September 8-10, 2006
Staff Biographies

Mac Benford has been playing the 5-string banjo for 40 years. He was fortunate enough in his formative years to have direct contact with great players like Wade Ward, Kyle Creed, Tom Ashley, and Roscoe Holcomb, all of whom strongly influenced his playing. He came to prominence during the 70s as a member of the legendary Highwoods String Band. Later on, while performing and recording with the Backwoods Band and the Woodshed Allstars, Mac expanded on the traditional role of the clawhammer banjo as a lead and backup instrument. His recently released Kentucky Favorites showcases his ability to capture the melodic subtlety of complex fiddle tunes without sacrificing the ring and drive of the best traditional playing.

Janet Beazley plays banjo and sings with the California band, Chris Stuart & Backcountry. She also co-produced and engineered both CSB band albums as well as solo projects by Chris Stuart and guitarist Eric Uglum. Janet's solo CD, 5 South, is just out on the Backcountry Records label and is the focus of the profile article in the August 2005 issue of Banjo Newsletter. Janet has taught banjo, music theory, and harmony singing classes at the British Columbia Bluegrass Workshop in B.C., Canada, the Northern Bluegrass Circle Music Society Workshop in Edmonton, Alberta, the California Bluegrass Association Music Camp in Grass Valley, CA, and will be teaching at the Midwest Banjo Camp in East Lansing, MI this June. She holds a doctorate in early music performance and when not on the road with the band she teaches at the University of Southern California, University of California at Riverside, and Claremont Graduate University.

Paul Brown spent years learning music directly from some of the last fiddle, banjo, and guitar players to emerge before the age of radio and recordings, including banjoist and fiddler Tommy Jarrell, banjoist Gilmer Woodruff, guitarists and singers Paul Sutphin and Fields Ward, fiddlers Robert Sykes and Luther Davis, and mandolinist Verlen Clifton. He has played since 1978 with fiddler Benton Flippen, and he has been a member of numerous ensembles, including the Bent Mountain Band with Andy Cahan and Mike Seeger, Benton Flippen & the Smokey Valley Boys, Robert Sykes & the Surry County Boys, and the Toast String Stretchers. Paul has been on the staff at music camps across the country since the early 1970s - from the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Washington, to Pinewoods in Massachusetts. His most recent appearances on CD are "Way Down In North Carolina" with Mike Seeger, "Benton Flippen: Old Time, New Times," and "Blue Ridge Mountain Holiday: The Breaking Up Christmas Story." Paul has a website at http://www.brownpaul.net/.

Howie Bursen is best known for his gravity-defying, triplet-filled fiddle-tune variations, and his eclectic recordings contain quite a number of extraordinary clawhammer solos. He is not only one of today's foremost practitioners of the style, but he is also an excellent singer, song-writer and guitarist. His responisibilities as foreman of a Connecticut winery generally keep him close to home, but when possible he tours with his wife, folk-singer Sally Rogers, with whom he has made two recordings -- "When Sally Met Howie," and "Satisfied Customers." Howie has taught clawhammer at the Maryland Banjo Academy, Common Ground on the Hill, and Banjo Camp North. His recordings include "Cider in the Kitchen," "Building Boom," and "Banjo Manikin."

Greg Canote and Jere Canote The Canote Brothers from Seattle, WA, are as renowned for their affable attitudes and humor as they are for their music. Greg on fiddle, and Jere on guitar, and both on banjo ukes, perform zany concerts, play for dances, lead songs, and promote a good time! The twin brothers started singing soon after they were born and haven't closed their mouths since. They spent their early years in California's Sacramento Valley, inventing songs with their father at the piano and tagging along with their parents' folk and square dance group. They honed their skills performing in many bands and discovered old-time music in the mid 1970s. In 1978 they attended the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend, WA, and eventually became frequent teachers there. After touring the country with dance caller and singer Sandy Bradley for four years, they returned to the Northwest for a thirteen year stint on Seattle's National Public Radio show, "Sandy Bradley's Potluck," as Sandy's affable side-kicks. The rigors of finding new material for a weekly radio show kept the twins on their toes, mining and performing gems of American music of the past as well as writing new songs in those styles.

Murphy Henry is known to bluegrass banjo students around the world for her "Murphy Method" videos, which focus on learning to play 3-finger style by ear. Murphy has written the "General Store" column for Bluegrass Unlimited magazine for the past 18 years, has written a monthly column in Banjo Newsletter since 1983, and now edits and publishes her own Women in Bluegrass quarterly newsletter. She has been an instructor at the Tennessee Banjo Institute, the Maryland Banjo Academy, Steve Kaufman's Banjo Kamp, Augusta Heritage Bluegrass Week, the Huck Finn Bluegrass Camp, Bill Evans' J.D.Crowe Camp, and the Wintergrass Bluegrass Festival. She was also selected for inclusion in the book Masters of the 5-String Banjo. She and her husband Red Murphy have recorded 10 record albums and cassettes, and they can often be heard around their home in Winchester, Virginia playing with their bluegrass band Red and Murphy & Co. Her one solo CD is called M and M Blues.

Bill Keith: A renowned explorer of the frontiers of banjo picking and of the instrument's harmonic potentialities, Bill Keith largely invented the three-finger picking style known as "melodic" banjo. He first came to international attention in the early 60s when he played and recorded with Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys. He co-authored the original Earl Scruggs banjo instruction book and record, and has also written several other banjo instruction books, including the first ones ever published in French and Italian. He has recorded several albums for Rounder, Green Linnet, and Hexagon, and has toured widely throughout North America, Western Europe, Japan, and Australia. He devised and, through the Beacon Banjo Company, still markets the famous tuning pegs that bear his name.

Peter Langston seems to play anything with strings on it (even the banjo!), and is equally adept at backup and hot improvisation. He has played in bands on both the East Coast (Metropolitan Opry, Wretched Refuse) and the West Coast (Puddle City, Entropy Service, Portland Zoo), and has performed with such notables as Doc Watson, Reverend Gary Davis, Tony Trischka, Peter Rowan, Alison Brown, and Mike Seeger. Peter has led a double life as a musician and a computer whiz and has taught both audio recording and computer science at the college level. Peter has been a frequent member of the staff of various music and dance camps, including the California Coast Music Camp, Sierra Swing, the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Alta Sierra, and the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, which he helps run.

Brad Leftwich is the author of the Mel Bay book Round Peak Style Clawhammer Banjo. Best known as a fiddler, Brad has in fact been playing banjo longer. He first took it up more than thirty years ago, inspired by his grandfather, a banjo picker from Carroll County, Va., and by his father, a singer and guitar player in the old-time style. Brad has learned much of his music from traditional musicians in the region formed by Surry County, N.C., and Grayson and Carroll Counties, Va., and in particular from Tommy Jarrell and other banjo players from the Round Peak community of Surry County. He was a member of the Plank Road String Band in the mid-seventies, toured with Leftwich & Higginbotham throughout the eighties and nineties, and now performs with Tom Sauber and Alice Gerrard as Tom, Brad, & Alice.

Ned Luberecki has been teaching and playing bluegrass banjo for over 25 years, having been part of Paul Adkins' Borderline Band, Radio Flyer, the Gary Ferguson Band, and the Rarely Herd (the latter won SPBGMA's Entertaining Band of the Year award several times). Ned has appeared on recordings with Paul Adkins' Borderline Band, the Rarely Herd, Jim Hurst, Bull Harman, and New Strings. Bluegrass Unlimited magazine has declared, "Ned's banjo captures that killer tone and technique banjo players die for." Now residing in Nashville, he is the banjoist for the Chris Jones Coalition and the Apocalyptic Cowboys, teaches private lessons at World Music Nashville, and is a fill-in radio personality on Sirius Radio's Bluegrass channel. His uncomplicated teaching style and fresh, wacky sense of humor has made him a favorite at music camps and workshops, such as NashCamp, Camp Bluegrass, and the Maryland Banjo Academy.

Ken Perlman: Perhaps the best-known exponent of the "melodic" clawhammer style, Ken is known where-ever banjos are played as a master of clawhammer technique and an expert teacher of clawhammer mechanics. He has been a Banjo Newsletter columnist for 20 years; he has written several books on clawhammer instruction including the well known works Melodic Clawhammer Banjo and Clawhammer Style Banjo, he has recorded several series of audio and video banjo instruction, and he has taught at well over a dozen music camps including the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp, Common Ground on the Hill, and the Tennessee Banjo Institute.

Peter Schwimmer, a bluegrass picker since 1964, has explored many musical styles (including jazz, blues, and country music) and performed and/or recorded with bluegrass artists such as Vassar Clements, Tony Trischka, Peter Rowan, and Del McCoury, and with jazz fusion group Steps Ahead. A founding member of Front Range, and recent member of Oregon bands Train 145, Sam Hill, Dr. Corn's Bluegrass Remedy, and the Muddy Bottom Boys, Peter combines stylistic elements of traditional players like Earl Scruggs, Porter Church, Bill Emerson, and J.D. Crowe, with the melodic approach of players like Bill Keith and Bobby Thompson, and mixes them with bluesy licks using a solid and rhythmic right hand technique. He has taught at the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, at Sound Acoustic Music Camp, and he currently teaches banjo (and mandolin and guitar) in his current hometown of Portland, Oregon.

Laura Smith was born and raised in Hawaii, surrounded by the music of the islands, her Dad's piano and tenor banjo playing, and the rich harmonies of the church choir. She started playing old time banjo in 1973 when she attended the Sweet's Mill Music Camp in California and was introduced to a wide range of live traditional music. She has been playing and singing ever since. Laura sang with Larry Hanks for many years, and together they toured Great Britain. She has taught classes at the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop for 18 summers. Classes have included banjo, guitar, song repertoire, and hula. She has also taught at the Georgia Strait Guitar Workshop. Laura has been a public school teacher for the last 17 years and uses music daily in her classroom.

Mike Stahlman: is a Portland, Ore. banjo player whose playing style was heavily influenced by Earl Scruggs and Alan Munde. Mike has taught bluegrass banjo at Portland Community College in Portland since 1997, and currently plays banjo and tours with the Oregon based Sawtooth Mountain Boys. He has recorded two banjo instrumental CD's -- "Bluebonnet," and the recently released "First Dance."

Vivian Williams (accompanist) is well known in the U.S. and Canada for her fiddling ability. She performs regularly for old time dancing and is one of the leading old time and bluegrass fiddlers on the West Coast. She has won many fiddle contests in the U.S. and Canada, including: 1999 National Senior Champion (Weiser) and Washington State Senior Champion, three times Washington State fiddle champion, three times National Ladies Champion, four times winner of the West Coast International in Canada, and the Smithsonian Fiddle Contest in Washington, DC. Vivian plays primarily in the old time fiddle styles found among fiddlers in the Pacific Northwest, with a heavy influence of bluegrass. She is a noted composer of fiddle tunes, and her tunes have been recorded by many prominent folk and bluegrass musicians.