Old-Time Week 2026

Tessa McCoy, Advisor

Fiddle

Born and raised in Saint Albans, WV, Tessa McCoy spent much of her youth in the Kanawha Valley, ripening into the next link in an unbroken chain of traditional music and culture in the region. Her driving and specific old-time fiddling style pays homage to her early mentors, Jake Krack and Bobby Taylor, while showcasing her own take on standards, arrangements and festival favorites. She was featured in Fiddler Magazine in Winter 2021, WV Public Broadcasting’s ½ hour Clifftop Documentary at the age of 12, and more recently, a documentary on old-time fiddling from Clay County, WV. Tessa made her debut at The Grand Ole Opry in late summer 2024, where she payed homage to her home town, playing the tune “Durang’s Hornpipe”.

John Harrod

Fiddle | Guitar | Vocals

John Harrod has documented, recorded, and performed traditional music for more than 45 years. Born and raised in Shelby County, Kentucky, he has a B.A. from Centre College (1967) and an M.A. from Oxford University (1969) which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. Recently retired, he taught history and English at Owen County High School and Frankfort High School. In the 1970s and ’80s, he played with a number of bands including the Progress Red Hot String Band, the Bill Livers String Ensemble, and the Gray Eagle Band that re-introduced traditional musicians such as Bill Livers and Lily May Ledford to Kentucky audiences. John’s field recordings are housed at both Berea College and the Kentucky Center for Traditional Music at Morehead. He has taught fiddle and conducted workshops at the Augusta Heritage Center, the American Festival of Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend, Washington, the Berea College Celebration of Traditional Music, and the Cowan Creek Mountain Music School. He continues to perform with Kentucky Wild Horse, a band that draws on a wide variety of Kentucky music past and present. In 2004 John received the Folk Heritage Award of the Governor’s Awards in the Arts for his work in traditional music.

Corbin Hayslett

Banjo

Corbin Hayslett is a Virginia-born multi-instrumentalist and singer whose deep roots in old-time and bluegrass music have shaped him into one of the most promising young talents in Americana today. A recent graduate of The University of Virginia’s College at Wise, Hayslett’s musicianship and authentic sound earned him national recognition when he was selected from a multitude of entries to record on Orthophonic Joy: The 1927 Bristol Sessions Revisited—a tribute to the historic Ralph Peer recording sessions often called the “Big Bang” of country music. Music has been a lifelong companion for Hayslett. Raised in a home filled with song, he grew up harmonizing with his parents—his mother, a gifted singer and pianist who led church music, and his father, a passionate singer with a love for vintage bluegrass. Surrounded by the sounds of old-time tunes and bootleg radio recordings from the 1980s, Hayslett developed a natural connection to traditional Appalachian music.

Today, his skill with stringed instruments—especially his masterful command of the banjo—combined with his warm vocals and deep respect for musical heritage, make Corbin Hayslett a standout voice in the continuing story of American roots music.

Emily Miller

Singing

Emily Miller is the Artistic Director of the Augusta Heritage Center 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. 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 her husband Jesse Milnes, performing multiple times on national radio programs Mountain Stage and A Prairie Home Companion. She has learned a large repertoire of West Virginia songs from Jesse and also from her father-in-law Gerry Milnes (2026 NEA National Heritage Fellow).

Gerry Milnes

Banjo

Gerry Milnes began collecting and learning banjo tunes in central West Virginia in 1975. As a player, he has won blue ribbons at the WV State Folk Festival, the Vandalia Gathering, and both age levels at the Clifftop competitions. His playing may be heard on several recordings as well as those of Melvin Wine and Ernie Carpenter. Gerry has performed and taught at venues throughout the country.

Jesse Milnes

Old-Time Repertoire

Jesse Milnes grew up in the world of West Virginia old-time music (his father is fiddler and folklorist Gerry Milnes). Though he is widely known as a fiddle player, Jesse’s first instrument was a guitar and he has developed a personal style of finger-picking, drawing on influences from blues to bluegrass to country. He has played fiddle and guitar with many country, old-time and bluegrass bands over the years, including the Sweetback Sisters, a country band for which he was also a main songwriter. Jesse has won many local and regional fiddle contests, including the WV State Folk Festival in Glenville, WV, and the Ed Haley Fiddle Contest in Ashland, KY. Jesse and his wife, Emily Miller, recently toured in Australia and California and recorded their first album as a duo. They live in Valley Bend, WV.

David O’Dell

Banjo

David O’Dell is a native West Virginian who has been playing traditional music for more than 40 years. He plays banjo, fiddle, guitar, Appalachian dulcimer, mandolin and upright bass. David has won just about every banjo contest in the state and has taught workshops at the Augusta Heritage Center and Allegheny Echoes in Pocahontas County. He serves as the president of the West Virginia State Folk Festival in Glenville, WV, where he is also a professor of chemistry at Glenville State University. David performs regularly for square dances and concerts throughout the state with the Mack Samples Band, the MacAbre Brothers amongst other groups. 

Andrew Small

Fiddle

Andrew Small is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and composer who makes his home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwest Virginia. He travels the world fronting the traditional bluegrass band The Alum Ridge Boys & Ashlee and performing old time country music as half of the duo Ashlee Watkins & Andrew Small. Originally from Eastern North Carolina, Andrew holds a master’s degree in music performance from Yale University and has performed around the world with artists including Sierra Hull, Mandolin Orange, and the North Carolina Symphony. From 2018-2023 he toured with Bill and the Belles and also played bass in the house band for the PBS television show Farm and Fun Time. 

An avid proponent of traditional music styles from the Blue Ridge region, Andrew had the honor of serving as the inaugural Artist-In-Residence for The Crooked Road – Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail. In 2022, he completed a Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship with master fiddler and National Heritage Award-recipient Eddie Bond of Fries, VA. Andrew’s prowess as a singer, old time fiddler, banjo player, mandolinist, guitarist, and bassist has won him countless prizes at contests and festivals around the world, and his bands have won first place in old time and bluegrass categories at the most celebrated fiddlers’ conventions in the South, including those in Galax, VA and Mount Airy, NC. In 2025, Andrew was awarded first place in the old time fiddle contest at the Appalachian String Band Festival in Clifftop, WV, and his string band The New Floyd County Ramblers also won first place in the traditional band category.

Ashlee Watkins

Guitar | Banjo

Having grown up in a musical family in New South Wales, Australia, Ashlee Watkins is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter whose powerfully unadorned vocals exhibit a refreshing directness of expression reminiscent of Maybelle Carter, Molly O’Day, and Hazel Dickens. She has been awarded a number of blue ribbons from fiddlers’ conventions around the Southeast for her folk singing and old-time banjo and guitar playing, and in 2021, her string band The Alum Ridge Boys & Ashlee won first place at the 85th Annual Old Fiddlers’ Convention in Galax, VA. In 2022, she completed a Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship with Floyd County master musician Mac Traynham. Ashlee has performed with Larry Sigmon and is a member of old time string bands The Mustard Cutters and The Crooked Road Ramblers.

Betty Vornbrock

Fiddle

Betty Vornbrock is an accomplished fiddler in several different traditional styles. Her first love is that of the
Appalachian Mountains, and has focused on the tunes of West Virginia, Kentucky, and the Blue Ridge since the late ’70’s.
Her classes concentrate on the diversity of these regions and players to help students develop their own sound.
For the most part her Old-Time influences include West Virginia fiddlers Wilson Douglas, Melvin Wine, Sarah
Singleton, and Burl and Edn Hammons; Kentucky fiddlers J.P. Fraley, Ed Haley, Clyde Davenport, and Snake Chapman;
and, close to her home in Virginia’s Blue Ridge, Taylor Kimble, Ralph Blizard, G.B. Grayson, Tommy Jarrell, Emmett
Lundy, and Henry Reed. From one-day workshops to week-long fiddle classes, Betty has enjoyed teaching at private homes, Augusta Heritage Workshops, Cowan Creek Mountain Music Week, Blue Ridge Old Time Music Week (Mars Hill), and Chestnut Creek
School of the Arts. She also teaches private lessons, and has been on the Board and faculty of a valued after-school
program in Galax, VA – Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM).

In 2018 Betty was a featured Master Fiddler at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Port Townsend, WA.
Betty and her band, the Reed Island Rounders, hit the festival circuit each summer, and have taken honors at Galax,
Mount Airy, Clifftop, Glenville, Fiddler’s Grove, and many of the other fiddlers’ conventions. They have toured the UK &
Ireland, and as guests of the FOAOTMAD Festival in England multiple years. The band loves to play for squaredances and
contras, festivals, and house concerts. The Rounders have produced 4 CDs as a band; Betty joined J.P. Fraley on their
twin fiddle CD “Side by Side”, and she has a few collaborations with others over the years.

Folk Arts for Kids with Emolyn Liden

FAFK runs from 9 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Emolyn Liden is an artist, musician, and dancer. She grew up in Brasstown, North Carolina and discovered her love of craft at a young age observing the artists in her community. She learned from her mother about raising sheep, natural fiber, and to knit which led her to spinning and natural dyeing. Through her business, The Roving Knitter, she designs knitwear inspired by texture and color, teaches people of all ages to knit, and displays her work at craft shows and exhibits. Emolyn is a graduate of the professional craft program in jewelry at Haywood Community College. She is interested in the cross-section of fiber and metalsmithing, how to create a softness in something structured like metal, and how to create sculptural art with knitting techniques. Emolyn is a community-minded teaching artist who blends her passion of music, dance, and craft to empower others to discover confidence, creativity, connection and understanding. She has danced with the Cane Creek Cloggers of Chapel Hill; the Green Grass Cloggers of Asheville; Cape Breton step-dancing team, The Twisty Cuffs; and has been a dance instructor for kids in public school and at camps around the country. She regularly performs Appalachian old-time music and teaches at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina.

Teen Academy with Emily Prentice

Teen Augusta runs from 9 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Emily Prentice is an artist and arts educator living in Elkins, WV. She graduated with degrees in English and Fine Arts from Davis & Elkins College in 2016, and has been merging those two forms ever since. While interested in every kind of making, she spends most of her time drawing, making zines, and playing with fibers; she says that she loves making art that shares information, builds community, and helps all people realize their creative potential. Since starting her work as an artist she has become passionate about educating other artists, too, having taught zine- and quilt-making across Appalachia and now teaches classes in creative play online.

Introduction to Greenwood Joinery with Terry Ratliff

Join Terry in a fun week of introduction to green wood joinery. Over four decades of producing traditional functional folk art has turned Terry into a seasoned professional. Participants will use a few edge tools and logs to produce a lasting heirloom from log to finish. No metal fasteners or glue necessary. Through the week knowledge of forest growth , tree anatomy, identifying and working with the grain as well as how to use tools from sledge and wedge to getting fine edge on spoke shave and draw knife will be at hand. Come learn the age old process and leave with an all from the woods handy stool to be passed along to another generation.

Letterpress and Engraving with Jim Horton

Letterpress is a realm of the graphic arts that uses relief printing type and engraved illustration. The roots go back to the fifteenth century, yet has modern applications (such as Hatch Showprint). The class will have students design and print a broadside (posters) using wood and metal type. Wood engraving and lino will also be taught for illustration. Students will print an edition of unique designs for a real or imagined event. All materials will be provided and antique presses poised for printing.

Fiddle from Scratch with Walter Hojka | July 21-13, 2026

Class Description: Learn to play the fiddle in this fun and supportive beginner class! If you never played fiddle, or are eager to learn more as a beginning student, this is the class for you. We’ll start with how to hold the instrument, where to put your fingers, and some simple tunes to get you playing right away. By the end, you’ll have a strong foundation and the confidence to keep learning and enjoying the fiddle. Augusta does have some fiddles to lend out for this class. Please reach out to Augusta at info@augustaartsandculture.org or 304 637 1209 to reserve one. 

NOTE: This class is offered Weeks 1, 3 and 5. For any locals who want to sign up for more than one week, Walter will make sure that you grow and learn new things each week. Take all three for a true Beginning Fiddle Bootcamp!

Walter Hojka is a renowned strings educator and musician. He also served as a fiddle teacher for the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago for many years before relocating to West Virginia. He has taught strings in two West Virginia schools, is the founder of the Snowy Mountain Music School in Pendleton County, WV, and performs regularly on fiddle and banjo.

Swing Guitar Backup from Scratch Mike Miller | July 21-23, 2026

Class Description: This is a class for players of old-time music who would like to venture into the world of swing guitar but aren’t sure where to start. Swing music is basically the popular music of America from around 1925 to 1950, an era that saw a flowering of clever lyrics, memorable melodies and interesting chords. The songs that have stood the test of time have come to be known as standards, or the Great American Songbook.

Some of the best-known composers of the time are Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, George Gershwin, Dorothy Fields, Johnny Mercer, Fats Waller, Harry Warren, Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen – but there are many others as well. Their songs were popularized by singers like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. The class starts with an easy number like “I Found a Million Dollar Baby (in a Five and Ten Cent Store),” with chords that should be familiar to most guitar players. Then we add a couple of new chords with “It’s Only a Paper Moon.” After that we’re on to “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” “On a Slow Boat to China” and as many other great songs as time allows.

Mike Miller regularly plays backup guitar for Gerry Milnes and Charlie Walden, the two leading players of the traditional fiddle tunes of West Virginia and Missouri, respectively. After playing mostly old-time and country music for years, he started venturing into the world of swing about 30 years ago, and he can see no end to this particular rabbit hole.