2014 Performers

 

Laurel Bliss  ★  Country Hamms  ★  Dickel Brothers Reunion  ★  Dry and Dusty  ★  Flat Rock Stringband  ★  Foghorn Stringband  ★  Alice Gerrard with Tom and Patrick Sauber  ★  Leela Grace  ★  Happy Valley Sluggers  ★  Lucas Hicks  ★  Amy Hofer  ★  Ava Honey ★  Hopping Jenny  ★  Adam Keisling  ★  Maggie Lind  ★  Jinny Macrae  ★  Martin Brothers  ★  Tony Mates  ★  Missouri Turn Around  ★  Steph Noll  ★  Kate O’Brien-Clarke  ★  Caroline Oakley  ★  Old Time Highway  ★  The Onlies  ★  Lisa Ornstein, Johnny Connolly, and Dan Compton  ★  Jane Palmieri  ★  Portland Sacred Harp  ★  Real Doozies  ★  WB Reid and Bonnie Zahnow  ★  Sausage Grinder  ★  Paul Silveria / Professor Banjo  ★  Charmaine Slaven  ★  Snipe Hunters   ★  The Sofa Kings   ★  Tallboys Country Band  ★  Annalisa Tornfelt  ★  Turpentine  ★  The Earl White Stringband  ★  Sarah York

Complete List of 2014 Performers


Laurel Bliss    ↑↑

Singing Worksop – SRC Candidates Room – Saturday, January 18 – 3:45p-5:00p

Bellingham, Washington vocalist and dobro player Laurel Bliss was exposed early in her life to the Carter Family, Doc Watson, the Louvin Brothers, and Jimmy Martin. That exposure has inspired a lifelong dedication to unearthing and learning vocal chestnuts. Laurel has a composed, straightforward, yet tender approach to singing, that suggests an earlier era.

Laurel played dobro and sang in Southfork in the 1980’s, and has performed for many years in a duo with Cliff Perry. Her heartfelt vocals have made her a stand-out in acoustic and bluegrass music. The joys of playing by ear and learning to sing with others through the festivals of Weiser, The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes and the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop have shaped her approach to music.

 [bio from the Centrum VoiceWorks website…]


Country Hamms    ↑↑

Kick Off Party – Spare Room – Wednesday, January 15 – 10:30p-12:30p

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The Country Hamms play country music in the good old honky tonk style. Featuring Andy Rick on pedal steel, John Clark on electric bass, Katy Harris on drums, and Devin Champlin on fiddle, all members trade off vocal and guitar duty. They can usually be found in Bellingham, WA.

 


Dickel Brothers Reunion    ↑↑

Concert – SRC Auditorium – Friday, January 17 – 9:45p-10:25p

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The Dickel Brothers travel from far and wide to reunite for the 1st time in over a decade to play this year’s Portland Old Time Music Gathering. Brothers Clancy, Brian, Marcus, Michael and Matt dust off the old instruments that once filled venues around Portland, OR in 90’s with songs of Charlie Poole, Riley Puckett, Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith, Uncle Dave Macon, Earl Johnson and a few originals. Fueled with whiskey in their blood the founding duo of Clancy & Matt Dickel will start the set off with many, as expected, surprises in store.


Dry and Dusty    ↑↑

Concert – SRC Auditorium – Saturday, January 18 – 2:00p-3:00p

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Dry and Dusty is an old-time sister duo from Bellingham and sometimes Spokane, Washington. The band is made up of Ruthie and Sally Jablonsky, who grew up playing music with their parents, hiking around in the desert singing cowboy songs, and learning the old tunes from their extended family at festivals and camps.


Flat Rock Stringband    ↑↑

Dance – Velo Cult – Thursday, January 16 – 7:00p-8:30p

The Flat Rock Stringband plays Old-Time American stringband music. Originating before the commercial recording industry, before electricity, radio, and mass media, Old-Time music is rooted in a time when people made their own entertainment.

This tradition has continued through the ages much in the same way. It is not so much a kind of music that people perform as a kind of music that people socialize to. It’s a way to turn a living room into a dance hall or a way to enliven a gathering of friends or family.

As much of a tune session between friends as a band, we play the music in the manner that we imagine the old-timers must have: to renew themselves after a day of work, to ennoble the joys of the day or to sweeten its troubles, and to just kick back and enjoy the evening.

While the sky unleashes on us Portlanders for six months straight every year, we’re rocking out in living rooms, rental halls, and pubs with fiddles and banjos, dancing, playing tunes, and enjoying each other’s company.

  [bio from the Flat Rock String Band website…]



Foghorn Stringband    ↑↑

Concert – Auditorium – Saturday, January 18 – 4:30p-5:00p

Dance – Auditorium – Saturday, January 18 – 9:45p-11:00p

Foghorn Stringband play the old way, the way you’d have heard stringbands play on Southern radio stations back in the 1930s. They don’t fancy up the music to make it more modern, instead they reach into the heart of the songs, pulling out the deep emotions that made them so enduring in the first place. Performing live, these multi- instrumentalists gather around a single microphone in the middle of the stage, expertly balancing their sound on the fly, and creating the rarest of music: songs that are at once wildly virtuosic and intimately hand-crafted. Foghorn Stringband play American roots music of the finest order.

  [bio from the Foghorn Stringband website…]


Alice Gerrard with Tom and Patrick Sauber    ↑↑

Concert – SRC Auditorium – Friday, January 17 – 8:45p-9:25p

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Simply put, Alice Gerrard is a talent of legendary status. In a career spanning some 40-plus years, she has known, learned from, and performed with many of the old-time and bluegrass greats and has in turn earned worldwide respect for her own important contributions to the music.

Alice is particularly known for her groundbreaking collaboration with Appalachian singer Hazel Dickens during the 1960s and ’70s. The duo produced four classic LPs (recently reissued by Rounder on CD) and influenced scores of young women singers…

Alice has appeared on more than 20 recordings, including projects with many traditional musicians such as Tommy Jarrell, Enoch Rutherford, Otis Burris, Luther Davis and Matokie Slaughter; with Tom Sauber and Brad Leftwich as Tom, Brad & Alice, with the Harmony Sisters, and with the Herald Angels…

 [bio from Alice Gerrard’s website…]


Leela Grace    ↑↑

Clogging Workshop – SRC Ballroom – Saturday, January 18 – 3:00p-4:00p

Photo by Kristin Taylor

Leela is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and percussive dancer who has been making music for most of her life. Leela was on stage before she could walk, sang her first protest song at the tender age of four, discovered the magic of harmony singing in the back seat with her younger sister by age five, learned her first clogging step as a bouncy six-year-old, and wrote her first song at age seven. She has earned critical and audience praise for the “great depth and insight” of her original songs, which have been featured on NPR’s All Songs Considered and chosen for inclusion on a “Best of Portland Acoustic Music” compilation CD.

 [bio from Leela Grace’s Facebook music page…]


Happy Valley Sluggers    ↑↑

Kick Off Party – Spare Room – Wednesday, January 15 – 7:30p-9:00p

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The Happy Valley Sluggers play the Cajun two-steps and waltzes which come out of the dancehalls and roadhouses that dot the countryside of southwest Louisiana. It’s definitely dance music.

Long-time fixtures in the Northwest folk scene, both individually and as a group, the Sluggers are: Mike Schway, Cajun accordion and fiddle; Laurel Bliss, fiddle; Nina Richardson, guitar, John Clark on bass and Andy Rick on pedal steel.


Lucas Hicks (caller)    ↑↑

Dance – Velo Cult – Thursday, January 16 – 8:30p-10:00p

It’s hard to know what is more fun – being a dancer when Lucas Hicks calls a square dance, or being in the audience listening to him sing and play music. He’s an entertainer, with a wit and charm that makes you feel like you are in on the joke. Lucas currently resides in Bellingham, WA.



Amy Hofer (caller)    ↑↑

Dance – Velo Cult – Thursday, January 16 – 7:00p-8:30p

Amy is another one of those amazing Portland musician/callers whose deep knowledge of southern traditional music informs their dance calling. Lately she’s been one of the organizers of the fine Every Sunday Square Dance series.



Ava-Honey    ↑↑

SRC Auditorium – Saturday, January 18 – 9:45p-11:00p

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Ava heads the Boise Old Time organization and drives indescribably cool cars.

You can find her calling square dances in Boise, Idaho twice a month, She also plays guitar and sings with Idyltime.


Hopping Jenny    ↑↑

Dance – SRC Auditorium – Saturday, January 18 – 8:30p-9:45

Hopping Jenny unites four seasoned old-time players from Portland, Oregon. Featuring Sophie Vitells Enloe on fiddle, Isaac Enloe on banjo, Kevin Sandri on guitar, and Brian Bagdonas on bass, the band’s driving energy never fails to get the crowd dancing.


Adam Keisling    ↑↑

Concert – Auditorium – Saturday, January 18 – 3:00p-4:00p

Adam Keisling

In his own words:

A long and sordid tale….

I started playing electric bass in high school. Mostly because I already knew how to read bass clef due to my playing of the trombone. Anyways, I liked playing Zeppelin. And Rush. A lot. I gradually started going to bluegrass jams with my dad, and ended up buying my first upright around the age of nineteen. Somewhere around that time I also started playing acoustic guitar. Again, mostly Zep, with a little Pink Floyd thrown in for good measure.

I started listening to a wide variety of music in my early twenties, and I really fell hard for the music of Mississippi John Hurt, so I started working on my finger-picking skills. I also started listening more and more to music from the Anthology of American Folk Music, and it’s still one of my favorites to this day.

I started messing around with old-time string band music 12 years ago or so with a couple of friends. I really began earnestly pursuing old-time after auditioning for the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers eight years ago, and backing up a really good fiddler is still one of my favorite things to do. Somewhere along in there I also started to play some banjo. I also played guitar with the Mill City Grinders, an old-time string band, for around five years or so.

I’m currently playing with a few different groups in wide variety of styles and instruments; some of these groups include Pert Near Sandstone (hyper-kinetic string band), Pig’s Eye Landing (contra dance band), The Town Hall Stompers (old-time string band), and Sis Draper and the Rum Cullies (blues, jug band and old-time). I’m sure there are some others. I play for a lot of square dances, and am also playing the occasional solo gig.

[bio from reverbnation.com]



Maggie Lind (caller)    ↑↑

Family Dance – SRC Ballroom – Saturday, January 18 – 4:00p-5:00p

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Maggie Lind has been playing music for and calling square dances for more than a decade. She has drawn much of her calling repertoire from her mentors Bill Martin and Phil Jamison. Her enthusiasm, skillful teaching, repertoire of traditional square dances, and sung calling style inspires novice and experienced dancers alike. She has performed, called dances, and taught old-time music at Seattle’s Folklife Festival, the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, the Berkeley Old-Time Music Convention, Pickathon Roots Music Festival, and the Portland Old-Time Music Gathering, as well as countless weddings, parties, corporate events, hoedowns, street fares, house parties and campgrounds.


Jinny Macrae    ↑↑

Song Session – SRC Candidates Room – Saturday, January 18 – 2:30p-3:45p

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Jinny Macrae has a lifelong love of singing starting in school and church choirs in her home town in northern Washington. She has lived in Portland for over 30 years and has played and sang in a variety of groups including gospel choirs, a vaudeville troupe, a jug band, jazz, Old Time and Rhythm and Blues bands.


Martin Brothers    ↑↑

Concert – SRC Auditorium – Saturday, January 18 – 1:00p-2:00p

MartinBrothersbw
[…in their words…]

The Martin Brothers Oldtime Country and Traditional Style Bluegrass Band, was formed 6 years ago with three of the Martin Brothers Bill,Tom and Joe Martin, Bill Martin has passed on. We continue to channel Bill and he sends us good music vibs. Aletha and Marilyn help to round out the band now and we have a kick’n good time playing Oldtime and Traditional style music.


Tony Mates (caller)    ↑↑

Dance – SRC Ballroom – Saturday, January 18 – 9:25p-10:25p

Tony Mates calls dances, plays the fiddle with Peckin’ Out Dough, and sings and plays bass with Trio A Propos. He lives in Seattle with his wife, Catherine, and their dog Bill.

[bio from 2012 Olympia Old Time Music Festival program…]



Missouri Turnaround    ↑↑

Family Dance – SRC Ballroom – Saturday, January 18 – 4:00p-5:00p

Missouri Turnaround is Dave Mount on fiddle, Brent Martens on electric guitar, and Martha Thompson on keyboard.


Steph Noll (caller)    ↑↑

Dance – SRC Ballroom – Saturday, January 18 – 8:20p-9:20p


Kate O’Brien-Clarke    ↑↑

Family Jam Session – SRC Ballroom – Saturday, January 18 – 12:30p-1:15p


Caroline Oakley (caller)    ↑↑

Dance – SRC Auditorium – Saturday, January 18 – 7:00p-8:20p

Originally from South Carolina, Caroline is a busy and dedicated Portland-based dance caller, old time musician, and kids music leader. She has called dances at the Portland Old-Time Gathering, San Francisco Old Time and Bluegrass Festival, Pickathon, Dare to be Square, and the 2013 Alaska Folk Festival.



Old Time Highway    ↑↑

Dance – SRC Auditorium – Saturday, January 18 – 7:00p-8:20p

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This kick butt band revolves around the Oakleone family, Simon and Pete Leone and Caroline Oakley. They’ll be joined for this dance by John McDonald and Tyler Tornfelt.



The Onlies    ↑↑

Dance – SRC Ballroom – Saturday, January 18 – 10:30p-11:30p

The Onlies are a highly entertaining and energetic group of 15 year old musicians from Seattle. They love to sing and play tunes from many genres, and especially enjoying playing fast square dance tunes for rooms full of dancers. Samantha Braman, Riley Calcagno, and Leo Shannon have been friends since they were toddlers, and have played at festivals, dances, and venues all over the west coast. Fantastic young bass player RuthMabel Boytz joins them for dances and other projects.

Here’s a short video of them playing the family dance at the 2013 Portland Old Time Gathering.

[bio from the Onlies website…]

Lisa Ornstein, Johnny Connolly, and Dan Compton    ↑↑

Concert – SRC Downstairs Bar – Friday, January 17 – 7:00p-7:45p

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Talk about instant musical chemistry! It’s an evening of fresh, new sounds when Irish button accordion virtuoso Johnny Connolly teams up with ace old-time and French-Canadian fiddler Lisa Ornstein and guitar wizard and vocalist Dan Compton. Individually, these three have reputations as accomplished players of their respective traditions. Together, this newly formed trio share a bent of musical mind so close, it sounds as if they’d been playing together for years. From sizzling hoedowns to lilting reels and soaring waltzes, Johnny, Dan, and Lisa converse with humor and ease, combining seamlessly blended unison and innovative harmonies, served up with a side of song. (www.ornsteincompton.com) (www.myspace.com/thejohnnyconnollyband/)


Jane Palmieri (caller)    ↑↑

Dance – SRC Auditorium – Saturday, January 18 – 8:30p-9:45p

Jane Palmieri as raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia but learned to call square dances here in Portland starting in 2008 at Dare to Be Square West. She has a particular fascination with finding dances that are naturally called in a gender-free manner. She is one of the organizers of Portland’s Every Sunday Square Dance.


Portland Sacred Harp    ↑↑

Intro Workshop – SRC Candidates Room – Saturday, January 18 – 12:30p-1:00p

Singing – SRC Candidates Room – Saturday, January 18 – 1:00p-2:30p

Sacred Harp shape note singing is a community musical and social activity, emphasizing participation, not performance. Everyone is invited to come and sing (or just listen), regardless of musical experience or ability.



Real Doozies   ↑↑

Dance – SRC Ballroom – Saturday, January 18 – 7:15p-8:15p

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The Real Doozies together have at least a century’s worth of string band experience under their belts. They’re known for their rock-solid groove, rollicking repertoire, and fiery musicianship. Mike Schway, of Bellingham, is perhaps the Northwest’s most fierce and infectious dance fiddler. In a region rife with expert old-time banjo players, Seattle’s Dave Leddel stands out as the most versatile. He’s at ease in clawhammer and two-finger styles played up and down the neck in just about any key or time signature. Dead-on timing, a foolproof ear, and buoyant energy are Seattle bass player Nancy Katz’s musical hallmarks. Berkeley guitarist Dan Warrick, known for his tight rhythm and inventive bass lines, has played with fiddler and guitarist Karen Celia Heil, the Earl White Band, and Thompson String Ticklers.



WB Reid and Bonnie Zahnow   ↑↑

Jam Session – Moon and Sixpence – Thursday, January 16 – 7:00p-10:00p

This husband and wife duo present a wide range of musical traditions: old-time country songs and fiddle tunes, string blues music from Mississippi and Memphis, and Mexican songs and dance tunes. Both play fiddle and guitar, and WB also plays a variety of other stringed instruments.

[bio from WB and Bonnie’s website…]

Sausage Grinder   ↑↑

Concert – SRC Auditorium – Friday, January 17 – 8:00p-8:40p

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Sausage Grinder, Los Angeles’ all-natural hillbilly and country blues band, combines the traditional sounds of fiddle and banjo breakdowns with the low-down sound of country blues, topped off with a touch of ragtime and hillbilly jazz. The versatile acoustic ensemble features fiddle, banjo, guitar, mandolin, washboard, and a few odds and ends.
Sausage Grinder was formed in 2008 out of a desire to play this classic music “right” without being slavish imitators or academic lecturers. As old-time and blues fiddler Adam Tanner puts it, Sausage Grinder’s “reverence to the old 78s hasn’t restrained them from exploring even grimier nooks and crannies … unrestrained and impolite the Grinder’s performances are visceral and joyous — a blast from the past with a nod to the immediacy of the future!” Or as LA Weekly says succinctly, the band’s performance feels “reminiscent of an old Mickey Mouse cartoon.”

Sausage Grinder has headlined at the Topanga Banjo and Fiddle Contest, the Goleta Old-Time Fiddlers’ Convention, and the Los Angeles Old Time Social, and has performed throughout Southern California with artists including Frank Fairfield and Triple Chicken Foot.

Check out some fancy videos of the band taken at David’s Old Time Tiki Parlour!



Paul Silveria / Professor Banjo    ↑↑

Dance – SRC Ballroom – Saturday, January 18 – 7:15p-8:15p

Paul has been calling traditional dances since he first learned from his mentor Bill Martin in 2002. He has called at the Portland Old Time Music Gathering, Seattle’s Folklife Festival, the Berkeley Old-Time Convention, Portland’s Pick-A-Thon roots music festival, Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, and Seattle’s Tractor Tavern, as well as numerous grange halls, community centers, and other venues from Vancouver BC to San Francisco. Paul has worked with many great bands including Foghorn Stringband, the Tallboys, Rabbit Foot, and the Water Tower Bucket Boys. In 2008 the Old Time Herald Magazine ran a feature article about Paul’s experience as a young square dance caller. Paul’s dance calling has also been featured on KUOW, Seattle’s NPR affiliate.

[bio from Paul’s website…]


Charmaine Slaven (caller)    ↑↑

Dance – SRC Auditorium – Friday, January 17 – 10:30p-11:30p

Based in Seattle, Charmaine Slaven started calling dances after inspiration from attending the POTG & Dare to be Square in 2006. She brings great energy & pizazz to the dance floor, and her concise teaching of dances is appreciated by dancers of all levels. She’s also a fine guitarist, singer, and flatfooter, and plays old-time, country, and blues with The Tallboys and Squirrel Butter.


Snipe Hunters   ↑↑

Dance – SRC Auditorium – Friday, January 17 – 10:30p-11:30p

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The Snipe Hunters are a mash-up of West Coast Old Time musicians who will get your toes tapping. With Travis Cooper on the bow and Chris Miller driving the bus, you can be sure for a good time out on the dance floor. Travis Cooper is a boutique bicycle frame builder from Bowling Green, Kentucky. Chris Miller is a luthier who moved to North Carolina in 2005 to play more clawhammer banjo, and has known Travis since he sported dreadlocks and lived in a yurt. These jokers will be joined by an elite crew of musicians you won’t want to miss.


The Sofa Kings   ↑↑

Dance – SRC Ballroom – Saturday, January 18 – 8:20p-9:20p

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The Sofa Kings are Colin Harris, Amy Hofer, Charlie Beck, Adam Kiesling, and Robin Wilcox.


Tallboys Country Band   ↑↑

Kick-off Party – Spare Room – Wednesday, January 15 – 9:00p-10:30p

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The Tallboys Country Band is a collaborative project of members of the venerable Tallboys stringband and friends. This Portland Gathering version of the Tallboys Country Band will include Charlie Beck on lap steel, Charmaine Slaven on rhythm guitar, Chris Miller on mandolin, Bobby Winstead on guitar, Gordon Keepers on bass, and Sam Weiss on fiddle.


Annalisa Tornfelt   ↑↑

Teens and Tweens Jam – SRC New Library Room – Saturday, January 18 – 3:00p-4:00p

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Annalisa Tornfelt grew up in Anchorage, Alaska. Her mother is a Suzuki violin teacher and her father is a composer, orchestra teacher, and cellist. Annalisa began playing violin at the age of three with her mother as her teacher. Her family enjoyed attending music festivals and fiddle camps. She started touring and performing in a band when she was sixteen and has taught at more than sixty-five music camps for kids. She now has a private violin studio in SE Portland and continues to perform.

[bio from the Portland Fiddle Camp website…]

 


Turpentine   ↑↑

Clogging Workshop – SRC Ballroom – Saturday, January 18 – 3:00p-4:00p

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Dennis Reynolds (banjo), Jim Schumont (mandolin), Clint Gorthy (fiddle), and Sarah Ells (guitar)

 


The Earl White Strinband   ↑↑

Dance – SRC Ballroom – Saturday, January 18 – 9:25p-10:25p

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Earl White has been a prominent figure in the Oldtime music and dance community for more than 30yrs. Earl is an original and founding member of the famed Greengrass Cloggers, and is the namesake for the clog step “The Earl”.

Earl White received his 1st fiddle in 1975 and taught himself to play while listening and dancing to the music of Tommy Jarrell, The Plank Rd Stringband, Highwoods Stringband, and the Horse Flies, to name a few. Earl has a vast repertoire of tunes and is known for his heartfelt, energetic, driving style of fiddlin.

For the past decade, Earl, with his wife Adrienne Davis on guitar, has lead the “The Earl White Stringband” and has played many festivals and dances (contra and square) throughout the east and west coasts.

 


Sarah York (caller)   ↑↑

Dance – SRC Ballroom – Saturday, January 18 – 10:30p-11:30p

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Sarah York has been calling old-time dances for almost a decade in her Lake Superior stomping grounds, where many waters and traditions come together. After beginning her Old Time obsession in Portland at the turn of the last century, she’s been calling for Wisconsin barn dances and house parties, on frozen ponds and in the Big Lake itself, and for many festivals, including the famous Doughnut Fry of Port Wing, Wisconsin. She also plays guitar and banjo and sings with the bands Orienta Carwash and The Quill Pickers.

 

Complete List of 2014 Performers    ↑↑

Adam Kiesling
Alice Gerrard with Tom and Patrick Sauber
Amy Hofer
Annalisa Tornfelt
Ava Honey
Caroline Oakley
Charmaine Slaven
Country Hamms
Dickel Brothers Reunion
Dry and Dusty
Flat Rock String Band
Foghorn Stringband
Happy Valley Sluggers
Hopping Jenny
Jane Palmieri
Jessica Beer
Jinny Macrae
Kate O’Brien-Clarke
Laurel Bliss
Leela Grace
Lucas Hicks
Maggie Lind
Martin Brothers
Missouri Turn Around
Paul Silveria
Peckin’ Out Dough
Professor Banjo
Real Doozies
Sarah York
Sausage Grinder
Steph Noll
Tallboys Country Band
The Earl White String Band
The Old Time Highway
The Onlies
The Snipe Hunters
The Sofa Kings
Tony Mates
Turpentine
WB Reid and Bonnie Zahnow