The Big Cheese is a family band plus one. Larry Rice (Father) plays fiddle, mandolin, guitar, bass guitar, ukulele, vocals and banjo if need be. Shannon Rice (Daughter) is on drums, keyboards and percussion, and Lea Mae Rice Camarda (Other Daughter) plays guitar, dulcimer, banjo and sings. Shannon is away for a two-year stint in San Diego as Lieutenant Shannon Rice, Naval Medical officer. Larry and Lea anxiously await her return. In the meantime, we'll use our stomp boxes to bring the thunder with our feet! Larry, Lea, and Shannon are lifelong Virginians and proud of it, and happy to be joined by Tennessean Julie Greene on mandolin, tenor guitar, and autoharp. Julie used to be a mandolin student of Larry’s. When her enormous talent and vocal ability became apparent, we asked her to join the group, completing our unique sound. We all grew up with a massive variety of musical influences flying around the airwaves – from the Beatles and Eric Clapton to Taj Mahal and Alison Krauss and Union Station to Lynyrd Skynyrd. As a band, the Big Cheese performs a diverse catalog of traditional and contemporary songs and musical styles, combining them so that each song can be heard in a new, sometimes upturned, way. In other words, we take as many musical styles as we can, throw them at the wall and see what sticks. In one night we will go from a rootsy original to some coffeehouse Sinatra to toe-tapping Klezmer to Stevie Wonder and back again! Sadly, we haven’t performed underwater yet but we’re working on it. We’ve played at The Athenaeum, Tiffany Tavern, and Cameron Perks in Alexandria, JV Restaurant, Bangkok Blues, and Stacy’s Coffee Parlor in Falls Church, Brewer’s Alley in Frederick, Md., Epicure in Fairfax, the mansion at The Strathmore in Maryland, The Surge in McLean, and The Brogue in Great Falls. WHAT’S WITH THE NAME? Funny you should ask that. It was kind of a mistake. Larry and Lea were thinking of possible names and not coming up with anything great. Lea, who claims temporary insanity, suggested “Big Cheese;” mostly in reference to Larry’s fondness for cheesy jokes. There could also have been a large piece of cheese sitting on the kitchen counter, who knows. “Great idea!” said her father, prompting her to quickly and desperately attempt a retraction, but the name stuck and we are … The Big Cheese.