About us

40 Degrees North is Anita Schuneman and Doug Rippey. Anita and Doug have been presenting concerts and programs to diverse audiences since 1978. They play a number of traditional Appalachian instruments, including fiddle, guitar, and banjo. They sing songs and share stories about this rich musical heritage, bringing late 19^th and early 20^th century United States regional history alive. Their informal and often humorous presentation makes them popular with all ages!

Anita is a powerful and expressive fiddler as well as a wonderful entertainer! The fiddling tradition is in her blood, dating back to Uncle Will McLaughlin, who raised fine horses and kept the family’s small southern Minnesota town dancing to his Scottish fiddle music at the start of the 20^th century. Anita has been playing Appalachian fiddle for over 30 years, beginning in the late 70s with Old Mother Logo, a California based all-woman string band.

She has a deep appreciation for Appalachian music and culture, developed through frequent trips to Appalachia where she studied and stayed with older musicians such as Melvin Wine, the National Heritage Fellowship award winner. In addition to the West Virginia tunes learned from Melvin Wine and others, she plays a number of unusual and haunting tunes from Kentucky, and of course, many rousing hoedowns!

Doug is a multi-instrumentalist who specializes in playing guitar and banjo in 40 Degrees North. He has toured nationally, appeared at the Newport Folk Festival with El Teatro Campesino, and has led numerous campfire singing sessions for all ages.

Doug's southern musical background grows out of his family connections to a road-house/livery stable - the Old Rippey Stand - established on the Central Turnpike in Lawrence County, Middle Tennessee near the Natchez Trace shortly after the Civil War. He imagines the Old Rippey Stand as being a connection between local farmers and travelers heading west where tunes, tales and ballads were exchanged.