Georgianne Jackofsky of the
Homegrown String Band wasn't always a musician. But on her
15th wedding anniversary, her husband, Rick, and daughters
Erica and Annalee gave her a big, long package. Inside was a
mountain dulcimer, a traditional Appalachian instrument.
"You're going to play with us," they told her.
This happened at a Quaker meeting, and Georgianne responded
in most un-Quakerlike fashion.
"I had a temper tantrum," she said by phone from her home
in Rocky Point, N.Y. "I said, 'You're not getting me in front
of anybody playing the dulcimer. There's no way.' Then the
whole meeting gathered around me and said, 'You can do it. You
can learn.'"
A couple years later, for Christmas, she got a
banjo-ukulele (it has the neck of a ukulele and the "pot" of a
banjo), and now she performs with the family group at concerts
and folk music festivals. The band will appear Sunday as part
of "A Lake Winona Celebration II" at the Lake Winona Beach and
Civic Center in the Lake Hopatcong section of Jefferson.
The group has released three CDs, the latest of which is
"Rock Hollow."
Rick Jackofsky plays guitar and banjo and sings with a
old-time Southern twang, though he's from Long Island. Annalee
plays mandolin and jaw harp. Erica is a fiddler of some renown
who has studied with folk music notables Lisa Gutkin and Kenny
Kosek.
Playing music isn't the only thing they do together. The
family made a decision to live a simpler lifestyle, which
began with throwing away the television 12 years ago. The two
girls were home-schooled; Erica graduated from high school two
years ago and Annalee just finished 11th grade.
"I like what they stand for personally, and I like that
kind of music, too," said John Nyman, founder of the Winona
Folk Acoustic Music Series.
Lake Winona is a small community surrounding an 11-acre
manmade lake in Jefferson. Nyman and some other volunteers put
on the first Winona Folk concert in July 2002; now they are
held regularly in the spring and fall. The Lake Winona Civic
Center holds 50 people for the indoor shows; Nyman said he
expects about 200 for Saturday's outdoor performance.
Also on the bill are David Francis, Gary Paul Hermus, Tim
Whalen and Doug Alan Wilcox, all of whom have played the
series before. Each will play for a half-hour. Erica Jackofsky
will give a clog-dancing workshop at 1 p.m., and the Homegrown
String Band will play a headlining set at 3 p.m.
Proceeds from the event will go toward engineering work for
the rebuilding of the Lake Winona dam, which was damaged in
the 2000 flood.
Nyman, who jokingly calls himself "the impresario of Winona
Folk," is also the postmaster of the Cedar Knolls post office.
"There's a lot of cross-connections," he said. "People see
me there and then see me in the audience here and say, 'Hey,
it's a small world.'"
Besides the Lake Winona show, the Homegrown String Band has
another New Jersey performance Saturday at 1 p.m. at the
Sussex County Library in Newton.
Rick and Georgianne Jackofsky met as 16-year-olds at
Harborfield High School on Long Island (he grew up in
Centerport, she in Huntington). He went on to study music,
played bass in rockabilly and honky-tonk bands, and dreamed of
playing in Hot Tuna or the Grateful Dead, Georgianne said. She
went to college for art with a concentration in advertising
and a minor in English. Now she edits books for a living from
home; her husband owns a photo lab.
After Rick Jackofsky was involved in a near-fatal accident,
the family re-evaluated its lifestyle. Besides ditching the
TV, they threw out most of their other appliances and took up
old-fashioned pastimes like storytelling, beekeeping,
knitting, weaving, and making homemade bread and music.
The home schooling came about when Erica's orchestra leader
told Georgianne Jackofsky that the school didn't really
support the orchestra, and she'd be better off taking her out
of school and having her study privately.
"If they know how to learn, then they learn," Georgianne
said. "By the time Erica was in eighth grade, she knew more
about astronomy than I did."
The family still had a good relationship with the local
schools, she said.
"Any time they were going on a field trip, they called us
up, or they'd say 'We're having a special assembly, do you
want to come in?' They gave us books, and we would put on
concerts for the classes."
Erica is now pursuing a degree in the arts through Empire
State College, a distance learning center, "almost like a
continuation of home schooling," her mother said. She also
gives private fiddle lessons and teaches ballet, jazz and tap
dancing, besides performing with the family band.
"My husband keeps saying that he hopes that somebody will
discover Erica and have her play with them," Georgianne
Jackofsky said.
A typical weekend might find them packing the car with
camping equipment and driving off to a bluegrass or folk music
festival somewhere in the Northeast. Rick Jackofsky serves as
front man and spokesman.
"He's got a lot of anecdotes," Georgianne Jackofsky said.
"He's usually pretty funny about them, too. He really enjoys
his time on stage because he says it's his chance to get back
at living with three women."
A LAKE WINONA CELEBRATION II
With the Homegrown String Band, Gary Paul Hermus, Tim
Whalen, David Francis, Doug Alan Wilcox and clog dancing
workshop
July 18 , noon to 6 p.m.
Lake Winona Beach and Civic Center, 49 Winona Trail, Lake
Hopatcong
Tickets $10. Call (973) 663-1473 or visit
www.winonafolk.org.
