Schedule
Thursday
Grateful Gary, 9pm to midnight (Pavilion)
Friday
Shanty Irish 5pm to 7pm (Cooters)
Dirty Mae, Friday 9 pm to midnight, Pavilion
Saturday
Queen City Funk and Soul, Saturday 8:30 pm to midnight, Pavilion
Sunday
Johnny Staats and the Delivery Boys, Sunday, 2pm to 5pm, River Stage
Buzzz City, 9 pm to ???? (Pavilion)
Grateful Gary
OTR 2022 entertainment opens with Grateful Gary, a solo guitarist and vocalist from the
Chicago area who plays a blend of hippie and retro music like Crosby Stills Nash, Pink
Floyd, Grateful Dead and Neil Young. He has entertained at numerous other caver
events like NSS Convention, Kentucky Speleofest, MVOR and previous OTRs.
Gary also is ‘one of us,’ a caver, NSS Life Member, Mammoth Cave Resto Crew
member, chair of the Sub-Urban Chicago Grotto and Assistant Copy Editor for the NSS
News. He also put together this year’s OTR Guidebook!
Grateful Gary also will be playing music on Saturday afternoon at Cooters Pub, 12:30-
3:30pm, where he will feature mostly folk/acoustic songs like Bob Dylan, John Prine,
Jim Croce and John Denver.
Otherwise, Gary can be found at the controls of the Pavilion sound booth for the rest of
the weekend, as he’s a fully-qualified audio engineer.
The Shanty Irish Band
Everyone enjoys a wee bit of Irish music, and perhaps also a pint of Guinness! What
better way to enjoy them both than to check out The Shanty Irish Band. Consisting of
friends, cavers and long-time TRA members, the lads play traditional Irish folk music
that dates back to the 18th and 19th Centuries, what would be heard in the so-named
‘singing pubs’ that are scattered throughout Ireland. Many of the songs, shanties, reels
and jigs tell tales of fighting, revolution, love and the wonders of poitin and porter (–
whisky and beer). Come join The Shanty Irish Band on Friday at Cooters Pub.
Here is a video of Shanty Irish doing what Shanty Irish does best!
Downhome. Hardcore.
“Award-winning folk rock, indie folk,,, Absolutely sensational! Fusing haunting harmonies, New Orleans swagger & theatrical flair”
For your Friday night entertainment, OTR has mined the sleazy speakeasy parlors to bring to you from Harlem, New York, itself, the one-of-a-kind Dirty Mae, as they begin a southern tour of the Eastern States. Carrie Fireman, Ben Curtis, Robin Frost and their band can with well-honed musical precision skewer the 18th Amendment as they create a down and dirty sonic concoction we’ll all want to imbibe!
Queen City Funk and Soul
On Saturday night, we are honored to welcome back by popular demand the dancemasters themselves, Queen City Funk and Soul, with their 10 -member, horn-driven brand of Appalachian funk. For our tasting delight, this will be the epic 4th OTR serving of these sultans of soul.
Johnny Staats and the Delivery Boys
Born and raised in West Virginia Johnny caught the bluegrass bug early. With his mother playing piano, his father playing guitar, and his sister on the banjo, it seemed only natural that he would get his first mandolin at the age of seven. Johnny is primarily known as a mandolin player, but he is also proficient with the guitar and fiddle as well.
The Boys consist of Butch Osbourne, an award-winning banjo player who has played with Johnny for 25 years, Doug Cossin on guitar, and Davey Vaughn brings his multi-instrument and wide-ranging vocal abilities to the band.
Why the “Delivery Boys”? To date, Johnny continues to head out very day in his big brown UPS truck, and no matter how big he gets with his music, the folks around the Sandyville, West Virginia area still count on Johnny to deliver right on time.
Buzzz City
Buzzz City is a loose confederation of caver-musicians who have played group
performances for years at OTR. They formerly played at their campsite, at Cooters or
wherever they could. In recent years, Buzzz City began performing at the First Aid
Station as a thank-you and to raise money to fund medical supplies. The ‘Band-Aid’ (get
it?) fundraiser started eight years ago. Buzzz City performed at the Pavilion the past two
years, and the band has proved to be a big hit (not to mention the money raised for the
First Aid Station)! This year’s performance once again will immediately follow the
Sunday Awards Ceremony at the Pavilion, and once again will be a benefit for the First
Aid Station. You’ll hear lots of good old-timey songs, including their crowd favorite, The
OTR Anthem!