1st Annual Old Farmers Ball Hosted By Cabinet

by Evan Kramer

In their home state of Pennsylvania, the folk band Cabinet is hosting their very own music festival. The Old Farmers Ball will debut May 11th at the Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain in Scranton. Of the six-members in such a hard-working band, I had the pleasure to discuss the formation of Cabinet and the upcoming festival event with the Cabinet’s acoustic guitar player, Mickey Coviello.

Cabinet began with the relationship of Mickey and J.P. Biondo, the band’s mandolin player. Coviello tells me, “We would go to the open mic nights at this place called the River Street Jazz Café in Pennsylvania. That’s where we met our bass player, Dylan [Skursky], and he knew our fiddle player, Todd [Kopec]. During this time, J.P.’s cousin, Pappy Biondo, moved here from Cleveland and he became our banjo player. We all would jam together, and that’s how it really started.”

The name process is usually where many bands get stumped. They scratch their head in desperation to think of a phrase that illustrates a clear representation of their art. A name like Cabinet catches attention and raises questions. “Yeah, we might have just pulled it out of our ass or something,” Coviell0 says as I laugh hysterically at his unpredictable answer, “When we were going to open mics, we needed a name. I think that name just came out of nowhere and we just always kept it.”

Apart from bluegrass, classic rock artists such as Van Halen musically inspired Coviello. “The reason I picked up a guitar at the age of ten was because I heard Eddie Van Halen’s song “Eruption” where he does all the crazy tapping. I just thought, man, that is so bad ass,” Coviello reminisces. “Everybody in the band is different, you know. Everyone has different musical backgrounds and musical tastes. I think that helps, too, with our sound. It kind of keeps it diversified,” he says. The transition from classic rock to folk is not something you normally hear. Various artists impacted each member of Cabinet, which makes it interesting to hear their combined styles.

Folk music is a genre that protrudes from any other genre. Out of curiosity, I ask Coviello why folk music was special to him. “For me, it’s just different. I wasn’t raised on bluegrass. From my perspective, it’s like a fresh new thing to discover and I just started getting into it.” He isn’t afraid to experiment with new styles of music, and his only ambition is to make music that he enjoys. “Maybe it doesn’t sound like tradition bluegrass, but who cares, you know? Let’s just play music,” Coviello laughs. Cabinet provides entertaining music with an original sound that stays faithful to their east coast roots.

Cabinet is residing in their hometown of Pennsylvania and not only hosting but also performing at The Old Farmers Ball Music Festival on May 11^th. Along with Cabinet are seven artists that were specifically chosen by the band- Yarn, Holy Ghost Tent Revival, Miz, Pappy, And The Moneynotes, Coal Town Rounders and Kyle Morgan. The music is enjoyable for everyone and Coviello is optimistic to perform there with Cabinet’s other five members. “Yeah. We’re excited to play there. Last time our band was on the big stage was at the Peach Festival, and that was really fun. I’m looking forward to doing it again,” he tells me.

Cabinet is an extremely talented band and witnessing them perform at their first Old Farmers Ball would be a great experience. Along with all the band performances, Old Famers Ball will be enhanced by local/regional craft vendors, food (of course), a poster and photography gallery, silk screening demonstrations and a seasonal farmers market. With a wide variety of products, a kids fun area and obviously craft beers, a festival like this should be revisited each year and hopefully more musicians and local products will want to be part of it next year. A full list of featured artists is available on the festival website.

Following the release of their new LP, Leap, the band has been on focusing on tours and formulating new pieces of music. “Over the summer we’re going to be pretty busy with the festivals”, says Coviello. “I think the plan is to get back into the recording studio after the summer, and record the new material that we have.”