PICKNBOW FOLKMUSIC RETREAT WEEKEND

Friday July 13th, 7 pm: “Meet and greet” We will gather for introductions; instructors will talk briefly about the workshops, and students will make their choices. Then - lots of informal music making — for all of us!

Saturday July 14th, 9:30 am: We start by making our final choices for the workshops. The morning sessions will go from 10 to 1. We’ll take a break from 1 to 2:30 for lunch, jamming/practice time and perhaps one-on-one sessions, if needed. Afternoon sessions are approximately from 3 to 5:30. We then gather for a group meal, and end the day (approximately 7:00 to 9:00) with performance time—for students and instructors alike.

Sunday July 15th, noon: We begin at noon. There will be three sessions, going to approximately 3:00. We’ll then take a break until about 4:00 for another group meal, and any last-minute practice sessions. We close PicknBow with one more group performance that will end at approximately 5:30. We will all help clean up, and will be done by 6:00.

DANNY GOTHAM (guitar, mandolin, ukulele) grew up in Upstate NY in the 1960’s and got the bug to play guitar when the Beatles were televised into his family’s living room. Since that time, he has developed into a master flatpicking and fingerpicking instrumentalist, cutting his musical teeth playing in various rock, jazz, blues, bluegrass and country bands. He was a member of the Racquette River Rounders—an eclectic trio that garnered a loyal fan base in the Northeastern US. His next group—Summit, a bluegrass band in which he played mandolin, featured the 1984 National Bluegrass banjo champion, Chris Leske. Summit performed as a featured act as well as backing up bluegrass legends Bill Keith and Frank Wakefield. In 1980, Gotham took Second Place in the prestigious National Fingerpicking Guitar Championship in Winfield, KS. His most recent musical collaborations have been as accompanist to the great folksinger Tom Paxton and original "Prairie Home Companion" music director, Peter Ostroushko. As a teacher, he has maintained an extensive private student roster, and conducted numerous workshops, since 1974. He instructed at the Winnipeg Folk Festival in 2008 at the Summer Acoustic Music Week camp in 2010, and Millwood Guitar camp in 2011. His incredibly wide range of musical experiences has given him the ability to teach almost any student—regardless of style, instrument or level of expertise. Gotham has performed on the nationally syndicated radio broadcast Michael Feldman’s "Whad’ya Know?" He appeared on the soundtrack of the PBS film "Hungers of the Soul". And in one of his more unusual gigs, he was the ukulele tutor for Tom Selleck as the actor prepared for the Broadway production of "A Thousand Clowns".

JULIE ELKINS (banjo,guitar), originally from Bozeman, Montana, now makes her home in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she teaches banjo, guitar and vocal lessons. With family roots in East Kentucky, Elkins comes from a long line of bluegrass musicians and singers. By age 12, she was the threetime winner of the Classic West Open Banjo Competition and was invited to join her first band before she was old enough to drive. She's been a professional musician ever since. Elkins received her bluegrass education while performing a long stint with North Carolina's renowned bluegrass band, New Vintage. In 1999, she joined the trailblazing bluegrass/Americana band, Kane's River. Elkins was awarded an IBMA award for "Recorded Project of the Year" for her contribution to "Back To The Well," with the Daughters of Bluegrass. In 2005, she released "My Feet Won't Miss This Ground," with friend and long-time musical collaborator, David Thompson. The duo has begun work on a follow-up recording.

BOB VASILE (guitar, bouzouki,mandolin) has his roots in British Isles traditional music. He and Jane Peppler founded the Pratie Heads in 1980, and among their many performances was a St. Patrick’s Day celebration at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. He also was a member of "Acoustic Attatude" with Freyda Epstein and Ralph Gordon, both formerly of Trapezoid. Acoustic attitude toured with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and shared the stage with Tony Rice, Mark O’Connor, Mike Marshall and Darol Anger on two "Mountain Stage" performances on NPR. Their Red House recording "Midnight at Cabell Hall" featured Howard Levy (of the Flecktones) on harmonica and piano. Bob’s original composition, "Atta-tude in AM" has been regularly featured on "All Things Considered". Another original, "DADGAD in Baghdad" was on a CD featured in Fingerstyle Guitar magazine, along with the likes of Chet Atkins, John Williams, and Jason Truby (composer for "The Matrix"). Bob also won a signed Wayne Henderson guitar at the 1996 Wayne Henderson Festival Guitar Championship. Bob was featured in the 2004 competition as well, which brought all the first ten years’ winners together for a special concert.

JANE PEPPLER (vocals,violin,viola,English concertina, rebec) teaches and performs early and traditional music. She is owner of the Skylark Record label, engineering and producing recordings for local acoustic ensembles. She taught fiddle and voice for two years at Pinewoods Camp "Folk Week" and for two years at the Village Harmony summer sessions; she directed the Triangle Jewish Chorale for fourteen years. She currently performs with the world music group Mappamundi and with Bob Vasile as a member of British Isles group the Pratie Heads. As director of the Solstice Assembly, she was featured on NPR's Weekend Edition; she researched, arranged, and performed music of the British Isles and Colonial America for nine years, performing at the Smithsonian institution and receiving a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and taught for more than two decades at the Duke University Short Course Program. She wrote for SingOut! magazine, wrote several songbooks, and has been published in the Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. At Yale University she studied medieval music with Alejandro Planchardt, fiddled with the Yale graduate symphony orchestra, and sang with the Yale Slavic Chorus. In Boston she managed the Locrian String Quartet and sang with Laduvane; as part of this a cappella Balkan ensemble, she arranged and transcribed field recordings and co-founded the Festival of Light and Song. She has made more than two dozen recordings.

ARI EISINGER is one of the most dazzling country blues and ragtime guitarists playing today. Listen to his astonishing performances of the music of Blind Blake and you will hear things no guitar player has managed to pull off since Blake himself disappeared in the early 1930s. The sportin’ right hand, the piano rhythms, the notes everybody else leaves out – they’re all there. "One of the finest fingerpickers I've heard anywhere," "One of the top guitarists in the country," "One of the finest interpreters of traditional blues and ragtime" – these are just a few of the reactions from critics and fellow musicians to Ari’s remarkable way with the blues of the 1920s and ’30s. Able to shift effortlessly from complex East Coast ragtime to the propulsive rhythm of the guitar evangelists to down-home Texas country blues, Ari is one of the most authentic musicians you are ever likely to encounter. His interpretations of the songs of masters like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Memphis Minnie and Reverend Gary Davis have been called "downright spooky" for the way the styles of these pioneering guitar heroes are brought vibrantly back to life. Whether he is taking on the crystal tone and virtuosity of Lonnie Johnson or the liquid bends of Josh White played on a low-tuned Stella guitar, Ari deftly recalls the great music of the past while bringing his own brilliant musical personality to bear on some of the neglected classics of the blues. Based in Philadelphia, Ari has toured across the US and performed in the UK and Japan, sharing the bill along the way with artists like Doc Watson, John Jackson, Dave Van Ronk, Paul Geremia and Taj Mahal. He has led guitar classes both in the US and the UK, and he is a featured instructor for Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop.