Riptide Wicked Good Contra Dance Music from Maine

Personnel

• Alden Robinson

  

  Alden Robinson learned the fiddle as a child in coastal Maine. He grew up and moved West (by about an hour) to Portland, where he started hanging out with Glen and Owen. It was all downhill from there. Besides RIPTIDE, he appears onstage with numerous other dance bands. He also plays Irish tunes with Owen in The Press Gang.

• Glen Loper

  

  Some say he is a deep cover scientist researching mind-control. Some say a shaman from the Canadian tundra. We just don't know. But time and again, Glen Loper has revealed his secret power to make dancers go absolutely nuts, using nothing more than his mandolin, his foot-stomping, and his hair. When he isn't playing dances, Glen uses his mandolin to corrupt the minds of children and interested adults.

• Mark “Pokey” Hellenberg

  

  Mark Hellenberg, affectionately known as Pokey, has become an institution in the world of contra dance music. He has been featured as a percussionist on over a dozen recordings, and is a beloved personality on Ohio Public Radio in his hometown of Athens, Ohio. A regular with such bands as Notorious, Wild Asparagus, Airdance, and many others, Pokey brings his depth of musical and zymurgical experience to the rhythm section of Riptide, and we are much the wiser for it.

• Owen Marshall

  

  Born on a mountainside in northern Vermont, Owen initially took up the guitar as a weapon to fend off wolves. However, his talent quickly made him one of the hottest rhythm players on the dance scene. When he isn't grooving with RIPTIDE, Owen plays with the likes of Rodney Miller, The Sevens, and Ari and Mia Friedman. He and Alden also play Irish tunes together in The Press Gang.