Michael Lee Ammons and The Water Street Hot Shots: Bios
Michael Lee Ammons - guitar, harmonica, and vocals
In reflecting on the history of Ammons’ musical pursuits, he credits the folk recordings of Pete Seeger for first influencing his interests at the age of four, and his mom started him with guitar when he was nine years old. As a teen, Ammons found the importance of getting outside and camping. This necessitated a smaller travel instrument, and Ammons took on the harmonica. Ultimately, it was learning harmonica from Milwaukee’s Steve Cohen that led Ammons to his discovery of the Blues.
The unique sound of the metal-bodied National resonator guitar and the power of early blues recordings of the 1920’s and ‘30s provided a direction for Ammons to follow as he began performing regularly with the guitar in the late 1980’s. The contact with contemporary performers Greg Brown, Catfish Keith, and Paul Geremia also fueled Ammons drive to pursue the technically challenging and idiosyncratic styles of fingerstyle blues guitar. Performing with Madison's Catfish Stephenson in the 1990's influenced Ammons style and repertoire.
Recently, Ammons rediscovered some family history that makes him proud. His Great Grandma Harper played clawhammer banjo in North Carolina during the early 1900s. The family story mentions that the banjo was a gift from a hobo who was thankful for a meal. Years later, her son Joe, (Grandpa Joe Ammons) also had some fun with music, occasionally singing with a string band at barn dances in Eastern Tennessee during the late 1930's.
Michael Ammons has always made Wisconsin his home. Currently, he and his wife live in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where they have two kids. Ammons enjoys fatherhood, cabinet making, and performing with his old-time blues stringband The Water Street Hot Shots.
Rich Higdon - washboard, bass, jug
Rich Higdon, who grew up in Iowa, started singing in church when he was a kid. He also had a particularly fine Junior High band director who gave him a solid instructional base in percussion, which he has pursued ever since.
After earning a degree in art from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, He moved to Door County, Wisconsin, in 1993. It was there he met Michael Lee Ammons across a frozen bay on the shore of Lake Michigan, where Ammons asked him if he had ever played washboard. After many lessons in old-time music, playing on the street for mildly amused tourists, late-night smoky bar patrons, or just around the kitchen table; washboard has become his primary instrument. He also plays spoons, kazoo, jug, bass, and ukulele for The Water Street Hot Shots. In addition, he can be seen occasionally playing percussion with many different groups around Door County.
Rich travels to Austin, Texas, when he can, where he performs as a part of Danse Adje ( ethnocool and danse adje ), a group specializing in traditional Haitian drumming and dance.
Rich spends most of his time at home in West Jacksonport, where he makes pottery in his old blacksmith shop which he uses a studio. His work can be seen at TR Pottery in Fish Creek, WI ( TR Pottery - Fish Creek, WI ).
Alan "Doc" Mock - mandolin, banjo-mandolin, guitar, vocals
Alan Mock has been playing and performing with stringed instruments for over 30 years. Though influenced by an eclectic array of musical genres, Mock has always favored acoustic music. As a young tike, he listened to old LPs of the Limeliters, Nat King Cole, and Paul Robeson that his mother enjoyed, as well as the classical music favored by his father. Growing up around a college campus in 60s and 70s, he became familiar with Bob Dylan, the Beatles, James Taylor, Carole King, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Gordon Lightfoot, and John Denver.
Despite a brief, uninspiring stint of piano lessons at a younger age, Mock was 15 when he decided to teach himself the guitar. Within a short time, his vocal and guitar work were being heard in folk duos and trios and eventually a college rock band or two. It was during this time that Mock was first introduced to bluegrass, blues, and old-time music – mostly through jam sessions – and also finished a PhD in sociology. During the 1990s, Mock’s guitar and mandolin were providing the driving rhythms and delicate fingerpicking for Bon Jolais, a Midwest-based Celtic band.
Mock joined Michael Lee Ammons and The Water Street Hot Shots in 2000. His sparkling banjo-mandolin tunes – from the music of the Dallas String Band, The Memphis Jug Band, and The Mississippi Sheiks – and his Yank Rachell-inspired mandolin picking quickly became key ingredients in this band’s high-spirited repertoire of pre-war blues, ragtime, and “hokum” party music. Mock occasionally gives solo performances of contemporary folk music.
Based in Sheboygan, Mock lives with his very cool teenage daughter, Emma, and teaches sociology at nearby Lakeland College. When not in front of a blackboard or with a musical instrument in his hands, he can found on his bike, a rock cliff, or with a hammer remodeling his home.
Tim Dekker - fiddle and vocals
Tim Dekker came from a musical family. His father was a violist and music teacher, and his mother was a church organist. Consequently, he learned to appreciate many styles of musical expression. Tim began playing violin when he was nine years old, and was classically trained. He studied with his teacher from grade school into college, where he initially pursued a music degree but finished with a degree in psychology.
Tim has played in the first violin section of the Sheboygan Symphony for many seasons, but now fills his time playing music that’s more fun.
Shortly after high school, Tim joined his younger brother and bass player Steve in a bluegrass band called Alive ‘n Pickin’. While playing with the band, he developed his improvisational ability and had the opportunity to learn from legendary bluegrass musicians like Bobby Hicks, Kenny Baker and Byron Berline. His fiddle and voice have been featured in folk, jazz, rock & roll, and country groups as well. Since the early 90’s, he has been a member of Big Cedar, a well-known Wisconsin bluegrass band.
The thread of the blues runs through a lot of other styles of music, and Tim was sensitive to the blues sound. Some of his influences have been Stuff Smith, Joe Venuti, Eddie South, Stephane Grapelli and Lonnie Chapman. Tim believes his feel for the blues has been enhanced by his ability to successfully navigate his way around the many opportunities that had been placed in his path. Tim’s strong rhythmic style and hot leads have been part of the Hot Shots' sound since 2004.
Tim can be occasionally be found in his basement rehairing stringed instrument bows and doing violin repair. His other interests include eating truffles, ruffling his parrot’s feathers, playing with toys and puzzles, appreciating art in nature, quality workmanship and Monty Python.