Saturday, April 4, 2026 at noon on 88.1 WVPE.
Ellen Coplin and Sean Hoffman recently won “Folk Song of the Year” in Indianapolis for their song, “Kissin’ In The Rain,” from the Debutants album “Fiddle and A Rose,” which also won “Folk Album of the Year”. Listening to this month’s episode of the program, it is easy to see why. Their music is fresh, delightful, arranged, direct, and filled with lovely storytelling. Taking the stage as they often do, costumed in bobcat and opossum masks, they began with a brief discussion of their musical backgrounds, including Sean’s being influenced by the noted bluegrass fiddler, Mark O’Connor and Sean’s family’s involvement in bluegrass, and then Ellen’s discussion of her sister’s influence with her early cello career, the couple set forth, appropriately,with Ellen’s biographical song, “Sisters.”
So walk me down the county line,
Looking for my peace of mind,
It’s the road that keeps me coming back to you.
Take those songs we used to sing,
I’m writing us a symphony,
In every line we’re finding our way through.
Throughout the song, Sean Hoffman’s fiddle weaves through Ellen’s vocal like a marvelous twisting vine, uniting this paean to her siblings and solidifying its triumphant close and beautiful imagery.
Like a skipping stone, the ripples spread across the lake,
Reaching out into the edge, where the leaves begin to shake,
If you’re waiting for the right time, it's about time for a change.
A discussion follows concerning the band’s chosen name, and how their experience of an opossum in the wilderness helped solidify the decision.Immediately following is their ballad about the Reno Brothers, a band of ex-soldiers who committed one of the first train robberies in the country in 1866 near Seymour, Indiana. Like many strong ballads, the tale ends with a question.
Ask yourself before you sleep in your safe and tranquil beds,
What’s the price of war and the price to get ahead,
Is it vigilante justice or the grinding gears of law,
Or is it just good business if you’re quicker on the draw?
At the break, songwriter and friend of the band, Ben Traverse, from Manistee, Michigan, shares an historical ballad he penned about a shipwreck during the deadliest storm in Great Lakes history in 1913. The tale ends happily with the entire crew being rescued thanks to the quick thinking of their brave captain. A member of the Earthworks Cooperative, a songwriting and storytelling support group in Michigan, Ben accompanies his tale on the clawhammer banjo–mentioning that he took lessons with the Moon’s friend and radio mate, Evie Laden.
After the tale, two members of the audience, Erin Schafer, a retired French Teacher and guitarist,and Bryan Garlotte, a retired truss designer and banjoist, take turns answering questions on the “Shoot the Moon” game show.Their fun topics include: Oh, Oh, Oh, Opossum–Practice, Practice, Said Sister–On the Wall Us–Mello Hello Cello. After answering the questions with the band’s help, both contestants earn their requisite WRMRH Mugs and Stickers.
In the final section of the show, Ellen and Sean discuss recording songs in Anacortes, WA for their latest album, and Ellen discusses Yo Yo Ma and his influence on her music and her life.The song that follows, Everything All At Once, refers to the idea that life is filled with so many wonderful choices, and the strain of trying to do them all at the same time.The song features some of the finest fiddling of the show from Sean and ends appropriately by winding down and dying out, mirroring the exhaustion so many choices imply.
After the song, Sean and Ellen discuss their teaching kids music at the Folky Fish Jam Camp in Missouri, and their teaching at Red Wing Roots Academy in Harrisonburg, Virginia, started by the band, The Steel Wheels. In addition, they mention their Fort Wayne-based Debutants Hoot Camp for 4th to 12th graders with their band, Debutants.
The show concludes with a satirical number called, Things Ain’t As Bad As They Seem.Sean explains during his introduction, “I wrote this song in 2017, and you always say, it could be worse.From then to here, well, who knows.” In the spirit of Woody Guthrie and the Almanac Singers, the song unwinds, sharing the soul of so many voices gone on before.
It’s a hard patch of life that we’re all goin’ through,
But things ain’t as bad as they seem.
And the liars and thieves have all got the keys,
Things ain’t as bad as they seem.
And the rich men with money are making the laws,
But things ain’t as bad as they seem.
Cause they’re letting us pay for the privilege to stay.
Things aren’t as bad as they seem.