JOHN COHEN
John Cohen is best known as a musician and founding member of the New Lost City Ramblers, the group that helped popularize folk music and spurred the urban folk revival of the 1960s. Their recordings received several Grammy nominations, and his field recordings have influenced many musicians including Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, and Ry Cooder. John studied painting and photography at Yale under Josef Albers and Herbert Matters. His campaign for the recognition of traditional roots/folk music has led to the production of fifteen films, hundreds of photographs, sound recordings, articles, liner notes and interviews about music. He was Professor of Visual Arts at Purchase College, SUNY from 1972-1997, and his photographs can be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and in publications such as Rolling Stone, Time, Vanity Fair, and Life magazine. His award-winning films have been shown on PBS and BBC, and at festivals worldwide. He has served as advisor/consultant to various music film projects, including American Roots Music (PBS), Exploring the World of Music (Annenberg/PBS) and more recently, appeared as a commentator in Martin Scorsese’ film about Bob Dylan, No Direction Home. His life and work is also the subject of a new biographical film produced by the Smithsonian. John “discovered” several extremely influential singers of mountain music, including Roscoe Holcombe, Dillard Chandler, the Wallins, and Dellie Norton. It was John who originally coined the phrase “high, lonesome sound”, now universally applied to mountain and bluegrass singing. His films, That High Lonesome Sound (1963), and The End Of An Old Song (1970), Sara & Maybelle: The Carter Family (1981), Gypsies Sing Long Ballads (1982), The Ballad And The Source (1983), documented for posterity the lives and music of a dying tradition. His recordings of these musicians, particularly High Atmosphere and Old Love Songs and Ballads played an undeniable role in the preservation and revival of the Anglo-Celtic ballad in America. www.johncohenworks.com

MATT WOJCIK
Matt Wojcik has been singing and leading Sacred Harp and shape-note music for over fifteen years. A dynamic and engaging teacher, he has led beginning and advanced workshops, as well as traditional Sacred Harp singing schools across the U.S. and in England. Matt has a particular skill at introducing new singers to this vibrant, thrilling musical tradition, which has its roots in colonial New England and a living tradition across the South. He’s an active participant at Sacred Harp singings, has toured with the renowned group Northern Harmony, in Europe and across the US, and was a frequent director at Village Harmony’s singing summer camp for teens. For the past two years, he has led the shape-note workshops at the Old Songs Festival. Matt has also sung in Tony Trischka’s Christmas show, Glory Shown Around, as part of Northampton Harmony.

KIM & REGGIE HARRIS
Born and raised in Philadelphia, a city rich in cultural and musical heritage, Kim & Reggie were both exposed from an early age to a wide range of musical styles, and developed a love for music that was nurtured in the home and reinforced in their churches and schools. They began performing together while in college, got married and began a musical life that, for nearly thirty years, has kept them on the move, playing nearly 200 dates a year at colleges, universities and large & small venues throughout the world. Their 11 albums and various compilations showcase their efforts to blend artistic excellence with an extraordinary commitment to issues of peace, justice and equality. They have composed and arranged for TV, radio, and multimedia projects, and are featured artists for The World of Music, an educational music series published by Silver Burdett/Ginn. They are also featured presenters for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Workshop Program, providing teacher-training workshops and arts events encouraging the use of the arts and music as teaching tools in the classroom. The Harris’ most recent release, Get On Board: Underground Railroad and Civil Rights Freedom Songs, Vol. 2, is a follow-up to their heralded 1997 release, Steal Away. Using the timeless theme of music as a tool of freedom, Get On Board! traces the African American path to equality with the help of a number of special musical guests, including Bernice Johnson Reagon, Danny Glover, Guy Davis, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer and Peter Yarrow. www.kimandreggie.com

MILT CROTTS
Milt currently serves on the music faculty of Warren Wilson College, where he plays guitar and a few other instruments to accompany his singing in a variety of styles, and directs the College Chorale, Folk Choir, Instrumental Chamber Ensembles, and teaches a course titled Music Cultures of the World. Milt has several advanced degrees in music and has been Music Director for the Guam Symphony, where he was awarded three Governor’s Arts Awards for Music and received the Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and Associate Professor of Music at Davidson College and the University of Guam. He has conducted orchestras in the U.S. and Japan, where it was not uncommon for him to complete a performance with the Tokyo Symphony or Tokyo City Philharmonic, then head to downtown Ginza and played bluegrass with Tokyo Homegrown, his local band of bluegrass musicians. Milt was born and raised in North Carolina and traces those roots to the early 1700s. He maintains a residence on the 80-acre family farm near Morganton, NC that’s been in his family since the mid-1800s.

ED MILLER
From the folk clubs of Scotland in the 1960s and 70s to the festivals, coffeehouses and music camps of America, Ed Miller has steadily established himself as one of the finest Scottish singers of both contemporary and traditional songs. He has been a regular staff member of Swannanoa’s Celtic Week for more than a decade, where his love and knowledge of Scots song, paired with a droll sense of humor, made him an excellent and popular teacher. Originally from Edinburgh, Ed has been based in Austin, TX for many years, where he received a PhD in Folklore from the University of Texas, but over the past 20 years he has gradually moved from academia to full-time performing. He also hosts a folk music show on KUT-FM in Austin, leads folk music tours to Scotland each summer, and has released seven CDs of traditional and contemporary Scottish song, including his most recent, Never Frae My Mind. www.songsofscotland.com

CARL JONES
Carl Jones has been involved in the old-time music community ever since he first attended fiddlers’ conventions in Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia back in the 70’s. As a student in the commercial music program at the University of North Alabama, he was able to hear many great songwriters in the famous Muscle Shoals Studios. He later toured with Norman and Nancy Blake and James Bryan as a member of the Rising Fawn String Ensemble, and now often plays at home and abroad as part of a duo with Beverly Smith. Known for a humorous and enthusiastic, light-hearted approach, Carl has taught at many music camps around the country including Swannanoa, Pinewoods, Ashoken and Mars Hill. His songs have been recorded by the Nashville Bluegrass Band, Rickie Simpkins, Little Windows, and a growing list of others. A self-described “confusion enhancement specialist,” he considers it a real honor and treat to be part of your camp experience.

DENISA RULLMOSS
Denisa (known as “The Queen” to kids everywhere) will once again bring her exuberant, creative energies to the Gathering. She is a multi-talented and innovative organizer who has managed to retain a child’s viewpoint on the world while remaining a fully-functioning adult! In addition to being the homeschooling mother of two teens, and part-time nanny to toddlers, Denisa is the Coordinator for the Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF) Kid’s Village. With shaving cream, parachutes and donuts being tools of her trade, she also provides wild & wacky games and activities for families and kids at LEAF. Her past accomplishments include co-founding the newspaper Mothertongue: A Progressive Parenting Source; Panther Paws, a public school newspaper for and by kids (funded by a grant from the Asheville City Schools Foundation), Kindred Kids, the Mothertongue paper for kids, and the newsletter HOME (Homeschooling Opens Minds Everyday). As a kid’s crafts & games specialist Denisa is excited to bring her silly songs, cool crafts and good times to the Gathering for the 14th year, as she teaches and coordinates the Children’s Program during Traditional Song/Fiddle, Celtic and Old-Time Weeks.