Spook Handy Trio Captures Audience at Barron Arts Center

Folk guitarist and singer Spook Handy and his trio charmed and entertained a capacity crowd at the Barron Arts Center in Woodbridge. The charismatic Spook Handy opened the program with the song “Oh, Why I Love You”.  He included a sing-a-long section which drew the audience into the mood.

Throughout the program, Handy used a sing-a-long technique and call response system, which continually engaged the audience.  This, along, with his short, but interesting, stories about each song he performed, made the program more than just an evening of pleasant singing and good playing.          

Many of the songs performed were written by Handy, but he also included some old folk music favorites such as “Country Roads” and “If I Had a Hammer”.  The audience (including me!) had a great time singing along and felt very much at ease doing it since Mr. Handy constantly encouraged it.

All of Spook’s songs were about people, places, and things that were centered on some particular event in his life.  Even the songs that were not his had a true story associated with it. One of these was “If I Had a Hammer”.  This song is about the labor movement of 1949 and written by Pete Seeger, whom Handy admires. It led him to write a similar type of song called “Vote”, which is about the importance of voting.  In 2003, he said, Pete Seeger heard this song, liked it, and performed it. Mr. Handy met Mr. Seeger because of it, and they have been friends since then.

It would be a mistake not to mention the other two members of the Trio - Gary Oleyar on violin and Bob Harris on acoustic guitar. Both are fine musicians and totally complemented Mr. Handy’s singing and playing.

The program ended as it began, with Spook teaching the audience how to sing-a-long with his original song, “Vote”. All seemed to enjoy themselves and enthusiastically applauded the trio.  A happy ending to an entertaining and happy show.