Band Bios
Jeff White
Born and raised in Fife Lake, Michigan and started playing music at a young age but gave it up for years. He started playing again in '98 forming Straight Forward Bluegrass Band with a cousin and a neighbor, then built the band to what it is today. He's a member of the original Michigan Fiddler's Association, Chairman of Springfield Parks and Recreation, writes a lot of the original material for the band, and lives and breathes bluegrass and old time music. He's the guitar player, lead singer, promoter, and front man for the band.
Terri White (aka "Ma")
Born and raised in South Boardman, Michigan and married to Jeff White with three daughters. She started playing upright bass in October of 2002 (with no prior musical experience), figuring "If ya can't beat 'em, join 'em" (after putting up with Jeff being gone playing music most of the time). She now plays autoharp along with the bass. She'll leave them out of the cases around the house picking one of them up and playing a tune or two taking breaks from the housework routine. Terri is now the back-bone rhythm of the band.
Karl Malin
Born in the U.P. of Michigan. Raised in Marquette and moved to Traverse City, MI to teach Culinary Arts at TBAISD. He started getting serious about the banjo in '99 playing Scruggs 3 finger style and clawhammer mountain style. He also does the harmonica work for the band, enjoys going to banjo camps, workshops, and large music festivals. He's also a darn good chef.
Raised in Cedar Lake, MI. He moved to Cadillac in 2002. He met Jeff at a performance in Cadillac asking about mandolin lessons and ended up in the band with mandolin duties sometime around January of 2003. He now sings bass and baritone harmony parts. He maintains the website in between teaching, spending time with his wife and kids, and working on his old Mercedes diesel and bio-diesel processor.
John Richey
Raised in Wisconsin and now resides in Boyne City, MI. He has been playing fiddle for over 15 years. He played bass in a bluegrass band early in his music career, back-up guitar for fiddle players, and then started playing fiddle himself. He has a strong background in Celtic music, and was a member of the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra. He still plays occasionally with the Long-goodies of Wisconsin. He started playing with the band in March of 2005. Plays a wicked bluegrass fiddle and does excellent vocal work.
Played with the band from March 2005 to February 2006.
Bob Saddler
He began violin lessons at age 7, and continues to play classical and traditional music to the present time. He presently plays in the Cadillac Symphony Orchestra, a Celtic band, and several traditional groups and teaches fiddling in the Cadillac Strings Program.
He performed and judged at numerous national, regional and state fiddling competitions and won or placed highly when everything went well (Illinois State Champion one time, Florida State Champion 4 times, National Fiddling Championships [Weiser, Idaho] Top Twenty about 6 times [from a field of 300-400 contestants], Southeast Regional Champion once or twice).
He performed in bluegrass and traditional string bands in California and Florida, at dances, on the main stage at Kodiak Bear Festival (Alaska), Hiawatha and Blissfest Music Festivals in Michigan and gave fiddle workshops at the Michigan and Florida Festivals. Through the years He has been fortunate to have played with legendary fiddlers such as Benny Thomasson, Mark O'Connor, Tracy Schwartz, Alisdair Fraser, Brenda Stubbert, David Greenberg, Kenny Hall and many others.