The West County Professional Tea Sippers' Oldtime String Band
a.k.a.
The Tea Sippers

Sept 1st-5th - We'll be playing 7 sets at the National Oldtime Country Bluegrass Festival in LaMars, Iowa. On Saturday we'll recieve an award of  Best Old-timey CD of the year!   Hope we'll see you there. [Schedule]

September 7th, Tuesday. 7:00-8:50pm Julie's Coffee & Tea Garden at 1223 Park Street in Alameda, CA. It's a great place to hear music and have some of their excellent coffee cake.

September 11th, Saturday afternoon. We'll be playing the Bluegrass at Blue Rock benefit for Loma Vista Farm. This is a benefit to help Vallejo schoolchildren connect with farms and nature, so come by for good music and a good cause. Concerts from 2:00-7:00 at Blue Rock Springs Park, 650 Columbus Parkway, Vallejo

Announcing: "The Kettle Is On", our first Studio Album.
"This is an astonishingly good old-timey band and album. Yes, "OLD-TIMEY" the way it should be" [Review]
Listen for it on your local radio station, and yes, you CAN purchase it on-line at cdBaby !

Traditional American Old-time Music at the Rural Roots of Bluegrass

The band features harmony singing & a variety of traditional instrumentation. Their repertoire includes original songs and 20's and 30's gems: crooked Appalachian fiddle tunes, old-time country blues, songs of the Carter Family, old-time Gospel, and a few from a new cup. The band's two original songwriters capture the essence of home in California and lost love anywhere.

• Harmony singing
• Delicate and fearless lead and rhythm Autoharp pickin'
• Fiddlers, banjo, mandolin, guitar and Dobro
• Original songwriting
• Traditional American Music

Laura Lind - Autoharp, lead and harmony vocal, songwriting
Searle Whitt - fiddle, lead and harmony vocal, songwriting
David Brown - banjo, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, vocal
Dave Krinkel - guitar, Dobro, silence

To hear samples of our music please check out our MySpace page.

Contact info: searlew@pacbell.net - (510) 558-1178

What's New

Our Bay Area shows for September are on the Calendar page.

April: We are totally delighted that Bob Everhart of the National Traditional Country Music Association has written a review of our debut CD. He writes: "This is an astonishingly good old-timey band and album. Yes, "OLD-TIMEY" the way it should be, and the brilliant marketing these folks do to get your interest - they even have a tea-bag with the cd! They are all very good old-timey players too. I am totally impressed with female vocalist, Laura Lind, who also plays the autoharp and writes some of the original "old-timey" songs. YES Laura, you're great! Searle Whitt lends lead and harmony vocals along with a very neat fiddle (especially on Sioux City Sue). David Brown plays banjo (great drop thumb style), fiddle, guitar and mandolin, as well as contributing to the vocals, and Dave Krinkel plays a powerful Dobro (very good on Miss Liza Poor Girl and Bear Creek Blues), guitar, and adds a little silence vocally."

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