The local music scene has a new venue at the base of Snowshoe mountain, The Fiddlehead opened in late December of last year.

"A lot of people don't even know where it is yet or haven't heard about it. It's kind of in its infancy but no one has disliked it yet. It's a warm, casual atmosphere, easygoing," said owner Gil Willis, who also books the bands.

The bar and restaurant focuses on good food and local music.

"We're all about our food. We don't deliver, but we do carry out. We've got really tasty comfort food. The pizza, we feel like it's probably the best pizza in the county and the resort area. We've also got excellent wings, a fried trout sandwich; the locals eat that one up. We do an oyster po' boy that's very good, we do homemade, hand-cut french fries, we also do some great dinner salads," said Willis.

The name Fiddlehead implies live music to the uninitiated, but a fiddlehead is not part of a musical instrument at all.

"A lot of people don't know what a fiddlehead is, it kind of brings music to mind. People think it's the head of the fiddle, it's not, it's actually an edible fern, although it does look like the head of a fiddle," said Willis. "We were trying to come up with a name that had something to do with music and had food in it, too."

The Fiddlehead is open Wednesday through Sunday, and has live music every night but Thursday.

"Wednesday is open mic night from 7-9 p.m. Alan Dutchess is a real talented local musician and he is kind of organizing that," said Willis. "I have a lot of bands contacting me for weekend shows now, so it's pretty cool. Friday and Saturday night we do music, there could be a cover charge those nights. Sunday afternoon we do a Sunday Music Matinee. We'll invite a performer to come out on Sunday, kind of a tip jar event. Last week we had a local girl Erica Rebinski play, she's really good, she played for about an hour and a half. We want to invite all local musicians that want to be a part of open mic night or our Sunday matinee, they can come over and pick and play. It's going to be good exposure for someone who wants to play more music in the area."

The Davisson Brothers Band of Clarksburg rocked the Fiddlehead December 29.

"We just love this area. We love what it's about up here. It's about getting outdoors and enjoying the great state of West Virginia, any time we can be in the middle of that, we're all about it, man," said Donnie Davisson. "We've played this area a good bit but this is our first time at the Fiddlehead and we had a blast in here tonight."

The Davisson Brothers Band consists of brothers Chris Davisson on guitar, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Donnie Davisson, cousin Sammy Davisson on bass guitar, and childhood friend Aaron Regester on drums.

"We been doing this since we were teenagers, about 15 years," said Chris. "It's our own brand of music. It fits on country radio, it goes over well at festivals and fairs but if you had to call it one thing it'd be country."

The Davisson Brothers Band has made a name for themselves that most musicians dream of.

"We put our first record out of Nashville in 2009, it debuted at #40. We had a single that hit country radio, it ended being like #56. We just recently signed a deal with William Morris in Nashville, signed a new management deal. Hopefully, we'll be hittin' the radio with a new single here in the spring of 2012," said Chris.

Every once in awhile, the band is joined by Owen Schmitt, former fullback for the West Virginia Mountaineers and currently signed with the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles.

"The Davisson brothers taught Owen how to play guitar, from my understanding, he gets up on stage with them and stuff," said Willis.

The Fiddlehead's upcoming band schedule is not lacking talent either.

"Friday night (January 13) we got The Carpenter Ants, they're a Charleston band. The cool thing about them is a couple members in the band are also in the Mountain Stage Band. Do a search online, you'll see how incredible they are," said Willis. "On Saturday night (January 14) we have Mark Schimick, he plays mandolin with Larry Keel's band. He's a professional mandolin player and he is going to be accompanied by a friend of his who is a professional banjo player. They're doing a two-man show. You don't want to miss that one. We've got a lot more stuff planned," said Willis.

Anyone interested in booking a show at the Fiddlehead can contact Gil Willis at gil@ertc.com or call the Fiddlehead atﾠ304-572-2121.

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