This episode, Julie sits down with multi-instrumentalist and composer Larry Unger. Larry has been a full-time musician since 1984, and he has presented a diverse range of music at contra, Scottish and English dances, music camps, festivals, coffee houses and concerts all across North America and abroad. You might have heard his guitar, banjo, or bass playing in bands like Notorious, Big Table, The Reckless Ramblers, and Uncle Gizmo. Larry gives solo concerts that include a wide variety of music: finger-style blues and slide guitar, rags, old-time banjo tunes, original waltzes and fiddle tunes. He likes to play a number of unusual instruments such as banjo guitar, fretless banjo, jaw harp and piano harp. Larry has composed more than 5000 tunes, many of which have been recorded by his bands or by other groups. His tunes are widely played at contra dances everywhere and he’s published three books of original tunes and two entire CDs of original waltzes (with Ginny Snowe). His compositions and recordings have been featured in four different Ken Burns television documentaries, on the Grand Ole Opry, and by the San Luis Obispo Symphony Orchestra, to name a few. This episode comes to you out of the Contra Pulse VAULT. It was recorded pre-Covid when Julie was still going to people’s homes to chat and recording interviews in video format. Because the original end-goal of this interview was not a podcast the audio quality is a little hard to hear at times. If you have any trouble understanding Larry and Julie’s fascinating conversation you can find a full transcript of the interview below.