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Show Date - June 10 at Laman Library Plaza

"Weaning House" by Still on the Hill

Listen!

Though Still on the Hill members Kelly Mulhollan and Donna Stjerna love their craft, for this Ozark duo it is not all about the music.

The musicians are touring their lastest album, "Ozark: A Celebration in Song," the sales of which help fund the "Play it Again, Arkansas" project, which provides musical instruments to rural, underserved children.

Since 2001, Mulhollan and Stjerna have toured steadily and produced six CDs. Both Mulhollan and Stjerna are accomplished songwriters and play a plethora of acoustic instruments including acoustic guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, and harmonica. 

The group's repertoire is primarily their own original, roots-based compositions -- a genre hybrid they term "folkgrass" -- interspersed with new arrangements of traditional songs.

"These musicians have grafted the wild climbing vines of bluegrass, folk, classical and mountain music onto the hardiest of Ozark rootstock. The result is a yet-to-be-named hybrid music that compels people to stop and listen, to pause in their hectic lives and pay attention to something they've never heard before. It's magic, and there's simply not enough magic in the world today," said Julie Koehler, a reviewer for Bluegrass Now.

But critics say that listening to Still on the Hill is no match for seeing them live.

"Visually, Still on the Hill is full of color and motion: they command their instruments with power and grace, producing a sound that is both fresh and ancient at the same time. Lyrically, their original material is packed with new ideas, social awareness and a level of intellect and consciousness that's seldom found in contemporary tunes.

"Their high-energy seems to emerge from somewhere deep inside their souls. They play music for only one reason: it's a spark, or maybe a raging bonfire, inside each of them that has to come out. It's something that's shared just as easily with a large festival audience as it would be with a quiet Ozark Forest," Koehler said.

The two artists also created several very popular children's shows and educational workshops which they perform under the name Toucan Jam.

 
Kelly Mulhollan was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and his passion for stringed instruments began at the age of 9 with a gift of a ukulele. Within two years he had added the guitar and banjo to his credits. The '70's and '80's found Kelly in countless bands playing rock & roll, bluegrass, jazz, progressive rock, and folk music while studying contemporary classical music, and still always composing and performing his original work as well. He was a founding member of the original Still on the Hill quartet in 1994. He has been voted "Best Guitarist" several times by the Northwest Arkansas Music Awards and also contributes mandolin, banjo, harmonica, lead vocals and songwriting to the group. Kelly has also recorded and produced all of the Still on the Hill CDs as well as performing on and producing many other artists' CDs.

Donna Stjerna grew up in New York and California and began playing the fiddle at the age of 12 after being taken to see the "lady fiddler" in the Eddie Arnold show. As a teenager, she played and toured the country with her father, a professional country musician, playing fiddle at night and helping him to paint signs during the day. Before helping to form the original Still on the Hill quartet in 1994, Donna worked steadily playing and singing in a number of nationally touring country bands. She is a highly prolific songwriter with over 400 songs to her credit and has been the band's principal songwriter since they became a duo in 2001. In addition to playing the fiddle, Donna contributes lead vocals, mandolin, cello, and a variety of traditional roots-based instruments to the sound that is Still on the Hill. She is the mother of a teenage son Taylor.

Discography

Folk Stage Live (2002)
Chaos & Calm (2002; re-released 2005)
Still (2000)
Still on the Hill (1997)
Solo CDs:
Never Ending Conversation (Kelly Mulhollan, 2005)
Christmas Carols on an Ozark Guitar (Kelly Mulhollan, instrumental, 2003)
Redwings (Donna Henschell Stjerna, 2001)
Toucan Jam CDs (for young listeners):
A World of Music (Toucan Jam, 2006)