Transfer station | Featured artist series
“Making music in my later years is still a joyous experience. It's hard to top the experience of sharing sincere music with a live audience. I'm seasoned enough to play in different genres and play selectively and still reckless enough to keep it alive and fresh… At this stage of my life, to be able to play anywhere is a welcomed blessing.” - Jamie Coan
PROJECT RELEASE | TRANSFER STATION Live EP
Transfer Station | The Pieces | Live from Skollar Holler | Video by Zach Collins
Transfer Station | Horseshoes & Hand Grenades | Video by Zach Collins
Featured Artist: Transfer Station
A life of art and music.
Transfer Station is a five-piece Americana Folk group that brings together a multi-instrumentalist formerly signed with RCA Records, a Brooklynn rooted Fine Artist, a retired Charleston Geology Professor, our very own Executive Director, and a high-school music teacher.
The newly formed, Hamilton-based band featuring Jamie Coan (violin), Steve Skollar (mandolin), Leslie Reynolds (guitar), Doug Keith (bass), and Henry Howard (guitar), brings together original songs, traditional string music, and rich four-part harmonies. Their music is shaped by third acts, longing for home and community, and the belief that meaningful creative work doesn’t have to end. The philosophy of living a creative life mirrors the musicians themselves, each arriving here in Hamilton after lifetimes spent in different careers and artistic endeavors throughout the country.
For Jamie Coan, his journey included national touring success with From Good Homes, the New Jersey roots-rock band signed to RCA Records. During those years, Jamie traversed the country many times, sharing stages with Dave Matthews Band, Hootie & the Blowfish, Blues Traveler, Joan Osborne, David Byrne, David Crosby, Widespread Panic, and Bob Weir.
Years later, in North Carolina, music continued to shape Jamie’s life when he joined the Sweetgrass Band, where he met fellow musician and wife Leslie Reynolds.
Leslie, an original ‘townie’ whose dad taught at Colgate and mom at HCS, left town after high school but Hamilton was never far from her heart.
She describes Hamilton as “a Utopic place to grow up,” a place that stayed with her even through a remarkable 34-year career teaching marine geology and seafloor mapping at the College of Charleston. No matter how far life carried her, she always returned home with her three children for summers and visits, affectionately calling it “The Motherland.” As part of the bands set, Leslie performs her own, original, song titled Chenango Valley.
“Chenango, Chenango Valley - In my heart and mind I’ve gone home”
- Leslie Reynolds
After retiring, Leslie’s lifelong pull finally became permanent. In a perfect, small-town, full-circle moment, Leslie and Jamie returned to Madison County and bought an old farmhouse from Leslie’s 10th grade English teacher, settling back into the place she had always considered home.
As Leslie continues to play music and enjoy rural life, she also has her own creative practices making oceanic prints and ceramic projects at Village Clay.
Jamie Coan & Leslie Reynolds
Growing up as a kid in New York City, Steve Skollar’s path to the band came through a different kind of lifelong devotion. An internationally recognized oil painter, his work has been found in esteemed galleries such as Rice Polak Gallery in Provincetown and Acadia Gallery in SOHO. Steve knows the deep solitude and purpose that comes with making art.
As he reflected, “I was secluded in my art studio for years preparing for shows. Painting for me is a very, very solitary discipline.” Music offered the opposite.
A self-taught mandolin player, Steve gradually found his way into Brooklyn jams and song circles, discovering how effortlessly music dissolves isolation.
“Playing for me has been an amazing way to meet folks and make music,” he shared. “Music is a common language - meeting folks is very easy and uncomplicated.”
The common, accessible, language of music is the reason Transfer Station exists.
Steve Skoller
Long before the band had a name, Steve’s studio-barn, known locally as the “Skollar Holler” (fittingly located next to the actual Poolville, NY Transfer Station), became a place where like minded musicians could meet. Jamie, Leslie, Doug, Steve, and others gathered together in different combinations, sharing stories, singing harmonies, taking solos, and trading songs.
Henry, Arts at the Palace’s Executive Director, has been writing songs for years. From growing up in Colorado, to time spent writing in Nashville, and now here in Hamilton - Henry had a backlog of tunes that were a welcomed fit to the circle. Like the rest of the group, he’s always loved playing and collaborating.
“After finishing a new song, Steve would keep pulling this thread from me saying “Just wait, I think he has a vision”. As an artist and songwriter, I think we’re always hoping our work resonates with someone enough that they keep inviting us to share more.” - Henry Howard
A room full of artists, musicians, and songs aligning at the right time.
Doug Keith
Rounding out the sound is Doug Keith, the second Hamilton Central School graduate in the group. As a Brookfield public school music teacher, he jokes that you may not be seeing his humble marching band in the Fourth of July parade anytime soon! It’s a small dedicated group that is lucky to have Doug as their instructor.
Beyond teaching and performing, Doug now stewards the same Christmas Tree Farm where he was raised, carrying on a generational family business in agriculture. He brings a lifetime of musicianship and perspective that is deeply rooted in Central New York.
For all the members, gathering people for the simple pleasure of playing and sharing music is its own reward.
“Making music is complete joy. Slowly pulling local musicians out of the woods is a joyful task that has no end,” - Steve Skollar
In a community where the arts continue to create timely and meaningful connections, Transfer Station proves that sharing art and music only gets better with time!
