Event

Freight Hoppers

The Freight Hoppers have been presenting Old Time String Band music for more than 20 years. The band started presenting their energetic take on fiddle band music 4 times a day, 7 days a week at the Great Smoky Mountains Railway shortly after forming back in 1992. This afforded the group plenty of paid rehearsal time to hone a sound that has proven entertaining and distinctively theirs. Their repertoire includes music that was first recorded in the late 1920's and early 1930's, and spans geographically from Mississippi to West Virginia. The Freight Hoppers play hard driving old time music with an emotional, raw excitement that keeps one foot planted in the past and the other in the present. Of course that's only when they keep their feet still, for this is high energy dance music of an older day played like there's no tomorrow. Finding their passion from a love of stringband music of the 1920's and 30's, The Freight Hoppers have been entertaining crowds of fans at festivals and music halls alike as they travel around the country, and beyond. The heart of the band is held together by the fiddle and banjo combo of Barry Benjamin and Frank Lee, while the rhythm section of Mclean Bissell on guitar and Bradley Adams on string bass hold down the ensemble. Based out of the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, The Freight Hoppers draw from a deep source of rural southern music for their inspiration, and are proud to present this music that is still meaningful today.

The Freight Hoppers are:
Merrit Smith, fiddle
Frank Lee banjo, bottleneck guitar, vocals
Bradley Adams, guitar
Andy Smith, string bass