Will Seeders primarily builds old-time banjos and does instrument repair and restoration at his shop in Dorset, VT. Growing up in his father’s custom furniture shop and playing music since a young age, he values old-world craftsmanship while always looking for new ways to refine the details and fabrication incorporating his own unique touch and style. With his performance experience on banjo, fiddle, and guitar and his knowledge of wood and design, Will brings to life his own and customers’ ideas for a custom, personal instrument.

Allan Carr grew up in Aberdeen, Scotland, surrounded by the rich traditional music of his homeland, and is one of the finest singers from that tradition. His Celtic/Old-Time guitar backup perfectly complements many styles of fiddle tunes! In his 30+ years of making music on guitar, mandola and upright bass, Allan has performed throughout Canada, the British Isles and the U.S. He currently performs both solo and with his wife Jane Rothfield, and with the national touring dance band Coracree. He plays roots music, both Celtic and Old Time, that was often learned directly from the source, while expanding on that tradition with newly composed songs and tunes. He is also currently woodshedding on clawhammer banjo, but hasn’t unleashed it yet on the public!

Patrick M’Gonigle began playing violin at the age of 7 in Vancouver, British Columbia. He studied classically with Suzuki-trained violin teacher Yasuko Eastman in Victoria, BC and during this time won several awards for his classical music as both a soloist and member of several String Quartets and small ensembles. After several years of touring in Canada with an acoustic dance band, Patrick moved to Boston in 2008 to study at the Berklee College of Music. Upon graduation in 2013, he immediately began a Masters degree in Music from the New England Conservatory, graduating Summa Cum Lauda in 2015 with a performance degree from the Contemporary Improvisation department. In 2012 Patrick formed the Lonely Heartstring Band, a modern acoustic string-band quintet. Since 2012, the band has released an acclaimed record, “Deep Waters” on Rounder Records with a second album “Smoke and Ashes” released in early winter, 2019. In 2015, the Lonely Heartstring Band was awarded a “Momentum Award” of “Best New Band” by the International Bluergass Music Association (IBMA) and in both 2016 and 2017, the group was nominated for the IBMA award for “Emerging Artist of the Year”.

Born in St. Louis and raised in Baltimore, Mike Munford started playing banjo at age 15 and has been a professional bluegrass musician since 1976. Mike spent many years developing his craft and has played with a who’s who of bands and performers throughout the Washington, D.C. – Maryland area. His fluid style, both tasteful and driving, allows him to easily blend traditional and contemporary influences into his music. Mike currently tours with Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen, a highly acclaimed contemporary bluegrass band whose 2014 album ‘Cold Spell’ received a Grammy nomination. In 2013, Mike received the ‘Banjo Player of the Year’ award from the International Bluegrass Music Association. Mike lives in Pennsylvania.

Grace Gilbert is a native of North Yarmouth, Maine. Growing up singing and playing folk music with her father, she quickly fell in love with the sounds of traditional American music which led her to the world of Bluegrass. Grace started on guitar at age ten, was inspired by female powerhouse bluegrass artists such as Dale Ann Bradley, Carrie Hassler, New Coon Creek Girls, and Della Mae. She received a double Bachelors degree in Bluegrass Music and History from Denison University in Granville, Ohio. Grace is now based out of Portland, Maine and has taken on the role of vocalist and bassist for Tennesee-based band, Dreamcatcher

Steve Roy is a multi-instrumentalist from Eliot, Maine, who plays and teaches upright bass, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, and ukulele. He has toured nationally and internationally with acts such as Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum, John Reischman and the Taterbugs, Molly Tuttle, Joe K. Walsh, Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen, Joy Kills Sorrow, Hit and Run Bluegrass, and many others. He has been leading a weekly open bluegrass jam on the NH seacoast for over a decade. Bluegrass Now Magazine calls Steve a “devastating weapon.” Steve is currently a faculty member at 317 Main St. Community Music Center in Yarmouth, ME, and at Portsmouth Music and Arts Center in Portsmouth, NH. He has taught at bluegrass camps and workshops throughout the USA and Canada, including Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Kamp (TN), Nimblefingers Old Time & Bluegrass Workshops in British Columbia, and many others.

Banjo For Dummies and Bluegrass Banjo For Dummies author Bill Evans is one of the best and most experienced bluegrass banjo teachers & workshop leaders in the world. His instruction is practical, down-to-earth and designed for the adult learner. Bill has performed with David Grisman, David Bromberg, Peter Rowan, Dry Branch Fire Squad, and many others in a professional career that now spans over three decades. He currently tours with his solo show The Banjo in America and performs with the trio Crary, Evans & Barnick featuring flatpicking guitar pioneer Dan Crary.

Bill has taught at virtually every bluegrass camp in the world and he produces his own annual events in California & New Mexico (the California Banjo Extravaganza & the New Mexico Banjo Camp). He has produced eight instructional DVDs for Homespun Tapes, the Murphy Method and AcuTab, is the co-author of Parking Lot Picker’s Songbook: Banjo Edition from Mel Bay Publications and has taught thousands of students from all over the world, including Chris Pandolfi (The Infamous Stringdusters), Erik Yates (Hot Buttered Rum) and Wes Corbett (Molly Tuttle Band). His latest recording is “Songs That Are Mostly Older Than Us,” recorded with Tennessee fiddler Fletcher Bright and Americana icons Norman & Nancy Blake. Bill also hosts the Beginning Banjo and Bluegrass Banjo courses online at Peghead Nation (www.pegheadnation.com).

www.billevansbanjo.com
www.youtube.com/BillEvansBanjo

After spending a decade in Nashville, Casey Henry now plays and teaches banjo in Winchester, Virginia. She started out as a bass player for her family band and then went on to play banjo with Uncle Earl, the Dixie Bee-Liners, Tennessee Heartstrings, and her own band, Casey and Chris and the Two-Stringers. Casey has taught at Kaufman Kamp, Banjo Camp North, Augusta Heritage Bluegrass Week, and many other camps. She has done several instructional DVDs for the Murphy Method and co-hosts three camps a year in Winchester with her mom, Murphy Henry; she teaches the Murphy Method way: by ear (no tab)! Casey’s newest instructional DVDs are Scruggs Style Fiddle Tunes, Banjo Backup for Fiddle Tunes, and Old Favorites. She has a banjo CD titled Real Women Drive Trucks. http://www.caseyhenry.net

Craig Edwards has been playing and teaching old time banjo for over thirty years. In addition to banjo, he plays fiddle, guitar, mandolin, and button accordion, and performs old time, blues, bluegrass, Cajun, Zydeco, a capella work songs, honky tonk, western swing, and Irish music. Craig began playing guitar at age 9 and fiddle and banjo a few years later while growing up in Staunton, Virginia. Going to the “Stompin’ 76” festival near Galax, VA in the summer of 1976 (which included a who’s who of “roots music” performers of the time) and fiddler’s conventions and contests led him to study ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University, and to visit and learn from West Virginia fiddlers and banjo players Frank George, Ernie Carpenter, Woody Simmons, and Melvin Wine. He’s been performing, teaching, and touring both solo and with a variety of bands ever since.