Neia Lively,
Phil Knoerzer
& Tom Naples

When playing at a garden party in summer 2023, a chance question from a guest (“What is your band’s name?”) and Ol’ Paint was born. Friends who like playing music together make for happy bands so Tom Naples joined Ol’ Paint in 2024. Neia, Phil and Tom share an interest in acoustic music that goes back many years. They started playing together in various group configurations recently and enjoy sharing their love of good stories, nice harmonies, and pleasant accompaniment.

They also have an interest in historical music programs including music and prose of Woody Guthrie about the Dust Bowl era and songs about the Erie Canal. A visit with Ol’ Paint is sure to set your mind at ease and your toes tapping.

Neia Lively (guitar, banjo, ukulele, vocals) has been performing folk and traditional music since the 1970’s. In Buffalo, she has played for Buffalo Friends of Folk Music, at PeopleArt Coffee House, and at the Art’s Café in Springville as well as at other acoustic music venues in the area. She has also been the featured artist at the Red Herring in Urbana, Illinois and at the Prism Coffee House in Charlottesville, Virginia. In north Texas, she played for over twenty years in the contradance band Squirrelheads in Gravy.

Recently, she has played with The 198 String Band and with The Lively Fish. Drawn to music from the United States and the British Isles, her influences include the “high and lonesome sound” of the music of the Appalachian Mountains and the work of current and past singer/songwriters who paint vivid pictures of ordinary people’s lives.

Phil Knoerzer (guitar, harmonica, banjo, vocals) is fairly new to the acoustic music scene. For the last twenty years he has been the rhythm guitarist and harmonica player for The Skiffle Minstrels. In high school, Phil played washtub bass and harmonica with the celebrated Amerikan Flyer Jug Band, and once in college, he started a very short solo career at campus venues and parties.

Most recently, he became acquainted with The 198 String Band and has played in several “song and story” programs featuring the music of Woody Guthrie, music from the Depression Era, and a program of Civil War era music which they presented for a history symposium at CUNY Baruch College.

Tom Naples (guitar, banjo, vocals) has performed original music along with children’s and historical-based music programs (The Dust Bowl, The Great Depression, New England Maritime songs, The Labor Movement, Immigration, The Civil War and Woody Guthrie) for the past 25 years. During that time, he has traveled throughout the United States.

He has done extensive research work at The Library of Congress, as well as at several Dust Bowl reunions in Oklahoma and California. Tom has performed with various groups and as a solo act. He has also been involved with recording and filming oral histories for the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library and for the Kingston Trio Legacy Project in California and New Mexico. Tom is a resident of Buffalo but also spends considerable time in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.