Old-Time Week 2024

Becky Hill

Becky Hill is a sought-after percussive dancer, Appalachian square dance caller, choreographer, and educator. Becky has worked with Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, Rhythm in Shoes, Good Foot Dance Company, and studied with an array of percussive dance luminaries. Her choreography has been featured at Wheatland Music Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, and the Kennedy Center among others. She performs regularly with the T-Mart Rounders, Jesse Milnes, Chao Tian, Rui Fu, and Ben Nelson. She was a 2018 OneBeat Fellow, a 2021 Artist-in-Residence at Strathmore, a 2022 Artist-in-Residence at the John C.Campbell Folk School, and earned her MFA in Dance at University of Maryland College Park in 2022. Becky has done extensive research into Appalachian Dance alongside folklorist Gerry Milnes, where they co-created a documentary “Reel ‘Em Boys, Reel ‘Em” on West Virginia dance traditions and co-founded the Mountain Dance Trail of Augusta Heritage Center. As an avid organizer and teacher, Becky’s work is deeply rooted in the connections between music and community. She believes there is always more to learn and is dedicated to creative innovative choreography tethered to traditional music and dance. Learn more at www.rebeccahill.org.

Jake Blount

Jake Blount is an award-winning banjoist, fiddler, singer and scholar based in Providence, RI. He is half of the internationally touring duo Tui, a 2020 recipient of the Steve Martin Banjo Prize, and a board member of Bluegrass Pride. He is a two-time winner and many-time finalist of the Appalachian String Band Music Festival (better known as Clifftop). Although he is proficient in multiple performance styles, he specializes in the music of Black and indigenous communities in the southeastern United States, and in the regional style of Ithaca, New York. He foregrounds the experiences of queer people and people of color in his work. He has studied with modern masters of old-time music, including Bruce Molsky, Judy Hyman (of the Horse Flies), and Rhiannon Giddens and Hubby Jenkins (of the GRAMMY-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops).

Blount grew up in Washington, DC. He learned to play electric guitar starting at age twelve, and played in bands with his peers for several years. At age sixteen, he stumbled across Megan Jean & the KFB in an Ethiopian restaurant. It was his first time meeting full-time independent musicians, and hearing clawhammer banjo. Inspired by their music, and that of other early-2010’s Americana acts, Blount made the leap to acoustic music. Blount enrolled at Hamilton College in 2013. He received his first banjo lessons from Dr. Lydia Hamessley the same fall, and started to structure a course of study around the early traditional music of Black communities in the United States. String band music became his main focus, and he took up the fiddle in the summer of 2014.

Blount first achieved widespread recognition within the old-time scene when his band, The Moose Whisperers, claimed first place in the traditional band contest at Clifftop. Blount was the first Black person to make the finals in any category, and he has repeated the feat multiple times since. The following summer, he launched his career in earnest: he received his B.A. in ethnomusicology and released his debut EP, Reparations, with Tatiana Hargreaves. He toured Scandinavia and released a CD with the Moose Whisperers in 2018. He opened several shows for MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient Rhiannon Giddens the same year, and joined Libby Weitnauer to form the duo Tui while on a tour of Australia and New Zealand. Tui released their debut album, Pretty Little Mister, in mid-2019. Shortly thereafter, Blount claimed first place in the banjo contest at Clifftop with three tunes from Black banjoists. He was selected as a member of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Leadership Bluegrass Class of 2020.

Cameron DeWhitt

Cameron DeWhitt is a clawhammer banjoist and Old Time musician living in Portland, Oregon. They play banjo and sing with Morgan Harris and George Jackson as Tall Poppy String Band, whom Country Queer dubbed “an old-timey, queer supergroup.” Cameron is the innovator behind pitchfork banjo, a three-finger clawhammer technique that allows them a unique, improvisatory approach to old time banjo music. They are also the host of Get Up in the Cool, a weekly old time music and interview podcast, featuring conversations and musical collaborations with today’s most influential traditional musicians, such as Jake Blount, Laurel Premo, Tatiana Hargreaves, Bruce Molsky, Adam Hurt, and Dirk Powell. As an interviewer, Cameron acts as audience surrogate, asking illuminating questions to Old Time’s best and brightest while telling the larger story of the tradition’s modern era. And with over 7 years and 350 episodes, Get Up in the Cool is one of the largest and fastest growing archives of new traditional music recordings. When they’re not performing or podcasting, they produce the online video instructional series PitchforkBanjo.com and teach private lessons and workshops online and in-person in their home.

Rachel Eddy

Rachel Eddy is a native of West Virginia who grew up in a musical family steeped in the traditions of Appalachian music and dance. Rachel is known throughout the world as both a dynamic, Rachel Eddy is a native of West Virginia who grew up in a musical family steeped in the traditions of Appalachian music and dance. Now based in Washington, D.C., they are known throughout the world as both a dynamic, emotionally powerful performer and an engaging, thoughtful teacher. Rachel’s soulful singing and multi-instrumental finesse—including fiddle, banjo, guitar, and mandolin—may be heard on numerous solo and collaborative recordings as well as at dances and jam sessions, where Rachel is dedicated to fostering community and sharing a love of music with others.

Rachel’s performances, workshops, and festival appearances have featured both a creative range as a soloist and an energetic engagement with fellow musicians part of various ensembles, including the Ken and Brad Kolodner Quartet, the Early Mays, and a European tour with Uncle Earl. Rachel has shared a passion for music teaching at the Alabama Folk School, Augusta Heritage Center, Common Ground, Kauffman Kamp, Nashville Fiddle and Banjo Camp, Sore Fingers, and many others. While living in Sweden from 2008-14, Rachel invigorated the Swedish old-time scene and inspired dozens of people to take up Appalachian music and dance. Always up for new artistic challenges, Rachel collaborated on the soundscape for, and performed in, the Indiana Repertory Theatre’s 2019 performance of Amber Waves.

A passionate teacher, Rachel regularly teaches private lessons as well as workshops. They are committed to ensuring an inclusive classroom, in which all students can succeed and experience the joy of developing their own musical talents—whether as beginners or long-time players. Indeed, Rachel’s students frequently remark on their teacher’s ability to lead them through a well-thought-out musical journey that leaves them more deeply connected with their instruments and inner creativity.

Rachel has four full-length albums: The Morgantown Rounders (2006); Hand on the Plough (solo, 2008); Chilly Winds (with Kristian Herner, 2010); and Nothin’ But Corn(solo, 2014). Among other recent projects, Rachel produced and performed on Roger Netherton’s eponymous debut album (2018), and was featured on Ken and Brad Kolodner’s The Swift House (2017) and Stoney Run (2020). As part of the trio The Early Mays, Rachel has also recorded Chase the Sun (2017). During this past year Rachel teamed up with Erynn Marshall to release the two volume set of Old Time Sweethearts (2021).

Cathy Fink

Cathy Fink has been a touring, recording, teaching folk artist for fifty years. Her musical specialties include old-time country, bluegrass, swing and various other
roots styles. Cathy is a master of the five-string clawhammer banjo style and plays guitar, ukulele and fiddle. Her album, “Banjo Haiku” has been hailed a classic and
her album “Banjo Talkin’” received a GRAMMY nomination. She was the first woman to win the West Virginia State Old Time Banjo Contest (1980) and the Clifftop Appalachian Stringband Festival Banjo Contest (2018). Cathy is a two- time GRAMMY Award winner with partner, Marcy Marxer. Together they have released fifty albums. Their career includes tours of the US, Canada, Japan, China, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, The British Isles, Israel and South Africa. Cathy & Marcy consider themselves “Social Music Conductors”, encouraging folks of all ages to celebrate music together.

Evie Ladin

Banjo player, singer, songwriter, ace flatfooter and square-dance caller, Evie grew up steeped in traditional folk music/dance. She started performing with her sister Abby at the age of 8, and it was around that time that John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers took the sisters to get their first banjo, after which they took lessons from a young Bob Carlin.  Heard from A Prairie Home Companion to Lincoln Center, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass to Celtic Connections, Brazil to Bali, Evie has taken home ribbons in folk song and banjo from Mt Airy, NC Fiddler’s Convention, and Neo-Trad Band from the Appalachian Stringband Festival, Clifftop, WV. Based in Oakland, CA, Evie tours internationally with partner Keith Terry and her Evie Ladin Band; and has released numerous CDs and clogging instructional DVDs. In addition to her popular Peghead Nation course, Evie teaches group classes at the infamous Freight & Salvage, at countless camps, and privately. A highly entertaining performer and patient instructor, Evie enjoys facilitating arts learning in diverse communities, always connecting the music with the dance, and educating people about the roots of Appalachian culture and history. “Evie’s mastery of the clawhammer banjo is an absolute wonder, and the soulful, salty tanginess of her voice grips the listener and refuses to let go as it narrates some wild musical tales” — WOMAD Festival, UK  www.evieladin.com

Marcy Marxer

MARCY MARXER is a multi-instrumentalist, studio musician, performer, songwriter and producer with 45 years of experience and a shelf of impressive awards. Guitar was her first musical love and she began playing at the age of five. Add the ukulele, mandolin, tenor banjo, tenor guitar, cello banjo and washboard to her talents. She teaches all of these instruments at www.pegheadnation.com, www.Truefire.com and www.Homespun.com. She was awarded the 2023 Spirit of Folk Award from Folk Alliance International. Marcy has won two GRAMMY Awards and twelve nominations with partner, Cathy Fink. She has played on multi-platinum selling albums by Eva Cassidy and has worked with Alice Gerrard, Tom Paxton, Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger , Mike Seeger and many more luminaries through the years. Oh, and she’s toured the world. There’s more to come.

Jesse Milnes

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.

Bruce Molsky

Grammy-nominated, described as “an absolute master” (No Depression), Molsky transports audiences to another time and place, with his authentic and personal interpretations of rarities from the Southern Appalachian songbook and other musical traditions from around the globe. Best known for his work on the fiddle, Bruce’s banjo, guitar and his distinctive, powerful vocals also resonate with listeners. His combination of technical virtuosity and relaxed conversational wit makes a concert hall feel like an intimate front porch gathering. 

Bruce’s take on tradition has landed him in collaborations with some of the world’s most highly respected players from roots to rock. He is a special guest on legend rocker Mark Knopfler’s recent CD, “Tracker.” His 1865 Songs of Hope & Home with Anonymous 4, was on Billboard’s top 10 for weeks. Along with Andy Irvine & Donal Lunny, Bruce is a founding member of the supergroup Mozaik, with three recordings. You can see Bruce on the BBC TV “Transatlantic Sessions” with Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas, and on “David Holt’s State of Music” on PBS. He stays active touring and recording with longtime collaborators Darol Anger, Tony Trischka and Mountain Drifters’ Allison de Groot.  

Bruce holds the title of “Visiting Scholar in the American Roots Music Program” at Berklee College of Music, where he is the go-to guy for the next generation of roots musicians. 

“Performing and teaching traditional music are the biggest things in my world. For me, being a musician isn’t a standalone thing; it informs everything I do in my life. It’s always been about being creative and being a part of something much bigger than myself, a link in the musical chain and part of the community of people who play it and love it.” — Bruce Molsky 

Scott Prouty

Scott Prouty has an extensive and eclectic repertoire rooted in the old mountain style of fiddle playing which includes dance music as well as beautiful solo fiddle tunes. He grew up in the old-time music scenes of Washington DC and West Virginia and currently lives in Toronto. An archivist by training, his music has been shaped by rare field recordings as well as time spent with older-generation players and contemporary musicians. He has taught at camps including the Augusta Heritage Center, Cowan Creek Mountain Music School, the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes and the Berkeley Old-time Music Convention. 

Justin Robinson

Justin Robinson is a Grammy award-winning musician and vocalist, cultural preservationist, and historic foodways expert. Robinson has used his wide range of interests and talents to preserve North Carolina’s African American history and culture, connecting people to the past and to the world around them.

Robinson grew up in Gastonia, North Carolina. Influenced by the musical tastes of his grandparents, he grew to love a diversity of musical styles. He learned to play the violin as a child; however, he did not enjoy playing classical music and stopped playing around the age of 13. It wasn’t until he was inspired by the old-time blues jams he attended as a student at UNC-Chapel Hill that he decided to approach the violin again—this time, as a fiddler. He played with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, thereby working to preserve traditional forms of music, to introduce new generations to musical legends like Joe Thompson, and to remind audiences that the fiddle was, historically, an African American instrument. He wrote the song “Kissin’ and Cussin’” for the group’s Grammy award winning album, Genuine Negro Jig, and continued to write music after leaving the group in 2011, releasing the album Bones for Tinder as Justin Robinson and the Mary Annettes in 2012.

In addition to preserving African American musical traditions, Robinson is known for his work as a culinary historian. He explores the ways that foods of the African Diaspora shaped and influenced Southern foodways, and reveals how foods like rice, black-eyed peas, and okra can be traced directly to the African continent.

Robinson is also committed to helping African Americans rekindle their ties to the land. He is a founding member of the Earthseed Land Cooperative, a collective in northern Durham “made up of farmers, entrepreneurs, professionals, and teachers who are currently engaged in creating alternative models for sustainability, equity, and cooperation within communities of color.”

Justin Robinson holds a BA in Linguistics from UNC-Chapel Hill and an MS in Forestry and Environmental Science from NC State University. He is a member of the Conservation Trust for North Carolina Board of Directors.

Sophie Wellington

Sophie is a Boston-based musician and percussive dancer. She was raised in Staunton VA by old time musician and dance caller Bill Wellington, and pianist Lynne Mackey. From an early age, she was enthusiastic about music and dance. Communities and gatherings such as festivals, camps, and the occasional picking house party all helped to shape and nurture this love for music and movement, inspiring her to pursue it professionally.

She studied jazz voice and old time fiddle at Berklee College of Music. After graduating in 2021, she released her debut solo record Roving Jewel: a collection of fiddle tunes, dancing duets, and vocal jazz standards. This project highlights her eclectic musical background through the common thread of improvisation and creative intuition.

Alongside her love for performing, Sophie is an experienced and dedicated teacher. She brings an alternative and embodied approach to teaching, highlighting the intricacies of generating music and movement. This is her third summer on staff at Augusta Old Time Week and her second summer as an instructor. She has also taught advanced fiddle at the Blue Ridge Old Time Music Gathering at Mars Hill, improvisational percussive dance at Earful of Fiddle, and old time guitar back up at Augusta’s October Old Time Retreat in Cass, WV.

Nelson Williams

Nelson Williams is an upright player based in New Orleans, LA. Born and raised in South Louisiana, Nelson is a child of the diverse and influential music culture that permeates throughout the region. Nelson’s range of musical influences extend from classical to jazz to various forms of Black string-band music (Old-Time, Blues, Bluegrass, Creole). An “On-Call” and “Go-To” bass player while in New Orleans, Nelson has performed across the nation and aboard at venues and festivals like the Kennedy Center, NPR Tiny Desk, the Grand Ole Opry, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, KEXP and more. Nelson is a founding member of the Black string-band, New Dangerfield and a member of the acclaimed bluegrass band, Chris Jones and the Nightdrivers.