Black Jake & the Carnies

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paced: a little bit punk, a little bit bluegrass, with some rock, ragtime, Americana, and blues mixed in. Welcome to Black Jake and the Carnies and their signature "Crabgrass" sound.

The band is the brainchild of Jake Zettelmaier, or Black Jake, as he's known on stage. Zettelmaier writes the songs, handles most of the singing, plays banjo, and gives the Carnies free rein to have as much fun on stage as possible. The Carnies consist of "Jumpin'" Joe Cooter on bass, Billy "Kingpen" Lalonde on drums and washboard, J.C. Miller on accordion, Gus Wallace on fiddle, and recent addition Andy Benes on mandolin. Benes joined shortly after the breakup of his previous band, Back Forty, and he replaces longtime Carnie Zach Pollack, who moved out of state. Noticeably lacking from the Carnie arsenal is guitar. That's an instrument Zettelmaier never planned on not having, but now he takes pride in it. There were guitar players in early incarnations of the Carnies, but they didn't work out for various reasons, and Zettelmaier is happy to have the Carnies be that rare band without guitar.