A Brief History of the Pohick Pickers

The Reverend Donald D. Binder, PhD

Rector, Pohick Church

The Pohick Pickers were formed in the Fall of 1987, when I was serving at Pohick
as a young seminarian. During the preceding Summer, the Fair Committee had decided it
wanted some entertainment for the fairgoers. So one of them approached a few of us with
musical backgrounds to see what we could do. We were happy to oblige, and thus the
Pohick Pickers were born.
There were originally four members in the group: Myself (acoustic guitar),
Barbara Hoffman (now Barbara Lynn, banjo), Buddy Bryan (electric guitar) and Carolyn
Duskin (electric bass). All of us provided vocals.
In those early days, we were essentially a once-a-year band, rehearsing on Apple
Butter Saturday and playing for the throngs on Fair Day itself.
I graduated from seminary in 1989 and departed for Florida. Soon thereafter
Barbara left the area for a time. The Pickers looked destined for the dustbin of Pohick
history.
Into this void stepped our current band-leader, John Sessums (also now Pohick’s
Sexton), whose skills as a professional musician have ably guided the Pohick Pickers
ever since. Under his leadership, the Pickers now perform not only during the Country
Fair, but also at a number of other church activities throughout the year, including the
annual Crab Feast in September, the Christmas Party for the Homeless in December, and
other outreach events. The band also leads the communion music one Sunday a month,
and provides musical support for other less formal liturgical gatherings.
Over the past fifteen years, band membership has also grown. We’ve had as many
as eight performing together on the same crowded stage. However, because all of us still
have day jobs demanding our time, there are usually fewer than this number at a majority
of the performances.
Although members have come and gone over the years (myself among them),
most recently the band has included: John Sessums (guitar, banjo), Jud Sage (12-string
guitar), Barbara Lynn (violin), Don Binder (guitar), Ken Wrona (guitar), Chris Brown
(guitar), Mason Botts (bass), Alex Hodge (guitar, banjo, mandolin), and Carmel Hodge
(viola). Two members of our Youth Group, Alex Sessums and Justin Brooks, have also
sat in on some recent sessions, perhaps forming the core of the next generation of
Pickers!
From its inception, the Pohick Pickers have had an eclectic repertoire—a result of
both audience requests and the diverse musical interests of individual members. At its
heart, however, the Pickers remain an old-fashioned folk group, with folk songs and
spiritual revival standards forming the core of its musical catalogue. Around this hub
have gravitated other musical styles, such as Pop, Country, Rockabilly, Blue Grass and
Blues.
Whatever your own musical preferences, we hope that you will enjoy our
performance today, as well as at events you might attend at Pohick in the future. We
always perform for the love of Christ and the joy of the music—and we hope that you
will catch some of each as you listen to us play.