything that doesn’t look like a guitar. He has a degree in Biology and he’s only five years of graduate school and a dissertation short of a PhD.

Fiddle, Guitar, Bass, Mandolin and Vocals

Mike Yoder admits to being the chief photographer at The Lawrence Journal-World newspaper. Some of his photographs can be seen in the books "America 24/7" and "Kansas 24/7". He usually drives the bus.

Guitar, mandolin, bass and vocals

Saw a neat trick on a bicycle the other day. A small girl of five or six, apparently still learnin’ the art of survivin’ a two wheeler, was ridin’ with four other children. She turned out of the alley onto the street and didn’t get straightened out. She continued in a circular motion and bumped square into the curb. Her slow speed and low proximity to the ground eliminated any chance of serious injury, but she dropped like a rock. The small boy ridin’ beside her was havin’ his own problems keepin’ upright and didn’t stop. The girl brushed herself off and got back on, slowly tryin’ catch up to the rest of the group.

I never saw a tear, just a face of determination and possibly some embarrassment. A spark of hope for the next generation.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’