Free and open to the public; www.pinecone.org
Blind Boy Chocolate and The Milk Sheiks took Merlefest by storm this past spring! What began in the summer of 2009 as a three-piece busking group with Dwight “Blind Boy Chocolate” Hawkins (wood saw, guitar), Nicky “The Squirrel” Marshall (mandolin, harmonica, accordion, kazoo), and Antone “T-Bird” Costa (lead guitar, kazoo) quickly became a sound people wanted to hear more! In the spring of 2010, the Milk Sheiks rounded out their sound with Alex Brady on washtub bass and Aaron Gunn on fiddle. The band’s repertoire is drawn largely from a bank of early American music, including both black and white string and jug band music and drawing on the pre-war blues, ragtime, early jazz and songster traditions.