JEAN RITCHIE
Among dulcimer players and other traditional musicians, Jean Ritchie is a legendary figure. She was born and raised in Viper, Kentucky in the heart of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, youngest in a family of fourteen children born to Balis and Abigail Ritchie. Walled in by the rugged Cumberland ridges, the Ritchies and their neighbors farmed their hillsides using primitive methods and entertained themselves with play-party games and ballads handed down through the generations from their Scottish, English and Irish ancestors. After college, she moved to New York and worked in the famous Henry Street Settlement as a social worker whose main virtues proved to be her voice and her deeply-felt desire to help make a better world. By 1950, Jean Ritchie was an important figure on the New York folk scene, her influence probably best shown by the fact that dulcimers, almost unknown instruments in New York, were suddenly in demand. Today she is credited with almost single-handedly reviving interest in the mountain dulcimer and with helping to establish its prominence as more than a regional folk instrument. As Jean’s reputation grew, Oxford Press encouraged her to begin working on a book about her family and its music. Singing Family of the Cumberlands, as it came to be known, published in 1955, was declared “an American classic,” and is used as a textbook during our Old-Time Week. Nine more books, including the prize-winning Celebration of Life, were to follow. She has recorded more than 30 albums for different labels, including her own Greenhays label, which she and husband George Pickow set up in 1979 to assure availability of her records. Her honors and awards would fill a book , but a short list includes an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Kentucky, and an Honorary Doctor of Arts from Berea College, University of Kentucky Founders’ Day Award and a place in the Hall of Distinguished Alumni, the Phi Beta Kappa Certificate of Honor, a Life Achievement Award presented by the North American Folk Alliance, and the Gathering’s own award for lifetime achievement, the Master Music Maker Award. She has been featured in Bill Moyers’ PBS documentary, Amazing Grace, and is the subject of Mountain Born: the Jean Ritchie Story, produced by Kentucky Educational Television. www.jeanritchie.com

DÁITHÍ SPROULE
Dáithí Sproule is a native of Derry in the north of Ireland, a renowned traditional singer in both Irish and English, and one of the world’s premier guitarists in the Irish tradition. He’s widely credited with pioneering the use of DADGAD tuning in the accompaniment of Irish music, a style now used around the world. He’s worked with many of the greats in Irish music, and is a member of the famed Donegal group, Altan, as well as the U.S.-based trios, Fingal and Trian. The Rough Guide to Irish Music called him “a seminal figure in Irish music.” Dáithí has also taught Old Irish, Celtic mythology and Irish music at the University of Minnesota, the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul and University College Dublin, and is the author of a volume of short stories in Irish and several academic articles on early Irish poetry and legend. Dáithí currently lives in West Saint Paul, Minnesota.
www.daithisproule.com

JIM WATSON
Jim Watson’s piercing tenor and deft lead work on mandolin and guitar was, for 14 years, part of the signature sound of the groundbreaking stringband, the Red Clay Ramblers, one of the country’s best-known folk groups. Among his many recordings, 1980’s Meeting in the Air, a collaboration with fellow Ramblers Tommy Thompson and Mike Craver is widely considered to be one of the best modern interpretations of the music of the original Carter Family. Jim was also featured on the seminal Hollow Rock String Band, a landmark album that still has enormous influence among old-time musicians. In 1988 he teamed up with Robin and Linda Williams as part of their Fine Group with whom he still tours. Jim also plays with the Green Level Entertainers, and still performs with former Red Clay Ramblers Mike Craver and Bill Hicks with Joe Newberry, known variously as the Ramblers, Original Red Clay Ramblers, or simply the O’Blurs. In addition to his recordings with the Red Clay Ramblers and Robin & Linda Williams, Jim has two solo CDs, Willie’s Redemption and Don’t Tell Me, I Don’t Know. Both include O’Blurs Mike Craver and Bill Hicks on some cuts as well as many more of Jim’s friends. www.originalredclayramblers.com

JULEE GLAUB
Julee Glaub, the Coordinator of Traditional Song Week, is a North Carolina native who studied literature and music at Wake Forest University before following her longstanding interest in Irish culture to work with the poor in Dublin. For nearly seven years, she continued her work in Dublin while sitting at the feet of master players and singers, absorbing all she could. She credits the combination of material from older singers and from the Traditional Music Archive, and her experiences in working with poor and working people in Dublin as the major inspirations for her ballad singing. Upon returning home, she became involved in the Irish music scene here in the states and has become recognized as a leading interpreter of Irish songs in America. She lived in the Northeast for seven years in order to be closer to the heartbeat of Irish music in America in the major Irish-American enclaves in Boston and New York, and performed with the band Séad (Brian Conway, Brendan Dolan, and Jerry O’Sullivan) with whom she still performs from time to time, as well as with Pete Sutherland, Dáithí Sproule, and Tony Ellis. Her latest solo release, Blue Waltz, explores her interest in the connections between Irish and Appalachian song and has been featured on Fiona Ritchie’s Thistle and Shamrock. Now based in Durham, NC, she and Mark Weems currently tour as a duo called Little Windows, which blends Irish, Appalachian, and old-time Gospel with a focus on tight harmonies in unaccompanied singing. Julee has been on staff at the Irish Arts Week in N.Y., Alaska Fiddle Camp, Schloss Mittersill Arts Conference in Austria, the Swannanoa Gathering’s Celtic Week, Camp Little Windows and various camps and festivals throughout the U.S. Julee’s approach to music goes beyond the entertainment aspect of music to focus on the spiritual and emotional wealth that traditional music has to offer to the world. For her, Traditional Song Week is a long awaited dream come true. www.juleeglaub.com

MARK WEEMS
Originally from Alabama, Mark has been a well-known figure in the North Carolina traditional country and old-time music scene for the last seven years. In a 20 year career singing and studying the nuances of country music, Mark has been a veteran of the Stillhouse Bottom Band, the Weems-Gerrard Band and his own honky-tonk band – The Cave Dwellers. He has performed with Tony Ellis, Jerry O’Sullivan, Alice Gerrard, and Carl Jones, and recently played seven shows with Johnny Paycheck’s steel player, Joe Adams. Mark plays guitar, banjo, fiddle and piano but is best known as a soulful and heartfelt singer and composer. He is a leading proponent of unaccompanied mountain-style singing and his new solo release, Short Time Here, Long Time Gone explores his interest in traditional North Carolina ballads, particularly those of Dillard Chandler and Doug Wallin. He now tours nationally and abroad with Julee Glaub as the duet, Little Windows, which creates a mix of Irish, Appalachian, old-time Gospel, and traditionally based originals. In addition to helping Julee create Traditional Song Week, Mark has also taught master classes at the Irish Arts Week in New York, at the Alaska Fiddle Camp, and at their own Camp Little Windows. www.littlewindows.net

CONNIE BADGETT STEADMAN
“Miss Connie B” learned her masterful delivery of music and message from her father, Cortelyou Badgett, an experienced a cappella singer who formed The Badgett Family, a group originally comprised of the eldest three of his eight children, ages 4-6, to pass on traditional African American gospel singing. She began singing in the group in 1944, at the age of five. The group later became known as The Badgett Sisters, featuring Connie and her siblings, Cleonie and Celester. From her mother, Caroline G. Badgett, a phenomenal storyteller, Connie inherited her talent and love of storytelling. In their career, The Badgett Sisters carried their message of warmth and good feeling from Caswell County, NC to Chicago, IL; from New York’s Carnegie Hall to Brisbane, Australia. They became a mainstay of North Carolina’s popular Black Folk Heritage Tour, which showcased the traditional performing arts of the state’s African American heritage. The sisters went on to record memorable favorites such as Give Me Wings, Just a Little While To Stay Here, and The Voice That Refused to Die. Connie now carries on the family tradition in an inspiring solo act. Connie is a recipient of the state’s highest recognition in the folk arts, the North Carolina Folk Heritage Award, and the Brown-Hudson Award from the North Carolina Folklore Society.

JEFF WARNER
Jeff Warner sings traditional American and English folk songs. He has performed at festivals and schools throughout America and abroad, and toured nationally for the Smithsonian Institution. A Folklorist and Community Scholar for the New Hampshire Council on the Arts, he was recently named a 2007 State Arts Council Fellow, and is on the Speaker’s Roster for the New Hampshire Humanities Council. He is the editor of Traditional American Folk Songs From the Anne and Frank Warner Collection, documenting the work of his parents, who were pioneer collectors of songs from rural America. Jeff is a past president of the Country Dance and Song Society, a past officer of the North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance, has been an artist for the Virginia, Utah and Ohio Arts Councils and a producer of the Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival. He has taught at Pinewoods, Ashokan, and Mendocino dance and music camps and has recorded for Flying Fish, Appleseed and National Geographic Records, as well as his own Gumstump label. www.jeffwarner.com