Date(s): SUNDAY, FEB 1st, 2026
Type of Show: Music
Showtime(s): 3:00 pm (SEATED SHOW)
Tickets: $25.00
Bob Vasile has curated a veritable clowder of cool cats for two solid hours on Sunday afternoon, February 1st at 3pm. There is likely to be – a Fiddle-ti-dee – jam session at the end of this show so be sure to bring your fiddle.
The Cats with their fiddles include: Al McCanless, Pranav Manjunath, Kapil Ramanarayanan, Jane Peppler, Bob Vasile, Clay Buckner, Jack Herrick, and Jim Watson
Fiddlin’ Al McCanless
A Piedmont renaissance man and local legend, Fiddlin’ Al McCanless has over 50 years of performing experience. Starting on harmonica and guitar in high school, Al took up fiddle as a sophomore at the UNC-CH School of Pharmacy. He was a founding member of legendary New Deal String Band and was a member of the Bluegrass Experience off and on for 50 years. Al spent years learning Irish-Celtic fiddle tunes and has made two recordings with his group Celtic Jam. He appeared on the first Red Clay Ramblers Folkways recording, “The Red Clay Ramblers with Fiddlin’ Al McCanless”. He now plays fiddle with Hindsight Bluegrass and several other groups. Al will be joined by Kapil Ramanarayanan on a special handdrum, the Mridangam.
Pranav Manjunath
Pranav Manjunath, born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, began learning Indian classical violin at the age of seven. After moving to India during middle school, he continued his musical training under legendary violinists, including Padma Shri awardee A. Kanyakumari. As a versatile, touring performer, Pranav has given over 700 concerts worldwide, most notably as part of the acclaimed violin duo The Boston Brothers with his brother Tejas Manjunath, along with numerous solo, duet, Hindustani–Western collaborative, dance, and fusion performances. He has received multiple awards and distinctions, including securing first place in the state of Karnataka in the highest-level Carnatic music examination, and has been featured extensively on national television and in international media. Pranav is currently a PhD candidate in Biomedical Engineering at Duke University, while continuing to remain deeply rooted in and committed to his musical journey.
Jane Peppler
Jane Peppler came to the Triangle as a refugee from classical music. She played violin in the Yale Symphony and the Yale Graduate School orchestra and sang in the Yale Slavic Chorus. Later she played in the pit orchestra for the College Light Opera Company and in Cambridge Massachusetts sang with Laduvane and played with the Locrian String Quartet. She met Bob Vasile in 1981 and with the Pratie Heads did her first Triangle concert for St Patrick’s Day 1982. They were members of the North Carolina Arts Council Touring program and made a CD with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She created and directed the Solstice Extravaganza and the Solstice Assembly. She played klezmer music with Ted Ehrhardt’s Klezbyterians and has researched and performed Yiddish theater music since 2010. She recorded English and Scottish folk songs with Jacqueline Schwab. She’s issued around 30 cds.
Bob Vasile, your host
Bob has been a choice North Carolina musician for nearly five decades. He’s best known to play “more or less traditional music of the British Isles” with The Pratie Heads, of which he was co-founder along with Jane Peppler (see above). Bob was part of the trip “Freyda and Attaboys” and Freyda and Acoustic Attitude. They toured with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and shared the stage with Tony Rice, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall and Mark O’Conner on at two Mountain Stage performances. In 1996, Bob won a signed Wayne Henderson guitar at the Wayne Henderson Music Festival and guitar competition. He was featured in the Tenth Annual Wayne Henderson Guitar Competition In June 2004, with the nine previous winners for another Wayne Henderson Guitar.
Jack Herrick
Jack has been a performer and songwriter with the Red Clay Ramblers for many years, touring North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, recording and producing records, as well as co-creating shows including Lone Star Love, Kudzu, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Wilder, Bah Humbug, and the Tony Award winning Fool Moon. Over the last decade Jack’s been composer and performer at the Oregon Shakespeare Theater and the Guthrie Theater.
Clay Buckner
A North Carolina favorite, Clay resides in Carrboro, NC, the self-proclaimed “Paris of the Piedmont.” Primarily a fiddle player and vocalist, he also performs on harmonica and mandolin. He has been a member of the Red Clay Ramblers since 1980, and has performed with them in concerts, film, and theatrical productions around the world. Credits include the Broadway hit Fool Moon with David Shiner and Bill Irwin (New York, L.A., San Francisco, Vienna, Munich), A Lie of the Mind, Far North, and Silent Tongue for Sam Shepard. He also appeared with Tommy Thompson in stage and radio versions of Tommy’s wonderful play, The Last Song of John Proffit. Current motto: “I’m not an actor but I have played one on stage.”
Jim Watson
Jim in the early days!
Jim was born November 7, 1947 in the beautiful Bull City of Durham, N. C. He started playing guitar in the early 60’s during the big folk scare and went to his first fiddler’s convention at Pulaski, Va., in 1965, and Galax two weeks later. He appeared at several fiddler’s conventions and various venues at Duke University over the next several years with Bill DeTurk on the banjo playing bluegrass. In 1968 Jim met the Hollow Rock String Band (Alan Jabbour, Tommy & Bobbie Thompson and Bertram Levy) and started learning mandolin and autoharp.
In 1969 he started playing duet jobs in the bars of Chapel Hill with Tommy Thompson, soon expanding to a trio with Fiddlin’ Al McCanless. Various obligations split us up from 1970-1972 when the Red Clay Ramblers formed with Jim (mandolin/ guitar/ autoharp), Tommy (banjo, guitar), and former Fuzzy Mountain String Band fiddler Bill Hicks. Jim stayed with the Ramblers for 14 years, recording 9 albums on Folkways, Flying Fish and Sugar Hill plus a Hollow Rock String Band on Rounder in 1972 with Tommy and Alan Jabbour. Jim toured with Robin and Linda Williams for several decades and has played with just about everybody on the planet. He is also one of “the two, the only” members of the world famous Duke & Pinky country duet, known the world over.
The ArtsCenter Theater shows are (almost always) seated. This is a seated show, though we’ll leave some room for those who may wish to get up a shake a leg. We have a nice bar with wine, beer, cider, soft drinks, snacks and always free water. If you need special assistance, please do contact us at boxoffice@artscenterlive.org or 919.929.2787 and we’ll be sure to accommodate you as best as we can.