MARTHA SPENCER & THE WONDERLAND COUNTRY BAND

Country and old-time
Whitetop Mountain, Virginia

Hailing from Whitetop Mountain, a small Appalachian community nestled in the rugged Blue Ridge Mountains, Martha Spencer is a living testimony to the vitality and deep roots of traditional music in Southwest Virginia. A gifted multi-instrumentalist, singer, and dancer, Martha is recognized as one of Virginia’s most cherished traditional artists. Together with her bandmates in the Wonderland Country Band, she is helping to preserve and carry forward the unique musical traditions of Grayson County, Virginia.

Martha Spencer comes from a musical family and has been immersed in old-time traditions from the time she was born. Her father was renowned old-time fiddler Thornton Spencer; her mother Emily Spencer is a banjoist, singer, and teacher; and her uncle was the highly influential luthier and musician Albert Hash. As a child, Martha soaked up the music and culture around her and learned to play several instruments by ear, including guitar, fiddle, banjo, bass, dulcimer, and mandolin, as well as flatfoot dancing- a talent she inherited from her great-grandfather, award-winning Appalachian dancer Bud Spencer. Martha regularly tours with Whitetop Mountain Band, a family band for three generations and is still a favorite of dance halls and concert stages throughout the region. Over the years, Martha has fronted a seemingly endless number of bands and musical collaborations, including Spencer Branch with her brother Kilby, the Blue Ridge Girls, the Whitetop Mountaineers, Larry Sigmon & the Unique Sound of the Mountains, and most recently the Wonderland Country Band.  

Martha is committed to sharing her region’s rich cultural traditions, seeing them as essential to the health of her community. "With the culture I grew up in, it was always something that was to be shared and invited into," Spencer says. “It’s important for me to pass it on and keep going. Music and dance can do a lot for people…. It's something to be prideful for."

Martha Spencer and the Wonderland Country Band are comprised of Lucas Pasley on fiddle, banjo, and guitar; Lu Furtado on upright bass; and Jake Dwyer on various forms of percussion. This high-flying Virginia band guides the listener through a musical landscape of old-time Appalachian tunes, Django jazz, bluegrass, country, American songbook-style tunes, and ambling blues. Rolling Stone states that their sound is, “Appalachian music, through and through, with all the dynamism of a string band and the longing of a lovelorn country song.” 

Piling into Martha’s vintage Wonderland camper, the Wonderland Country Band has toured across the U.S., and have performed at the Topanga Banjo Fiddle Festival, Buck Owens Crystal Palace, the Ashkenaz Center, the Oklahoma Banjo Museum, and Song of the Mountains on PBS, among others. 

Artist website and social media:

www.marthaspencermusic.com
facebook.com/marthaspencermusic
instagram.com/marthaalice_in_wonderland
youtube.com/channel/UCRLkP77rZjSuIRYPzfRk83g

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