Blue Ridge Old Time Music Week 2024

June 8-14 2025

Instructors

  • Advanced Fiddle, Judy’s Original Tunes

    From Ithaca, NY, land of lakes, gorges, waterfalls and colleges, Judy is a co-founding member of the alt-trad band, The Horse Flies, who toured extensively throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe (including appearances on eTown, Prairie Home Companion, All Things Considered, World Café, Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival, Central Park Summer Stage, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Mountain Stage, and MTV), and recorded many albums (including releases on MCA and Rounder Records).  

    Judy played with the remarkable Natalie Merchant’s band on several albums and tours, including appearances on Good Morning America and Late Night with Letterman.  She has also won an Emmy for her compositions for film and television.

    Judy has a deep love of traditional Appalachian fiddle music and has taught at music camps and programs throughout the U.S. over many decades. She is excited to be back at Mars Hill!

  • Advanced Guitar, Swing Guitar Backup

    A native of Greenville, SC, multi-instrumentalist Melissa DuPuy was a long time Nashville performing and recording musician before relocating back to the upstate in 2023. She has recorded on projects for labels including Sony/ATV, RCA, BMG, Curb Records, Rounder, Capitol, MCA, Arista, and Asylum Records and has produced songwriters and independent artists in her project studio. Melissa has performed onstage with renowned folk legends including Doc Watson, Bill Monroe, Snuffy Jenkins, Mac Wiseman and John Hartford. She worked for the Country Music Foundation, The National Museum of African American Music, is a former Tennessee Artist in Residence, and has taught at several universities in the Nashville area as well as in private instruction. Melissa holds a Master of Arts in Appalachian Studies from Appalachian State University and a Bachelor of Music degree from Furman University.

  • Old Time Harmony Singing

    Banjo player, singer, songwriter, percussive-dancer, choreographer and square-dance caller, Oakland, CA-based Evie Ladin grew up steeped in traditional folk music/dance on the East Coast, and brings a contemporary vision to her compositions and choreography while holding fast to the roots.  Her performances, recordings and teaching reconnect Appalachian music/dance with other African-Diaspora traditions, and have been heard from A Prairie Home Companion to Lincoln Center, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass to Celtic Connections, Brazil to Bali. She has shared the stage with innumerable luminaries, such as Alice Gerrard, Laurie Lewis, Ralph Stanley and John McKuen, and many contemporaries. Evie currently tours internationally with her Evie Ladin Band, and as a duo with Keith Terry.

    In 2024 she released two CDs, celebrating both of her musical sides: a live album of originals from her Evie Ladin Band, recorded at the esteemed Freight & Salvage, and the second totally trad fiddle/banjo duets with 17 different fiddlers, Riding the Rooster Two.

  • Rhythm & Rep, Folk Art

    Howard Rains is an artist, fiddler, singer, and guitar player from Texas now living in Kansas. His two obsessions are music and painting. He is the fourth generation to play on the same fiddle that was made for his great-grandfather and learned to play the guitar from his dad. The New York Times has said, “Rains has established himself as an authority on old Texas-style fiddling.” Howard has learned his music from friends, family, mentors, old recordings and rare manuscripts. As much known for his painting as his fiddling, Howard has focused much of his work on his unique watercolor style.

  • Rhythm & Rep, Second First!

    Tricia Spencer is a Kansas fiddler who grew up on her family’s farm learning the tradition of old-time fiddling knee to knee from her grandpa and grandma, Vernon and Iona Spencer. In her youth, she and her family traveled to fiddler’s conventions throughout the midwest where she learned from master fiddlers like Pete McMahan, Cyril Stinnett, Violet Hensley, Vesta Johnson, Lyman Enloe, Dwight Lamb, Amos Chase and Lucy Pierce. Tricia is known for her unique approach to seconding on the fiddle and is a teacher, artist, composer and multi-instrumentalist.

  • Mandolin

    While Karen Mueller is best known for her solo work on the autoharp and mountain dulcimer, she also has several decades of professional experience performing and teaching guitar. Her solid, driving rhythm has been featured in old-time, Celtic, French Canadian, and contradance bands based in Kansas and Minnesota, and she is in demand to accompany her fellow performers at festivals around the country. Karen grew up in Winfield, Kansas, home of the acclaimed Walnut Valley Festival, which greatly influenced her involvement in, and love of, traditional music since her teens. She began playing guitar while in high school, and soon started giving lessons at a local music store- and has been teaching ever since. Karen is fluent in melodic fingerpicking and flatpicking as well as rhythm playing, and enjoys teaching students of all levels in whatever styles they choose. One workshop student wrote that “Karen is a skilled, articulate teacher who is both focused and goal oriented. She has the ability to help students achieve a high level of competence in a short time frame.” Karen won the 1986 International Autoharp Championship and was a National Dulcimer finalist in 1985, both at the Walnut Valley Festival. In 2006 she was inducted into the Autoharp Hall of Fame. She has performed and taught at festivals from coast to coast as well as in England, including: the Walnut Valley Festival, Augusta Heritage Center, Swannanoa Gathering, Kentucky Music Week, the Ozark Folk Center, John C. Campbell Folk School, Old Town School of Folk Music, and more. Karen has released six solo recordings and authored three music books, and contributed to numerous anthology recordings. Her website is karenmueller.com.

  • Beginning Bass

    Amy Buckingham

  • Rhythm and Rep, Carter Family mini

    Originally from the Deep South (New South Wales, Australia…) Ashlee Watkins is an acclaimed singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter who now makes her home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwest Virginia. Her powerfully unadorned vocal style and tasteful banjo and guitar playing has won her many top awards at fiddlers conventions around the region. In addition to performing around the world with the Alum Ridge Boys & Ashlee and as the duo Ashlee Watkins & Andrew Small, she performs for old time dances around the region with groups including the Crooked Road Ramblers, the Mustard Cutters, and Larry Sigmon. In 2021, Ashlee completed a Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship with Floyd County master musician Mac Traynham. She currently runs her own stringed instrument repair business and serves as director of the Floyd County Junior Appalachian Musicians program.

  • Intermediate Banjo, Appalachian Songs & Ballads

    Riley Baugus is a North Carolina native, and has been playing banjo since age 11. He learned from many masters of the mountain music tradition, including Kirk Sutphin and Tommy Jarrell. Riley has played banjo and guitar with The Red Hots, the Old Hollow Stringband, Dirk Powell & Tim O’Brian, and released two solo records. His singing was featured in the film Cold Mountain, for which he also built the antebellum-style banjos.

    Riley finds the greatest joy in playing music with friends, and spreading his love of Blue Ridge Mountain music and culture wherever he goes.

  • Duet Harmony Singing mini-class

    By now a familiar face at the Blue Ridge Old Time Music Week, Kay Justice along with Sam Gleaves returns to teach harmony singing.  As a young student nurse, Kay began playing guitar and singing popular folk music of the day.  She soon discovered that she was drawn to the old songs from the Appalachian mountains and began looking for recordings of early artists from the area. Her love of the music from the Carter Family, the Stanley Brothers, as well as lesser known singers continues today.  Kay has performed and recorded with Ginny Hawker, The Herald Angel Band and she has taught at numerous music camps including Augusta, Ashokan, Swannanoa, Cowen Creek and Allegheny Echoes.

    Sam Gleaves is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist originally from Wytheville, Virginia. He began playing old time Appalachian music as a teenager. While studying folklore at Berea College, Sam performed with the Berea College Bluegrass Ensemble directed by Al White. He has recorded five albums, most of which were produced in collaboration with his sheroes, Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer.  Sam has performed throughout the U.S. and in Ireland, England, Canada, Japan and Italy. He currently serves as Appalachian Instruments Instructor and Bluegrass Ensemble Director at Berea College.

  • Fiddle mini - Alternate Tunings for Fiddle

    Lillian Chase

  • Early Intermediate Ensemble

    Rachel Eddy is a native of West Virginia who grew up in a musical family steeped in the traditions of Appalachian music and dance. Rachel is known throughout the world as both a dynamic, emotionally powerful performer and an engaging, thoughtful teacher. Rachel’s soulful singing and multi-instrumental finesse—including fiddle, banjo, guitar, and mandolin—may be heard on numerous solo and collaborative recordings as well as at dances and jam sessions, where they are dedicated to fostering community and sharing a love of music with others.

  • Mountain Dulcimer

    For more than three decades, Stephen Seifert has been a featured mountain dulcimer performer and instructor at hundreds of music festivals and events including Swannanoa Gathering, Augusta, John C. Campbell, Ozark Folk Center, Walnut Valley Festival, Palestine Old-Time and Dulcimer Festival, Old Mill Music Festival, and many more. He taught and traveled with dulcimer master David Schnaufer from 1997 to 2001. While he plays all kinds of music, he's spent a large portion of his life trying to learn old-time tunes from old recordings and in-person on a variety of traditional instruments. Most recently he's been one of the five coordinators of QuaranTune, a four-day festival that takes place entirely online three times a year featuring dozens of instructors and performers from all over the world. Stephen has authored ten books, four CDs, and a slew of instructional videos.

  • Intermediate Fiddle

    Josh Goforth

  • Advanced Banjo

    Frank Evans is a highly acclaimed banjo player and musician who has been playing professionally for 15 years. Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Evans was drawn to the banjo from a young age, and sought every opportunity to surround himself with the Appalachian music of the United States. 

    Evans makes his home in Nashville, TN and tours the US, Canada and Europe, with multiple acts including The Slocan Ramblers, The Jason Carter Band, and has played on some of the most prestigious stages including the Grand Ole Opry, The Ryman Auditorium, Rockygrass and Merlefest. Frank has become known for his distinctive style which blends traditional folk music with contemporary influences, creating a sound that is uniquely his own.

  • Banjo concepts for old time jams (mini)

    Matthew Sabatella connects people with music that is woven into the fabric of the United States. He performs regularly, both as a solo artist and as the leader of the Rambling String Band. He teaches about America’s music, in person and online, at Lifelong Learning Institutes at various colleges and universities. In 2019, Matthew founded Ballad of America, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to preserve and celebrate music from America’s diverse cultural history. Matthew's approach to banjo developed through more than 20 years of playing and studying the techniques of the masters. He teaches privately and has won blue ribbons in multiple banjo competitions.

  • Rhythm and Rep, Mandolin Mini

    Andrew Small is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and band leader who can be heard performing old time, bluegrass, and country music around the world with his band the Alum Ridge Boys & Ashlee and also in the duo Ashlee Watkins & Andrew Small. Residing in the Blue Ridge region of Southwest Virginia, Andrew completed a Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship with master fiddler Eddie Bond and also served as the inaugural Artist-In-Residence for SW Virginia’s Crooked Road. Andrew has served as a special project consultant and clinician for the Virginia Department of Education and he now teaches in the Appalachian Music Program at Ferrum College.

  • Intermediate Guitar, Banjo Uke

    Jeff was one of the founding members and main songwriters of the alt-folk-rock band, The Horse Flies, about whom the New York Times said: “The Horse Flies have figured out how to hold a hoedown in a physics lab." And Rolling Stone wrote, "The Horse Flies churn out swirling, addictive songs, blending tradition with invention." Jeff’s toured extensively in the U.S., Canada, and Europe; recorded on Rounder and MCA, and appeared on television and at many festivals and camps throughout the US, Canada, and Europe. And he’s co-composed, performed, and/or mixed music for over 25 feature and documentary films, two with The Horse Flies, and the rest with his partner and best friend, Judy Hyman.

    Jeff has a deep and abiding love of Southern traditional fiddle music, having been immersed in it for over 50 years. He’s an especially committed fan of rhythm, groove, and drone, and loves working with diverse people interested in developing their skills for providing solid, rhythmic backup on guitar and banjo ukulele.