Bruce Stockwell has been playing bluegrass banjo since 1968 and teaching since the 1970s. By age 16 he had won banjo contests, recorded his first album, and opened for Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, John Hartford, and many others. In the late 1970s he worked with Phil Rosenthal and Mike Auldridge as Old Dog, producing two albums on Flying Fish. Since the 1980s, Bruce has performed with his two brothers (and now wife Kelly) in various acoustic/electric formats. In 2005 he won the Merlefest Banjo Contest, and in 2008 a New Hampshire Arts Grant led to the formation of Hot Mustard, a double-banjo bluegrass band.