Robin and Linda Williams

“…Among contemporary country performers,, Robin and Linda Williams shine like a diamond amid rhinestones …” David W. Johnson, The Boston Globe

No Depression magazine praises Robin and Linda Williams for creating “music that is both comfortable and thoughtful – a rare combination that explains why and how the Williamses are able to keep on an even keel while musical trends come and go. They don’t play at being country – they are country.”

It was music that brought them together. Linda, a Michigan school teacher, and Robin, a full time musician and a native of the Carolinas, met by chance at an open stage while visiting their parents in South Carolina. Their personal relationship blossomed immediately and within two years they discovered additional magic when they combined their voices in harmony and began their musical career during which they have logged several millions of miles in the continental US, and have toured Europe a number of times.

Their recording career started in Minneapolis, MN where Robin had made many friends and connections as a solo artist and they recorded their first three records for a local company there, establishing a recording template they have used their whole career: original tunes, songs by contemporary artists and time honored numbers from the Appalachian and blues traditions. It was at this time they made their first appearance on a little radio show just getting off the ground, conceived and hosted by Garrison Keillor, called “A Prairie Home Companion,” starting a rich relationship with that icon of American broadcasting that has continued for four decades.

” … Vocally and instrumentally, the Williamses combine impeccable musical discipline with a bare simplicity and an utter lack of pretension.”__ Stephen Holden, The New York Times

Ginny Hawker

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.

Val Mindel

Val Mindel is a longtime musician, teacher and workshop leader, known for helping singers achieve that close, buzzy harmony that is a pillar of American old-time and early-country harmony. She also addresses such indefinables as tone (that high lonesome sound), ornamentation, blend and more. She is a veteran staff member at the Augusta Heritage Center’s various weeks and in addition has taught at numerous music camps across the U.S. and abroad, including: the Ashokan Center (Southern Week and the Old-Time Rollick), Centrum (Voice Works and Fiddle Tunes), Allegheny Echoes and, in the U.K., Sore Fingers. She is a founding member of the California-based Any Old Time string band (check out the band’s compilation album, I Bid You Goodnight on Smithsonian Folkways), and has two CDs with daughter and old-time country musician Emily Miller (In the Valley and Close to Home). Val is also the author of So You Want to Sing Folk Music, part of the “So You Want to Sing” series for Rowman & Littlefield and the National Association of Teachers of Singing. She lives in Elkins, West Virginia.

Emily Miller

Emily, Augusta’s Artistic Director, was born in Kansas and raised in Hong Kong, where her family band performed American old-time and country music on television shows and in shopping malls throughout the city. After performing with many groups in her teenage years, including Village and Northern Harmony, Emily formed the honky-tonk country band The Sweetback Sisters in 2006 with fellow singer Zara Bode. They have recorded four full-length records and have performed their renegade retro style of country music in barrooms and concert halls around the world. Emily has been featured several times on national radio programs, including A Prairie Home Companion and WV’s own Mountain Stage. When she’s home in West Virginia, she performs old-time music as a duo with her husband, Jesse Milnes, and makes awesome stuff happen at Augusta year round.