RICK GOOD
A founding member of the legendary old-time band, the Hotmud Family, Rick Good is a twenty-four year veteran of the dance company Rhythm in Shoes, and a 2010 Ohio Heritage Fellow. He is recognized and respected for his driving banjo, swinging guitar, his heartfelt singing, and his crafty songwriting. With his wife and long-time collaborator, Sharon Leahy, Rick has made a life of creating critically acclaimed performance art, rooted in American traditions. He currently performs with the bands ShoeFly and the Red Clay Ramblers.

JESSE WELLS
Jesse Wells grew up in Red Bush, Kentucky, and started attending fiddler’s conventions and festivals at an early age. His music has been greatly influenced by his father Jaime Wells, an old-time fiddler. Adept on fiddle, banjo, guitar, and mandolin, Jesse has performed with the Clack Mountain String Band, as well as Kentucky Wild Horse, the Dirk Powell Band, and Midnight Call with Don Rigsby. He lives in Morehead, KY, where he works as an archivist and professor of traditional music at Morehead State University’s Kentucky Center for Traditional Music and hosts a weekly radio program, Pickin’ Parlor, featuring traditional music from Kentucky. Jesse has taught workshops at the Cowan Creek Mountain Music School, the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Appalshop, and the Old Town School of Folk Music. www.myspace.com/kentuckyfiddle

ALICE GERRARD
Singer/songwriter/musician Alice Gerrard has performed on more than twenty recordings. She has produced or written liner notes for a dozen more, and she has co-produced and appeared in two documentary films about Appalachian music. Her numerous honors include a Virginia Arts Commission Award, the North Carolina Folklore Society’s Tommy Jarrell Award, and an Indie Award. In 1987, Alice founded the Old-Time Music Group, a non-profit organization which oversees publication of the Old-Time Herald magazine. Known for her groundbreaking collaboration with Appalachian singer Hazel Dickens during the 1960s and 70s, this duo produced four classic LPs and was a major influence and inspiration for scores of young women singers. Her solo CDs, Calling Me Home and Pieces of My Heart received critical acclaim, and she recently released a CD, Road to Agate Hill, in connection with Lee Smith’s book, On Agate Hill. In 2010, Alice was awarded the Gathering’s Master Music Maker Award for lifetime achievement. www.alicegerrard.com

SUSIE GOEHRING
Susie Goehring has been playing old-time fiddle and guitar and singing Appalachian ballads and Carter Family songs since the late 1970s, when she first joined forces with long-time musical partners Jeff and Rick Goehring. This musical trio formed the core of the Red Mules, an old-time string band that actively performed at festivals, music and dance camps, square dances, and social gatherings throughout the 1980s and 90s. Susie, who is recognized as a strong old-time style back-up guitar player and singer, can be heard on the recent CD, Starch & Iron with fiddler Rayna Gellert.

RON PEN
Ron is a performer and scholar of the music of the Appalachian region. A founding member of the Appalachian Association of Sacred Harp Singers, with whom he performed on NPR’s A Prairie Home Companion, Ron is also Professor of Music and Director of the John Jacob Niles Center for American Music at the University of Kentucky. As an author, he recently published I Wonder As I Wander, a biography of folk icon John Jacob Niles. Ron started fiddling thirty years ago in Rockbridge County, Virginia and has since participated in various workshops and festivals across the region including Hindman Settlement School’s Folk Week, Augusta’s old time and singing weeks, Berea’s Christmas Dance School, and many times at Swannanoa.

DON PEDI
A spectacular mountain dulcimer player who can match the fiddle note-for-note on tunes, Don’s playing is a welcome addition at dances, concerts, and jam sessions, and he has won numerous awards for his innovative playing. Don has performed at many festivals across the country, including the 2003 Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, DC, and he played music and appeared in the film, Songcatcher. www.donpedi.com

BEVERLY SMITH
Beverly first heard the old-time sounds of the Carter Family and the New Lost City Ramblers while in her early teens, and she has been devoted to learning and playing it ever since. An accomplished singer, guitar player, fiddler, and dance caller, she was a member of the traditional-pop hybrid, The Heartbeats Rhythm Quartet, Big Hoedown with Bruce Molsky and Rafe Stefanini, and most recently, she has been touring as a duet with Carl Jones. She has taught at numerous music camps in the US and abroad and performed at many folk festivals in the US, Canada, and Europe. www.smithnjones.net