Blue Ridge Old Time Music Week 2024

June 7-13 2026

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Instructors

  • Rhythm & Repertoire

    As a youngster, Jason Cade began learning rare tunes and an older style of playing from master fiddler and tune-catcher Bruce Greene, his neighbor growing up in the South Toe Valley of Yancey County, NC. Jason’s oldtime music is also heavily influenced by his mother’s fiddle teacher, the late Byard Ray of Madison County, NC, and the field recordings of the tremendous musicians who once lived in the Blue Ridge Mountain region of western NC, eastern TN, and north Georgia.

    In 2016, Jason won the fiddle contest at the Appalachian String Band Festival in Clifftop, WV, and his playing in the band Hog-eyed Man has been described as “a seamless fusion of rhythm and melody, with the power to reach deep inside and inspire strong emotional responses” (Bluegrass Unlimited), “pure fiddle joy” (Fiddler Magazine), and “as honest and direct a representation of music sourced from past generations of North Carolina fiddlers as one could wish for” (fRoots).

  • Advanced Guitar, Swing Guitar Backup

    A native of Greenville, SC, multi-instrumentalist Melissa DuPuy was a long time Nashville performing and recording musician before relocating back to the upstate in 2023. She has recorded on projects for labels including Sony/ATV, RCA, BMG, Curb Records, Rounder, Capitol, MCA, Arista, and Asylum Records and has produced songwriters and independent artists in her project studio. Melissa has performed onstage with renowned folk legends including Doc Watson, Bill Monroe, Snuffy Jenkins, Mac Wiseman and John Hartford. She worked for the Country Music Foundation, The National Museum of African American Music, is a former Tennessee Artist in Residence, and has taught at several universities in the Nashville area as well as in private instruction. Melissa holds a Master of Arts in Appalachian Studies from Appalachian State University and a Bachelor of Music degree from Furman University.

  • Intermediate Banjo

    Banjo player, singer, songwriter, percussive-dancer, choreographer and square-dance caller, Oakland, CA-based Evie Ladin grew up steeped in traditional folk music/dance on the East Coast, and brings a contemporary vision to her compositions and choreography while holding fast to the roots.  Her performances, recordings and teaching reconnect Appalachian music/dance with other African-Diaspora traditions, and have been heard from A Prairie Home Companion to Lincoln Center, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass to Celtic Connections, Brazil to Bali. She has shared the stage with innumerable luminaries, such as Alice Gerrard, Laurie Lewis, Ralph Stanley and John McKuen, and many contemporaries. Evie currently tours internationally with her Evie Ladin Band, and as a duo with Keith Terry.

    In 2024 she released two CDs, celebrating both of her musical sides: a live album of originals from her Evie Ladin Band, recorded at the esteemed Freight & Salvage, and the second totally trad fiddle/banjo duets with 17 different fiddlers, Riding the Rooster Two.

  • Watercolor Painting, Fiddle Tunes of Texas and Oklahoma

    Howard Rains is an artist, fiddler, singer, and guitar player from Texas now living in Kansas. His two obsessions are music and painting. He is the fourth generation to play on the same fiddle that was made for his great-grandfather and learned to play the guitar from his dad. The New York Times has said, “Rains has established himself as an authority on old Texas-style fiddling.” Howard has learned his music from friends, family, mentors, old recordings and rare manuscripts. As much known for his painting as his fiddling, Howard has focused much of his work on his unique watercolor style.

  • Rhythm & Rep, Second First!

    Tricia Spencer is a Kansas fiddler who grew up on her family’s farm learning the tradition of old-time fiddling knee to knee from her grandpa and grandma, Vernon and Iona Spencer. In her youth, she and her family traveled to fiddler’s conventions throughout the midwest where she learned from master fiddlers like Pete McMahan, Cyril Stinnett, Violet Hensley, Vesta Johnson, Lyman Enloe, Dwight Lamb, Amos Chase and Lucy Pierce. Tricia is known for her unique approach to seconding on the fiddle and is a teacher, artist, composer and multi-instrumentalist.

  • Louvin Brothers Harmony Singing

    Kari Sickenberger is a singer and songwriter from Asheville, NC. She and singing partner, Laurelyn Dossett founded the band Polecat Creek and they have made three records together with world class banjo player Riley Baugus. Kari has also toured with and sung on recordings by Ginny Hawker and Tracy Schwarz.  She teamed up with Vollie McKenzie in the Asheville band, The Western Wildcats, a classic country and honky tonk dance quintet.  Kari has worked on projects with the legendary Alice Gerrard as well as many Western North Carolina friends and she regularly performs and teaches singing and harmony workshops all over the U.S. and Mexico.

  • Beginning Bass

    Unlike many of her cohorts, Amy Buckingham came to old time music reluctantly, and at the ripe old age of 40.  But she soon succumbed to the charm of the genre and hasn’t looked back since.  Her very talented husband Bob has been the biggest influence in her musical excursions. 

    Amy has been a singer and multi-instrumentalist all her life in several genres, performing, playing for dances and recording. She is proud of her work on four albums - vocals, guitar, fiddle and bass. Her latest project is a duo with her husband Bob, Chickens In Paradise.  Amy is also a teacher, including public school special education and private and group music lessons with the JAM (Junior Appalachian Musician) program. In addition to fiddle and banjo, she has also taught bass at BROTMW. Her nurturing countenance makes her an excellent teacher and mentor.

  • Advanced Fiddle

    Amy Alvey is an award winning fiddler, singer and songwriter who tours the country as half of the duo Golden Shoals. She’s a classically trained Berklee graduate who’s spent the past 13 years immersed in the old-time scene, performing and picking into the wee hours at national fiddle gatherings and music festivals. She's won ribbons in traditional fiddling contests such as Clifftop, Mount Airy, Galax, Surrey County, and the Grand Masters Fiddlers Championship. She hosts the weekly Sunday night old-time jam at Fran's Eastside Lounge in Nashville. Her music camp resume includes teaching at The Swannanoa Gathering, Nimblefingers Bluegrass and Old Time Music Camp, Northern Lights Festival, Blackpot Camp, Fiddle and Pick, Dorrigo Folk School (AUS), Rotterdam Bluegrass camp (NL), and the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival.

  • Early Intermediate Clawhammer Banjo, Duet Harmony Singing with Kay Justice

    Sam Gleaves is a singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, and music instructor from Wytheville, Virginia. He began studying and playing old-time music as a teen. Since 2010, Sam has performed and taught Appalachian music throughout the United States and on international tours. Since 2020, Sam has served as the Bluegrass Ensemble Director and Appalachian Instruments Instructor at Berea College. Sam holds a bachelor’s degree in Folklore from Berea College and a master’s degree in Music Education from the University of Kentucky.

  • Banjo Uke Mini Class

    Russell Mofsky is a genre-bending guitarist and composer who weaves jazz harmony through the timeless pulse of old-time music. A graduate of the New England Conservatory, he has spent two decades exploring guitar, clawhammer banjo, and banjo uke for their hypnotic textures and rhythmic depth. He performs with the punk-rooted bands Quit and King Friday, leads the cinematic instrumental ensemble Gold Dust Lounge, and is always chasing trancey, grooving jams. Mofsky also helps organize Miami’s Lost City Old Time Jam—now in its third year—runs the @miamioldtime community on Instagram, and continues to promote and share old-time music throughout South Florida.

  • Advanced Banjo

    Rachel Eddy is a native of West Virginia who grew up in a musical family steeped in the traditions of Appalachian music and dance. Rachel is known throughout the world as both a dynamic, emotionally powerful performer and an engaging, thoughtful teacher. Rachel’s soulful singing and multi-instrumental finesse—including fiddle, banjo, guitar, and mandolin—may be heard on numerous solo and collaborative recordings as well as at dances and jam sessions, where they are dedicated to fostering community and sharing a love of music with others.

  • Mountain Dulcimer

    Don Pedi has been playing the dulcimer since 1968.

    He is known for developing a playing style for the fretted mountain dulcimer that can match a fiddle, note for note, while maintaining the rhythms and characteristics of traditional music.

    Over the decades he's lived, worked, and learned songs, tunes and ballads first hand from older generation musicians. Don has been recognized and honored for collecting, preserving and performing Traditional Appalachian music. Since 1985 he has championed folk music as an on air host on Public Radio in Western North Carolina.  His weekly show “Close to Home” airs Sundays on WNCW 88.7, from 6:00-7:00pm (EST) and simultaneously streams on www.wncw.org

    Don has appeared in the motion pictures “The Song Catcher” and “The Journey of August King”, as well as a number of documentaries and music specials.  He has released a dozen recordings. Many with Yancey County, NC fiddler Bruce Greene.   

    Don's weekly online Visit & Jam Sessions have helped many players develop a real understanding of how to play traditional Old-Time songs and tunes on the dulcimer.

  • Intermediate Guitar

    Josh grew up in Madison County, North Carolina surrounded by the music and stories of his ancestors.  He is a highly accomplished storyteller and oldtime, bluegrass, and swing musician playing close to 20 instruments.  His fiddling was featured in the movie Songcatcher, both onscreen and on the soundtrack.  He has performed in all 50 states, throughout Europe, Asia, and Australia and gracing such stages as the Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and The Grand Ole Opry. He was nominated for a Grammy for his 2009 release with David Holt, entitled Cutting Loose.

  • Mandolin

    Lloyd Wright has played and performed oldtime music for over 25 years.  He has roots that stretch from his home state of Texas to Madison County NC, getting his start right here in Mars Hill at BROTMW!  A multi-instrumentalist also comfortable on dulcimer, fiddle, banjo and guitar, Lloyd will be teaching mandolin this year.  His overall knowledge of old time music gives insight to his mandolin playing, and how to help it fit into the genre.  He’ll cover melody playing, as well as back up rhythms and chords, for this int/adv level group. 

  • Banjo History & Styles mini

    Matthew Sabatella connects people with music that is woven into the fabric of the United States. He performs regularly, both as a solo artist and as the leader of the Rambling String Band. He teaches the history of American music, in person and online, at Lifelong Learning Institutes at various colleges and universities. In 2019, Matthew founded Ballad of America, Inc., a nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve and celebrate music from America’s diverse cultural history. He has won multiple banjo competitions and received awards from the National Federation of Music Clubs and the Florida Fiddlers Association for his work promoting, supporting, and preserving old-time music.

  • Rhythm & Repertoire

    Georgia native Rob McMaken cut his teeth busking in New Orleans and toured the US and Europe playing an eclectic mix of global folk music with the band Dromedary in his early twenties. After moving to Athens GA in the 1990s, he recorded and performed with Americana artists like Jonathan Byrd and Jim White. Once Rob met fiddler Jason Cade, he began his deep dive into Southern Appalachian oldtime music. He has since developed a distinctive accompaniment style on lap dulcimer, mandolin, guitar, and banjo-uke—seamlessly weaving between melody, harmonic counterpoint, and rhythmic drones that echo Old World aesthetics. As the multi-instrumentalist-counterpoint-to-the-fiddle in the two-man-band Hog-eyed Man, Rob has co-released six albums over the past decade featuring over 100 rare tunes from Southern Appalachian traditions. His approach has been praised as “both emotional and expressive, transcending any particular age” (FolkWorld), “deftly complementing the fiddle melodically and harmonically,” (Musical Traditions), and “glorious” (The Living Tradition). 

  • Mapping the Bass, Building Connection & Transforming Judgements mini classes