KIRK SUTPHIN
Raised in the Piedmont of North Carolina, Kirk Sutphin was born into a rich heritage of old-time music. He studied fiddle at the knees of masters such as Tommy Jarrell and Lonnie Austin, mastering both the Round Peak and Piedmont styles of fiddling, as well as the lilting Virginia fiddle styles of Emmett Lundy and Taylor Kimble. Kirk’s banjo playing has been influenced by the clawhammer styles of Tommy Jarrell, Dix Freeman, Fred Cockerham, and Wade Ward, as well as the three-finger picking styles of Frank Jenkins and Charlie Poole. Kirk plays fiddle with the New North Carolina Ramblers, and he has toured both nationally and internationally, with performances at the Alaska Folk Festival, the National Folk Festival, the Chicago Folk Festival, and the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes. He was featured on the national tour of the Masters of the Banjo, and more recently, Music of the Crooked Road: Mountain Music of Virginia, both sponsored by the National Council for the Traditional Arts.

TREVOR & TRAVIS STUART
The Stuart brothers are among the best of Western North Carolina’s new generation of old-time musicians. Having grown up in Bethel, in the shadows of Cold Mountain, Trevor and Travis Stuart learned to play some of the oldest and most beloved tunes of the region from masters like Byard Ray, the Smathers Family, and Red Wilson. Trevor plays fiddle and Travis plays banjo; together, they teach the next generation of players how to keep the art of traditional music alive through the Junior Appalachian Music Program (funded by the National Endowment for the Arts). Trevor and Travis Stuart have performed together for over 20 years at dances, concerts, festivals, and music camps. In recent years, they have traveled throughout the U.S. as well as in England, Germany, Ireland, and Russia performing and sharing their style of traditional old-time music and culture. The Stuart brothers have two recordings, and were featured on the NC Arts Council’s Fiddle and Banjo Tour. They have performed at Levon Helms’ Midnight Ramble with singer-songwriter Martha Scanlon, and at the Royal Albert Hall with dancer Ira Bernstein. They have taught at numerous workshops including the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Augusta, Mars Hill, the Alaska Fiddle Camp, and Sore Fingers in England. www.thestuartbrothers.com

KINNEY RORRER
Kinney Rorrer plays banjo in the finger-style of Charlie Poole, whose ground-breaking recordings with Posey Rorer and the North Carolina Ramblers in the 1920s have influenced generations of old-time, early country, and bluegrass musicians. The great-nephew of both Posey Rorer and Charlie Poole, Kinney first became interested in Poole’s music as a child in the 1950s when his father brought home a stack of old 78s. By the early 1960s, he owned a banjo, and he sought out Norman Woodlief and Lonnie Austin, Poole’s former band mates, as well as other Piedmont musicians who had been Poole’s musical pals. Kinney’s current band, the New North Carolina Ramblers, with Kirk Sutphin, Jeremy Stephens, and Darren Moore, specializes in the old-time music of the North Carolina Piedmont. They have performed at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the Brandywine Friends of Old-Time Music, and elsewhere. In addition to playing music, Kinney has written a biography of Charlie Poole, Ramblin’ Blues: The Life and Songs of Charlie Poole. He has also written numerous CD liner notes and magazine articles on old-time musicians, and he co-hosts a radio program of bluegrass and old-time music, Back to the Blue Ridge, which can be heard on WVTF-FM in Roanoke, Virginia.

JEREMY STEPHENS
Growing up in Danville, Virginia, Jeremy became interested in traditional music at an early age. He began playing fiddle at the age of four and began performing on stage by the time he was five. Jeremy plays a variety of stringed instruments, but in particular he is known as a banjo and guitar player. He has won first place on banjo at Merlefest in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, as well as at Uncle Dave Macon Days in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He is dedicated to keeping traditional old-time and bluegrass music alive, and he lists as his greatest influences banjoists Charlie Poole and Don Reno, guitarist Roy Harvey, and fiddler Charlie Higgins. He performs with several bands, including the New North Carolina Ramblers, Shallow Creek, the Dominion Bluegrass Boys, and Floyd Williams and the Southland Band.

RON PEN
Ron is a performer and scholar of the music of the Appalachian region. A founding member of the Appalachian Association of Sacred Harp Singers, with whom he performed on NPR’s A Prairie Home Companion, Ron is also Professor of American Music and Director of the John Jacob Niles Center for American Music at the University of Kentucky. He started fiddling nearly thirty years ago in Rockbridge County, Virginia, and currently plays with Lettuce Turnip the Beet. Ron has participated in various folk workshops across the region including the Hindman Settlement School’s Folk Week, Augusta, Berea’s Christmas Dance School, and many times at Swannanoa.

DON PEDI
A spectacular mountain dulcimer player who can match the fiddle note-for-note on tunes, Don’s playing is a welcome addition at dances, concerts, and jam sessions, and he has won numerous awards for his innovative playing. Don has performed at many festivals across the country, including the 2003 Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, DC, and he played music and appeared in the film, Songcatcher. www.donpedi.com

BEVERLY SMITH
Beverly first heard the old-time sounds of the Carter Family and the New Lost City Ramblers while in her early teens, and she has been devoted to learning and playing it ever since. An accomplished singer, guitar player, fiddler, and dance caller, she was a member of the traditional-pop hybrid, The Heartbeats Rhythm Quartet, Big Hoedown (with Bruce Molsky and Rafe Stefanini), and she currently tours as a duo with Carl Jones. She has taught at numerous music camps in the U.S. and abroad and performed at many folk festivals in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.