Category Archives: 2019 Mandolin Camp

Erynn Marshall

Erynn Marshall is an old-time fiddler who lives in Galax, Virginia and is known internationally for her traditional music. Erynn learned the nuances of Appalachian old-time fiddling from rare recordings and visiting 80-95 year-old southern fiddlers. Still she puts her own spin on the traditional music she plays – sounding authentic, archaic and transportive while playing in a smooth and effortless way. Erynn performs at festivals, teaches at music camps around the globe, and tours with her husband – songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Carl Jones. Her tunes are becoming common repertoire in fiddle circles. Erynn won 1st place fiddle at “Clifftop” (The Appalachian Stringband Festival) and was the first woman to do so. She has recorded six albums and appeared in five films (Voices of Virginia, the Clifftop Experience I’ll Fly Away Home, Conversations with Old-Time Musicians,” plus the upcoming Never Met a Stranger). She is coordinator for Swannanoa Old-Time Week near Asheville, NC.

Phil Zimmerman

Phil Zimmerman developed his instrumentalist chops as a solo performer at the University of Rochester, and has won regional contests for bluegrass and clawhammer banjo, guitar and mandolin. He’s a founding member of Connecticut’s ground-breaking eclectic string band, Last Fair Deal, now in its 46th year, and a former member of Traver Hollow, Heroes of Tradition (with Stacy Phillips) and Phil Rosenthal and Bluegrass Union. Since 2011 he’s been a core member of the hard-driving Bluegrass Characters. Phil was Music Director of Mandolin Camp North and Banjo Camp North from 2007 to 2018 and President from 2015 to May 2018. He has been on the faculty of Bluegrass University at Podunk, Jenny Brook, and Thomas Point Bluegrass Festivals, and has taught at the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival every year since 2006.

Carl Jones

Carl Jones is widely respected for his instrumental talents and original songs about the joys and tribulations of day-to-day life in the South. Born in Macon, Georgia, Carl currently lives in Galax, Virginia, with wife and musical partner, fiddler Erynn Marshall. His songs have been recorded by The Nashville Bluegrass Band, Kate Campbell, Rickie Simpkins with Tony Rice, and others. His song Last Time On The Road was on the Grammy-award-winning album Unleashed by the Nashville Bluegrass Band. In the 1980s he played mandolin with James Bryan, Norman and Nancy Blake as part of the Rising Fawn String Ensemble and was part of the classic mandolin record Original Underground Music From The Mysterious South. Carl is known for his keen sense of humor and charismatic teaching style. He has performed and taught around the globe including Europe, China, and Australia. For more information please visit: www.dittyville.com

David Benedict

Originally from Clemson, SC, mandolinist David Benedict is quickly becoming a notable figure in the acoustic music scene. After graduating with a mandolin music performance degree and spending a stint in Nashville touring and recording with bass player Missy Raines, David made the move to Boston to join Mile Twelve. During this time, David founded the acclaimed weekly video series Mandolin Mondays hosted on the Mandolin Cafe. He also received the 2018 IBMA Momentum Award for Instrumentalist of the Year. His recent solo album The Golden Angle demonstrates his ability to integrate seamlessly with the high-caliber company he keeps, including Grammy-winning artists Stuart Duncan, David Grier, and others. Julian Lage notes, “David is one of the most inspiring lights on the creative acoustic music scene today. A talented player and composer who is paving the way for new and exciting music! I can’t wait to see where he takes us!”

Don Stiernberg

Don Stiernberg recently began his fifth decade as a working musician. Along the way he has been involved in many musical activities: performing, writing, recording, producing, and teaching, but is best known for his mandolin playing. Born and still based in Chicago, the mandolin found Don as he grew up “out in the woods” in the nearly-rural suburb of Wauconda, IL. Things came into focus both mandolin- and life-wise when his parents sent Don to study with Jethro Burns, famous comedian(Homer and Jethro) and the greatest mandolinist of his time. From the very first lesson, Burns was more than a teacher. He was a role model, hero, mentor, and friend, and Stiernberg was hooked and hooked bad on the mandolin. Currently, Don is regarded as a leading exponent of jazz mandolin style,and a respected teacher. The most recent of his nine recording projects is Good Numbers, a collection of standards and jazz tunes played by his working band, The Don Stiernberg Trio, which has performed coast to coast as well as in Germany and Brazil. Don has released four online video instructional courses for Soundslice.com and has conveyed his love of the mandolin and music at events such as Marshall Mandolin Summit(MI), Alan Bibey Mandolin Camp(SC),The Mandolin Symposium(CA), Great Lakes Mandolin Camp(MI),The Swannanoa Gathering(NC), Django in June(MA), Mandolin Camp North(MA),Steve Kaufman Acoustic Camp(TN), River of the West Mandolin Camp(OR), Cape Cod Mandolin Camp(MA), Ashokan Swing Week(NY), Accademia Internacionale di Mandolino(Italy), European Mandoline Akademy(Germany)and Momento Rio Bandolim(Brazil).

Joe K. Walsh

Hailed by David Grisman as a “wonderful mandolin player”, the CBC-Newfoundland as “one of the best mandolinists of his generation” and by Vintage Guitar Magazine as “brilliant”, Boston based mandolin player Joe K. Walsh is known for his exceptional tone and taste, and his collaborations with acoustic music luminaries including fiddle legend Darol Anger, banjo innovator Danny Barnes, modern master fiddler Brittany Haas, bluegrass stars the Gibson Brothers, and pop/grass darlings Joy Kills Sorrow. He’s played with everyone from John Scofield to Bela Fleck to Emmylou Harris, and performed everywhere from festivals to laundromats to Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. After a number of award-winning years as mandolinist with the Gibson Brothers, Joe currently splits his time between an inventive string band called Mr Sun (featuring Darol Anger, Grant Gordy and Aidan O’Donnell), a trio with Danny Barnes and Grant Gordy, and his own band. An avid educator, Joe is a professor at the Berklee College of Music. He teaches regularly at music camps throughout North America and beyond, and teaches online through Peghead Nation.

Laura Orshaw

Power-house fiddler and vocalist, Laura Orshaw, has toured throughout the United States and Canada with Danny Paisley and the Southern Grass, the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band, Jenni Lyn, mandolinist of Della Mae, 2018 IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, and her current band, Alan Bibey & Grasstowne. Laura has also performed with Del McCoury, Ricky Skaggs, John Scofield, Sarah Jarosz, Tony Trischka, Becky Buller, and Darol Anger among others. Her music has been featured on Del McCoury’s SiriusXM radio broadcast, Hand Picked with Del, and in Bluegrass Today, Vintage Guitar Magazine, Sing Out!, and Dirty Linen. According to Bluegrass Unlimited, “Laura Orshaw has firmly established herself as a significant emerging artist in the arena of traditional American music… [she is] an extremely talented musician with unlimited potential.”

Matt Flinner

Grammy-nominated mandolinist Matt Flinner has made a career out of playing acoustic music in new ways. Whether it’s with his own Matt Flinner Trio or with Phillips, Grier and Flinner, the Frank Vignola Quartet, Darrell Scott, Steve Martin, the Ying Quartet, Tim O’Brien, Leftover Salmon or the Modern Mandolin Quartet, Flinner’s style and compositional ability have established him as one of the most accomplished and musically diverse mandolinists in the world. Flinner is also a highly respected teacher. He started his Bluegrass Mandolin 101 online courses in 2013 and has motivated hundreds of students to become better players in bluegrass, old-time, swing and other styles of mandolin playing over the last five years. Flinner is also pretty confident that he is one of the 10 best mandolinists in the southern part of Addison County, Vermont.

Barry Mitterhoff

Barry just finished 14 years of touring with Hot Tuna, acoustic and electric as well as many performances with Hot Tuna guitarist, Jorma Kaukonen. I’ve performed in 49 states and 19 countries including Brazil, the former Soviet Union, Australia, China, Israel, the former Czechoslovakia and the present day Czech Republic. He has developed an international reputation for his versatility, having adapted the mandolin to musical styles as diverse as bluegrass, opera, Jewish Klezmer, Dixieland, old-time, classical, Brazilian, Italian and 19th-century American duo-style. A veteran of bluegrass, Klezmer, Celtic, folk, and rock-influenced bands including “”Tony Trischka and Skyline”” and “”Bottle Hill,”” Barry has toured the Jamband and Americana scene since 2002 with rock legends Jorma Kaukonen, and Hot Tuna. He performs regularly with Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys, as well as Silk City, a band he formed with his Skyline bandmates Danny Weiss and Larry Cohen. He has also performed with musical greats including Bill Monroe, Peter Rowan, Bob Weir, and Govt Mule. Barry appeared at the Metropolitan Opera with renowned singer Jerry Hadley, played and recorded with folk-singer Tom Chapin; appeared at the Smithsonian Institute and elsewhere with hard-hitting singer, songwriter and labor activist Hazel Dickens and performed with innovative “”free”” music composer Eugene Chadborn at New York City’s Knitting Factory. In addition, Barry has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, the White House, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and New York’s famous Rainbow Room, and has performed in concert and at music festivals throughout the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Europe. I treasure the years I played with and learned from my mentor, Ben(Tex) Logan.

Alan Bibey

Since first hitting the scene in the early 1980’s, Alan has made a name for himself as one of the most technically gifted mandolinists in bluegrass and acoustic music. He was an original member of such ground-breaking bands as The New Quicksilver, IIIrd Time Out, BlueRidge and, for the last 10 years, Alan Bibey & Grasstowne. He was voted Mandolin Performer Of The Year for 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2018 by the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America (SPBGMA). He has won IBMA Awards for Instrumental Album Of The Year, Album Of The Year and Recorded Event Of The Year, just to name a few. Alan Bibey & Grasstowne have had over ten #1 bluegrass songs including four from their latest Bluegrass project, Grasstowne “4”. Their latest Bluegrass Gospel single “Gonna Rise & Shine” has been #1 seven times and in the top three for 20 weeks and counting! Alan’s latest mandolin project with Wayne Benson, “The Mandolin Chronicles”, was nominated for five IBMA Awards. 2004’s BlueRidge project, for which Alan wrote the title track, was nominated for a Grammy. He was included in the Mel Bay book, “Greatest Mandolin Players Of The Twentieth Century”, and in 2004, the Gibson Company put into production the Alan Bibey Signature line of mandolins, reaffirming his status as one of the most influential mandolin players in Bluegrass and acoustic music history.