The Heartaches Stringband is a labour of love between husband and wife duo Amanda Lynn Stubley and Martin Horak. They are regularly joined by London’s reigning master of the mandolin, James Cummins. Multi-instrumentalist Uncle Dan Henshall rounds out their oldtimey stringband sound with his doghouse bass. Check out www.facebook.com/theheartaches to see photos and what we’re up to these days.
Friends in life, pros on the stage, Heartaches members are active across the country. James Cummins is well known as a guitar shredder with local band The Yams. As well, he headed up local bluegrass band The Goin’ Concern in the early 2000s and played and toured with acclaimed bluegrass band Rhyme N Reason. For several years, Uncle Dan heads up the Heartaches’ first-cousin, once-removed, The River Valley Stringband.
Amanda Lynn Stubley is a folklorist who did graduate work on South Carolina stringbands at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC. For 8 years, she hosted London’s folk radio show For The Folk , on 94.9 Radio Western. Most recently, she’s been exploring songwriting, the banjo and solo performing and released a solo album called “Gem” in 2017. These days, she’s teaching writing and communications at Fanshawe College. Read more about Amanda’s solo work on her page.
Martin Horak is the “fiddlin’ professor” who keeps a day job working at Western University, where he teaches and researches urban studies. As duet partners with young kids, Martin and Amanda Lynn have become masters of the ‘alternative venue,’ and played shows in a broad variety of locations including bakeries and diners, ice cream shops and turkey suppers.
Martin Horak
Amanda Lynn Stubley
James Cummins
