ARTISTS
Experience and enjoy traditional music and folkways through performances and workshops led by masters of their craft
More artists will be announced soon!
Earl White
Fiddle + Dance
Earl White is a renowned old-time fiddler and dancer, and works to preserve the legacy of Black Americans in Appalachian string band music. Spanning a career of over 50 years, he has played a major role in bringing the traditional sounds of mountain music to the forefront of the American folk and dance community. Known for his syncopated, driving fiddling style, he leads the Earl White String Band alongside Mark Olitsky (banjo), Adrienne Davis (guitar), and Joseph DeJarnette (bass) He is an original member of the Green Grass Cloggers, a legendary Appalachian flatfoot and percussive clogging group. In addition to his music career, he and his partner Adrienne run an organic bakery, and host music camps and workshops at their Big Indian Farm near Floyd, Virginia.
Rhys Jones
Fiddle
Rhys Jones is one of the most beloved traditional fiddlers in America, and has been playing traditional Appalachian and Irish fiddle for over 40 years. Founder of the Bigfoot Stringband, Rhys has recorded five albums, won the Clifftop fiddle and band competitions many times, and performed everywhere from The Kennedy Center to Carnegie Hall.
Jim Childress
Fiddle
Jim is a lifelong musician who began playing the fiddle in the early 1970s after attending the festival at Union Grove, North Carolina. He is particularly known as a writer of fiddle tunes. His recordings of those tunes have reached many people, and tunes such as The Road to Malvern, Halfway Pond, and Turkey Sag are widely known and played. Jim has played in the band Uncle Henry’s Favorites with Pete and Ellen Vigour for over four decades and has taught fiddle workshops at festivals and camps. He has lived near Charlottesville, Virginia for over 50 years.
Erynn Marshall + Carl Jones
Fiddle
Erynn Marshall is an old-time fiddler who lives in Hillsville, Virginia and is known internationally for her traditional music. She learned the nuances of Appalachian old-time fiddling from visiting elder, southern fiddlers and through her love of archival recordings. Erynn was the first woman to win 1st place fiddle at Clifftop (The Appalachian Stringband Festival) among other awards and is featured in the 2023 exhibit, “Women of Old-Time Music,” at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum (Bristol, VA). Erynn and husband Carl Jones have toured and taught at music camps across North America, Europe, China and Australia. Erynn has numerous recordings, is featured in five films, three books, and is coordinator for Swannanoa Old-Time & Dance Week (NC).
Multi-Instrumentalist
Carl Jones is an American songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Born in Macon, Georgia, Carl presently lives in Hillsville, Virginia. He studied music near Muscle Shoals, Alabama and was influenced by seeing Roy Orbison, Steve Goodman, and Mac Macanally record there. Carl is widely respected for his instrumental talents and original songs about the joys and tribulations of day-to-day life in the South. Carl’s 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 Unleased by the Nashville Bluegrass Band. In the 1980’s he played mandolin with James Bryan, Norman and Nancy Blake as part of the Rising Fawn String Ensemble. Today he tours the world with his wife, fiddler Erynn Marshall. Carl is known for his fine musicianship, charismatic teaching, sense of humor, and powerful songwriting. He has recorded on a couple dozen recordings including his original songs CD “Traveling Star” and Norman Blake’s “Original Underground Music of the Mysterious South.”
John Harrod + Tona Barkley
Fiddle
John Harrod has documented, recorded, and performed traditional music for more than 60 years. In the 1970s and ’80s, he played with a number of bands that re-introduced old-time musicians such as Bill Livers and Lily May Ledford to Kentucky audiences. During this time, he also worked for three years as a folk artist-in-residence in Kentucky schools. Along with Mark Wilson and Guthrie Meade, he produced a series of recordings of Kentucky fiddle and banjo players for Rounder Records. His awards include a Folk Heritage Award (Governor’s Awards in the Arts, (2004), a Lifetime Achievement Award from Berea College (2022), and the Old Time Music Heritage Award from the Nashville Old Time String Band Association (2026). His own recordings include Johnny Come Along (fiddle tunes), Living in the Promised Land (original songs), Spirits of the Lonesome Hills, and Wild and Free, the latter two with his band Kentucky Wild Horse.
Banjo
Tona Barkley is a painter who was lured into the world of old-time music while attending the J. P. Fraley Mountain Music Festival with John in 2001. Since her retirement from Kentucky Educational Television, she has devoted herself to environmental and political activism, painting, music, and grandkids. Her original paintings feature many portraits of Kentucky musicians doing what they do best in local settings.
Janie Rothfield + Allan Carr
Fiddle, Singing, + Guitar
Award winning old time fiddler Janie Rothfield and husband Scottish singer and guitarist Allan Carr have been playing and recording their unique blend of Celtic and Appalachian music for over 40 years! Janie and Allan play roots music that is directly from the source while expanding on that tradition with newly composed songs and tunes. They blend their love of traditional music as well as their own compositions to present a concert that weaves a musical story from both sides of the Atlantic with great singing, hot instrumentals and a whole lot of fun!
Allan and Janie have over a dozen recordings to their credit and with their newest CD released in July 2024 THE TWO OF US) featuring their signature unique sound that blends the old with the new and back again!
Since meeting in 1978 when Janie was at college in Aberdeen, Scotland (they met at a folk music concert where Allan was singing), Janie and Allan have played and taught at festivals, concerts, workshops and music camps throughout the USA and Europe-including Edinburgh Folk Festival, Glasgow Folk Festival, Old Songs Festival, Philadelphia Folk Festival, New Bedford Summer Fest, Portsoy Traditional Music Festival, Great Lakes Music Festival, Earful of Fiddle, Southern Maryland Celtic Festival, Fiddle Hell and many more!
Hilarie Burhans
Banjo
Hilarie Burhans is an acclaimed American musician and educator, and a prominent figure in the old-time music and contradance communities. She’s best known for her rhythmic, driving clawhammer banjo style. Based in Athens, Ohio, she has spent over 50 years mastering and teaching the instrument, building an international following through both her performing career and Patreon instructional platforms. Hilarie is serving as the coordinator for the Happy Hollow Gathering this year.
Mark Olitsky
Banjo
Mark Olitsky is a widely celebrated American old-time musician, renowned for his highly distinctive and driving clawhammer banjo style. Based in Ohio, he has spent decades jamming at old-time festivals, teaching workshops, and performing in acclaimed string bands including the Earl White Stringband and Olitsky & Moscovitz.
Whitt Mead
Fiddle + Banjo
Whitt Mead is an experienced musician who is committed to promoting, performing and supporting old-time music throughout Ohio and the surrounding regions. Mead plays multiple string instruments, including fiddle and banjo, and is committed to both old-time music and the culture it champions. He strongly believes in the importance of reinforcing the community aspect of fiddling, playing for square dances and other events in his area. He’s a founding member of the traditional Appalachian string band, “The River Rats.”
Pete + Ellen Vigour
Multi-Instrumentalists
Pete and Ellen Vigour have been residents of Albemarle County, Virginia, for forty years, spending most of their time playing traditional Appalachian music. Pete plays guitar, fiddle, and banjo, and is a career music teacher. Ellen, now retired from her special education teaching career, enjoys playing her mandolin, calling dances, repairing fiddles, and teaching music at camps and festivals. Pete and Ellen’s repertoire features old-time fiddle tunes, novelty songs, skits, and many pieces learned from local older players. Pete and Ellen have recorded CD’s with Uncle Henry’s Favorites, Country Ham, and other bands, as well as performing and recording music for historical events around Virginia. Their favorite hobby is to play and sing with their students and friends.
Paul Kirk
Multi-Instrumentalist
Paul Kirk is an old-time fiddler, teacher, composer, and multi-instrumentalist whose work bridges history with a living folk tradition. He has been teaching since 1988 and studied music theory, composition, and education at Cleveland State University where he received a Bachelor of Arts in History and Musicology.
Founder of Down the Road Old-Time String Band and composer of more than 500 folk tunes, Paul is known for bringing obscure and rare tunes back into circulation through his Old-Time Tune of the Week series on YouTube. His latest book, Marion Thede and the Fiddlers of Oklahoma: The Fiddle Book, the Musicians and Their Tunes was published by McFarland & Company in 2025.
Will Carter
Guitar + Bass
Since the mid-1970s, Will Carter has played rhythm guitar and upright bass for various old-time, bluegrass, country, and Americana roots ensembles in West Virginia, including 20 years with the regional contradance band, The Contrarians. He is also a bandleader and producer who founded the Appalachian String Band Music Festival (better known as “Clifftop” and served as its campsite host during its early years.. He lives with his wife Martha in an intentional back-to-the-land community in rural West Virginia, and his day job is helping people align their financial assets with their values and ambitions.
Sharon Leahy + Rick Good
Dance, Banjo, + Guitar
The creative team of Sharon Leahy & Rick Good began making art together in the mid-80s and has proven, through the course of the past forty-five years to be prolific, eclectic, inspiring and entertaining.
A critically acclaimed choreographer, Sharon’s fusion of dance, theater and music expresses the joys and struggles of contemporary life with a vocabulary of traditional forms. As Artistic Director of Rhythm in Shoes, Sharon led an ensemble of dancers and musicians, touring nationally and internationally, presenting original performance art heralded as “really smart, familiar, yet surprising work.” She has won the blue ribbons in clogging contests at both the National Folk Festival at Wolftrap, Virginia and the Appalachian String Band Festival in West Virginia.
Rick is an accomplished banjo player, guitarist, singer/songwriter, and performer of traditional music. A founding member of The Hotmud Family (1970-1983) and a partner with Sharon in Rhythm in Shoes (1987-2010), Rick was named an Ohio Heritage Fellow in 2010, for his “… lasting positive impact on the excellence, vitality and public appreciation of the folk and traditional arts.”
