The Canote Brothers

Twin brothers Greg and Jere Canote have been taking advantage of their genetics for as long as they can remember; as Christmas elves tap dancing their way around the wishing well in the first grade, to their thirteen-year stint as the affable side-kicks on NPR’s Sandy Bradley’s Potluck.

These guys love what they do, and it shows. Equally at home on a blazing hot fiddle tune or soaring into the clouds with a scat-singing swing solo, the twins know their stuff inside out and perform with an affable friendly approach that invites you into their genetically matched world.

The Canotes demonstrate their love and mastery of vintage American styles from fiddle tunes and country songs to novelty numbers and swing. They perform with spirit, humor, sterling musicianship, and those genetically matched voices.

They’ve taught and performed at a wide variety of stages, festivals and camps including A Prairie Home Companion, the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, the Carter Family Fold in Hilton, VA, and many more.

Besides performing, Greg and Jere run a steady slate of classes, workshops and jams in Seattle, and are known for their fun, patient and supportive approach to playing.  Jere will primarily be teaching mandolin and ukulele; Greg will primarily be teaching fiddle classes, and the two will team up for some very fun jams.

Beppe Gambetta

He’s an Italian musician in love with our roots music. He starts with what we think of us “our” songs, such as Norman Blake’s Church Street Blues, or the traditional East Virginia Blues; soon they become new creations infused with the soul of someone who hears with different ears, plays with transcendent technique, and makes a true new music. He entertains with his smile and his humor, but what we remember is his clean, powerful, fluid, creative crosspicking technique, and his singing, how he delivers a song such that you hear the words again as if for the first time.

He lives about half the year in the US (he told us "we bought a house in New Jersey; people say 'so you're trying to get away from the Italian Mafia by moving to New Jersey?'"), the other in his native Italy.  He's thrilled crowds at Winfield, Merlefest, the Four Corners festival, the Ryman Auditorium, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, folk festivals in Canada, and radio shows including NPR’s All Things Considered and E-Town. He’s performed with some of the greats of the roots music scene including David Grisman, Gene Parsons, Doc Watson and Norman Blake, and earned the respect of roots musicians and fans around the world.

And after all that, he's an inspiring and smart teacher, sharing his passion for his adopted instrument and style.  Be sure to go to Beppe’s channel on YouTube; you’ll be amazed and uplifted by what you see and hear.

Mike Dowling

When the late, great Vassar Clements heard Mike Dowling play guitar back in 1975, he did the sensible thing. He hired him. Clements called him simply "One of the finest guitarists there is, anywhere."

Grammy-winning guitarist Mike Dowling draws inspiration from deep in the musical bag of American roots guitar. He's firmly grounded in authenticity and possessed of a musical soul as old as the vintage music he favors. Fluent in several styles and difficult to pigeonhole, Mike has captured the hearts of acoustic music fans throughout the world with his voice, wit, and elegant interpretations of old blues, swing, ragtime, and original compositions.

After many years in Nashville, Mike now runs his own Wind River Guitar School—and flyfishes—in Dubois, Wyoming.  He's a favorite at many camps around the US, teaching fingerstyle guitar, bottleneck blues, improvisation, swing and a host of techniques.

Julie Davis

Julie Davis has long been at the heart of Denver's folk music scene, so much so that at Swallow Hill, the second largest folk music school in the nation is known as the Julie Davis School of Music. 

Julie has been bringing music to people’s lives for most of her own. Harry Tuft, owner of the Denver Folklore Center and the granddaddy of Denver folk music, says that “Julie was the second employee of the Folklore Center, and the youngest.” At age fourteen, she and Harry struck a deal: he’d teach her intermediate guitar; in return, she’d teach a beginner class for him. Over forty years later, she’s still teaching and making a difference through music.

Besides performing, Julie teaches guitar, recorder, pennywhistle, flute, autoharp, and beginning piano, and offers group classes on guitar, singing, storytelling, ensembles, and performing.

Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson is an American master of the 5-string banjo. Highly accomplished as both a three-finger style bluegrass player and a clawhammer player, he has revolutionized the art of playing clawhammer style banjo and advanced the five-string banjo well into uncharted territory with a style he calls “Clawgrass.”

Mark has released four albums, the latest two with his amazing mandolin partner, Emory Lester. Mark’s first release, “Clawgrass,” recorded in 1994 and featuring his friends Larry, Ronny, Tony and Wyatt Rice, was highly acclaimed in the Bluegrass and acoustic music print and radio media and earned him praise throughout the acoustic music industry.

Mark's unique style doesn't really fit into a strict category. It's very bluegrass but has overtones of traditional folk, progressive acoustic, newgrass and old-time all mixed into one. It's authentic. It's unique. It's Clawgrass.

See a few videos of Mark.

Go to Mark's home page.

Penny Nichols

Penny Nichols is an award winning, 3-time Grammy nominated singer/songwriter and vocal arranger who has been performing and teaching since 1966. Her most recent ventures include her new series of Harmony and Background Vocal arranging lessons on CD, a new book/CD: The Eight Voyages of Nep, and teaching at Summer Acoustic Music Week camp in New Hampshire and Moab Folk camp in Utah.  She was also the founding director of the nonprofit SummerSongs, Inc., which is going into its 13th year of music camps for songwriters.

Penny started her career as a folk singer in coffeehouses around Orange County, California, sharing the stage with Jackson Browne, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Ponies, Jennifer Warnes, Mary McCaslin and many others.  Between then and now, there's way too much to list, so here are just a few of the more interesting points: she's been a member of Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band, recorded two albums, wrote and sung commercials for Toyota, earned a doctorate at Harvard University and recorded with Art Garfunkel, Suzi Quatro, Danny O'Keefe, and a host of others.

John Reischman 

John Reischman is renowned for his exquisite taste, tone and impeccable musicianship. As an original member of the legendary Tony Rice Unit, John helped to define the 'new acoustic' instrumental scene in the early 1980s with appearances on the band’s groundbreaking Rounder albums Still Inside and Backwaters.

These days, his mastery of the instrument is showcased in the powerful bluegrass band John Reischman and the Jaybirds, and his Latin/jazz instrumental duo with highly-regarded acoustic guitar stylist John Miller.

John has released eight albums of his own and played on a host of others, including the Grammy Award-winning True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe. His 2002 album with the Jaybirds, Field Guide, was nominated for Canada’s highest music award, the Juno, in the Roots and Traditional Group category for 2002.

He’s been influenced by the greats of mandolin from Bill Monroe and Frank Wakefield to David Grisman and Jethro Burns, and Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine calls him "One of the top performers and composers in acoustic music... [with] complete command of his instrument's voice.” Acoustic Musician Magazine called him "One of the most tasteful and accomplished mandolinists anywhere."

John's a familiar figure at bluegrass, folk and jazz festivals throughout North America, and is a highly-regarded teacher, clinician and camp instructor.

Raul Reynoso 

Guitarist, singer and composer Raul Reynoso was born in Los Angeles, California.  He started playing bluegrass guitar in 1974 and soon acquired the skills that would earn him two California State Flatpicking Guitar championships as well as many Western regional titles.  Today, he is most noted for his expertise on acoustic guitar and mandolin with a mastery of styles ranging from bluegrass and western swing to ‘30s jazz in the tradition of the legendary Django Reinhardt.

Raul first rose to prominence in the band of banjo virtuoso Larry McNeely, and his three-year stint with the band included one recording and two appearances on the Grand Ole Opry.  The release of Raul’s CD “Royal Street” has brought Raul international acclaim from jazz reviewers in the US, UK and Europe.  The instrumental and compositional skills displayed on his CD have solidified his position as one of the world’s greatest guitarists.  Music critic Jim Hilmar said “When it comes to guitar styles, Raul Reynoso’s clean, lithe, articulate picking technique is to die for.”

Along with John Jorgenson, Raul is one of the pioneers of the Gypsy Jazz movement, and has been nominated Instrumentalist of the Year three times by the Western Music Association. 

Raul has taught privately for over 35 years, and has done workshop and clinics for the last fifteen. He is a mentor at the Booher Family Music Camp, and has done workshops with John Jorgenson for the JazzMasters Workshop.  Raul has also taught Bluegrass workshops with Dan Crary, John Moore, Beppe Gambetta, and Steve Kaufman.

Cyd Smith

Cyd Smith started out as a classic guitarist, but was lured away early on by the soulfulness and sheer fun of playing American roots music: bluegrass, vintage country, jug band, swing, jazz, and rock & roll. Over the years she has lived in many corners of this country, playing guitar and bass with different bands, including contra dance and swing music in Boston with Matt Glaser and Russ Barenberg, swing with The Wholly Cats, Bob Brozman, and many others in the Northwest, and bluegrass with Laurie Lewis in the Bay Area.

She is also a fine singer/songwriter who has released an album of her own material that features some of the finest musicians on the West Coast. The Bay Area Guardian says “An extremely gifted songwriter from the Northwest, Cyd Smith sometimes sounds like a missing Roche sister on her fine self-produced CD.”

Cyd’s taught for over 20 years at Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, and served several years as a board member there as well. She’s also taught at the California Coast Music Camp, the Georgia Strait Guitar Workshop and the Augusta Heritage Festival. She was a co-founder and administrator of Seattle's Musical Arts Workshop, taught at Rogue Valley Community College in Grant’s Pass, Oregon, and has taught privately over the years as well.

Rene Worst

Rene Worst has been a professional bassist since 1971. His virtuosic and supportive bass playing has been a Canadian treasure for many years on both acoustic and electric basses. He is as gifted on fretless as he is on acoustic, a rarity in the music industry.

Born in Ifar, New Guinea in 1954, he moved to Canada with his family in 1960, settling on the West Coast where he grew up and went to school. At an early age he showed an aptitude for music, in particular jazz bass, and it wasn’t long before he was out establishing himself as a leading bassist.  The list of noted artists he's performed with is really too long to list here, but here are some of them: Chet Baker, David Bowie, Poison, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Aerosmith, Dr. Hook, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Pass, Herb Ellis, Ferron, Phoebe Snow, Beverly D'Angelo, Buddy Greco, Martha Reeves, Sheena Easton, Barney Kessel, Larry Corryell, and that's just a short list...

Rene has been a regular instructor at several camps including the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop; he's also one of the founding members of the noted fusion band "Skywalk" and has anchored and produced six recordings with them.

Kailin Yong

Kailin ("Ky-Lynn") Yong has covered more musical ground than most of us cover in three lifetimes.  A few of the high points:

He grew up in the deep south.  Well, Southeast Asia, actually, in Singapore.  At age 13, he won a National Music Competition and was "discovered" by a visiting professor from the Royal Academy of Music in London.  He wanted to attend the Royal Academy, but his parents (and his country) had other plans for him, and he spent another 9 years in Singapore, in school and the army.  He did his graduate study at the Vienna Academy of Music for violin performance and chamber music.

On coming to the US in 1999, he made his first year's living playing in the Bay Area BART stations (subway) while studying the jazz of Stephane Grappelli, the tango of Astor Piazzola and a host of other styles. 

He's studied various improvisational fiddle styles with Art Lande, Darol Anger and Roshan Bhartiya.  He founded the groups Strings of Tao and the award-winning Boulder Acoustic Society, and has integrated his music with various musical styles including modern dance, theater and film. 

In 2004, he was awarded the Daniel Pearl Memorial Violin at the Mark O'Connor Strings conference, and for 2009-2010, he was awarded an Artist in Residency position for the city of Boulder.

He's dedicated to making peace through music, and to helping others play; he's highly-respected for his teaching, and specifically his ability to help folks get started improvising.