The Alaska String Band

	Paul
	Melissa
	Laura
	Quinn
	Abigail

Introducing the Alaska String Band

Greetings from the Alaska String Band. We are pleased to present to you an engaging and uniquely Alaskan musical entertainment. The Alaska String Band is a concert group comprised of members of a single family performing with guitar, twin violin-fiddles, bass, mandolin, ukulele, percussion and vocals.

Our repertoire consists of a lively collection of bluegrass, old time, gospel, swing, dawg, blues, Celtic and original music. Many songs we play are often requested favorites. Also featured are beautiful waltzes, airs and haunting melodies graced with vocal blends heard only in single family arrangements.

Audiences delight in the youthful exuberance of our family which exhibits extraordinary musicianship, technical skill and interpretative ability. Energetic dancing and attractive costumes designed to reflect the spirit of Alaskan artistic lifestyle, culture and traditions lend excitement and a dramatic flare to our shows.

Much of our material dates from the pioneer days of Alaska when the Gold Rush was on and stampeders ventured north with dreams of fortune. Our band provides a singular Alaskan color, being a multi-generational family having resided in Juneau since 1968. Juneau, Alaska’s capital city, is accessible via water or air (there are no roads into Juneau from outside) and welcomes a million visitors to her port each summer. On board cruise ships, at the Mt. Roberts Tramway, and the Gold Creek Salmon Bake we have regularly presented musical shows laced with stories about Alaska’s capital city and people (local living, history, hard rock mining, native culture and traditions).

Melissa and I have been making music together in Juneau, throughout Alaska, and internationally for the past 27 years. We began informally instructing each of our children at an early age and are delighted to find that our passion for music is shared by the children; they are Laura, Quinn and Abigail. Educating them at home
has provided for unusual opportunities to enhance their musical experience.

We take joy in the gift of music and the privilege to share it with you.

Sincerely looking forward to hearing from you,

Paul Zahasky
for the Alaska String Band

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Spotlight Intros

Paul: Adventurer and musician extraodinaire

Paul, a native of northeast Iowa, filled his pack with his mom’s home-baked kolache, guitar in hand and headed west to California in search of sun and surf. Exhausting his supply of kolache - and fuel - he crossed the Colorado border entering Steam Boat Lake State Park and signed up with the Young Adult Conservation Corps. The wonders of living and working in one of America’s great park reserves soon led him on to Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park and points beyond. Eventually answering the call of the north he arrived on the last frontier. Paul enjoyed working in remote areas of Southeast Alaska and subsequently started a park service career in the employment of the State of Alaska‘s Department of Natural Resources.

Music eventually brought Paul and Melissa together in Juneau, having been introduced by a musical matchmaking friend which they shared in common. Happily wed, this couple soon recognized their differences - not just a few - but we’ll elaborate on the music end of the spectrum. Paul was a strongly motivated guitarist and song writer with exacting interpretive and listening skills, learning mostly by ear and influenced by guitar icons such as Steve Howe, David Bromberg and Phil Keaggy. In contrast, Melissa’s training was steeped in the classical tradition of violin and voice. They combined their melodious passions and soon were making beautiful music together.

Twenty-five years of marriage for Paul and Melissa have brought a myriad of adventures such as: Attending Bible colleges in Montana and Alaska, traveling nationally and abroad, raising a family, building a home, rain forest gardening, bear patrol, fostering a love for learning in their three children, and surviving the looooong northern winters.

To date, Paul keeps the family entertained and the in-laws mystified by dreaming up and embarking on escapades such as: Wintering in Hawaii and learning to surf; purchasing a forty foot bus, sight unseen, on the internet and launching his family on an extended musical tour of the lower forty-eight states; singing opera at the top of his lungs; playing guitar and mandolin in the Alaska String Band; and taking a sabbatical from career responsibility so he can spend time with his wife and children while pursuing the dream of a family musical enterprise and clean the basement.

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Melissa

California born, Melissa ventured north to Alaska with her family at the age of three. Her father, an avid outdoorsman, accepted a position with the State of Alaska in Juneau. There the family remained while Melissa grew; making friends, attending school, skipping school to ski on stellar powder days, sparing with her three older brothers, blueberry picking, jumping puddles, building snow forts, dodging snowballs and fishing with dad.

While just a tike, Melissa remembers: Singing along to America’s favorite folk songs while her dad kept rhythm on his old guitar -- barrowing the Burl Ives record album from the local public library at least one hundred times -- and aspiring to be one of Lawrence Welk’s "three lovely ladies." Desiring to play the flute, Melissa’s hopes were dashed when her older brother abandoned the Montgomery Ward’s violin provided by her parents and she inherited the instrument. It wasn’t long before Melissa’s inner love of music found a voice on those strings with the careful tutelage of a soon to be life-long mentor and friend. This eventually led to the University of Alaska, Southeast, providing further studies in violin performance. She enjoyed a seat with the Juneau Symphony Orchestra as well, before marriage and children consumed her attention. The Alaska Folk Festival, providing an admirable cast of varied and singular folk artists, has been instrumental in introducing Melissa to the world of folk music. Paul and Melissa both, through years of attendance and participation, have gleaned invaluable inspiration, education and direction to great musical resources.

Today some of Melissa’s occupations include: Private violin/fiddle instruction, costume design, avoiding the basement in which a mountain of laundry resides, eating fine chocolates, midnight slug raids in the garden, hosting celebrations, old fashioned letter correspondence, singing along with Eva Cassidy, Winona Judd and Bing Crosby recordings, attending worship services with her family, kindling a fire in the wood cook stove, and investigating the world of admired artists such as Norman Rockwell, Will Moses, Claude Monet, Tasha Tudor, Cherryholmes and the Family Von Trapp.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
-- Henry David Thoreau

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Laura - born in 1991

Snuggled closely, papoos style, Laura was contentedly cooing along while Paul and Melissa entertained in Russia, Mexico and for guests at the Gold Creek Salmon Bake in 1991. However her formal training in music ensued ten years later when Laura determined she wanted her very own microphone during the summer performances. Melissa informed her that the prerequisit to amplification was practice. Laura proved to be both an enthusiastic and excellent student, quickly learning the ropes on violin/fiddle, guitar and mandolin. After resistance to coaxing and pleading, Laura finally succumbed to bribery and was convinced to add her voice to the mix. Laura posesses a remarkable gift and it expresses itself in many delightful and unexpected ways as she brings her own spirited and creative offerings to the Alaska String Band. Today she even gets her own microphone on occasion.

Aside from her interest in music, Laura is an avid outdoor enthusiast; always game to ski, camp, hunt, surf, kayak, ice climb or engage in whatever opportunity presents itself. She does however avoid swimming with sea lions as she finds them some what intimidating.

One of Laura’s favored weekend rituals is tuning in to Garrison Keillor’s A Prarie Home Companion. She takes particular note of the Lake Wobegon dialect finding that, with careful attention, she has been able to perfect her linguistic skills and therefore enjoys a fluid communication when visiting with her distant relatives in the middle west.

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Quinn - born in 1994

“No!“ was the emphatic answer given by four year old Quinn when asked if he would like to try his hand at the fiddle. However, given time, Quinn did take to bass playing like a porcupine to a potato patch. Being a bit young to maneuver an upright bass, he spent his tenth year becoming acquainted with the acoustic bass guitar. Popeye’s lead seeming preposterous, Quinn proceeded to consume enormous quantities of "green free" food and soon acquired the height and build to handle an upright bass. He found a most excellent bass instructor and got down to business. Quinn is a rock solid bass player, though he is known on rare occasion to drift because he is otherwise engaged provoking his sisters to distraction. This diversion is swiftly and surreptitiously reigned in by the steely gaze of his doting mother. Inspired by the Alaska Folk Festival’s guest artists, the Hot Club of Cow Town, Quinn has proceeded to develop an impressive slap bass technique. When a driving bass solo is called for, Quinn is sure to deliver; and following his sister’s example he now lends his fine voice to the Alaska String Band.

Responsibility with the band aside, Quinn finds many fascinating interests including: skiing, creative writing, chopping wood, keeping lists, driving, reading, talking on the telephone, climbing very tall trees, girls and collecting vast quantities of boyhood treasure i.e. dry sponges, rubber ducks, old bones, peanut butter sandwiches, duct tape and dirty socks. For the curious who may desire a comprehensive list of desirable boyhood treasure, Quinn will be happy to provide a list.

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Abigail - born in 1997

With Abigail comes a smile and unsuppressed enthusiasm for fun. Dressed for success, she sports a passion for fashion, being of one mind with Ian Falconer’s Olivia, when it comes to accessorizing. Abigail expressed a desire to join the band at a younger age than her siblings, sensing she was missing out on all the excitement. She has developed a sound right hand at the mandolin and when encouraged will take the lead with ease. Progress is slow and steady as she learns from her mother and sister the intricacies of the violin-fiddle, joining in on several bluegrass tunes. But above all else Abigail loves to sing and audiences love to listen. Not inhibited by a timid nature, Abigail has earned the title, Little Miss P.R. When called to step on stage, she is most often found mingling nearby with the audience while revealing the inside scoop on life with the Alaska String Band.

Abigail’s interests remain centered on home and family. She adores holiday festivities, taking pleasure in the familiar rituals of each season. Growing up in a remote community of Alaska with a road system which spans a mere forty miles from end to end, Abigail finds touring with the Alaska String Band a marvelous adventure. Along Southeast Alaska’s Inside Passage, transportation is provided either by plane or via the Alaska Marine Highway on board one of the state’s ferry boats. Further a field she travels with her family in a forty foot bus; looking forward to meeting new friends, exploring the lower forty-eight states, and basking in the sunshine which is a rare commodity in her rain forest home.

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