Teachers old and new

Acoustic guitarist Russ Barenberg is known for his melodic playing, beautiful tone and memorable compositions. Long at the creative forefront of the acoustic music scene, Russ has collaborated with many of its finest artists, including Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer, Tony Trischka, Bela Fleck, Alison Krauss, Mark O'Connor, Andy Statman and legendary jazz bassist, Charlie Haden. His playing has graced numerous film soundtracks, most notably Ken Burns' documentary, The Civil War. Russ's most recent album, When at Last, adds to an "exquisitely original" body of work with more vibrant new melodies and rich ensemble interplay. The CD earned Russ a GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Instrumental Performance and was nominated for the International Bluegrass Music Association Instrumental Album of the Year. Russ is also a fine teacher who is able to guide students to the core of what they need to work on to sound better.

Steve Baughman is a Rounder Records recording artist and the author of five Mel Bay Publications guitar books. He was described by Dirty Linen Magazine as one of the best Celtic fingerpickers in the United States. His duo album with Robin Bullock, Celtic Guitar Summit, was voted one of the best albums of 2003 by Acoustic Guitar Magazine. Steve makes his home in San Francisco, California.

Keith Baumann has been a professional musician and teacher for nearly 30 years. He began his musical pursuits in New York City after hearing a Flatt & Scruggs album back in 1971, leading him to buy his first banjo. He also started playing mandolin, guitar and resophonic guitar, studying with banjo masters Tony Trishcka and Marty Cutler and with finger-style guitar guru Ken Perlman.
Keith currently makes his living as a full-time performer, bandleader, educator, and writer. He writes regularly for Down Beat jazz magazine and has had articles published in both Guitar Player and Flatpicking Guitar magazine. He is currently working on his second book, which documents the rhythm guitar style of western swing legend Eldon Shamblin. In 2006 he was honored to be invited as a special guest to the Legends of Western Swing Festival in Texas.

Roy is a part-time professional guitarist in Rochester, NY. For nearly a decade, he was the "other" guitarist in the Steve Greene Trio. Steve and Roy were known for their acoustic-archtop sound using 1940's and earlier Gibsons. During this time, Roy developed his "dry" archtop technique. Recently, he has become involved in French-inspired jazz and is the founder and leader of Lumière, a trio of guitar, accordion, and upright bass. During the 1970.s and early 1980.s, Roy was active in C&W and western swing. He has been teaching guitar, sporadically, since the 1970's including the University of California at Davis, Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camp, and Puget Sound Guitar Workshop. When not playing guitar, he is a professor of color science at Rochester Institute of Technology with a research program in imaging, archiving, and reproducing cultural heritage (see www.art-si.org).

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Seattle rhythm guitarist Dina Blade is best known for her relaxed and swinging sound. At age 11 she taught herself to play and sing folk songs, gradually expanding her repertoire to include American jazz standards and Brazilian bossa nova. She has performed and toured in the U.S., Canada, and Cuba, and has recently returned from her fifth trip to Brazil where she was teaching, recording and concertizing. She has released five recordings of jazz standards as well as a book/cd of singing games, and is also a dance caller and tap/clog/swing dancer. As a guitar instructor, Dina's main goal is to inspire students to have the time of their lives playing music regardless of background, age, or ability.

Laurel was introduced to old time, country and bluegrass music in 1974 when she was given a copy of Will the Circle Be Unbroken. This exposure to Mother Maybelle, Doc Watson, Jimmy Martin, Earl Scruggs, etc. changed her musical direction. The joys of playing by ear, learning to sing with others and getting to know a wonderful community of musicians through the Weiser National Old Time Fiddle Contest, the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes and the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop shaped her interest in the music. Laurel played Dobro and sang in Southfork from 1982 to 1990, and then for five years, played in a duet with Cliff Perry. In 1993 they recorded Old Pal, a CD of mostly Carter Family songs, which was awarded the County Sales' Best Old-Time Recording of 1994. In addition to playing with Carol Elizabeth Jones, Laurel plays with the Happy Valley Sluggers of Bellingham, WA. She has taught country and bluegrass vocals at Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, the Sound Acoustic Music Camp and the Georgia Straight Guitar Workshop.

Evo Bluestein was raised in a folk music family and from an early age was exposed to many of America's great bearers of traditional culture. He is a well known teacher and performer, a clogger and a dance caller, an oldtime fiddler, plays mandolin and guitar, Cajun/zydeco fiddle and accordion. He's an avant garde banjo composer, autoharp Hall of Famer, and a broad source of American folk songs.

Greg Booth lives in Anchorage, where, for many years, he's played pedal steel guitar in country groups--as well as banjo (which he first learned from Bill Emerson) and dobro in the legendary Alaskan bluegrass bands Fault Line and Rank Strangers. These days, you can hear him playing Dobro and banjo with the Kathy Kallick Band. Winner of the RockyGrass dobro competition in 2006, regular participant in WinterGrass's Resomania Workshop and ResoSummit, Greg is one of the most interesting and original Dobro players to come along in years.

Mark is an award winning songwriter (Grand Prize-Portland Music Assoc. Songwriter's Contest) and was voted into The Oregon Music Hall Of Fame in 2001. His CD Shed My Skin was chosen by Performing Songwriter Magazine as on of the top independent releases of 1996. As a member of national acts Nu Shooz and Body & Soul, he toured the U.S. and played on The Pat Sajack Show and The NBC Today Show. He has taught singing nationally and internationally (his voice seminars are very popular in Brazil) for the past 23 years and his book 3 Steps To Singing With Confidence is due out in 2009.

Flip Breskin is internationally famous as a co-founder of PSGW. A major player in the Northwest folk scene since the 1970s, Flip is an inveterate song catcher. She plays old and new folksongs with great sing-along choruses, songs of compassion, outrageous songs, and sweet solo guitar. She also calls Family Dances and Playparties and leads the local music circle. Peter Berryman says of Flip, "I'd listen to Flip sing the phone book." And Bob Franke adds, "I never met a songwriter more grounded in musical and moral values than Flip. She cares more about telling the truth than most people you're likely to hear and she does it well: At the same time she's a lot of fun to listen to."

Velzoe taught at PSGW from 1993 to 2006. Raised in Nebraska, Velzoe was one of five children born to a mother and father who played piano and trumpet, respectively. Velzoe's first instrument was the piano, which she says she learned without lessons--"I gathered it in with my mother's milk I think." At 13, Velzoe started playing trombone, teaching herself from an instruction book. She worked her way up to first chair in the girls' marching band at Omaha Tech High, and at 16, in 1926, became a full-time musician with the all-women group, The Pollyanna's Syncopators. This traveling orchestra was organized in 1923 by Ruth Randall in Lincoln, Nebraska. This group played ballrooms and theaters from the east coast to California. After The Pollyannas broke up under pressures of the Depression, Velzoe moved to California, where she spent many more successful years playing with top-notch bands. She played regular gigs with her quintet, Velzoe Brown and The Upbeats right up until her death in 2011 at age 101. When asked what she thought of living a musical life, Velzoe said, "I'm for it, honey!"

Kat Bula is a performing and teaching multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and music theory nerd living in Bellingham, WA. Since finishing her BA in Music in 2007, she has toured extensively around the western two-thirds of the United States playing everything from hardline traditional bluegrass to pirate-themed folk-punk. Currently she plays with Seattle-based indie/Americana band Big Sur, and Bellingham's flamenco-inflected folk group Biagio & the Argonauts. She also writes for and fronts an indie-pop band, Thimble vs. Needle, and frequently guests with Bellingham bands ranging from jazz to metal. Recent attempts to learn the drums have angered her cat, Audrey.

You may have heard Howie Bursen's voice on Garrison Keillor's A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION. You might have seen his songwriting mentioned in PEOPLE MAGAZINE. Howie Bursen is an all-round musician.
CHICAGO magazine said: "Stunning guitar arrangement...".
FRETS Magazine did a feature article following the release of his album "Building Boom" on Flying Fish:
"He has the ability to dazzle audiences with displays of virtuosity..."
"Howie Bursen is unique." - Frets Magazine
"The guy's a genius!" - Come For to Sing Magazine
Bursen is not just a virtuoso instrumentalist. He's a respected songwriter, too. His "Small Business Blues" was recorded by Ronnie Gilbert, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, and Holly Near, on their album "HARP". Pete Seeger called it "an important song", and included it in the book "Carry It On", published by Simon and Schuster. Tom Chapin recorded it, too.
Until recently, Howie Bursen has been hiding his light under a bushel, - a bushel of grapes. After years spent as an award-winning winemaker, Howie is finally stomping out of the vat, to teach at PSGW.

Brian Butler plays finger-style blues and names J.B. Lenoir, Mance Lipscomb, and Reverend Gary Davis as a few of his musical inspirations. He plays electric blues in the NW with The Brian Butler Band and also enjoys folk, rock, and country music. Brian has been teaching blues at PSGW since 1995.