Greg Artzner is an outstanding guitarist whose fingerstyle approach owes a lot to his heroes, guitar legends such as Reverend Gary Davis, nBig Bill Broonzy, Nick Lucas, Phil Ochs, and Rolly Brown. His high baritone voice has equal range and his captivating interpretation gives power and beauty to the full spectrum, from growling blues, to a Chilean lament, to a sweet croon. He and Terry Leonino have performed together as "Magpie" since their meeting at Kent, Ohio in 1973
Terry Leonino's voice is a truly impressive instrument, not only because of its natural power, but also because of her versatility. She is a gifted singer of jazz and blues in the tradition of Connie Boswell and Billie Holiday, but is equally comfortable with the subtle beauty of traditional folk and contemporary songs. Terry is also an excellent player of the harmonica, mandolin, fretted dulcimer, and rhythm guitar.
Dan Berggren has been collecting, writing
and singing folk music of the Adirondacks for the past
30 years. He grew up in the mountains on the land farmed
by his mother’s family and worked in the woods
on a forest ranger’s crew and a survey crew.
Hearing stories and songs from local friends and neighbors,
Dan has developed a style that captures the spirit
of the mountains.
Betsy Fry was singing at an early age and in school, church and college choirs and in her 20s with Elaine Brown's Singing City Choir and Chorale, which performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy. More recently she has performed as a member of Annie and the Hedonists (20 years, on bass) and on clarinet with the Albany Area Senior Orchestra and Swing Shift swing band. Favorite quote: " You're only as good as the last note you played!".
Steve Fry is a musician's musician. Beginning with formal piano studies at age 5, he also played violin, trumpet and french horn as a child, ending up as a music performance major early in college. Over the years he has played in symphony, pops, opera and light opera orchestras, various concert and marching bands, a rock band, a jug band, various contradance bands, an English country dance band, bluegrass and folk ensembles, and performed for 20 years with "Annie & the Hedonists".
Reggie Harris is a superb guitarist, a wonderful singer, and an eloquent, and engaging storyteller with a scholarly depth of knowledge of his material. Reggie and his wife and partner Kim Harris have performed widely and to great acclaim for over 3 decades. Creative curiosity, years of road and stage experience and interactions with performers such as Pete Seeger, Ysaye Barnwell, Jay Leno, Tom Paxton, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Harry Belafonte and others, has led them to produce music that entertains and inspires.
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John
Roberts has been singing English folk songs since the early 1960s, when he joined a local folk club in his native Worcestershire. Coming to the U.S. as a graduate student in 1968, he soon joined with Tony Barrand to form a duo which has lasted ever since. Singing in unaccompanied harmony, or with concertina or banjo, their entertaining style has delighted audiences at major festivals and venues such as Fox Hollow, Mariposa Folk Festival, Philadelphia Folk Festival, Old Songs, and the Mystic Sea Music Festival.
Bill Spence has been a musician for over 50 years, playing banjo, guitar, autoharp and the instrument he is best known for today, the hammered dulcimer. In 1970 he formed a string band named Fennig’s All-Star String Band with musicians living in the Albany, New York area and in 1973 the group released its classic LP, The Hammered Dulcimer. Since 1976 the band has featured Bill along with George Wilson and Toby Stover.
Toby Stover is a long time veteran of the music and theatre
arts, having worked extensively with a wide range of groups and programs. She is an acknowledged master of New England-style rhythm accompaniment on the piano. Toby began studies in West African rhythms in 1985 and has trained on the djembe and dun dun drums intensively since 1998 when she began performing with the folkloric group Fakoli Dance & Drum. She continues to perform regularly with The Vanaver Caravan, Fakoli and Fennig's All Stars.
Susan Trump has been winning fans for years with her singing, her songwriting prowess, her outstanding skills on mountain dulcimer, guitar and banjo, and her clear, relaxed teaching style. Her love of Anglo-American music has taken her from the mountains of Southern Appalachia and the Adirondacks to the British Isles, where she has collected and performed traditional music. Her music links the pastoral, tranquil images of rural America to our contemporary life, touching the heart, recalling the past, and inspiring the times ahead.
A talented, multi-instrumentalist and singer, George Wilson's repertoire samples a wide variety of traditional and folk styles. As a fiddler, he has over 500 tunes for dancing and listening — tunes from New England, Quebec, Cape Breton, Scotland, Ireland and Shetland. His dynamic fiddling, strongly influenced by Cape Breton and French Canadian styles, has been popular with contra dancers and concert-goers since the late 1970s. Also accomplished on guitar and 5-string banjo, George is especially known for his spot-on renditions of songs by musical personality's of the past like Uncle Dave Macon and Huddie Ledbetter.
Andy
Spence, Director.
Entrepreneur and producer for over thirty years in the
field of folk and traditional music. A founding member
of the Pick'n and Sing'n Gather'n and Old Songs, Inc. Andy's
producing credits include Woody Guthrie's California
To The New York Island (1969), A Tribute to
Malvina Reynolds (1972), An Evening
At the English Music Hall (1974), The
Old Songs Festival of Traditional Music and Dance (since
1981) and The American Conscience: Folk Songs of the
1960s (2004), The Visitors (2007). Dedicated to presenting
folk, traditional, Celtic and World music and dance in the
Capital District, she continues
to carry on the tradition. |