AL PETTEWAY
Our Grammy-winning Guitar Week coordinator, Al Petteway, was voted #27 in a list of the top 50 acoustic guitarists of all time by readers of Acoustic Guitar Magazine. During a career as a guitarist that spans the decades from the 1960’s to the present, he has had the opportunity to perform most types of traditional and popular music and has worked with many of the world’s top acoustic musicians both on stage and in the studio. He is featured on dozens of recordings including his own CDs, music books and instructional videos which have won him international acclaim in acoustic guitar circles. His original compositions have been used for television programs and films worldwide including Ken Burn’s Mark Twain and the Emmy-winning series, The National Parks. He was the recipient of two Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards for Music Composition and has been awarded more than four dozen WAMMIES by the Washington Area Music Association, including the top honors of “Artist of the Year” and “Musician of the Year,” which led to performances at the Vice President’s House and The White House during the Clinton administration. In 2001, he and his wife, Amy White, won an INDIE Award for their duo guitar project, Gratitude, and in 2004, Al won a Grammy for his contributions to Pink Guitar - The Music of Henry Mancini. In 2008, the readers of Acoustic Guitar magazine awarded Al two Player’s Choice Awards: a Bronze in the Fingerstyle Guitarist category and the Silver in the Celtic Guitarist category, and in 2010, his album, Caledon Wood, was listed as one of the “Essential Acoustic Albums” of the past twenty years by the magazine’s editors. He enjoys a life of touring and performing with Amy, but also loves staying home as much as possible with his extended family of dogs and cats at their mountaintop home in nearby Fairview, NC. www.alandamy.com

DON ALDER
With technique recognized for its “wow” factor, Don Alder is currently the only guitarist to have won both the Winfield International Fingerstyle Championships (2007) and the Guitar Superstar contest (2010). Known for creating a wall of sound from just a single acoustic guitar, his unique style and energetic performances have been called “intense,” “passionate” and “awe-inspiring.” Don plays to audiences world-wide and writes and performs all of his own music. He is a top endorser for Yamaha guitars and other world-class manufacturers, and his self-produced CD, Not a Planet, was nominated for two Canadian Music Industry Awards as “Instrumental CD of the Year.” World-renowned luthier Michael Greenfield created a signature G4-Don Alder model which included a 2” fan fret to help Alder keep pushing the boundaries of acoustic guitar. Don’s heart is as big as his talent: he put his music career on hold in 1985 to assist his friend Rick Hansen go around the world in a wheelchair. Don continues to work with Rick at his foundation and pursues his desire to make a difference for others through his music, stories and playing in “the key of social responsibility.” Don is thrilled to be part of the 2011 Swannanoa Gathering. www.donalder.com

RICHARD SMITH
Born in Beckenham, Kent, England in 1971, Richard started playing guitar at age 5 under the instruction of his father. Concentrating initially on the country picking of Chet Atkins and Merle Travis, young Richard digested everything he heard, learning even the most complicated of these tunes with ease. Often, a single hearing was all it took to get a piece under his fingers. Richard first met his hero, the “godfather” of fingerstyle guitar, Chet Atkins, at age 11, when he was invited by Chet to share the stage with him at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London in front of an audience of 1,000, where Richard played Chet’s own arrangements – perfectly. By the time he reached his early twenties, both Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed began to refer to him as their “hero”. Richard has toured the world as a solo artist, and with a variety of bands. Guitar wizard Tommy Emmanuel calls Richard one of his favorite duet partners. In 2001, Richard became the National Fingerstyle Guitar Champion in Winfield, Kansas, and he has been a mainstay at the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society Convention in Nashville since 1991, where he has played with many world-renowned artists. www.richardsmithmusic.com

VICKI GENFAN
Selected as Guitar Player magazine’s Guitar Superstar for 2008, Vicki Genfan defies categorization. A unique and fiercely original musical talent, she has been called the “Jimi Hendrix of acoustic guitar.” Drawing from folk, jazz, pop, soul and world music, Vicki has a distinctive style that includes fret-tapping and percussive techniques that is pushing the boundaries of the singer/songwriter genre. Now an international phenomenon, Vicki is lighting up stages in Germany, Hungary, Italy, Canada and the Czech Republic as well as the US playing venues as diverse as the International Montreal Jazz Festival, Germany’s Open String Festival, Italy’s Soave Guitar Festival and Festival Across Styles in the Czech Republic. She has four CDs to her credit and just released her first instructional DVD, 3D Acoustic Guitar. In 2009, Luna Guitars unveiled the Vicki Genfan Signature Model guitar by luthier Gray Burchette and she toured the US and Czech Republic with Jennifer Batten (Michael Jackson & Jeff Beck guitarist). Vicki has enjoyed teaching privately and in groups for over 20 years and brings her warmth, humor and inspiration to all who have experienced her many workshops, clinics and classes. And.... she’s thrilled to be back at Swannanoa for the 2010 season! “If I could play like Vicki, I would stay home and entertain myself” – Steve Vai. www.vickigenfan.com

JORDAN McCONNELL
Jordan McConnell has been playing the guitar for as long as he can remember. He spent his teen years playing punk rock in various bands, and at age sixteen was introduced to traditional Irish music by DADGAD specialist Zan Macleod, leading to a passionate exploration of that music which continues today. Jordan was also drawn to classical guitar, and was awarded a scholarship to study under Skender Sefa at the University of Manitoba. As a consequence, he developed a unique style that incorporates techniques and harmonies from his various influences. He is a founding member of the celebrated Grammy-winning roots band, The Duhks. The band also has also received numerous Juno Award (the Canadian Grammy) nominations and a Juno Award for “Roots and Traditional” Album of the Year and a Canadian Folk Music Award for Group of the Year. Jordan has performed at most of the major folk festivals around the world and has taken part in guitar workshops in Canada, the United States, Ireland, Scotland, England and Australia. He has also spent the last ten years building guitars and is an accomplished luthier with a growing customer base that includes Seth Avett of the Avett Brothers, John Doyle, and Dream Guitars owner Paul Heumiller. This will be his first appearance at the Swannanoa Gathering. www.jordanmcconnell.com

ROLLY BROWN
A lifelong student of the guitar, Rolly Brown has been a National Fingerpicking Champion (1980), a Philadelphia Music Award nominee, a solo performer, teacher, and sideman for many well-known artists. Over the past 46 years, folk, blues, ragtime, bluegrass, country, & jazz have each been his passions. Acoustic Guitar magazine calls Rolly’s guitar sound “an exceptionally melodic, articulate playing style that takes full advantage of the acoustic guitar’s beautiful tone.” Wise sage Bennett Hammond says, “He’s the real deal, the gen-you-wine article, the guitar picker’s guitar picker.” Blues master Andy Cohen (who IS prone to hyperbole) told Rolly, “Dammit, you are the best that ever was. You may quote me.” Rolly has several instructional and performance videos available at Youtube.com, and we’re pleased to have hium back for his second Swannanoa Gathering. www.rollybrown.com

DOUG SMITH
Acoustic guitarist Doug Smith won a Grammy Award for his contributions to Pink Guitar - The Music of Henry Mancini, and in 2006 became the International Fingerstyle Champion at Winfield. With instrumental and compositional chops that Billboard magazine called, “Inviting melodies... stunning fingerpicking,” his playing has been heard on the big screen in the recent film, August Rush, and others including Twister and Moll Flanders, and his original compositions are heard everywhere from Good Morning America to Turner Classic Movies. In performance, Doug’s dynamic stage presence has dazzled audiences around the world with popular originals like “Renewal” and “Order of Magnitude”, and clever arrangements like the “Ave Maria/Can’t Help Falling in Love Medley”. His latest CD, Guitar Hymnal, is a collection of hymns, with an instructional DVD with music and tab. His patient and enthusiastic teaching style makes him a favorite at music camps across the country, including Mark Hanson’s Accent on Music Guitar Seminar and the Colorado Roots Music Camp. www.dougsmithguitar.com

DUCK BAKER
With a repertoire that spans traditional Irish music through old-time mountain music and bluegrass to blues, gospel, ragtime, swing and modern jazz, Duck Baker is one of the most highly-regarded fingerstyle guitarists of his generation, and has influenced hundreds of players who have learned from his books and recordings. As a young guitarist, Duck found a major influence in ragtime pianist Buck Evans, who exposed him to ragtime and early jazz at a time when they had been largely neglected, and by the time he moved to San Francisco in the early seventies, Duck was performing the wide range of material heard on his first record, There’s Something for Everyone in America. During this time, Baker recorded four more solo records, including two devoted to jazz and the first solo guitar record of Irish and Scottish music. He also began touring as a soloist, traveling throughout North America, Western Europe, and Australia. His recordings feature his own compositions, blues and gospel material, Christmas carols, Irish music, jazz and more. Acoustic Guitar magazine called Spinning Song, his recording of compositions by jazz pianist Herbie Nichols, “one of the best guitar albums ever recorded – by anybody.” Duck has also written several books on fingerstyle guitar, made numerous tutorial videos, and has several sound tracks to his credit. www.duckbaker.com

PATRICK LANDEZA
Musician, songwriter, producer, educator and creator of the Hawaiian Music Institute, a traveling music school that features an instructor staff of top Hawaiian musicians, Patrick Landeza is a leading proponent of Hawaiian slack key guitar, or ki ho’alu. Considered by George Winston as “one of the best and most dedicated of the new generation of slack key players,” Patrick is also a driving force in the education of the slack key style world-wide. Born of Hawaiian parents and raised on the ‘island’ of Berkeley, California, as a teenager, Patrick honed his craft from slack key masters Raymond Kane, Sonny Chillingworth, Dennis Kamakahi, and George Kuo. Although a slack key artist for more than a decade, ki ho’alu was more of a passion than a profession for Patrick, a former middle school vice-principal. He now tours the country teaching and performing ki ho’alu and when at home, continues weekly slack key lessons in Berkeley, CA. Patrick has also released a slack key instructional DVD and has published slack key lessons in Acoustic Guitar magazine as well as other publications. He currently runs Addison Street Records which records slack key and other major Hawaiian artists, and has released five CDs of his own. www.patricklandeza.com

ED DODSON
Ed is the lead guitarist and singer for Wood & Steel, a bluegrass band based in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. Bluegrass Unlimited called their 2007 release, Poor Boy, “a masterpiece of hard-driving bluegrass.” Tony Rice calls their music, “Bluegrass, in one of its most pure, unfiltered forms; played by good musicians.” Wood & Steel’s music was featured nationally in Home & Garden Television’s 2002 special, Barns Revisited, and Ed has recorded two albums with mandolin player/builder Skip Kelley, including their 2008 release, Greetings from the Little Green Valley. Ed is an accomplished rhythm and lead player with a deep abiding love of traditional music. www.woodandsteelband.com

ADAM RAFFERTY
Adam Rafferty says the first time he heard the guitar he was “still in my mother’s womb.” By the age of 19, he was playing guitar professionally, from the New York City subways, and street corners to the most upscale music rooms New York has to offer such as Birdland and The Jazz Standard. He’s led his own band through Europe, produced his own albums, and been a first-call, in-demand guitarist with some of the world’s greatest musicians. such as The Dizzy Gillespie Big Band, Dr. Lonnie Smith, L.A. Studio legend Bennie Wallace (who wrote the soundtrack for White Men Can’t Jump), bassist Bob Cranshaw (from the original Saturday Night Live band), Alvin Queen (drummer for Oscar Peterson), and Dizzy Gillespie’s pianist Mike Longo. He’s played at countless music festivals in the US and Europe & Asia, concert halls, and New York City night clubs, taught workshops, written books and recorded instructional DVDs including his latest, featuring fingerstyle versions of Stevie Wonder’s most popular songs. Basslines, horn parts and vocals are replicated on guitar and the groove will make you jump out of your seat. Among Adam’s musical innovations is the ability to play two simultaneous melodies on the guitar, while doing hip-hop style “beatbox” percussion with his mouth at the same time, a feat that simply has to be heard to be believed. After years of playing electric, Adam has returned to solo acoustic guitar: “Playing acoustic guitar feels like coming home to me.” www.adamrafferty.com

ROBIN BULLOCK
Called a “Celtic guitar god” by the Baltimore City Paper, Robin Bullock is a prolific composer, highly respected instructor, and virtuoso performer on 6- and 12-string guitars, mandolin, cittern and piano. A founding member of the INDIE Award-winning acoustic world-music trio, Helicon, Robin’s solo career has earned him three Washington Area Music Association WAMMIE Awards, a Governor’s Award from the Maryland State Arts Council, and a featured broadcast on NPR’s Thistle & Shamrock. His recorded work includes eight critically-acclaimed solo CDs and three collaborative projects including Celtic Guitar Summit with fellow Guitar Week staffer Steve Baughman, which was honored by Acoustic Guitar magazine with an “Editor’s Pick” as one of the top CDs of 2003. In addition to his solo work, Robin also tours regularly as sideman with Grammy-winning folk legend, Tom Paxton, and is featured on Tom’s new live DVD. A native of Washington, DC, Robin now lives in Tripleval, France, and tours and records on both sides of the ocean. This is his sixteenth Gathering. www.robinbullock.com

MIKE DOWLING
When master fiddler Vassar Clements heard Mike Dowling play guitar back in 1975, he did the sensible thing. He hired him. Thirty years later Clements called him, “One of the finest guitar players there is, anywhere.” Before embarking on a solo performance career, Mike also worked and recorded with music legends Jethro Burns and jazz violin great Joe Venuti, and contemporary fiddle masters Buddy Spicher, Paul Anastasio, and Randy Sabien. Mike has released seven albums of roots-based music, and three swing guitar instruction DVDs for Homespun Tapes. He’s a popular swing guitar instructor at music camps and workshops throughout the world, including two previous years at the Swannanoa Gathering’s Guitar Week and last year at Fiddle Week. Mike has been a frequent guest on NPR’s, A Prairie Home Companion, and his original songs have been recorded by such artists as the Del McCoury Band, Emmy Lou Harris, Kathy Mattea, Tim O’Brien and the Nashville Bluegrass Band. He recently won a Grammy for his contribution to the Hanry Mancini tribute compilation, Pink Guitar. www.mikedowling.com

STEVE JAMES
Steve James is a well-known name among devotees of contemporary acoustic folk and blues, with numerous critically-acclaimed recordings, a tireless international tour schedule and a sheaf of published work that includes articles, instruction books and videos. A Swannanoa veteran, Steve’s instrumental versatility and engaging personality make him a favorite at music camps and workshop programs nationwide. He’s been interviewed for features in Acoustic Guitar, Guitar Player, Blues Revue and Folk Roots magazines, and his music has been featured on A Prairie Home Companion, The House Of Blues Network and many other syndicated programs worldwide. In the studio, his solo efforts have been enriched by musical contributions from fellow travelers Bob Brozman, Bad Livers, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Cindy Cashdollar, Gary Primich, Ruthie Foster, and his frequent duet partner Del Rey. In turn, Steve has recorded with a diverse crew including Maria Muldaur, James McMurtry, Jesse ‘Babyface’ Thomas and Kevin Russell of the Gourds. He’s shared the stage with such blues/roots luminaries as John Hammond, Bo Diddley, Buddy Guy and Howard Armstrong, and his original songs have been covered by artists as varied as new-folk phenom Ana Egge to folk/blues godfather Dave Van Ronk. Steve has also appeared on numerous compilation albums, including a recent Grammy-nominated tribute to Mississippi Fred McDowell and an homage to Charley Patton to which he contributed both music and liner notes. www.stevejames.com

SCOTT AINSLIE
An instructor who consistently receives rave reviews regardless of what he’s teaching, Scott brings a wealth of musical and historical experience with him into the classroom. He is the author of Robert Johnson/At The Crossroads and video teacher on the instructional DVD, Robert Johnson: Signature Licks. Acoustic Guitar magazine featured Scott’s lesson on Robert Johnson’s music, and the article, with TAB transcription of Johnson’s “Crossroads Blues,” and sixteen minutes of video instruction is archived at the magazine’s website. With five solo recordings to his credit, Scott’s latest, Thunder’s Mouth, has earned strong reviews here and in Europe. Coming of age during the Civil Rights era and the antiwar protests against the Vietnam War, Scott continues to have a deep reverence for cross-cultural exchange and commitment to social justice. He produced Care For All, a benefit CD for the Healthcare Is A Human Right campaign of the Vermont Workers’ Center that features the work of ten musicians with deep roots in Vermont, including North Carolina’s Si Kahn, Paul Winter Consort veteran cellist Eugene Friesen, Anais Mitchell, and The Devil Makes Three. Scott has also been active with Gulf Aid Acadiana, a local community-based foundation that is helping the Gulf Coast wetlands and business community recover from the BP Oil Spill. www.cattailmusic.com

MARY FLOWER
Yellow Dog Records recording artist Mary Flower is renowned for a uniquely personal vision of roots music that blends ragtime and blues-- technically dazzling yet grounded in the down-to-earth simplicity of early 20th century American music. Mary has toured and taught internationally for four decades and has recorded her ninth CD and released five instructional DVDs. She is a Blues Music Award nominee, a winner of the Vox Populi award from the 9th Annual Independent Music Awards and twice a finalist at the International Finger-Picking Guitar Championship. Downbeat magazine calls Mary “a world class fingerstyle guitarist and lap slide player.” www.maryflower.com

RANDY HUGHES
Over the last 25 years Randy Hughes has earned a reputation throughout western North Carolina as the kind of instrument repairman to whom you could entrust your priceless vintage guitar without a second thought. A superb luthier with a thriving repair business, Randy first came to Guitar Week four years ago to inspect and adjust students’ instruments and share his vast store of maintenance tips. He is also an exceptional guitarist and taught fingerstyle jazz at the Gathering for two years.