About Us
Steve and Rod started performing with each other 44 years ago. After a long hiatus they got back together in 2006 for a concert and reformed the band, adding master guitarist Norman Rodham in 2011. They're performances feature incredible and energetic instrumentals and vocals of Celtic, Old Time, Canadian and American fiddle tunes and folk music. Audiences become part of every show!
Steve Iachetta
A.K.A.: "Shaker Fiddle" is well known for his unique playing style blending Celtic, old time and Appalachian folk fiddling along with the occasional mandolin, frailing banjo or tenor guitar tune.
He performs on his collection of vintage instruments: a 1722 fiddle, an 1886 Poleman vintage frailing banjo, a 1922 vintage Gibson Model A mandolin and a 1956 Gibson tenor guitar. Steve also performs in the acoustic duo: Shelving Rock, blending traditional and acoustic rock.
Steve has a bustling luthier business, Shaker Violin Repair & Performance (Visit: ShakerViolin.com), he now runs from his home. He repairs and restores violins, violas, cellos and stringed basses for schools as well as professional, and student musicians. Since he opened the business last year, his services have been in high demand.
Steve is also past President of the Shaker Heritage Society and serves as Trustee of the Board overseeing the National Shaker Historic Site - Amerca's First Shaker Settlement in Colonie, adjacent to Albany Airport.
Rod Driscoll
He performs on the hammered and lap dulcimers, guitar (6 & 12 string), banjo, bouzouki and bodhran. Rod sings lead vocals on his wide repertoire of songs. He has been active as a performer and promoter of folk music in the Adirondacks of New York for the last 46 years.
Rod has performed with the Too Tall, Old Mountain and Friends Union String Bands as well as many solo appearances over the years. As a promoter of music in the North Country, he helped start the Plattsburgh Concerts in the Park series, started the Peru Coffeehouse series and organized many other benefit concerts over the years such as the concert to aid victims of the great North Country ice storm of 1998. Rod builds the dulcimers he plays at his workshop “O’Driscoll Folk Instruments” located at his home in Peru, NY.
He has hosted a fiddle tune session every other Wednesday since 2018. That became the Adirondack 2 Step (adk2step.com) contra dance band, which performs with caller Jeremy Clifford. Rod also hosts on online open mic session twice a month on Zoom.
Rod retired from his position as elementary school principal for the Whiting Sudbury Learning Academy in Central Vermont in 2018. He previously retired from AuSable Valley High School in 2016, after 32 years of teaching. He is the former president of the AuSable Valley Teachers Association and is the retired, long time president of the Peru Central School Board of Education.
Rod's numerous op eds on education, politics and economics have appeared in the NY Daily News, The Burlington Free Press, Plattsburgh Press Republican the NY Times and the Albany Times Union.
For more information on Rod & his dulcimers, please visit: roddriscoll.com
Norman Rodham-
Norman is a master of the DADGAD guitar tuning who plays with us whenever he is visiting the frozen north from his home in sunny Florida.
He has a wealth of experience in the folk world, performing regularly, in a duo named Stepping Stone, with his wife Robin, who is an accomplished fiddler. They are very popular in Florida contra dance circles for their enormous repertoire of traditional fiddle dance tunes. Norman also plays the Irish bodhran and the bones.
Norman works as a special educator for a charter school network in Florida.
Pete & Bernie DeMaio
Pete and Bernie DeMaio are a duo from Paterson, NJ. They blend their musical backgrounds from blues, rock & roll, traditional, folk, Americana, pop, country, ballads and Celtic tunes. Pete plays bass and lead guitar and Bernie plays rhythm guitar, both adding sweet harmonies to their vast song list, which continues to grow. The DeMaios moved to Plattsburgh in 2019, where they were introduced to Rod Driscoll at his weekly jam session. They are now happy to be partnered up with Rod and his bands.