ARTISTS

Danny Arthur has deep roots in traditional West Virginia music.He is a fine rhythm guitarist, singer and old time fiddler. Danny learned directly from and was mentored by  The Bing Brothers,Tom King and a host of other musicians from the region. Starting in 1981 Danny played with the Bing Brothers for 31 consecutive years as well as playing on their many recordings.He has continued to play in multiple combinations of regional traditional players up to the present time.

Hilarie Burhans has been playing and teaching her driving clawhammer banjo style for more than 45 years. She is the co-founder of the nationally-touring Hotpoint Stringband, with whom she has recorded five albums, and has collaborated on too many other musical projects to count. In her younger days, she won the Ohio State Banjo Contest nine times, and is very proud to have placed in the contests at the Appalachian Stringband Festival (Clifftop) a number of times. She loves teaching banjo, and especially loves working with beginners and with folks making the transition from learning note-by-note from an instructor or tablature to learning tunes from recordings or “on the fly” at jams.

Frankie Coppola has been making quilts for over 20 years. They were first inspired to make a quilt after seeing the Quilts of Gees’s Bend on display. They live in Athens, Ohio.

Tessa Evanosky is a fiber and natural dye artist living in Southern WV.  She has been maintaining a natural dye garden and foraging dye plants for the last several years to create quilts, stuffed animals, and to repurpose vintage and upcycled fabrics.

W.I. “Bill” Hairston began sharing stories as a high schooler in the mid-1960s around 4-H campfires, sparking a lifelong passion for storytelling. Throughout high school and college, he honed his craft and became a sought-after performer across the region. Today, with over fifty years of experience, Bill is a fixture at major events such as the West Virginia State Folk Festival, Vandalia Gathering, Mountain State Art and Crafts Fair, Logan County Heritage Festival, Frostburg University Appalachian Festival, Kentucky Storytelling Conference and the Appalachian Children’s Chorus Annual Appalachian Festival. Beyond festivals, he performs at libraries, schools, private gatherings, and cultural venues throughout the area. For the past eighteen years, Bill has coordinated the West Virginia Liars Contest, held annually during the Vandalia Gathering. In recognition of his enduring contributions to West Virginia’s culture and folklore, he was honored with the prestigious Vandalia Award in 2020, the state’s highest cultural accolade.

John Harrod has documented, recorded, and performed traditional music for more than 45 years. In the 1970s and ’80s, he played with a number of bands including the Progress Red Hot String Band, the Bill Livers String Ensemble, and the Gray Eagle Band that re-introduced traditional musicians such as Bill Livers and Lily May Ledford to Kentucky audiences.  He has taught fiddle and conducted workshops at the Augusta Heritage Center, the American Festival of Fiddle Tunes, the Berea College Celebration of Traditional Music, and the Cowan Creek Mountain Music School. He continues to perform with Kentucky Wild Horse, a band that draws on a wide variety of Kentucky music past and present. In 2004 John received the Folk Heritage Award of the Governor’s Awards in the Arts for his work in traditional music.

Zeke grew up with music all around, both his grandfathers played the fiddle and his father and uncle performed nationally as the Hutchison Brothers. Zeke recently recorded with Tim O’Brien on his Short Order Sessions.

Phil grew up in Charleston, WV and developed a love for old time music as a child when Lefty Shafer, Frank, George, and the Bing Brothers visited his elementary school and performed. From then on his parents took him to the Vandalia Festival and West Virginia State Arts and Crafts Fair where he got to see and hear many of the great WV fiddlers such as Melvin Wine, Wilson Douglas, Frank George, Dave Bing, and Bobby Taylor. He took lessons from the great West Virginia fiddler Jenny Allinder. Phil rediscovered oldtime music as an adult in Elkins, WV and learned tunes from Ben Townsend and some of the other great players in the area. He then lived in Kentucky for 5 years where he learned tunes from John Harrod and the other great players there that carry on the rich tradition of fiddling in eastern KY and southern Ohio. He now resides in Lewisburg, WV.

Nadia Ramlagan grew up in Maryland where she immersed herself in local folk music such as Ola Belle Reed and her nephews, Hugh and Zane Campbell. She was first drawn to the sounds of old time banjo and fiddle traveling through West Virginia more than a decade ago. She currently plays with John Harrod and Kentucky Wild Horse and Louisville-based old time trio Man Eater (Grace Rogers, Blakeley Burger). She currently resides in Louisville, Kentucky

Drawing from the era of the Carter Family, Hank Williams, and the Stanley Brothers, Rose and Vine deliver old country songs with intimate harmonies, rich vocals, and minimalist instrumentation. They sing songs about the journeys that happen between love and heartbreak and the wanderings that occur between the here and hereafter.

Rose and Vine are Andy and Stephanie Duckworth from Lexington KY. Married since 2021, they met at a local old time jam that Stephanie hosted for many years and are established and well-loved members of the central Kentucky old-time scene. In addition to being a great multi-instrumentalist and singer, Andy is a skilled luthier and has crafted many beautiful fiddles and banjos. Stephanie has gained a reputation as one of the region’s go-to old-time bass players and is a founding member of the Empty Bottle String Band and former instructor at the Kentucky Center for Traditional Music at Morehead State University. A physical therapist by profession, she is also the owner of Honeyshine Pies, LLC where she designs and bakes artistic and whimsical pies and uniquely delicious chocolate chip cookies. 

Leo Shannon is a traditional musician from Seattle, Washington, living in Whitesburg, Kentucky. He learned to play as a boy from older musicians around him and friends his own age. He plays with The Onlies, John Haywood, Rhys Jones, Sarah Kate Morgan, and others. He is drawn to old music that has passed through many hands and the ghostly imprints left by sound reproduction machines.