Our Old-Time Week staff in 2009 features
some old friends and some wonderful new additions to the Augusta
world. Coordinator Joe Newberry
[top left photo],
a long-time Augusta staff member, has brought folks from
West
Virginia, Missouri, Tennessee, North Carolina, and points beyond
to share their talents. The instructors are not only some of
the finest players in
the world, but are also outstanding
teachers.
Chance McCoy, subject of a
song written a couple of years ago in an Augusta songwriting
class (ask him about it) returns to teach beginning fiddle.
Augusta favorite and West Virginia fiddle legend
Dave Bing
[top right photo] will teach an
intermediate class. Rafe Stefanini,
whose solo records have made a huge splash in the old-time
fiddle world, will teach intermediate fiddle as well.
Clay Buckner
[bottom left photo] of the famed Red
Clay Ramblers makes his first trip to Augusta and will teach an
advanced fiddle class.
Southern songbird and clawhammer queen
Laura Boosinger will teach beginning banjo. Missourian Cathy Barton, who
grew up playing with Missouri fiddlers and later toured with
Grandpa Jones, will share her driving style with the
intermediate banjo class. Mac Benford,
one of the founders of the legendary Highwoods String Band will
offer instruction in advanced banjo.
Dave Para, one of Missouri's
most in-demand guitarists at countless fiddle contests will
teach intermediate guitar, and West Virginia's wonderful
Robin Kessinger
[lower right photo] will teach
flat-picked guitar at the advanced level.
Bass this year will be taught by the one
and only Sharon Gilchrist,
who has performed with a long list of artists – Uncle Earl, the
Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Quartet, and The Santa Fe All-Stars,
to name a few. Mandolinist Mike
Compton grew up in Mississippi, and has made a
powerful mark in the old-time and bluegrass music worlds,
including a fertile association with John Hartford in the
Hartford String Band, and as a long-time member of the Nashville
Bluegrass Band.
