The music. The traditional music of the Southern Appalachians has risen in popularity over the last few years, with soundtracks of films like ‘Oh Brother Where Art Thou’ and ‘Cold Mountain’ and artists such as Uncle Earl and Bruce Molsky getting coverage in the media. Even Bruce Springsteen has gone back to his musical roots with his ‘We Shall Overcome’ reworking of traditional songs. Land of the Sky features a mixture of traditional songs and tunes and material wrtten and recorded in the ‘golden age’ of old-time music, the 1920s.The band. Four musicians with long experience of playing acoustic music of all kinds, we first came together to provide music for an Appalachian dance group based in Bakewell, Derbyshire. Since then we have gone on to play concerts, barn dances and festivals all around central England. A line -up which features two flavours of mandolin plus banjo and guitar produces a distinctive, driving style on the tunes and most songs feature three or four part harmony.Trefor Griffith – guitar, vocals.Helmut Rheingans – banjo, vocals.Stuart Wade – mandolin, guitar, vocals.Steve Wise - octave mandolin, guitar, vocalsNotable appearances. In a varied list of gigs over the years the following stand out: Gainsborough Annual Old-Time Festival; Sweet Sunny South Festival; Bakewell Arts Festival; Sheffield City Lights ceremony; Sheffield Folk Train; Oxfam annual fund-raising ceilidh. Plus pubs and barn dances too numerous to mention!See us in action on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/downtroddenmusicVisit us at our myspace page http://www.myspace.com/downtroddenstringband