Dick Bowden is one of the leading traditional bluegrass banjo pickers in New England. Starting in 1966 with The Bowden Family and The Fort Knox Volunteers, Dick helped establish bluegrass in his home state of Maine. He was a bench member of Joe Val’s New England Bluegrass Boys, and played five years with Herb Applin’s Berkshire Mountain Boys. Moving to New York in 1989, Dick played guitar with The Case Brothers – Martin & Gibson (two recordings) for 10 years, and played banjo on fiddler Joe Meadows’ final CD in 2001. With his encyclopedic knowledge of bluegrass styles and lyrics, Dick is the go-to guy to lead high-level bluegrass jam sessions or emcee concerts and festivals. He’s a frequent contributor to online and print publications and currently serves as Ringmaster of Dick Bowden’s Flying Circus, a high-energy revue of seriousness and silliness.

Janet Beazley plays banjo and sings with the California bluegrass band Chris Stuart & Backcountry. She has toured extensively with CS&B throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, and also in the Middle East. Janet has taught bluegrass banjo, harmony singing and music theory at many workshops, including Midwest Banjo Camp, American Banjo Camp, Suwannee Banjo Camp, Banjo Camp North, Augusta Heritage Center Bluegrass Week, Kluane Bluegrass Week in the Yukon, Rivertunes, California Bluegrass Association Bluegrass Week, Munich Banjo Camp, and Sore Fingers Week in the UK. She is also a specialist in early music, and has taught for many years at UC Riverside, UC Irvine, USC, and at early music workshops throughout the West.

Marcy Marxer is a multi-instrumentalist, studio musician, performer, songwriter and producer with 40 years of experience and a shelf of impressive awards. She has played acoustic music on Emmy Award winning National Geographic specials, platinum shipping Eva Cassidy CD’s and on over 50 recordings and instructional materials created with her partner, Cathy Fink. Marcy is a two-time GRAMMY Award winner and fourteen-time GRAMMY nominee whose guitar playing spans a variety of styles- swing rhythm and lead, bluegrass, old time, Celtic fingerpicking, folk fingerpicking and some of the most tasteful backup you can hear. She plays a signature Martin guitar, signature National Steel Tenor guitar and signature KALA tenor ukulele. She is a well-loved instructor at many camps including Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Camp and she teaches online via Truefire, Homespun Tapes and Peghead Nation.

“It is the power of her playing that keeps listeners coming back.” – the alternate route

Howie Bursen is best known for his gravity-defying, triplet-filled, fiddle-tune variations and is certainly one of today’s foremost practitioners of clawhammer banjo style. He has taught clawhammer at the Maryland Banjo Academy, Common Ground and the California Traditional Solstice Festival, and his eclectic recordings contain quite a number of stellar clawhammer solos. Speaking of eclectic, Howie is also an excellent singer, song-writer and guitarist, and he makes his living as manager and head wine-maker for a Connecticut vineyard. Howie is working on his new solo recording “Spring on the Swamp”.

Rich Stillman has taught literally hundreds of students to play banjo, both face-to-face and worldwide through Internet lessons. He played and recorded with New England bands Southern Rail, Adam Dewey and Crazy Creek, The Bogus Family and WayStation, and has memorably (at least for him) played sets with Peter Rowan, James Monroe and even the Arlington High School orchestra. Rich wrote “Bluegrass Banjo from All Sides” for Mel Bay, and one of his BCN workshops was turned into a chapter in the book “Banjo Camp”. He is a two-time New England banjo champion, a one-time New Jersey banjo champion, and a six-time bluegrass banjo winner at the Lowell Banjo and Fiddle contest. Rich teaches banjo at Tufts University, Concord Conservatory of Music and Concord Academy and at The Music Emporium in Lexington.