Classic Country Week 2024

Ginny Hawker – Advisor

Classic Country Duets

Ginny Hawker was born to do Country music growing up in southern Virginia in a large musical family. Starting with the soul-stirring unaccompanied singing of her father’s church that came to this country from Scotland, lyrics are important and you hear that when Ginny sings. Ginny learned harmony through Bluegrass and southern Gospel, where the blend of voices singing together pulled her ear and made her a gifted teacher at music camps in US, Canada, and the British Isles for over 25 years. Any class Ginny teaches will be informative and challenging without being overwhelming. Emmylou Harris is quoted in “O” magazine describing Ginny as “real as dirt” when reviewing her first solo recording, Letters From My Father.

Beth Chrisman

Country Fiddle

Though she started out her musical life studying classical violin, Beth Chrisman fell in love with roots music early on. She began playing fiddle music and learning to improvise and sing through the bluegrass & Old-Time scene in her home state of Alaska. After moving to Austin, Texas in 2006, Chrisman quickly absorbed western swing and honkytonk styles into her musical identity.     Both at home and on the road, she has joined a variety artists on the stage and the studio including Bobby Bare, JP Harris, Alice Gerrard, Willi Carlisle, Zoe Muth, and John C. Reilly.  Best known for her frequent fiddle and harmony work with James Hand, Brennen Leigh, and the Carper Family, Chrisman is now fronting her own honkytonk band – Missy Beth & the Morning Afters, and is one half of roots duo Lost Patterns.  

Karen Collins

Harmony Singing and Country Gospel

Karen Collins grew up in the mountains of Southwest Virginia in a coal mining community. She spent a lot of time listening to country music on the radio and singing in the local Baptist Church. The echoes of those early country sounds stand out in her singing and her song writing. Her songs are written and delivered in a traditional country style on topics ranging from love and heartbreak to modern issues such as being stuck in traffic.

Karen is lead singer with the honky tonk country band, The Backroads Band, and the Cajun/Zydeco band, Squeeze Bayou. She also sings with an acoustic country quartet The Blue Moon Cowgirls and plays solo shows. In the summer she teaches vocal classes at Augusta Classic Country Music week. Karen & the Backroads Band have recently released a new CD, “Daddy Can I Use the Car”

In a 2012 CD review, New Classic Music described Karen : “With a voice that would have fit perfectly in the 50’s and 60’s era of country music, Karen Collins has a lot in common with artists like Loretta Lynn and especially Rose Maddox. You can tell this lady loved Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers and probably both Loretta and Rose. Her voice is a quirky mix of country charm and offbeat humor. ”

Thomas Bryan Eaton

You’re in the Band and Electric Guitar in Country Music

Thomas Bryan Eaton is the most fun, patient, organized yet relaxed teacher you will ever come across. He currently lives in the Nashville area where he is an in demand guitar & pedal steel player both live and as a studio musician and producer. He writes and performs his own songs while touring regularly with Miss Tess & the Talkbacks, Western Centuries and others. You may have heard the old saying that someone is “eat up with music”? Well, that is Thomas. He can stay up all night playing both six string and steel guitar as well as singing whatever the jam or performance calls for. He knows all the old classic country songs and sings them with feeling that belies his young years. A young student once wrote, “This man is a phenomenal musician, teacher and human. He made the hardest instrument there seem not so daunting.” Believe it

Chris Haddox

Beginning & Intermediate/Advanced Country Guitar Accompaniment

Chris Haddox is a Logan, West Virginia born and raised songwriter/singer/multi-instrumentalist who is now based or of Morgantown, West Virginia. He writes and sings his voluminous collection of songs about (to quote him) “religion, firearms, courthouse squares, goats on trampolines, shoes, fiddles, and hurricanes”—whatever catches his eye. He deftly combines humor, sarcasm, and blunt honesty to create songs that are accessible and relatable to a wide variety of audiences.

When not playing music, Chris is a community leader who has directed Habitat for Humanity, worked to preserve old neighborhoods, a WVU professor of sustainable design, and an amateur musicologist who researches musicians from the southern coalfields of West Virginia.

Chris released his first album on March 25, 2022 at the age of 61. By April it had climbed to #11 on the Folk Alliance International chart, with all tracks from the album receiving steady airplay on 60 or so stations across the U.S., and a few further afield.

Leon Kasdorf

Steel in Country Music (mini-class)

Leon (aka Lynn) Kasdorf is a very busy Pedal Steel Guitarist in the Washington DC and Baltimore music scene. He does session work and plays with several bands including Arty Hill, The Hula Monsters, Oklahoma Twisters, The Old Part of Town, Dave Chappell, Kiti Gartner, The Backroads Band, and with his wife Julia.

Leon has a wide knowledge of classic country music, and has learned the steel kickoffs and solos on most songs in this genre.

Emily Miller

Classic Country Duets

Emily Miller is the Artistic Director of the Augusta Heritage Center, the string band director of the college’s Appalachian Ensemble, and a professional singer and fiddle player. At Augusta, Emily works with the director to oversee all programming and helps the theme week coordinators to execute a joint artistic vision. She received her BA in Anthropology-Linguistics from Brown University and her MS in Speech-Language Pathology from Vanderbilt University. In her career as a musician, she has toured with bands such as the Sweetback Sisters, The Starry Mountain Singers, and as a duo with Jesse Milnes, performing multiple times on national radio programs Mountain Stage and A Prairie Home Companion. She has released several albums of traditional and country music including In the Valley (2006), Chicken Ain’t Chicken (2009), Looking for a Fight (2012), Jesse Milnes & Emily Miller: Deep End Sessions (2015) and King of Killing Time (2017).

Jake Penrod

Songs of Hank Williams

 Jake Penrod is a singer, composer, songwriter, and band leader from the Piney Woods of East Texas. Playing the piano since age five and teaching himself guitar at nine, he’s now a multi-instrumentalist whose most recent accolade is a nomination for the Austin Chronicle’s best country artist of the year (2022).  In 2017, he was given the Ameripolitan Music Award for Honky Tonk Male. In 2015, he was recognized as the Academy of Western Artists’ Pure Country Male Vocalist of the Year. His songs have been covered by Joey Allcorn, Lonnie Spiker, and the Country Side of Harmonica Sam. He’s worked with and played with some of the greats- Ray Price, Charlie Pride, Asleep at the Wheel, Dale Watson, Bobby Flores, Johnny Lee, Bobby Bare, Moe Bandy, Jody Nix, Two Tons of Steel, Johnny Bush, Earl Poole Ball, and T. Graham Brown, to name a few. Despite his accolades, Jake really isn’t too concerned with image, persona, or delusions of stardom. He’ll tell you he’s more about “listen to this,” than “look at me.” In his own words, his greatest honor is that Kinky Friedman once called him “A Great Texan.”

Miss Tess

You’re in the Band and Songs of Roger Miller

Miss Tess has been leading her own band, performing, and touring professionally for the last decade. She currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee, making a living as a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and bassist. Tess specializes in writing and playing American roots music including styles of country, blues, and swing. “Old-time warmth, 21st-century sass. It’s a potent recipe for that few artists successfully pull off — and Miss Tess is one of them.” – No Depression. www.misstessmusic.com.