Scott Risner, left and Ed Cunningham of the Comet Bluegrass Allstars are regulars onstage at the Comet in Northside. (Enquirer file photo).

S E E   T H E M   L I V E

The Comet Bluegrass Allstars have regular gigs at the following locations: • The Comet, 4579 Hamilton Ave., Northside, 7:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Sunday of the month • The Mad Frog, 1 E. McMillan St., Clifton, 9 p.m. each Wednesday

By Alisha Woolery
Enquirer Contributor
for Cincinnati.Com

The six members of the locally renowned bluegrass band, the Comet Bluegrass Allstars, pick their instruments with a fury, fluidly gathering to the lone microphone then out again, making old-time music as pure as water.

This is Sunday night bluegrass at the Comet.

Each Allstar musician can sing, and all are masters of their instrument of choice. Tim Strong is lead on the flat top guitar, Ed Cunningham fiddles, Scott Risner is on the mandolin, Brandt Smith plays the resophonic guitar, Jeff Roberts picks the banjo and Chris Cusentino plucks his upright bass.

Without a sheet of music in sight, the group picks toe-tapping songs like "Katie Hill," or favorites from the movie "O Brother Where Art Thou"—a boon for bluegrass music everywhere. Cunningham assembled this all-star lineup of local talent in 1997 to play as the Sunday night house band at the Comet in Northside. What resulted is a fiddlin', pickin', banjo strummin', knee-slappin' good time that is quickly becoming a Cincinnati tradition. While the gigs only drew a few listeners at first, today the Comet Bluegrass Allstars play to a full house of all ages.

"It's family night at the Comet," Cunningham said. "Little kids are dancing around, another guy is 98, almost 100 years old. He loves the bluegrass and the old-time country."

Like most of the members of the band, Cunningham belongs to several other groups, spreading his melodic voice and musical talent between the New Radio Cowboys and the Ohio Valley Rounders. He grew up in Mack and remembers an early affinity for the music of the banjo.

"It just seemed to have such a pure sound, and conjure images of simple country living...such a down-home sound," he explained. "Like hospitality in the air."

The band's sweet strumming efforts have earned them numerous awards and a devoted following. Besides two Sundays a month at the Comet, the band also has regular gigs at the Mad Frog and Kaldi's. In 1999, Cunningham put together "Bluegrass Sunday," which included music by members of the Allstars, as well as a laundry list of other local pickers. He hopes to put out an Allstars CD this winter.

"We don't know whether to approach it creatively with new arrangements, or to simply do what we do," Cunningham said.

What they do is carry on a tradition of storytelling and music-making born from generations of bluegrass lovers. On Sunday nights, that tradition brings with it a sense of community and friendship. As Cunningham humbly describes it, Sunday night bluegrass is "just a bunch of guys with wooden instruments making music and singing."