Classic Country Week 2025

Ginny Hawker – Advisor

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.

Miss Tess

Miss Tess is one of those singular artists who deserve all the superlatives and accolades one could hoist upon a rare talent such as hers. This unassuming chanteuse is, as they say in the business, a true “triple threat” – a superb songwriter and adept multi-instrumentalist with an extraordinary voice that can sing the birds from the trees.

Beth Chrisman

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

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

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.

Arty Hill

From Baltimore, Md to Central Texas, Arty Hill packs the bars and dance floors with his unique brand of modern Honky Tonk. He sings with an “‘everyman’ quality…reminiscent of Johnny Cash.” (Vintage Guitar Magazine). His songs – marrying the soul of classic country with the wry storytelling of Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt – have been recorded by the Grammy-nominated Kenny and Amanda Smith Band, Alt-Country pioneer Jason Ringenberg, Rockabilly Queen Bee Marti Brom, and Austin’s Texas Sapphires, among others. His recordings have topped the FAR (Freeform American Roots) chart, and his songs have appeared in two seasons of “Gun it with Bennie Spies” on the Sportsman Channel and in the 2017 movie “I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore” starring Elijah Wood.

Arty is also co-founder of the Hank Williams Songwriting Workshop in Montgomery, AL, and an instructor at the Augusta Heritage Center’s Classic Country Week in Elkins, WVa. His 2021 release, “A Thousand Smoky Nights,” features Arty and his top notch band, the Long Gone Daddys. It includes 11 new original tunes, plus a re-imagined version of the Arty and Linda Hill penned ‘”Mascara Tears,” featuring vocalist Michelle Hannan. Telecaster master and legendary Lost Planet Airman Bill Kirchen says: “From the brash R n R of ‘A Twang coming On’ to the open heart surgery of ‘Are You Sleeping,’ there’s a wealth of real deal Honky tonk in here.”

Kelli Jones

Kelli has been playing fiddle since the age of fifteen and started out playing old time music in North Carolina, where she is from. In 2006 she moved to Lafayette, Louisiana to study dance at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and learn Cajun fiddle as well. She has been living in Lafayette since, soaking up the culture and touring the world with Lafayette’s own powerhouse psychedelic Cajun band, Feufollet and her fellow band mates Drew Simon and Megan Constantin. She has also traveled beyond Louisiana to perform and teach at festivals throughout the United States and Canada, including Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camp, Augusta Heritage Center Cajun & Creole week, the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, and Centrum’s Voiceworks.

Lynn Kasdorf

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

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).

Carmella Ramsey

Country Week Master Artist

Multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Carmella Ramsey is a former member of the bluegrass band New Coon Creek Girls. Known for her fiddling and her soaring vocals, she has toured with Patty Loveless, Reba McEntire and George Strait, and has recorded with Rodney Crowell, Jerry Douglas, Joan Osborne, John Prine, and William Shatner. Carmella is from Rainelle, WV, and now lives in Nashville with her husband, Kenny Vaughn.

Lars Swanson

Lars Swanson is a renowned bassist from Beckley, WV. Digging into the scene around 2015, Lars has developed a distinct personal style leading to success in multiple genres. Lars has performed all over the world, including in Algiers, Algeria in a cultural excursion with Chance McCoy, and Dubai at the EXPO2020 with Landau Eugene Murphy Jr., with whom Lars is currently music director. He is also involved with local theater groups, music directing the successful production of 9 to 5 by the WV Collective, and participating in projects with Theater West Virginia. He performs locally with Murphy, his band Long Point String Band, and other freelance outlets. Lars received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Jazz Studies from Marshall University, and a Master of Music in Jazz Pedagogy from West Virginia University.

Blake Whitmire

Since winning his first fiddle contest at the age of 12, Blake Whitmire has spent his entire life playing and singing country music in dance halls across the country. Born and raised on the high plains of west Texas, Blake spent his teenage years touring with bands across the state until he left Texas to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, Ma. where he studied with fiddle greats including Darol Anger, Matt Glaser, and Jason Anik. After College he moved to Austin, Texas where he has spent the last 10 years leading his own honky tonk band and regularly performing with many incredible musicians including Joe Ely, Gary P. Nunn, Augie Meyers, Del McCoury, Old Crow Medicine Show, Brennen Leigh, and Summer Dean to name a few.