THE SONG SCHOOL - Key Persons
Best known as a founding member of Americana harmony trio Red Molly, Abbie Gardner is a joyful dobro player and singer/songwriter with an infectious smile. She loves teaching dobro and songwriting, whether in person or with her down-to-earth "Woodshed" YouTube lessons filmed from her home in the shadow of New York City. Abbie goes out of her way to make it fun and achievable, while seeking to forever expand her own knowledge of the instrument. She has taught at Nashville Dobro Camp, Grand Targhee, and Rockygrass Academy as well as several songwriting camps. She specializes in singing while playing, dobro as a rhythm instrument and creating lyrical solos in G tuning or D tuning.
Her bluesy song, "Down the Mountain" was included on Phil Leadbetter's 2021 Masters of Slide CD and named a "show stealer" by Bluegrass Unlimited. That same song landed her a slot in the 2021 International Bluegrass Music Association's Songwriter Showcase. After making seven fully produced albums with Red Molly and four solo, Abbie's latest recording DobroSinger masterfully captures the sound of her vocals and dobro unaccompanied. It's a raw intimate recording full of blues, heartfelt ballads and the ache of the unknown. It's quite a contrast to her previous CD, Wishes on a Neon Sign (2018) which featured a co-write with Chris Stapleton and leaned on full band production. Though she has traveled around the world with Red Molly, Abbie stands strong as a solo act and has opened for Lori McKenna, Hot Rize, and Martina McBride.
Alan Rowoth started playing professionally in 1968, 54 years ago. With thousands of gigs under his belt, He has also worked as an agent, manager, publicist, record producer, lighting designer and audio engineer. Alan pioneered the folk Internet in 1990 and created Internet Quartets and the Folktrain. He's written for Performing Songwriter, Sing Out!, Dirty Linen, and other magazines. For over 3 decades, Alan has been teaching musicians at Song Schools and conferences on a broad range of technical and business subjects including live streaming, social media, and monetization strategies. His Big Orange Tarp has showcased hundreds of musicians at festivals and conferences.
Lyons Colorado based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Arthur Lee Land is known for his joy filled, innovative live performances, his mad guitar and live-looping skills, Arthur's hands are full theses days writing, recording and performing with multiple projects. First as a solo artist, you have his unforgettable one-man act employing the Art of Live-Looping to create his Electro-Americana BAND of ONE featured in his last studio album release Cracked Open featuring songs co-written by his wife and songwriting partner, clairvoyant lyricist Carol Lee. In late 2014, Arthur replaced Vince Herman of Leftover Salmon in the veteran Colorado Americana Jam-Band Great American Taxi.
The Arthur Lee Land TRIO is crushing it live and gearing up for a new original studio album. The TRIO's unique Grateful Dead Tribute: Twang Is Dead has been a festival favorite. On top of all that, Arthur has been bringing his melodic guitar skills touring with String Cheese Incident's keyboardist's solo project the Kyle Hollingsworth's Band, as well as the Elephant Revival family side projects featuring Daniel Rodriguez and Bonnie Paine that also became folk rock icon Donovan's band for a headline festival slot in 2016. Other fun projects find him teaming up with Brain McRae's gogoLab and Tyler Grant's band Grant Farm for the "GRANTful Dead Revue." Arthur's Art of Live-Looping Educational Outreach Programs have reached 50,000+ students in 27 states and he's been an advocate for Reframing ADHD as the gift of the "HUNTER" Brain Wiring. Arthur has been a member of the Song School instructor staff since 2003.
Ned is the 2018 IBMA Banjo Player Of The Year and an all-around bluegrass legend. Ned is an incredible music educator. Ned is funny. He was a member of Paul Adkins & The Borderline Band, The Rarely Herd and, most recently, Chris Jones & The Night Drivers for over a decade. The Baltimore, MD native, who now makes his home in Nashville, TN, is a partner in the Nedski & Mojo duo and a favored guest on stage and in studio with artists ranging from Jim Lauderdale to Tony Trischka to Ray Stevens to Sam Bush. Since the early 1980s, Ned has maintained a busy schedule of private lessons, along with workshops and camps in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Europe.
He is the author of Alfred Publications three-part Complete 5-String Banjo Method and has pioneered on-air instruction with his popular "More Banjo Sunday" and "The Sunday Banjo Lesson" on SiriusXM's Bluegrass Junction, where he also hosts the regular newgrass show, "Derailed," keeping us laughing all the way down the road. For several years now, Ned has also been the voice of the IBMA awards show. He is a 2011 IBMA Broadcaster Of The Year award nominee. He and his Bluegrass Junction compadres were honored with a 2016 IBMA Distinguished Achievement award. Check out his critically-acclaimed latest album, Take Five, as well as his new series of instructional videos for TrueFire.com. His latest single, "Back In Baltimore" is available wherever you grab your music. Visit Ned online at http://nedski.com.
By day, Daniel is a master machine operator and fire fighter at the Jack Daniels Distillery in his hometown, Lynchburg, Tenn., where he has been employed since 2004. Daniel performed professionally for three years with Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike. He also did a stint with the Nashville-based band Cages Bend. Daniel toured extensively with both groups throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and the U.K. Daniel's high harmony and low four can be heard on the albums Now I'm Lonely by Cages Bend, Valerie's No Summer Storm and, as well as on all of Becky's albums on the Dark Shadow Recording label. Daniel does not have a website, but you can catch him on Facebook.
Bill Nash has been a musician all his life. He was a 5-year-old boy soprano, a 4th grade french hornist (played horn all through college), a 15-year-old beginning guitarist and then an 18-year-old guitar teacher, and a graduate of Bradley University's School of Music, majoring in composition studying under the tutelage of Professor Dean Howard, and an almost master's degree from time at the University of Colorado (just one semester short!). Bill began writing music and lyrics in his early teens and his roots are firmly embedded in what is now known as the singer/songwriter acoustic music genre. He has performed styles as diverse as rock ‘n roll, fusion, country, polka, folk, and even old-time western music, ala the Sons of the Pioneers.
Bill has 3 albums currently available, Mostly True Stories (1996), Runs With Scissors (1998), and Dreaming Again (2010), containing mostly original songs and a few cover tunes from some of his favorite songwriters. His songs range from love songs to heartbreak songs, from true stories to completely imaginative fabrications, from protest songs to environmental songs, and he even wrote a tribute song for Uncle Calvin's Coffeehouse in Dallas ("… the best coffee and hugs in town!"), where he has been a volunteer almost every Friday night since 1993.
On "Runs With Scissors", Bill was delighted to be joined by the likes of Dana Cooper (harmonica), Chris Gage (honky tonk piano), Marsha Webb (classical piano), Denny Allen (bass guitar and recording engineer), and Don Conoscenti (practically everything, from wailing guitars to drum set to flute to dumbeck to metal chair!), and a very special group of 6 lady singers he affectionately calls "The RollAides" (referenced from his song, "She Rolls", for which they sang beautiful backup harmonies).
The new CD "Dreaming Again" was a 10 year effort, containing 12 songs previously unreleased! This album starts out with Bill's newest instrumental "Night Ascent", then cycles through favorites "Come Home, "When I Was in Love", "Mirror Deep", and many others. This CD was 10 years in the making due to Bill's physical limitations, money issues, and then Tom Prasada Rao came along and said "Let's finish this!", and so it was! Also joining Bill on this CD were Pat Wictor (dobro), Chris Gage (guitar and accordian), TPR on a bunch of instruments, and Cary Cooper on background harmonies. These songs are among the best Bill has ever written, and it is sure to become a classic in the indie/folk music arena!
Bill has been invited to sing background harmony on mainstage at the Kerrville Folk Festival many times, with fine musicians from Anne Hills to Michael McNevin to Tom Prasada-Rao to Jana Stanfield to Albert & Gage to Josh White Jr to Jon Vezner to the Rhythm Angels, and was 1 of 4 invited singer/songwriters at the Dallas Campfire show hosted by Emilie Aronson on the Threadgill Theater stage at Kerrville in 1996.
Bobby Wintringham is returning for his sixth year as an instructor at the Academy's mandolin building experience. He is a full time luthier building San Juan Mandolins in his shop in Dolores, Colorado. Says Bobby, "The only thing more rewarding than building instruments is being able to share that knowledge with others."
The songs of Bonnie Hayes have always been extraordinary, from "Shelly's Boyfriend", the post-punk badgirl anthem that put her on the map to the authentic passion of "Have A Heart" and "Love Letter," which restored Bonnie Raitt to superstardom with the multi-platinum, multi-Grammy-winning CD Nick of Time. Writing for artists as diverse as Bette Midler, Robert Cray, Adam Ant, David Crosby, Booker T and the MG's, and Cher, Hayes has continued to craft songs one critic described as "sparkling clockwork mechanisms with a tendency to do the unexpected."
On the new CD, Love In the Ruins, Bonnie infuses her barbed lyrics with her own unmistakable vocal style and adds a new fervor for crunchy guitars and incendiary drumming. The sum is ironic, literary, melodic, tragic, wild, honest, joyful music that also flat out ROCKS. Known for years as a keyboardist (she actually toured as a keyboard player/backing vocalist with such arena acts as Belinda Carlisle and Billy Idol), she turned to writing on guitar to stimulate the creative process. Bonnie's personal reinvention is typical of her uncompromising attitude: "I reject the idea that music has to be either smart or kickass--why not both?"
Famed for her kick-out-the-jams live show, Hayes has also enjoyed success as a recording artist and producer. In 1984, her pop/punk debut Good Clean Fun was released on seminal LA indie Slash Records to critical raves and national college airplay and in 1995, the Hayes-produced CD Steppin' Out by the Gospel Hummingbirds was nominated for a Grammy. Her new CD marks a return to center stage for this exceptional songwriter.
Bonnie Hayes is a popular and experienced teacher with an original slant on writing songs that satisfy both artistic and commercial criteria. She teaches classes in various aspects of songwriting and popular music regularly. Her students have won prizes in the John Lennon songwriting contest, the WCSA songwriting contest, the Soulmaking contest, and others.
"Murph" first fell in love with bluegrass music while living in Chicago and immediately started studying it with the great Czech guitar player Slavek Hanzlik as well as Don Stiernberg and Greg Cahill. After living in Chicago he moved to Colorado and founded the band Slipstream which performed at many notable festivals such as Grey Fox in New York. He then toured the country performing with Nashville singer/songwriter Rorey Carroll and has performed with such bluegrass luminaries as Noam Pikelny, Matt Flinner, the Infamous Stringdusters, Crooked Still, Darol Anger as well as many others and has been an endorsed artist for Elixir Guitar Strings for 14 years. Currently Murph is living in Shanghai, China, performing with mandolin virtuoso Tom Peng and teaching guitar lessons while exploring as much of Asia as possible.
Like Dominick Leslie, this will be Murph's 21st year in a row at Rockygrass. "It doesn't matter where in the world you might find yourself, once you go to Rockygrass…you have to be there every year!" he proclaims. MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Chris Thile says about Brad Murphey: "a great lead guitarist….. and awesome rhythm player too!"
Brody has been apprenticing under Michael Hornick since March of 2012. Under Michael's tutelage, Brody is primarily assisting with the guitar building process at the RockyGrass Academy. He has also recently completed his first full-size guitar under Michael's wing.
Bryn Davies is a bassist, cellist, and occasional pianist. She grew up in Livermore, California. In 1997 she majored in Jazz Performance at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1997, Bryn moved to Austin, Texas and began working with Peter Rowan as the Texas Trio, which toured the US and eventually would become the Peter Rowan & Tony Rice Quartet.
In 2004 Davies moved to Nashville, Tennessee and began working and touring with a variety of Americana and bluegrass artists such as The Tony Rice Unit, Patty Griffin, Darrell Scott, Justin Townes Earle, Scott Miller, and Jack White. Davies has an extensive discography, and has recorded with Guy Clark, The Peter Rowan & Tony Rice Quartet, Old and & In the Way, Guy Clark, Jim Lauderdale, and Jack White.
Davies has lived in the Knoxville, Tennessee area since 2014 with her husband, bassist Vince Ilagan and their two children. She received a bachelor's degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Tennessee in 2019 and is employed as a nuclear safety engineer at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. She continues to play bass as a sideline to her new career and enjoys spending time with her family.
Chuck has known Michael Hornick since 1992, owns a Shanti guitar, and has assisted Michael with the mando building class since 2002. Each year Chuck produces a mandolin while assisting other students with theirs. In his other life, he is a master mechanic building hot rods in California.
Clare McLeod, Harvard EdM, is an Associate Professor in the Voice Department at Berklee College of Music, where she is the principal author of the Minor in Teaching Contemporary Voice and Berklee Online's Essentials of Teaching Contemporary Voice. A certified Estill Master Teacher, Clare also trained at the National Center for Voice and Speech, and is a member of the Voice Foundation, the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the Pan American Vocology Association. In addition to teaching at Berklee, she presents voice clinics regularly around the world and continues to contribute to developments in voice research.
Connor Garvey is an award-winning singer-songwriter from Portland, Maine, with the amiable presence of an entertainer, the lyrical depth of a poet, and the enchantment of a storyteller. Garvey leaves audiences uplifted and inspired through a positive message delivered in a way The Portland Press Herald says "proves you can be optimistic and self-aware without being boring."
This combination of songwriting and performance strength helped Garvey make his music scene start with numerous awards including being named winner of the Kerrville New Folk, Rocky Mountain Folks Fest, Wildflower Art and Music Festival songwriting competitions, and being voted as Most Wanted artist at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. He has since gone on to perform around the country at many of the most notable folk/acoustic venues, festival stages, and teaching songwriting at some of the more distinguished song schools. After winning the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest Singer Songwriter competition Connor has returned to perform both on the Main Stage and Wildflower Pavilion Stage as well as teach at the Song School (2016 & 2022).
While the pandemic brought a sharp drop in live performances, Connor dedicated his time to finishing an acoustic EP in 2020 that captured songs written aboard a cargo ship traveling from Maine to Iceland as an artist in residence as well as a full length album (Another End of a Year) being released this summer 2022. This journey across the Atlantic Ocean and the last few years were filled with loneliness, longing, excitement, adventure and challenge. Connor is re-emerging from the space of musical creation and capture to that of performance and connection. These were not lost years, these were years of growth. Now he's ready to sing out!
Courtney Hartman is a Colorado-born guitarist, singer, writer and producer best known for her work beneath the surface, writing and recording with artists throughout the folk community.
With the release of her newest album, Glade, Courtney takes us with her into a world of her own making, with songs about home and abiding; pulling out the marrow of what makes us good and what makes us kin. Written in the year following her return to a childhood home, the songs emanate from a place of quiet and sifting out. Although she brought in a handful of friends to contribute from a distance, for the most part, Glade was crafted alone in the dark morning hours.
Acoustic Guitar Magazine recognizes Courtney as a "distinctive guitar stylist… and a songwriter that delights and disturbs" while PopMatters calls her music "a delicate light glistening softly in the darkness." Her debut album, Ready Reckoner, was written amidst a 500-mile walking pilgrimage and features collaborations with Bill Frisell, Anais Mitchell, Shazhad Ismaily and Sam Amidon.
In 2014 Courtney received a GRAMMY nomination for her work with folk quintet Della Mae and in 2017 she was nominated for Instrumentalist of the Year by the Americana Music Association. She will be touring throughout the fall and winter in support of her album, Glade..
Dan Harris is a singer/songwriter and guitar builder based in Lafayette, CO. He grew up in a drafty farmhouse in southern Vermont, listening to The Grand Ol Opry and strumming along with an oversized guitar. Dan studied jazz and classical guitar in high school and college and has played in a variety of different bands and ensembles, from jazz big bands to flamenco dance groups and his current band, The Renegade Roosters, a bluegrass/old time group also based in Lafayette.
Dan also owns and operates Harris Guitars, Ltd, a small custom guitar shop in a tiny shed in his back yard. His music draws inspiration from the likes of Guy Clark, John Prine and Woody Guthrie, among others. He is currently working on his first album, due out the end of 2021.
Dan Roberts began his instrument making career with Flatiron Banjo and Mandolin Company in Bozeman, MT. He was production manager for Gibson Montana Division before moving to California as luthier and production manager for Santa Cruz Guitar Company. Dan lived in Santa Cruz for 6 years before moving back to Montana to work for Santa Cruz out of his own shop. There he built the SCGC archtops, did new model design and some prototypes, and was the warranty repairman, service manager, and production manager with the help of an on-site shop foreman.
After 17 years with SCGC Dan hung out his own shingle and is a Custom guitar maker building Roberts Guitars. Dan has been teaching the mandolin building class at Rockygrass Academy since 1996.
Multi-Instrumentalist and Singer-Songwriter Darrell Scott mines and cultivates the everyday moment, taking the rote, menial, mundane, and allowing it to be surreal, ever poignant, and candidly honest, lilting, blooming, and resonating. The words he fosters allow us to make sense of the world, what is at stake here, and our place in it. And ultimately, Darrell knows the sole truth of life is that love is all that matters, that we don't always get it right, but that's the instinctive and requisite circuitous allure of things, why we forever chase it, and why it is held sacred.
Colorado native Dominick Leslie has been around live music all his life, having attended his first bluegrass festival when he was just five months old. Growing up he was surrounded by music, listening to and jamming with his dad's bluegrass band, and thanks to his Dad's influence, he has been playing instruments since he was old enough to hold one. At the age of four, Dominick acquired a ukulele tuned like the bottom four strings of a guitar, igniting a deep passion for music that still burns brightly. Dominick's abilities progressed rapidly on guitar, fiddle and mandolin, but eventually the mandolin became his obsession and demanded his total focus.
There's just something about Ellis. She is at once funny and wise, thoughtful and uninhibited, and her captivating voice is matched by her uplifting lyrics. She has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion four times and has been voted "most-wanted-to-return" performer at festivals including Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Moab Folk Festival, Kerrville, and Sisters Folk Festival. She has received hundreds of messages from strangers including, "you exude pure joy", "I heard you and fell in love" and "I was stopped in my tracks by your music and captivating laugh" as well as "Yours is a voice we all need to hear." Ellis is currently working on her tenth album, Ordinary Love, and will be showcasing many of those songs at her annual closing set on the Wildflower Stage the last day of Folks Festival. She is available for mentoring sessions and is interested in helping others to find their mission and artistic voice.
Colorado-raised songstress Gina Marie Leslie is a longtime RockyGrass Academy student, now living in New Orleans. Born into a family of musicians, she grew up in a culture of jamming that uplifts all players involved and creates a welcoming atmosphere. A multi-instrumentalist (guitar, fiddle, bass, voice, ukulele) and songwriter, Gina has the tools to guide a musician at any level to feel the joy and beauty of connection through music. She plays with Damn Gina, The Bad Bad Leslie's, Mean Gina Jazz Band, and as a side musician for other projects.
Greg Schochet is a full-time performer, teacher and producer in Boulder, Colorado. Equally adept on guitar and mandolin, he is fluent in all manner of acoustic and electric styles, specializing in bluegrass, swing and country. He was the lead guitarist for Halden Wofford and the Hi*Beams for 16 years, Colorado's beloved and venerable honky-tonk and western swing band. Greg is an integral part of Colorado's thriving roots music scene, and is a sought after instructor, session player, producer and collaborator.
He has performed at such wonderful venues as Prairie Home Companion, Red Rocks, Strawberry Music Festival, Sisters Folk Festival, RockyGrass, New Orleans Jazz Fest, as well as countless performing arts centers, clubs, bars, rodeos and flatbed trucks.
Greg is winner of the 2021 RockyGrass Flatpick guitar contest. A veteran of many teaching camps, Greg has also been a guitar and mandolin teacher at Woodsongs Music, Colorado's premier acoustic music stor for 20 years. His teaching practice centers around preparing students to thrive in ensemble settings, whether it be a campground jam or a working band.
He has taught at some of the premier camps in the west: Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, Targhee Music Camp, Walker Creek Music Camp, California Coast Music Camp, Montana Fiddle Camp and Colorad Roots Music Camp.
Jake Eddy, who joins the Becky Buller Band as the lead guitar player and harmony/occasional lead singer, was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia, to a family of musicians. Jake began playing professionally at the age of fourteen with Melvin Goins. His guitar playing, influenced by bluegrass and jazz, is showcased on his self-titled debut album of fiddle tunes which features such greats as Bryan Sutton and Kenny Smith. When not on tour with B^3, Jake provides private online instrumental instruction.
Jenn Cleary is a folk-rock, singer-songwriter from Boulder, Colorado, with many years' experience performing on international stages. Highlight shows include Colorado Rockies games, Sundance Film, Blues and Folks Festivals and multiple European tours. She has a range of song styles and performs bluesy, acoustic shows to all-ages audiences. Jenn has released two albums of original songs ( Breakin' Loose, 2006; Back to the Wheel, 2010) and one of bluesy covers ( Blues Full of Heart, 2018). Her first children's album, All Together Now, won several awards, including the prestigious recognition from the 2021 NAPPA awards for being best in the music industry and she was the Back to School winner of the 2021 Fall Parent and Teacher Choice Awards. Jenn just released her 2022 album of family songs, called Happy Day.
Jenn has always included playful tunes in her output and her children's album blends full-on fun with environmental and social consciousness. Her songwriting for children is informed by a lifetime of assisting, educating, and raising them. She founded a non-profit that provided housing, schooling and medical care for Nepali children, and also started a K-12 private school in her community. She has been a foster parent and has three children of her own.
Jenn has taught in various arenas for over 30 years, including at The Living School, in Boulder, CO, from 2003 to 2011, and as an instructor for children and adults in guitar, singing, songwriting and performance for over 10 years. Jenn is a 17 year veteran of Song School, where the high level of inspiring instruction continually spurs her to shape and improve her own teaching style.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame
Originally from Switzerland, Jens Kruger began playing North American folk music at an early age and was particularly inspired by recordings of Doc Watson, Flatt and Scruggs, Bill Monroe, and other progenitors of country, bluegrass and folk music. While he has written and continues to write the music for all of The Kruger Brothers' original tunes, in 2006, Jens began his "official" venture into the themes and forms of classical music when he was commissioned to write Music from the Spring for banjo, guitar, bass and full symphonic orchestra. Since then, he has received three commissions to write classical pieces which The Kruger Brothers have performed with various orchestral ensembles: Appalachian Concerto with string quartet; Spirit of the Rockies with a small orchestra, and most recently in 2013, Lucid Dreamer, a chamber music piece written specifically for and commissioned by the Kontras Quartet* and debuting in 2014.
Jens is a member of the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 2011. In 2013, he was awarded the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass Music. Jens is the first winner of the award who resides in North Carolina and the first born outside of the United States. Happy Traum, guitarist, folksinger, teacher, and writer for aspiring musicians, has described Kruger as, "One of the world's most musically sophisticated and technically accomplished five-string banjo players."
Interpreting life through music while integrating a vast composition of styles, Singer/Songwriter Jill Brzezicki (pronounced Brr-Zit-Ski) delves into her country and bluegrass roots in her third full-length release. Darkness Falls delivers traditional bluegrass tracks alongside some of Jill's best new original songs. Jill attended the Colorado Contemporary Music College in Fort Collins, Colorado in 2004 and graduated with a diploma in performance and education. Jill released her debut full length solo CD "Consequence of Truth" in 2007 and her second full length CD "The Horizon" in September, 2012. As a solo singer/songwriter Jill has enjoyed supporting local and nationally touring bands as well as headlining local and regional venues. Attending and teaching at the Rocky Mountain Song School since 2007 has allowed Jill the opportunity to hone her skills and learn new techniques in playing, writing and performing.
JJ Jones is an internationally touring, Berklee-trained drummer and educator. She has performed with folk-pop darlings Girlyman, Canadian roots band Po'Girl (now Birds of Chicago), singer-songwriter Lucy Wainwright Roche, Egyptian revolutionary Ramy Essam, and LA's riot-pop band WASI, among many, many others. As a writer and producer, she co-wrote a song with comedian Margaret Cho that was featured in her Showtime concert movie "psyCHO", and one of JJ's own projects, a kids' music record under the name Django Jones, won a Parents' Choice Gold award, one of the most prestigious honors in children's music.
JJ is passionate about education: her mission is to empower women and girls through playing drums. She's an instructor and band coach at girls and ladies rock camps across the U.S., is the Tech Editor of Tom Tom Magazine, the world's only magazine dedicated to female drummers, and is the founder of EmpowerDrumming.com, a drum education and coaching company for women. This is her eleventh year teaching at song school!
One can only imagine the number and variety of musical influences - Broadway, classical, jazz, rhythm and blues - that surrounded Joel as he was growing up in New York City. Like Uwe and Jens, Joel began his musical career early in life and picked up the bass at the age of twelve. And like many other musicians, Joel began learning music through classical training on the piano. After several years of piano lessons, he switched to the bass, and as he discovered his love for the instrument, Joel decided to devote all of his attention to playing the bass.
Destined to find Uwe and Jens, in 1989, Joel moved to Switzerland and began a successful career as a bassist with various country/rock and jazz groups based throughout Europe. It was during this time that he met Jens and Uwe and developed what would become a deeply rewarding musical alliance and friendship. In early 1995, Joel was initiated into the "brotherhood" and has been performing full time with the band ever since.
Largely due to a visioning session in Ellis Delaney's class at Song School, John Linn now teaches guitar and makes music full-time in Washington, D.C. His mission is to share the joys of creativity and musical living with his students and audiences. In his teaching practice, John especially enjoys the gentle exploration of music theory, creativity coaching and performance development.
As a performing songwriter, John's music has been described as "songs for sinners and everyday angels." Whether you hear stories of growing up on the prairies of the Midwest, of a coffeehouse flirtation, or of the sweet disappointments of love, John's music will leave you with a sense of the depth and mystery of human experience, vibrating with its surprising joys and hidden tragedies.
John is an active member of the local arts scene in Washington, DC, performing as solo artist and as a founding member of the Americana band After the Flood, a folk-rock quintet. In 2017 he was named an Overall Winner of the Radioairplay.com Summer Song Contest for his song, "Mama," and he is a two-time semi-finalist in the Bernard/Ebb Songwriting Competition. After the Flood's eponymous debut album and John's solo album, Illinois 14, were both released in 2016, each receiving national airplay and critical acclaim on folk radio, where John's writing has been noted for its honesty and deep connection to traditional folk influences.
Grammy Award-winning musician John Reischman has been a foundational mandolinist, composer, bandleader, and musical educator in bluegrass and North American roots and folk music since emerging from the vibrant "new acoustic" bluegrass music scene of the Bay Area in the 1980s. A member of the groundbreaking Tony Rice Unit, Reischman's mastery of bluegrass, old-time, swing, and multiple Latin American musical styles, coupled with an Old Master's sense of tone, taste, and musicality, has brought him a global reputation as one of the finest mandolinists of his era.
His latest CD, New Time & Old Acoustic on Corvus Records, blends a lifetime of musical influences into an engaging recording with some of today's top acoustic players including flatpicking guitarists Molly Tuttle and Chris Eldridge, fiddler Alex Hargreaves, and bassist Todd Phillips. The 14-track album includes 12 new Reischman originals and a reinterpretation of his classic tune "Salt Spring." New Time & Old Acoustic is the most mature, accomplished solo recording of Reischman's storied career.
Living in the Bay Area in the 1980s, Reischman debuted as a touring and recording artist with the seminal West Coast bluegrass band The Good Ol' Persons, cementing his reputation as a powerful soloist with an original vision for his instrument. "They were a great outlet for me because they embraced original material from the individual band members, giving me inspiration to explore composing," he adds.
As a member of the Tony Rice Unit featured on that band's most iconic recordings, Reischman helped define the "new acoustic music" movement in contemporary bluegrass. His unmistakable mandolin style and signature clear tone fuses early influences from Bill Monroe and other legends of traditional bluegrass mandolin with contemporary styles played by Sam Bush, David Grisman, and the late jazz mandolinist Jethro Burns. John's remarkably clear-voiced mandolin, in turn, has influenced a new generation of mandolinists including Chris Thile, David Benedict, and Joe K. Walsh.
Do you have writer's block? Need more energy during Song School? Want clarity on which workshops to choose from the many wonderful ones? Or just need some time to relax and re-group? Come experience Reiki and other energy modalities provided by Judith Wade.
Judith is a gentle intuitive channel for a variety of nurturing hands-on healing techniques including Reiki that balance the body, mind, and spirit. She is committed to integrity, creative expression, and authenticity and assisting you in freely expressing yourself.
What might you experience? If you are feeling overwhelmed, you will find a greater sense of peace. If you are working through emotions, you will move through them gentler and with support. If you are blocked, you will access what wants to surface. If you are tired, you will have a greater sense of renewal. If you don't know what you need, you will find more clarity. If you want more prosperity, you will receive guidance for receiving. These changes can be accompanied by physical changes such as easier breathing, lower heart rate, and relief from pain.
Originally from Northern Illinois, Justin Hoffenberg currently makes his home in Boulder, CO. Growing up in a musical household, he attended many concerts as a child and was drawn towards music. At 10 years old Justin joined his 5th grade orchestra, where he played the violin for one year before beginning Suzuki lessons, which he pursued until graduating high school. The summer between 5th and 6th grade proved a fateful one, as a family friend recommended attending the Rockygrass festival in Lyons, CO, as well as the camp that precedes it. Justin ventured to the camp not knowing anything about Bluegrass, but was immensely changed by the experience.
Justin Roth is a nationally touring singer/songwriter, fingerstyle guitarist, and recording engineer/producer for independent artists at his home studio in Fort Collins, CO. His path to acoustic music was solidified at 17 when he heard innovative guitarist, Michael Hedges, and saw how the acoustic guitar was capable of creating such a huge sonic palette, much more than he had ever heard before. From that moment on, he knew it would be the root of his musical world. His use of alternate tunings, partial capos and his innovative two-hand tapping technique has been described as, ‘more than just an instrument, but an extension of himself.' "Fans of Leo Kottke or Michael Hedges will find themselves right at home with [Roth's] intricate guitar work…beautifully written lyrics." - San Francisco Art Magazine
Justin has toured with John Gorka and David Wilcox, as well as opened for some of the finest singer/songwriters on the acoustic music scene, including Shawn Colvin, Martin Sexton, and Darrell Scott. Equally, his guitar playing has earned him shared stages with some of the greatest fingerstyle players of today, such as Tommy Emmanuel, Andy McKee and Pat Donohue.
Justin's self-produced and fan-funded album, Now You Know, was voted as one of the Top 100 Folk Albums of 2011. Two songs from Now You Know have also been featured on the soap operas, The Young & The Restless and General Hospital. In late 2013, Justin wrote and released the single "Rise," inspired by the Colorado floods, and donated 100% of the proceeds to flood relief.
Justin has attended Song School every year since 1997 and taught each year since 2003, as well as teaching at the Kerrville Folk Festival, Sisters Folk Festival, International Folk Alliance Conference. He is also available for individual online lessons or you can view his courses on www.JamPlay.com.
Hailing from both Michigan and West Virginia, Leslie has been studying the upright bass since she was just a little girl. As she got older she decided to further her music education at Western Michigan University where she focused on Music Education. While in college, Leslie also toured the midwest with the many orchestras and string ensembles she represented. Outside the classroom, Leslie immersed herself in Kalamazoo's local music scene where she discovered her deep love for Bluegrass and folk music.
It didn't take long before she was singing and playing in numerous bands such as The Mossy Mountain Band and Who Hit John?
With string music tugging at her heart, Leslie decided to move to the mountains where there was sure to be no shortage of good pickers. Since the summer of 2009 when she moved to town, Leslie has played with some of the Colorado's most talented acts including Spring Creek Bluegrass Band, Bonnie and the Clydes, and many others. She is also an active member of Magnolia Row, another great Boulder-based group.
By day, Leslie teaches orchestra music in the Boulder Valley School District, where she nurtures and encourages the future generation of music lovers.
Leslie keeps The Railsplitters in time with her driving rhythm on the 1920s German upright which was restored at the Guarneri House in Grand Rapids, MI.
Maggie Wing has been singing, playing, and writing songs since she was a kid growing up in Northern New Mexico. After moving to the San Francisco Bay Area and taking a multi-decade detour into software engineering, she reconnected with her songwriting self at The Song School in 2012 and hasn't looked back. Her debut album, Pictures of Birds (2016), garnered critical praise for its memorable stories and thoughtfully crafted lyrics. While she doesn't write autobiographical songs, "each one comes from a feeling or an experience that I've had in my life," she says. "I just hand the story over to a narrator who's a lot braver - or a lot less lucky - than I've been."
In recent years, Maggie has been a judge for numerous West Coast Songwriters competitions in the Bay Area. "The whole concept of judging art is pretty questionable," she says, "but it's reasonable to make some judgement calls about craft, so that's what I tend to focus on."
When she's not reading, writing, or doing local gigs with her duo (Irish Twins), Maggie spends a lot of time listening to great songs and digging in to discover why they work so well. Although she's a self-described "word nerd," she's also developed a deep interest in studying melody, thanks to ten years of attending Song School.
"Songwriting is the best," she says. "I can't think of a better subject for a lifelong learner. It's like an ongoing mani/pedi for your brain - and your spirit."
Her new album, Burn This Note, will be released later this year.
Mark Gibson's love for the craft of songwriting and the depth of his feelings for humanity's challenges has led him to reluctantly embrace his power as a performer. Mark holds no interest in dazzling his audiences with flashy guitar chops or acrobatic instrumental technique. His solid roots-based approach to guitar is delivered to serve and accompany his incisive, insightful lyrics. With a keen wit, balanced occasionally with compassion, Mark offers thought-provoking story songs filled with charismatic, unusual and sometimes flawed characters that give listeners an unconventional perspective on everyday life.
Mary Gauthier is a Grammy Nominated songwriter whose songs have been praised by Bob Dylan and recorded by Jimmy Buffett, Tim McGraw, Bobby Bare, Kathy Mattea, Bettye Lavette and more. Gauthier's first nine albums presented extraordinary confessional songs, deeply personal, profoundly emotional pieces ranging from "I Drink," a blunt accounting of addiction, to "March 11, 1962," the day she was born - and relinquished to an orphanage - to "Worthy," in which the singer finally understands she is deserving of love.
Maybe that's where the confessional song cycle ends, for she has midwifed these eleven new songs on Rifles & Rosary Beads in careful collaboration with other souls whose struggle is urgent, immediate, and palpable. And none are about her.
Grammy-nominated mandolinist Matt Flinner has made a career out of playing acoustic music in new ways. Whether it's with his own Matt Flinner Trio or with Phillips, Grier and Flinner, the Frank Vignola Quartet, Darrell Scott, Steve Martin, the Ying Quartet, Tim O'Brien, Leftover Salmon or the Modern Mandolin Quartet, Flinner's style and compositional ability have established him as one of the most accomplished and musically diverse mandolinists in the world.
Job Titles:
- Founder of Access Film Music
In addition to his performing and recording endeavors, Mike is the founder of Access Film Music, an organization dedicated to helping independent recording artists expose their music to directors, producers and music supervisors working in film, television, video games and advertising. Since 2004, Access Film Music has presented showcases during Film Festival Week in Park City, Utah each year during the Sundance and Slamdance Film Festivals featuring platinum selling recording artists, hit songwriters, music legends as well as exceptional as-of-yet unknown artists. Access Film Music is also the Official Music Partner of the ÉCU Film Festival in Paris, France each Spring, where Access showcase events further their mission to connect music-makers with filmmakers on an international stage.
Mike has been on the faculty of the Planet Bluegrass Rocky Mountain SongSchool in Lyons, Colorado since 2005 and has been a featured speaker and mentor at numerous music industry events and educational institutions, including AmericanaFest in Nashville, Tennessee, South-by-Southwest in Austin, Texas, Folk Alliance International, and several other songwriting camps and retreats, music conferences and film festivals throughout North America and Europe. He has also presented his music business workshops at UCLA, Berklee College of Music in Boston and Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. He is a founding partner of Song Camp Italy, a songwriting retreat that takes place in Illasi, Italy, in the vineyard-covered hills about 30 minutes outside of Verona. Mike loves empowering and inspiring musicians to pursue their dreams and enjoys sharing practical ideas, methods and information to help make them real.
Michael Hornick is the builder of Shanti Guitars. After building his first guitar in 1985, he worked at Santa Cruz Guitar Company, and presently works alone in his shop in Missoula, Montana, building about twelve instruments a year. Michael has built the first place guitar prize for the nationally recognized Telluride Troubadour contest from its inception in 1991, and helped design the original mandolin and mandola kits.
His love of lutherie is reflected in the high quality of craftsmanship found in each of his custom instruments. Michael has assisted students in the building of well over two hundred mandolin kits over the past seventeen years.
A cliché has it that you have to beware of the quiet ones, because most of the time their voices speak sharper and with more range than the loudmouths. Every cliché, however, has a grain of truth in it, and so it's fair to say that while County Cork singer-songwriter Mick Flannery is outwardly reserved, his songs are fluent in expressing layered aspects of the human condition, its flaws, triumphs, and general uncertainty.
An award-winning, double-platinum selling artist, Mick Flannery has not only released his self-titled sixth album (debuting at No. 1 in Ireland), but also oversaw the worldwide premiere of the stage musical, Evening Train (so named after his 2007 debut album). He began to write songs as a teenager in his home of Blarney, County Cork. As musical influences from albums by the likes of Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell and Tom Waits seeped into his creative DNA, Mick absorbed, learned and honed the craft that would send him on his way into the world. The path was smoothed somewhat when, at the age of 19, he became the first Irish songwriter to win the Nashville-based International Songwriting Competition. By the time he turned 21, he had signed to a major label and released his debut album.
Moira Smiley has taught extensively around the world. Her subject is the singing voice and its ability to encompass an astounding range of expressive, linguistic, and stylistic colors. Moira seeks to guide her students in the discovery and development of flexibility within their own voice - both technically and artistically. She also focuses with students on creating a moving performance.
Moira has led vocal workshops and residencies at countless universities, colleges, high schools, conservatories, and musical organizations including the LA Master Chorale, Savannah Acoustic Music Seminar, Vancouver Youth Choir, Yale, and Oxford. Moira's academic specialty is Early Music, and she has developed parallel experience with various folk traditions - especially early American, Irish, and Balkan vocal styles. By exploring the particularities of traditions, styles, and periods, she's found something uniquely her own.
Nan Crawford [she/we] has been performing, directing and teaching improvisation for more than 30 years. Nan uses theatre as a lens for leadership, teaching at Harvard's Graduate School of Business, and for clients such as Dolby, Google, and Netflix. Nan is on the board of advisors for Lin Manuel Miranda & Wayne Brady's Freestyle Love Supreme Academy, where she has also been a performer, teacher, and faculty mentor. FLS is the Grammy nominated, Tony Award winning freestyle hip-hop improv ensemble that was the breeding ground for the musicals In The Heights and Hamilton.
Insights from her master's thesis - Transforming the Inner Critic and Allowing Our Innate Creativity to Flourish - inform all of Nan's work. She is CEO of Nan Crawford & Co. where they coach bold women leaders to step onto a bigger stage. From coaching clients to deliver TED Talks, to preparing executives for interviews for Board of Directors seats on publicly traded companies, to her dynamic keynote performances on Courageous Creativity, Cultures of Collaboration, Data Storytelling, Resilience and Navigating Change… empathy, courage, and story are at the core of her work. Nan has most recently been working on her forth-coming book:
Pat Pattison is an author, clinician and Berklee Professor of Lyric Writing and Poetry whose students have composed for major artists and written number one songs. At Berklee, he developed the curriculum for the only songwriting major in the country. In addition to his four books, Songwriting Without Boundaries, Writing Better Lyrics, The Essential Guide to Lyric Form and Structure, and The Essential Guide to Rhyming, Pat has developed three online lyric writing courses, one on poetry, and one on creative writing available through Berkleemusic.com.
He has filmed a series of lectures and masterclasses, available through Songwork.com and has written over 50 articles for various magazines and blogs. Pat continues to present songwriting clinics across the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Several of his students have won Grammys, including John Mayer and Gillian Welch.
Paul Reisler is a composer, songwriter, recording artists, performer and teacher. He is the founder and artistic director of Kid Pan Alley, co-founder of Trapezoid, as well as his current bands, Paul Reisler & A Thousand Questions featuring Howard Levy, and Three Good Reasons. Over the past 40 years, he has performed in over 3,000 concerts, recorded close to three-dozen albums, written Aesop's Fables for Orchestra and Narrator, music for theatre, dance and film, as well as the script and songs for two musicals-Bouncin' and The Talented Clementine.
He's written more songs than the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Stephen Foster combined-somewhere north of 3,500 compositions thanks in no small part to his army of 65,000 kid co-writers as well as his many adult collaborators. Artists including Sissy Spacek, Raul Malo, Darrell Scott, Cracker, Corey Harris, Jesse Winchester and many others have recorded some of his songs.
At this stage of his life, he's committed to inspiring the creativity of others through his songwriting workshops as well as through Kid Pan Alley. A few of the places he's taught include Rocky Mountain Song School (26 years), Utah Song School, New Song Academy, Swannanoa Gathering, Augusta Workshop, Hollyhock, Kerrville, NSAI, Berklee College of Music, and he will be co-founding a new annual Songschool in Italy in April.
Pete Wernick is renowned worldwide for his accomplishments and contributions to bluegrass music: the hot-picking force in several trend-setting bands including Hot Rize, innovative teacher and author, songwriter, and long-term President of the International Bluegrass Music Association.
Pete's national music career started in 1971 with the first records by northeast instrumental wizards Country Cooking. Founding Hot Rize in 1978 led to an enduring stint as a performing artist, appearing throughout the U.S. and three continents, on national television and radio. Pete's instructional books, CDs and videos include best-sellers in their respective fields: Bluegrass Banjo, Bluegrass Songbook, How to Make a Band Work, and many others. A pioneer in bluegrass music instruction, since 1980 his banjo camps, bluegrass jam camps, instruction books, videos and his DrBanjo,com website have inspired players nationwide and overseas.
Like all troubadours, singer-songwriter Phoebe Hunt is a rambler. Recent years have seen the Texas native relocate from Austin to Nashville to her current residence in Brooklyn. This wanderlust is evident in the variety of projects she is a part of, moving in and out of multiple styles and genres of music with an effortless grace. You may find her performing completely solo, with her violin and her voice, drawing you into her memorizing vortex, or surrounded by a group of young musicians from all around the world as a part of The One Village Music Project, playing songs written and recorded at a program that Phoebe initiated out of her desire to play her role in healing the world with music.
With her 2017 debut Shame, Americana songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Rachel Baiman emerged as a fearless voice of the American female experience. "Shame" was featured on NPR's "Songs We Love", called a "Rootsy Wake-up Call" by Folk Alley, and described by Vice's "Noisey" as "flipping off authority one song at a time."
On her new full-length album Cycles, Baiman has found a grittier musical medium for her signature unabashed and defiant songwriting, employing a majority-female team including co-producer Olivia Hally, known as the front woman of Indie-pop band Oh Pep!
Columbus, OH: Singer-songwriter guitar player RJ Cowdery is motivated by the best things in life: making people think, laugh, cry and feel. Fans tell her it's uncanny the way her songs seem to take a peek directly into their lives. Much like the Midwestern Ohio landscape she calls home, her songs are stories of middle ground, and her tales are expressions of being in the midst of life. And RJ really plays hard; her unique, characteristic style is fingerpicking with a deep bass line. An injury to a finger on her left hand as a child resulted in Cowdery learning her own playing style out of necessity; this gave rise to the distinctive technique that's earned Cowdery her rightful place at the folk table.
She has been a winner at the Kerrville New Folk contest in 2008 and the Mountain Stage New Song Contest in 2007, and won at Falcon Ridge Emerging Artist and Sisters Folk Festivals too. She's played at venues like 30A, The Ark, The Bluebird, and Vancouver Island Folk Festival. Cowdery has worked with Don Dixon, Billy Crockett, and Amy Speace. She's also received glowing press from No Depression, Country Standard Time, Making a Scene, The Alternate Root, WMOT, The Morton Report, Americana Highways, and many others.
Her 2019 release, What If This Is All There Is (GoosePie Music) was produced by Amy Speace and rerecorded and mixed by Thomm Jutz. Her all covers release Something Fine came out in 2015 on GoosePie Music and was produced, recorded and engineered by Matt Nakoa and Neale Eckstein. Her 2011 album was In This Light (Blue Rock Artists), produced by Billy Crockett recorded and engineered by Keith Gary. And her debut abum was 2008's One More Door, out on GoosePie Music, and produced by Todd Burge.
Grammy Award nominee Rob Ickes is one of the most innovative Dobro players on the music scene today with a sound and style that expands the boundary of the instrument. A former founding member of the bluegrass supergroup Blue Highway, Rob has been named IBMA's Dobro Player of the Year an unprecedented 15 times and has played as an active session player and touring musician with an impressive list of artists, including Earl Scruggs, Merle Haggard, Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, Tony Rice, Alan Jackson, Reba McEntire, and many more.
Rob is one half of Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley, a powerhouse acoustic duo referred to as an "acoustic firestorm" by Vintage Guitar magazine and "dual lightning strikes in a bottle" by Guitar Player magazine. Ickes and Hensley, who record for Compass Records, have collaborated with Taj Mahal, Tommy Emmanuel, David Grisman, Jorma Kaukonen, Vince Gill, and many others.
Rob is a musician, singer, actor, voice-over artist, playwright, director, videographer, and photographer. He's built furniture and written 58 plays that at current count have been performed in 34 states and 4 continents. He's released 3 independent CDs, performed on festival stages, and won awards as a playwright and an actor. His voice can be heard in independent films, commercial videos, and on a number of phone systems across the US. Rob refers to himself as "A Long-term Dilletante."
Rob works with professionals on personal brands. As a photographer of actors, musicians, and businesspeople he believes that an image can capture a complete story in one click of a shutter.
Ron Browning is internationally known as the "Voice Coach to the Stars." Alison Krauss, the most celebrated Grammy Award winner (27 wins), recently praised him in the New York Times, USA Today, BBC News, the Tennessean, and The Sun in London, where she called him "a genius" after he saved her from a debilitating case of dysphonia and brought her back into excellent voice where singing felt effortless.This restored the confidence needed to finish her Windy City album, which won her 2 Grammy nominations. She was then able to move on with her singing career.Ron accompanied Alison Krauss on the Red Carpet for the 60 th Annual Grammy Awards in Madison Square Gardens.
Ron has been seen and heard on Entertainment Tonight, The Voice, Oprah Network, and BBC's Simply Classics, to name a few.His clients include all levels of singers from beginners to award-winning celebrities in all genres of music.The National Association of Teachers of Singing has celebrated Ron in a lengthy tribute for "World Voice Day" in the Journal of Singing.He has had articles published by NATS, as well as The Voice Council in London, where he served as Artist in Residence two consecutive years.Other artists on his roster of clients include Wynonna, Amy Grant, Jamey Johnson, Patti LaBelle, John Hiatt, Lake Street Dive, Keb Mo, Carrie Underwood (Sound of Music Live NBC), Greta Van Fleet, Vanessa Carlton (Beautiful-the Carole King Musical in NYC), The Ace of Cups, Dailey and Vincent, RaeLynn, Chris Lane, Langhorne Slim, Steve Conn, and the international Broadway star, Pia Douwes, to name a few.He teaches privately in his Nashville studio and via Skype. Ron is also a songwriter and jazz pianist. His solo jazz piano CD, In a Sentimental Mood, is available on iTunes and CD Baby.
Job Titles:
- Director of Music & Technology
Ryan Benyo is a Los Angeles based, Gold-Record Award-Winning producer, engineer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist with credits including Parachute, Sheppard, Baker Grace (Bitter's Kiss), Lisa Loeb, Lime Cordiale, Alberta Cross, Through Fire, Vusi Mahlasela, and Caro Emerald. He has also worked on a variety of music and sound design projects for visual media including for Carl's Jr/Hardee's, NBCUniversal, and many others.
In addition, Ryan works at Kid Pan Alley as the Director of Music & Technology where he records, arranges, produces and markets their growing catalog of songs. He is a member of the Audio Engineering Society, is a self-published writer through ASCAP and is a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (GRAMMY Organization). Ryan brings an array of musical experiences and expertise to the table giving each project the utmost amount of attention and creative options.
Born in Evergreen, Colorado, Sam Leslie is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and sound engineer. After five formative years in Boston, Massachusetts studying at the Berklee College of Music, Sam now lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
Growing up in a musical family playing bluegrass, old-time, country, and other roots music styles, Sam has since enjoyed exploring and studying other genres and musical avenues. As a performer, composer, engineer, and teacher, Sam loves finding how each of these fields can enhance and inform one another to shine the way to a holistic creative flow.
Stephen Mougin has been a vocalist and guitar player for the Sam Bush Band since 2006. He owns and operates Dark Shadow Recording, an independent record label and recording studio, where he produces and engineers albums for clients and label artists including Becky Buller, Rick Faris, The Stillhouse Junkies and more.
He holds a degree in vocal music education from the University Of Massachusetts, Amherst and has taught music professionally from Kindergarten to college. Mougin continues to bring his music-ed background to camps, private workshops, and occasional in-person lessons.
Steve Seskin is a successful songwriter who has written seven number one songs, including Grammy-nominated "Grown Men Don't Cry," recorded by Tim McGraw, and "Don't Laugh at Me," winner of NSAI Song of the Year and Music Row Magazine Song of the Year in 1999 as recorded by Mark Wills. His other #1 hits are "No Doubt About It" and "For a Change," both recorded by Neal McCoy, "No Man's Land" and "If You've Got Love," both recorded by John Michael Montgomery, and "Daddy's Money," recorded by Ricochet.
Other chart toppers include "I Think About You," recorded by Collin Raye, and "All I Need To Know," recorded by Kenny Chesney. The video for Raye's "I Think About You" single was named the Academy of Country Music's Video of the Year in 1997, and the song and video were also given an award by the Tennessee Task Force Against Domestic Violence.
In 2014, 2018 and 2020, Steve was nominated to the NSAI Hall of Fame. Recent recordings of his songs include "Pictures," by John Michael Montgomery, "We Shook Hands," by Tebey, and "I'll Always Be There For You," by Brian McComas, "This Too Shall Pass," by Sinclair and "Standing Still", "Proof", "Lift You Up" and "Electricity" by Seth Glier.
While Steve is best known for writing hits, he is also a successful performer and recording artist. His 20th album, Some Sunsets, released in 2014, is filled with inspiring, hopeful songs, and features Steve and the talented Julia Sinclair. "Don't Laugh at Me" was recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary and became the impetus for the Operation Respect/Don't Laugh at Me project, a curriculum designed to teach tolerance in schools. This program has already been implemented in more than 20,000 schools across the country. Steve now enjoys performing at school assemblies in support of this program. The song is now available as a children's book, Don't Laugh At Me, which was featured on PBS's Reading Rainbow in September 2002.
Job Titles:
- Social Worker Turned Booking Agent
Terri Delaney is a Minneapolis-based social worker turned booking agent turned trauma therapist. What started as a brief consulting gig for a local musician turned into a full-time music career. Terri founded Peppermint Booking Agency in 2000 and she received the National Association of Campus Activities award of "Agent of the Year" in 2005. She then re-focused her career onto trauma therapy and helping people heal using mind-body approaches. She still collaborates with her wife, contemporary folk musician Ellis, co-managing her record company Singing Crow Music.
Terri is a jane-of-all-trades, acting as vocal producer with Ellis in the studio and on-hand co-writer when needed, and teaching classes on time management, work/life balance, and nervous system regulation. Terri is known for her passionate commitment to helping artists reach their full potential and she is available for mentoring sessions during Song School.
Tray Wellington, banjo virtuoso, multi-time IBMA Award winner, and 2019 Momentum Instrumentalist of the year. His group, the Tray Wellington Band, pushes the bounds of bluegrass music, incorporating Bossa Nova, Jazz, and Blues elements, to their originals to create a unique, new exciting sound, as well as pay tribute to their Bluegrass heroes before them. They have opened for a number of premiere artists in bluegrass including Dan Tyminski, and Joe Mullins.
Uwe Kruger, lead vocalist and guitarist, has been playing music since early childhood. When they were very young, Uwe and younger brother Jens would place a guitar on the floor between them and play it together, one brother taking the upper three strings and the other the lower three. Uwe was introduced to American folk music through the brothers' father, who would bring folk music records when he returned to Switzerland from business trips to the United States. For more than twenty-five years, Uwe has been playing guitar and singing as a professional musician. Over the course of his career, Uwe has developed range and versatility - instrumentally and stylistically.
Today, Uwe astonishes audiences with his blend of guitar-picking styles. His rich, resonant, and mellow baritone voice has an uplifting effect on all who hear him sing. Uwe has been influenced by a diversity of musicians, ranging from Doc Watson, Jerry Garcia, and Eric Clapton, to Beethoven, Bach, and Brahms. Watching and listening to Uwe's unique style, a blend of flat-picking and finger picking, is a fascinating experience. Uwe loves playing "in the moment," and his guitar improvisation during live performances has listeners sitting at the edge of their seats in excitement and anticipation.
Vance Gilbert burst onto the singer/songwriter scene in the early 90's when the buzz spread through the folk clubs of the Northeast about an ex-multicultural arts teacher who was knocking them dead at open mics. Word got out about this Philadelphia-area born and raised performer, and Shawn Colvin invited Gilbert to be a special guest on her 1992 Fat City tour. Gilbert took audiences across North America by storm. "With the voice of an angel, the wit of a devil, and the guitar playing of a god, it was enough to earn him that rarity: an encore for an opener" wrote the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in its review of a show from that tour.
Gilbert's three albums for the Rounder/Philo label - Edgewise (1994), Fugitives (1995), and Shaking Off Gravity (1998) - are all essential additions to the American singer-songwriter collection. With guests as varied as Tuck and Patti, Jonatha Brooke, Patty Larkin, Vinx, and Jane Siberry, all three albums found significant niches on NAC (New Adult Contemporary) and Non-Commercial A3 radio.
These discs were followed by the self-released Somerville Live (2000), lionized by the Boston Globe as the disc "young songwriters should study the way law students cram for bar exams," and One Thru Fourteen (2002), a stylistically varied offering that New York's Town and Village called "lively, eclectic, electrifying and transcending." Gilbert followed with Side Of The Road (2003), a duo album with Ellis Paul, lauded as "haunting, artful, and lovely" by Boston Magazine and nominated for a 2004 Boston Music Award. Then came Unfamiliar Moon (2005). "The songwriter's most compelling work; literate, heartfelt, rippling…emotionally resonant songs" raved the Boston Globe, placing the album in its Top 10 CDs of the year (#4). On Angels, Castles, Covers (2006), "Gilbert's choice of an album of covers seems both fitting and fearless. …he displays his vocal virtuosity with some unexpected choices from the late 20th century songbook. From the sounds of Motown, through the R&B of Al Green to classic Joni Mitchell and Shawn Colvin…He makes each and every tune sound fresh and new," writes Roberta Schwartz of FAME.
Gilbert then launched into a year and a half as support for George Carlin, leading up to the creation and recording of Up On Rockfield (2008), a landmark album noted for being written in the styles of some of his favorite songwriters. Of this disk Vintage Guitar proclaimed that "His fervor for composing is as powerful as a Colorado thunderstorm…accomplishing the seemingly impossible…Up On Rockfield should be on your must hear list."
Who else would name their most recent album "Old White Men", and actually have recorded a groundbreaking, heartbreaking title song to back it up? That'd be Vance Gilbert.
This latest release has received raves based solely on the material folks knew would be on it! The soul aching title cut, OLD WHITE MEN, the winsome BOY ON A TRAIN, and the comic tour de force MY BAD are present. The lonesome KING OF THE RAILS will leave a diagonal crease across the listener's heart. DRAGONFLY WINGS is a delightful throwback to 70‘s pop. NO ONE CAN LOVE YOU LIKE MARY is an all acoustic life story punctuated by Billy Novick's funky saxophones. The maddened rant of HELPLESS MAN is followed by the big hearted NEW YEAR'S EVE AT THE LION'S HEAD HOTEL - HOURLY RATES, a one-sided conversation between a prostitute and a policeman. Vance's original YOU SHOULD BE HERE sounds like a refugee from the Rogers and Hart songbook and is just Vance and a classical guitar. GO and COME HERE MY LOVE are both solo snapshots of breathless points in time. The acapella BRAKEMAN'S SON is a small story of a search for big peace. Eleven killer songs, pared down to their living core, listener ready (OK, there's a buried track. Listen for yourself…).
There has never been a shortage of prodigious musicians in bluegrass music, especially on it's signature instrument, the 5-string banjo. Less common are virtuosic players with deep and diverse musical backgrounds that inform their approach to bluegrass. Though the numbers of musically omnivorous bluegrass musicians are on the rise, few have the staggeringly broad musical base of banjo player, composer, and producer, Wes Corbett.
Wes's skills as a player have kept him on the forefront of acoustic music since he first picked up the banjo as a teenager in the pacific northwest. He would go on to be a key player in Boston's vibrant music scene, an instructor at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, and today is a rising star in Nashville's elite bluegrass scene.
Wherever Wes has appeared, he has been on the cutting edge, especially in his current gig as the newest member of the Sam Bush Band. Fellow players have long been familiar with the precision, refinement, and sparkling musicality, that have kept him so busy as a player and producer. The release of Cascade, his first solo album, finds him stepping forward as an artist in his own right, and audiences are sure to catch up with what Wes's peers have known for years
Wes Lee is the 2001 MerleFest mandolin champion from Gainesville, Georgia, who previously performed with Becky in Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike. His picking was featured on Valerie's That's What Love Can Do album. For the past 16 years, Wes has worked for the further processing division Springer Mountain Farms and is currently a senior coordinator. He jumped at the chance to play music again with friends he considers family.Visit with Wes on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.