Blues Week 2025

Justin Golden – Advisor

Guitar

With roots in the Mississippi Delta, Chicago, and the Piedmont of Virginia, Richmond-based guitarist and songwriter Justin Golden’s origins are deeply vested in the blues. First picking up the guitar at age 19, Golden did what came naturally and let the music flow through him. With an extremely diverse musical palette, Golden aims to bring some new ideas to traditional blues forms. In addition to his work as a recording and performing artist, Golden maintains a busy teaching schedule and works with the non-profit The Rhapsody Project to provide community enrichment through anti-racist cultural heritage programs.

Andrew Alli

Harmonica

Andrew Alli is a Richmond, Va native. He took up music relatively later in life at the age of 20. After being inspired by a busker playing harmonica on the street one day, he hit the local music store and a harmonica of his own. From that point on, Andrew committed himself to learning the history of the instrument. He very soon fell in love with the blues and began studying all of the harmonica greats including Big Walter Horton, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Junior wells, and more. He has developed his own unique style of playing, while still paying his respects to his biggest influences from the past. Throughout the years he has toured with dozens of musicians both domestically and abroad. For years, Andrew lead the band “Andrew Alli and the Mainline” with Ivan Appelrouth on guitar, Chaz Hibbler on drums, and Ken Kellner on bass. Andrew plays in a duo with local musician Josh Small and Georgia based musician Jontavious Willis.

Sunpie Barnes

Piano

Sunpie is a former National Park Service Ranger photographer, former high school biology teacher (30 year), former college football All-American, and former NFL football player (Kansas City Chiefs). Bruce Sunpie Barnes’ many careers have taken him far and wide. He has traveled to 53 countries playing his own style of what he calls Afro-Louisiana music incorporating blues, zydeco, creole jazz, gospel, work songs, Caribbean and African influenced rhythms and melodies. He is a multi-instrumentalist, mastering accordion, harmonica, and piano along with rubboard, talking drum, and dejembe. He learned accordion from some of the best Zydeco pioneers in Louisiana, including Fernest Arceneaux, John Delafose, and Clayton Sampy. Along with his musical group Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots, he has performed at festivals and concerts across the US and around the globe. Sunpie has currently recorded 7 critically acclaimed CDs with his compositions featured in 19 Hollywood film productions.

Briar

Vocals

Briar is a singer of vintage jazz, blues and original music. By blending a powerful voice with stories about the history and origins of her music, she shines a light on singers and tales that have been forgotten by the country that created them. Raised in the small community of Chimacum, Washington, Briar uses her music to help explore her unique background as a black woman from the rural Pacific Northwest. 

Whether belting Bessie Smith numbers or crooning original songs about Sherlock Holmes, her performances are defined by her combination of grace and playfulness, elegance crossed with down-home bravado.

In addition to her regular engagements as a singer and ukulele player, Briar teaches music for Seattle JazzEd, is a leader of the Rhapsody Project,  and is currently pursuing a degree in Environmental Science from Olympic University.

B.E. Farrow

Bass & Fiddle

Farrow is a musician, educator, songwriter, and independent researcher who has a focus in reshaping and reflecting American’s musical history through sharing stories, creative musical expression through popular/historic musical structures, and inclusive dialog.

From touring with Grammy award winner Dom Flemons to, giving talks at the Library Company of Philadelphia, and running a music program in Greece with the refugees, Mr. Farrow forms a discipline in understanding the unspoken roots of music and exploring the impact of expression on cultural history.

You can hear Farrow as a member of the Clara Barton Sessions, a recording of DC folk/traditional musicians who released an album commemorating the revitalization of the Clara Barton Museum, Elena y Los Fulanos’ Volcàn, R&B Soul artist Dante Pope’s After 5 Music, and on Dom Flemon’s Grammy nominated album Black Cowboys under Smithsonian’s Folkways label.

You can find Farrow in a library, playing his fiddle at a busy intersection, the occasional solo show or presentation, or touring with Gangstagrass.

Joan Fenton

Guitar

Joan Fenton has worked as a musician, folklorist, and business woman. She is the recipient of the WC Handy award for keeping the blues alive in education. She produced traditional music shows for 15 years for various radio stations and received two National Endowment for the Arts grants to record traditional musicians. Her field recordings can be found at the D&E Library and in the Joan Fenton collection at the University of NC at Chapel Hill library. Her work with nonprofits includes serving on the executive board of the Folk Alliance.

Joe Filisko

Harmonica

Revered as a master player, teacher, custom harmonica pioneer, researcher, and historian, Joe Filisko is arguably the world’s foremost authority on many aspects of the diatonic harmonica and a key figure in today’s harmonica scene. Over the past 20 years he has had a tremendous influence on developments in the culture of the instrument. His much sought after custom harps are used by a remarkable roster of players and are prized for their superb response and tonal qualities by a client list that includes a large proportion of the world’s diatonic harmonica elite. Since the early 1990s, his groundbreaking work in improving the playability of the instrument has directly affected the production of all major harmonica manufacturers. In 2011 Joe Filisko entered into a close cooperation with Hohner as Head of Certification Process for the company’s new Affiliated Customizer Program, a bold move to guarantee standards for purchasers of custom harmonicas which is without precedent in the harmonica industry. He also made important design contributions to the latest model of Hohner’s Marine Band range, the Thunderbird, which bears his signature and has been cited as the finest low key harmonica available on the market today.

Fueled by his desire to preserve historical harmonica styles from extinction, Joe Filisko has amassed not only an encyclopedic knowledge of the entire gamut of traditional harmonica techniques, but has mastered them to an extent unrivaled among contemporary players. His passion for both the well-known and the unsung heroes of the 10-hole diatonic has made him a riveting performer in his own right, with a fluid command of a wide range of styles and possibly the most powerful hand effects ever heard. A master of tone and complex, nuanced tongue block rhythms, he has for many years shared his knowledge with students on five continents and so contributed enormously to the widespread understanding of traditional harmonica styles among a new generation of players.

Though his work as a scholar and a craftsman has rightly earned him a place in the harmonica pantheon, it is as a player that he truly shines. Joe Filisko coaxes sounds from the harmonica which few before him have ever created and which open up new perspectives for countless players and lovers of this remarkable little instrument.

Hubby Jenkins

Guitar

Hubby Jenkins is a talented multi-instrumentalist who endeavors to share his love and knowledge of old-time American music. Born and raised in Brooklyn he delved into his Southern roots, following the thread of African American history that wove itself through country blues, ragtime, fiddle and banjo, and traditional jazz. Hubby got his higher musical education started as a busker. He developed his guitar and vocal craft on the sidewalks and subway platforms of New York City, performing material by those venerable artists whose work he was quickly absorbing. An ambitiously itinerant musician, he took his show on the road, playing the streets, coffee shops, bars, and house parties of cities around the U.S. 

After years of busking around the country and making a name for himself, Hubby became acquainted with the Carolina Chocolate Drops. He was an integral part of the Grammy award winning Carolina Chocolate Drops (2010 – 2016), as well as a member of Rhiannon Giddens band. Today he spreads his knowledge and love of old-time American music and history through his dynamic solo performances.

Danny Knicely

Mandolin

Danny Knicely comes from a musical family steeped in a mountain music tradition for generations. He first learned music from his grandfather, A.O. Knicely, who played dances and social events in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia beginning in the 1930’s. Danny has used his roots in old-time and bluegrass to explore various types of music from around the world. Danny has won many awards for his mandolin, guitar, fiddle and flat-foot dance expertise, including first place in the mandolin contest at the prestigious Telluride Bluegrass Festival. His masterful mandolinistry and original compositions can be heard on his debut recording “Roots and Branches” and his colorful, versatile, acoustic guitar picking can be heard on his “Waltz for Aimee” album.

Judy LaPrade

Piano & Blues Theory for All Instruments

Judy LaPrade is a life-long musician and teacher. She grew up in West Virginia where she played and sang in church. By junior high school she led and accompanied the patient choir at the local state mental hospital, then as an adult took the Blues into schools and music therapy groups for people with developmental challenges. These experiences set a path to build bridges between therapy and the creative arts, and she’s been teaching both ever since. She also played, sang, and wrote music for several years with the Elktones, an eight piece band of wild and wonderful West Virginia women.

Judy began standard classical piano lessons at a young age with a strong ear. She longed to put printed music aside and play with other people, but didn’t know how. So when a friend steered her to Blues camp in 1985, she felt she’d come home. She fell in love with traditional acoustic Blues and early string band music.

She’s taught Beginning Blues Piano for many years to people both new to piano and current players who want to learn Blues on piano. A teacher’s teacher, she also loves working with established musicians who want to transition to piano. She creates the classes she always wanted: learn Blues theory and patterns then use your ear, voice, body and heart to play and improvise. Her students play and sing in class with no printed music, only lyric and chord sheets. She has helped many students build skills and courage to play by ear and jam with other musicians. A current health coach, she brings that same passion and patience to piano class. She brings fun, humor, and accessibility for a non-intimidating approach that removes blocks and builds strengths. We honor and experience the Blues masters and culture as we take learning out of the head and into the body and heart, where the Blues live.

Her life partner of 20 years is a world class Blues player, which offers ample opportunity to deal with her own fading performance anxiety. Her current passion is singing Appalachian ballads of Nimrod Workman and Ola Belle Reed, a deep connection to the mountains and coal fields of her family origin.

David & Amy Loomis

Dance

Amy was working a hum-drum office job when she discovered the joys of swing dancing. Recalling the Swing Era sounds after a night of dancing had her tapping her toes beneath her work desk with a song in her heart. She has been swing dancing for 16 years and has competed, placed and won in regional competitions. As a founding member of Morgantown Swing since 2014, her favorite guest teaching opportunities have been Augusta Heritage Festival Blues & Swing Week (Elkins, WV) and The Thang Affrolacchian On-Time Music Gathering (Nasons, VA).

David wants to teach you how to lindy hop. When he first started dancing 12 years ago, it took him 3 full months of lessons to feel confident enough to try and social dance. His teaching style focuses on teaching students how to be good social dancers by learning how to execute moves in ways that maximize their partner’s comfort and fun. He wants his students to feel confident and comfortable in their rhythm and creativity while social dancing.

Leyla McCalla

Cello

Born in New York City to Haitian emigrants and activists, Leyla McCalla finds inspiration from her past and present– her music vibrates with three centuries of history and influences from around the globe. McCalla possesses a stunning mastery of the cello, tenor banjo and guitar and, as a multilingual singer and songwriter, has risen to produce a distinctive sound that reflects the union of her roots and experience. In addition to her solo work, McCalla is a founding member of Our Native Daughters (with Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah and Allison Russell) and alumna of Grammy award-winning Black string band The Carolina Chocolate Drops. 

McCalla’s new album and fifth studio recording, Sun Without the Heat (ANTI, April 12), is playful and full of joy while holding the pain and tension of transformation. Throughout Sun Without the Heat’s ten tracks, McCalla achieves a balance of heaviness and light with melodies and rhythms derived from various forms of Afro-diasporic music including Afrobeat, Ethiopian modalities, Brazilian Tropicalismo, and American folk and blues.

Joe Seamons

Guitar

Joe Seamons is a musician and educator based in Seattle and dedicated to helping people connect with their heritage through music and storytelling. As co-founder of The Rhapsody Project, he builds communities that serve and center young people while establishing cultural equity. Alongside non-profit partners Totem Star and Red Eagle Soaring, Joe helped establish The Station Space, a new youth arts hub. As part of the leadership team of Black & Tan Hall, Joe has worked since 2016 to establish the Black-led, multi-cultural cooperative that now stewards a 3,000 square foot performance venue in South Seattle.

Born and raised in Columbia County, Oregon, Joe interprets the songs and stories of the local sawmill, logging, and fishing ballads composed by the elder working people and folklorists who helped raise him. Many of these songs are included on his 2016 album, Timberbound. In the same vein, Joe directed and served as executive producer for a Smithsonian Folkways album entitled, “Roll, Columbia: Woody Guthrie’s 26 Northwest Songs.”

Joe’s work to interpret, document, and reflect upon the ethos of Northwest folk songs and stories—post-colonization—continues regularly on The Rhapsody Project’s blog.

Through his mother’s side of the family, Joe is a descendant of the Aurora Colony, making him a fifth-generation Oregonian. His surname is the legacy of a family of English farmers who lived since (at least) the 1490’s the small community of Weedon, an old English name meaning, “pagan shrine on a hill.” Through his music, teaching, and writing, Joe is on a mission to address and transform the legacy of colonization that led to so many conditions of his existence. 

In his multi-instrumental duo with fellow songster, Ben Hunter, Joe has toured internationally and been recognized by the Ethnic Heritage Council for excellence in ethnic performance and significant contributions to the development and presentation of the traditional cultural arts in the Pacific Northwest. 

Learn more about Joe at www.joebanjo.net

Bob Thompson

Piano

Pianist Bob Thompson has enjoyed a long and active career as a performer, composer, arranger, and teacher. For decades he has played in West Virginia, and at festivals and venues around the country, including the Blue Note in New York, Blues Alley in Washington D.C. and the Newport Jazz Festival in Saratoga, NY. He has also taken his music to Europe, Africa, and South America. In December 2022 he was featured at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts playing solo piano as part of “A Jazz Piano Christmas”, which was broadcast on NPR. Bob Thompson was also a guest on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz, on National Public Radio.

Since 1991 Bob Thompson has been pianist, and regularly featured artist on West Virginia’s NPR syndicated radio show, Mountain Stage. For the past thirty years he has also been co-producer and host of Joy to the World, a Holiday jazz show featuring Bob’s band, and each year, a special guest vocalist. The show is broadcast on public radio stations nationwide, and heard internationally on the Voice of America.

Bob was born in Jamaica, New York. He moved to West Virginia to study instrumental music at West Virginia State University, with trumpet as his major instrument. While in college he began playing jazz piano. After winning awards at the Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival, and subsequent State Department tours abroad, he decided to pursue a career in jazz.

His recordings on Capitol’s Intima label, and Ichiban International, received high recognition on the national jazz charts, with some reaching the top-ten. Musicians who have recorded with Bob Thompson include: John Blake, Kevin Eubanks, Omar Hakim, Larry Coryell, Gerald Veasley, Chris Dave, Jean-Paul Bourelly, Dwayne Dolphin, and Rodney Holmes.

Bob Thompson “Live” on Mountain Stage, and Smile, with the Bob Thompson Unit, are on his own label, Colortones.com. The latest recording by the Bob Thompson Band, “Look Beyond the Rain”, is on Blue Canoe Records.

In October 2015, Bob Thompson was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.