Instructors

One of only 30 artists featured in the book, Masters of the Harmonica, Cheryl Arena has been bringing the sound of authentic American blues music to audiences around the US and Europe for over 30 years. No one trick pony, she plays the urban electric blues of Chicago, the soulful Delta sounds of the deep…

Rolly Brown is a lifelong student of the guitar. He has been a National Fingerpicking Champion (1980), a Philadelphia Music Award nominee, a solo performer, sideman, and teacher. Folk, blues, ragtime, bluegrass, country, & jazz have each, over the past 57 years, been his passions. Acoustic Guitar Magazine calls Rolly’s guitar sound “an exceptionally melodic,…

Susie Burke has been performing since the 1980’s in numerous settings, solo, band and duo. No matter the setting, Susie is known for the soulful way she delivers a song. Of her singing, Scott Alarik of the Boston Globe said, “her phrasing is unerringly devoted to the lyric.” The diversity of those lyrics is also…

Something of a late-bloomer, singer/songwriter Kate Campbell didn’t begin her professional career until the age of 30. But in short order she managed to include the likes of Guy Clark, Emmylou Harris, as Buddy Miller as both admirers and collaborators in her distinctly literate musical vision. Since making her recording debut in 1995 with Songs…

John Doerschuk has been in the sound business for over 25 years. He was attracted to waves and electrons while playing in bands in the seventies, and somehow continues to make a living as an “audio guy.” He lives with his artist wife Bessie and daughter Sophie in Cambridge, Massachusetts. John plays piano and guitar…

“Lorraine Hammond is the most versatile dulcimer player I know,” observes North Carolina dulcimer wizard Don Pedi. Lorraine’s numerous credits as a traditional singer, songwriter, teacher and instrumentalist include her groundbreaking Shanachie release with fiddler Gerry Milnes, Hell Up Coal Holler, a Homespun dulcimer instruction series, and two elegant Appalachian dulcimer books with Yellow Moon…

“Bennett is the sort of finger-picking guitar player you can listen to all day” – The Shetland Times. He started playing in 1957 and began teaching in 1960, debuted as a virtuoso soloist in 1980 – on the In-Bound platform, Harvard Square Station – and has played above ground, at home and abroad ever since….

WC Handy Award-winner, musician, composer, actor and director Guy Davis says “Christopher James is amongst the best pure musicians that there are. There’s nothing he can’t do!” Christopher’s love of music is expressed in his songwriting, singing, and playing on the mandolin, acoustic and electric guitar, harmonica and ukulele. He has written over a hundred…

Hubby Jenkins is a talented multi-instrumentalist who endeavors to share his love and knowledge of old-time American music. Born and raised in Brooklyn he delved into his Southern roots, following the thread of African American history that wove itself through country blues, ragtime, fiddle and banjo, and traditional jazz. Hubby got his higher musical education…

Saro Lynch-Thomason is an award-winning ballad singer, song leader, folklorist, and documentarian from Asheville, North Carolina. Saro has been studying and teaching traditional song and balladry from the British Isles, Appalachia and the American South for over a decade. Saro believes that old songs help modern learners access history, folklore, and (most importantly) compassion for…

“From extravagance to simple elegance we went, as Kerri Powers took the stage with nothing but a guitar and a tapping tambourine strapped to the toe of her boot. Reading about her I assumed she’d be a folk strummer, but she began to lay down some of the finest country blues fingerstyle guitar we’ve had…

If you want to know Rachel Sumner, listen to her music. “Come see who I’ve become,” she sings in her song, “3000 Miles.” “Come see where I belong.” Rachel spent her early career on the bluegrass circuit, singing, writing songs, and playing guitar with the acclaimed Boston group Twisted Pine. These days Rachel belongs somewhere…

Pam Weeks is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and contra dance caller from Bowdoin, Maine, who believes in sharing the “joie de vivre” of traditional music and dance with everyone! Pam is fiddler and singer in the Maine-based Cajun dance band, Jimmyjo & the Jumbol’Ayuhs, sings and plays several instruments in the folk trio, T-Acadie, plays fiddle…