Naomi's Fancy

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Naomi's Fancy is a traditional Celtic music group based out of Elkin, NC. The group formed as a jam session in October of 1997, and played their first gig in November of that year. The group provides high-energy music, with an extensive instrumentation. The group consists of four members: Naomi Orr, Craig Sexton, Stanley Widener, and Randy Candelaria. Their instrumentation includes the harp, flutes, whistle, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, bodhran, concertina, Scottish small pipes, bouzouki, and tenor banjo.

Naomi Orr, the founder of the group, is a music teacher and holds a degree in Music Education from Western Carolina University. She has taught band, chorus, and elementary music for 19 years now. She got her harp in 1993 and became interested in Celtic music. Her husband, Craig Sexton, is a self-taught musician whose previous experience includes playing for rock groups and running sound for events. They both reside in Thurmond, NC. Randy Candelaria is from Pinnacle, NC, and is the Dean of Learning Resources at an area college. Stanley Widener is from Fancy Gap, VA, and is a beef farmer. His previous music experience involves many years of competition on the banjo and guitar at area Fiddler's Conventions, including the Wayne Henderson Guitar Festival. He has also taken lessons through the NC School of the Arts.

Programs for which the group has performed include the Sycamore Shoals Celtic Festival in Johnson City, TN, the Chautauqua Festival in Wytheville, VA, the Jeb Stuart Civil War Reenactment in Ararat, VA, and the Celtic Festival at Bethabara Park, Winston-Salem. Their radio programs include the "Blue Ridge Backroads" program on WBRF, Galax, VA, and the "Celtic Winds" program on public radio, out of Spindale, NC. Two CDs have been released by the group - the self-titled CD "Naomi's Fancy" and "The Old Bush".

Check out their website at www.naomisfancy.net