Nick Bachman is an Old-Time fiddler from Iowa who currently resides in beautiful Altadena, California. Nick is an obsessive Midwest Fiddling enjoyer, preservationist, and tune collector. When not fiddling, he works in the cartoon television industry as a Director and Storyboard Artist.

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Christopher Berry has been playing country blues and old-time country music on guitar and banjo for about 35 years. He’s been a fixture at Goleta and Southern California old-time festivals for almost that long. Find him with his band Sausage Grinder or on YouTube at @banjochris.

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Paul Brown is an award-winning fiddler, banjoist and singer who offers unique insights into evolving fiddle and banjo styles of southwest Virginia and northwest North Carolina. Introducing Paul’s Tiki Parlour album, music journalist Tom Piazza wrote, “Paul Brown practices an art of deceptive understatement. He’s never in a hurry, because he’s already there. He has spent his entire life steeped in what is usually called old-time music, and none of it was lost on him.”

As a young man who’d learned his first songs from his mother’s Virginia repertoire, he immersed himself in the old, nearly Celtic-sounding fiddle styles of southwest Virginia fiddlers Luther Davis, Parley Parsons and others, plus the music of Round Peak players Tommy Jarrell, Kyle Creed and Fred Cockerham. He also focused on the styles of transitional players including Fred Cockerham, Robert Sykes, Benton Flippen, and Benny Jarrell. He considers all of these artists his main direct fiddle mentors.
Paul has produced and recorded numerous albums documenting fiddlers young and old. He co-founded the Mount Airy, NC Hometown Opry stage show, and created the Across the Blue Ridge public radio music and culture program. He received the North Carolina Folklore Society’s Brown-Hudson Award for contributions to cultural preservation. He’s a veteran of the Smokey Valley Boys, the Toast String Stretchers and other bands.
Paul retired from NPR in 2013, having worked at the radio network as a news executive, reporter, editor and newscaster. In addition to his focus on world news, he reported and produced numerous stories on arts and cultural figures including old-time, bluegrass, jazz and blues musicians.

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Afton Coombs is a dancer and musician born in Orange County, CA,  and based in Los Angeles. As a dancer, their background is in American tap and flatfoot, house, and jazz, and they also sing and play traditional early American and Irish music. They first began flatfooting nearly by accident when they happened to meet their future teacher, Rebecca Stout, at a bluegrass jam. After studying with her, they went on to win first place in step dancing three times at the Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest as well as to progress to the finals at the National Buckdance Contest at Maupinfest. Since their start in flatfooting, they have also continued to dance at old time jams and with bluegrass and Irish bands along the West Coast, including the Praties, the Honeysuckle Possums, and Sweeten the Third. They also perform at educational programs through Drumatix and Powerhouse Percussive Dance, and they feel lucky for the opportunity to share and create within this art form.

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Dee Farnsworth has left animation-land where she worked as a visual development artist and now works in her studio making things and playing music.  She loves singing early bluegrass and old time harmony and plays mandolin in Smoke Holler Band

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Hog-eyed Man is an Athens-based acoustic band comprised of fiddler Jason Cade and multi-instrumentalist Rob McMaken. Drawing primarily on the archaic tunes and pre-radio aesthetics of Southern Appalachian fiddling traditions, Jason and Rob have forged a compelling and authentic style of oldtime music, both reflecting deep respect for the past masters and carrying the musical conversation forward to the present era. Jason is the 2026 Artist in Resonance Fellow at the American Folklife Center within the Library of Congress and he has won the fiddle contest at the Appalachian String Band Festival in Clifftop, WV. His playing has been described as “a seamless fusion of rhythm and melody, with the power to reach deep inside and inspire strong emotional responses” (Bluegrass Unlimited), “pure fiddle joy” (Fiddler Magazine), and “as honest and direct a representation of music sourced from past generations of North Carolina fiddlers as one could wish for” (fRoots).

Georgia native Rob McMaken cut his teeth busking in New Orleans and toured the US and Europe playing an eclectic mix of global folk music with the band Dromedary in his early twenties. After moving to Athens GA in the 1990s, he recorded and performed with Americana artists like Jonathan Byrd and Jim White. Once Rob met fiddler Jason Cade, he began his deep dive into Southern Appalachian oldtime music. He has since developed a distinctive accompaniment style on lap dulcimer, mandolin, guitar, and banjo-uke—seamlessly weaving between melody, harmonic counterpoint, and rhythmic drones that echo Old World aesthetics. As the multi-instrumentalist-counterpoint-to-the-fiddle in the two-man-band Hog-eyed Man, Rob has co-released six albums over the past decade featuring more than 100 rare tunes from Southern Appalachian traditions. His approach has been praised as “both emotional and expressive, transcending any particular age” (FolkWorld), “deftly complementing the fiddle melodically and harmonically,” (Musical Traditions), and “glorious” (The Living Tradition).

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Kelly Marie Martin plays bass and sings with quintet Echo Mountain. She's been hosting a First Thursday Jam at the 1642 Bar for over 15 years and is a co-founder of the Los Angeles Old Time Social. You can find recordings on Bandcamp - solo album The Last Kind Word, an album of duets with accordionist Erin Schneider, Trials, Tribulations, and Tune Sandwich with quintet Echo Mountain.

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Jim Mueller says: I attended my first Santa Barbara Old-Time Fiddlers’ Convention in 1976 and have been a regular attendee ever since.I’ve been influenced by many fiddlers over the decades, including Tom Sauber, Pete Sutherland, Alan Jabbour, Ralph Blizard, Bruce Molsky, and many others.In fact, I feel that I have been influenced by everyone that has ever shared a tune with me.I have performed with the Growling Old Geezers, For Old Times’ Sake, and the Rosin Sniffers. That said, my favorite musical partner is my wife, Amber.

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Pat Mac Swyney grew up in Chicago and Los Angeles listening to his mother’s Dubliners and Bing Crosby records.  Pat began playing traditional music in 1982 and currently lives on the windswept steppes of north Los Angeles County where he plays Trad. Jazz with The Swing Riots Quirktette; Balkan & Near East with Nevenka & Pečurka; Old-Time & Irish with The Dirty Mickeys; Old-Time & Sufi Trance Music with Sausage Grinder.  Pat holds a degree in Anthropology from UC Santa Barbara and has subsequently never worked outside the music and food service industries.

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Susan Platz, originally from Illinois, has been singing and playing the violin all her life. She holds a degree in music from Lawrence University, and became a permanent member of the band Sausage Grinder after years of studying Old-Time fiddle with David Bragger in Los Angeles. She is a powerful singer and has taught Old-Time yodeling workshops at festivals around the country. When she’s not playing music, Susan is a pediatric occupational therapist and has been serving children with special needs and their families for over 8 years.

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Tricia Spencer and Howard Rains are an old-time folk music duo who were brought up in the music of their families. Tricia is a Kansas fiddler who learned knee to knee from her grandparents and other master musicians in the Midwest. Howard is an artist and fiddler from Texas, now living in Kansas, who comes from a family rich in both of those traditions. They met in 2012 and blended their fiddle sounds into a unique voice in old-time music. They have recently been joined by their children to form the family band The Lost Keys.

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Rafe Stefanini has been at the forefront of the revival and preservation of traditional music from the rural south for over forty years. His work on fiddle, banjo, guitar and song is represented in more than 20 CDs, both as headliner and as guest. He has recorded and performed with influential artists including the Wildcats, Big Hoedown, David Bragger, The Rockinghams and Jumpsteady Boys (with Bruce Molsky, Joe Newberry and Mike Compton). He has also performed and still does with daughter Clelia Stefanini. He has been a teacher at countless music camps on fiddle, banjo and guitar.

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Joe Wack has been playing guitar, banjo, and fiddle since his teens.  He moved from W. Va. to Los Angeles in the early 90’s and is retired after a career in tv and movie animation. For twenty years he has been hosting the Audubon Jam in Debs Park, LA.

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Monika White began playing the spoons nearly 40 years ago when the “Old Mother Logo String Band” lost its lead singer and spoons player, Piper Heisig. Wanting to keep that distinctive percussion sound alive, Monika taught herself to play and soon developed her own unique style. She quickly became known in the music community and has shared her skills at countless festivals and music events. Encouraged to compete in the “novelty” and “other instruments” categories, Monika won first place at three major festivals in a single summer: the Topanga Banjo and Fiddle Festival, the Death Valley Gathering, and the Santa Barbara Old-Time Fiddlers’ Convention. After these successes, she retired from competing but continues to perform and teach the art of spoon playing with energy, skill, and joy. Spoons will be provided on loan for this session—but feel free to bring your own if you
prefer!