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Launched from Elk Creek Café: Penns Valley Native Strikes a New Chord on the National Stage

As Judy Hyman tells the story, Gus Tritsch and his mother arrived at the Elk Creek Café in Millheim in 2008 to watch Hyman’s band, The Horse Flies, at soundcheck. Tritsch was four at the time and had recently started taking violin lessons from her.

As she would soon learn, Tritsch was not like any other fiddle student she’d ever had.

“He watched the sound check in a way that four-year-olds typically can’t. It was almost uncanny,” Hyman says. “Never seen a four-year-old stand that still and look that focused.” 

Some 15 years later, Tritsch is making a name for himself as a multi-instrumentalist who blends old-time string band music with modern rock and roll. The instruments he plays include fiddle, guitar and the banjouke, which looks like a banjo but is played like a ukulele. 

Tritsch says he knew he wanted to be a musician not long after meeting Hyman and seeing The Horse Flies at the Elk Creek Cafe. He’s stuck to that plan despite feelings of self-doubt that cropped up over the years.

“I probably knew it when I was six and doubted it later,” Tritsch says. “I don’t really focus on whether someone is a professional musician or not. Some of the people I’ve learned the most from are not professionals.”

Over the past year, he’s performed at venues and festivals across the country with roots musician Jake Blount, a fellow student of Hyman’s. That tour included a stop at NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series and performances throughout the United Kingdom. He toured Spain in April 2022 with the Penns Valley-based rock band Marah and will be back on the road with Blount this summer.

Jake Blount’s NPR Tiny Desk performance featured Gus Tritsch on electric guitar.

In between national gigs, Tritsch and his younger brother, Huck, perform as the band The Wicked Chicken. The duo played at Lewisburg’s Downtown Theatre in February as part of the Weis Center for the Performing Arts spring season.

Tritsch’s musical foundation comes from Hyman and her husband, Jeff Claus, who are one half of The Horse Flies. They would meet for lessons throughout the year, either at Hyman and Claus’s home in Ithaca, New York, or at Tritsch’s home in Millheim if The Horse Flies were in town to perform at the Elk Creek Cafe.

“I would often play him something and he would imitate it, but when I was playing I noticed that he would turn his head to the side,” Hyman says. “Other students do it because they’re distracted, but Gus was doing it because he didn’t want anything to get in the way of hearing the sound clearly.” 

Aside from the old-time traditions, Tritsch picked up rock-and-roll showmanship from Marah’s Dave Bielanko, who invited him to play on the 2014 album Marah Presents Mountain Minstrelsy of Pennsylvania.

“My education in performing was at Elk Creek and I started playing with Mountain Minstrelsy when I was ten or eleven,” Tritsch says. “Stage fright didn’t really factor into it and I learned a lot from watching the other members of the band on stage.”

It was that combination of old and new that made Blount reach out to Tritsch when he was putting a band together to perform songs from his albums Spider Tales and The New Faith, which he says are very different musically. Tritsch primarily plays electric guitar in Blount’s band but also plays banjouke and other instruments as needed.

“We went from being an acoustic string band to being electrified and weird, and he was able to do both things equally well,” Blount says. “He also brought a rock sensibility when the rest of us were coming out of folk music.”

Blount recalls a show in Chicago where Tritsch sat on the stairs during one of his guitar solos, evoking showmanship that he was worried would raise some eyebrows in the folk world. However, Blount says fans are supportive of the new sound and Tritsch’s role in the band. 

“People tend to react to me having him around and ask me if I’m a mentor to Gus, and I feel like the opposite way around,” Blount says. “He’s showing me how to do new things, just makes it all better.”

Elk Creek Cafe Owner Tim Bowser says he knew Tritsch was talented early on. He always saw other musicians who performed with Tritsch respect that talent, rather than treat him as a novelty because of his age. Bowser says he wouldn’t have invited Tritsch to play on his stage if he didn’t think he was up to the musical standard he sets for the venue.

“I’m honored that Gus and Huck got their start in Millheim and they honor that,” Bowser says. “With Gus getting national attention, people are constantly saying, ‘I saw him here first,’ and I would always agree that’s great to see it unfolding how it has.”

At the time of this interview in March, Tritsch was gearing up to go back on the road after being home most of the winter. He’s spending more time playing fiddle after playing guitar in Blount’s band. He’s also started writing his own fiddle tunes with guidance from Hyman and Claus.

Tritsch shuns routine in his life and stays away from spending too much time on social media, saying, “I know how to use a tape machine but I don’t know how to use Instagram.” He knows music will always be part of his life but is still sorting out whether that path will include formal education. 

“I’m committed to continuing my education in music, whether that’s in college or learning by a campfire somewhere or standing behind someone on stage and watching what they do,” Tritsch says. “I’ll always keep learning about music.” T&G

Jenna Spinelle is a writer, podcaster and live-music fan based in State College.