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"We are definitely the biggest and the best because we're the only contra dance band in Sitka," said Dorothy Orbison, a flute player who will be making her debut folk festival performance with Fishing for Cats at a dance on Saturday night, April 17, at the armory. This will be the band's third folk festival appearance.
The band, co-founded by husband and wife Ted Howard and Julie Schmitts, began 10 years ago to fill the absence of live music at Sitka's monthly contra dances.
At a kitchen-table-meeting to decide upon a name for the band, Howard brought up a song that he had previously written at a friend's house in Anchorage.
"I wrote a tune and named it after the experience of playing with a cat with a piece of seal skin on the end of the string, and it was kind of like I was fishing for the cat," he said. "As we looked for a band name that kind of came up as a name. It was a process of elimination thing."
The band has been Fishing for Cats ever since.
"We're a no-audition, no-cut band," said Howard, adding that he has had about 35 musicians come and go over the past decade. "We're in it for fun, not for glory."
Orbison said the band ranges from about 15 to 20 people, depending on band members' prior engagements.
"We could get by if we only had a piano and a fiddle, but we are actually a very large group," she said. "We are a very large and open group. Almost anyone can fit in."
Fishing for Cats will be forced to play with a smaller lineup due to some of the band members' obligations in Sitka, but Howard said there will be a core group attending the festival.
Howard said the band plays a mix of Irish-Scottish roots tunes, southern style fiddle tunes and American roots music, and consists of musicians playing a variety of instruments, including a piano, fiddles, banjos, mandolins, guitars, a bass and more.
Howard said the band has drawn some very talented musicians over the years, of all different ages.
"That's one of the nice things about the band, is that it's multi-generational," he said.
Fishing for Cats has attracted a couple of high school students to play with the band as regulars. Lauren Wild, a junior at Sitka High School, has been playing with the band since she was in grade school, and there is also a Swiss exchange student who is a classically trained violinist. Unfortunately, neither will be able to attend the festival this year.
The band will be adding a little bit of Sitka flavor to this year's festival.
   
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