Shana Aisenberg mandolin, guitar, old-time banjo

Shana is a nationally recognized multi-instrumentalist, playing, composing, recording, and teaching diverse acoustic roots styles from traditional southern Appalachian and Celtic, to eastern European Klezmer, bottleneck blues and jazz. She has been a national flatpicking champion.

www.ShanaSongs.com

Susie Burke vocals, guitar

Susie has a vocal style that is at once stunning and heartfelt. "Burke displays a gift for pulling honest emotional chords--all too rare in these clever and cynical times." (Scott Alarik, Boston Globe)

Bruce Carlson pedal steel guitar

Bruce adds strong jamming skills to the mix, plus he plays the elusive pedal steel guitar (lessons provided also). We let one electric instrument squeak in because he's Ellen’s brother!

Darrell Carlson Country, Bluegrass, Swing, Rock guitar, vocals

Darrell has been playing guitar and singing since he was nine years old. He started a band when he was twelve and his sister Ellen and brother Bruce joined in along with some neighborhood kids. Not only has he played with bands in Connecticut and New Hampshire, but he jams into the wee hours playing everything from country to rock to blues welcoming players of all levels.

Ellen Carlson fiddle, guitar, mandolin

Fiddler Ellen Carlson has a strong grasp on several musical genres. She has played with bluegrass, swing, western swing, country, Irish and square dance bands. Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine gave her a coveted highlight review for her solo album "People I Play With" as well as three excellent reviews for her band High Range, calling her "a talented musician." She teaches at numerous festivals and workshops including Fiddle Hell, Grey Fox, Joe Val, and Pemi Valley. She started and leads the NH Fiddle Ensemble (featured on WMUR's Chronicle) with over 100 members. She is a member of the NH State Council on the Arts Teaching Roster.

www.EllenCarlson.com

Kevin Caron old-time banjo

Kevin is a Maine-based multi-instrumentalist specializing in several old-time banjo styles. He sings and plays banjo and guitar in the old-time, folk, and bluegrass band Sugar Hill. He is also a founding member of the Maine Marimba Ensemble, playing complex, polyrhythmic arrangements of traditional and contemporary music from Zimbabwe. 

Melissa Bragdon Caron fiddle

Melissa is a Maine-based fiddler known for playing and teaching many different styles of music. Classically trained, she received a degree in Music Education at the University of Maine and has experience teaching string programs and general music at various grade levels in the Maine public schools. Melissa has been a member of the Portland-based bluegrass band Jerks of Grass since 2006 and also plays with the old-time band Sugar Hill. She recently recorded an album, "Stuff That Works," with Fiddlers Three. Melissa is co-director of the New Hampshire Fiddle Ensemble, a non-profit organization that supports community by bringing together a large group of musicians of all ages to learn and perform different styles of music. Melissa was greatly involved in the development of 317 Main Community Music Center in Yarmouth, Maine, where she taught fiddle and acoustic ensembles for twelve years. Melissa also teaches at her studio in Scarborough, Maine. 

MelissaBragdonCaron.com

Flynn Cohen guitar, mandolin

Acoustic Guitar and mandolin player Flynn Cohen has performed all over the world with many notable acts in traditional and contemporary acoustic music. He can be seen in concert with the American folk band LOW LILY (formerly known as Annalivia), and legendary Irish Accordion player John Whelan, as well as duo shows playing music from his four solo albums. A former guitar student of John Renbourn, Davey Graham, Scott Nygaard, and Paul Binkley, Flynn has degrees in Music from Dartington College of Arts in Devon, England and at Mills College in Oakland, California. He taught for many years in the Music Departments at Keene State College in New Hampshire and Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts and is currently an online guitar instructor with Peghead Nation.

FlynnCohen.net

Kris Day bass

Kris is most recognizable as a member of the New England roots music scene. He's spent the last 30 years as a member of rockabilly quartet King Memphis and over a decade as bassist for bluegrass favorites Jerks of Grass and Travis-picking guitar slinger Sean Mencher and his Rhythm Kings. Kris has performed in 38 states, Canada and Europe holding down the low end for rock n' roll legends Link Wray, Dale Hawkins, Ronnie Dawson, Sleepy LaBeef and Joe Clay as well as performing with an array of artists ranging from bluegrass mandolin hero Matt Flinner to Brazilian singer Celia Vaz to Gypsy Jazz guitarist Stephane Wrembel (as a member of Hot Club of Portland). For the last 20 years Kris has spent his days teaching music at Buckdancers Choice in Portland, Maine and his nights performing live in and around New England.

Scott Hopkins banjo

Scott became interested in bluegrass and banjo music by listening to recordings of Flatt & Scruggs and The Stanley Brothers that his dad played while he was growing up. At 15 years old, Scott started taking private banjo lessons and joined the school band on the tuba to fully immerse himself in the study of music.   

As a tubist, Scott received a bachelors of music education degree from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam and a masters degree of music education from the University of Connecticut. He won the Crane Concerto Competition on the tuba in 1995, but kept his banjo nearby at all times. Since his college days, he has played banjo with a number of bands in New York State and Vermont over the years.  In 2013, Scott released an acclaimed solo banjo recording, using his skills as player, composer, arranger, producer and engineer.    

He currently teaches 5-12 Band at Duanesburg Central School District just west of Albany, NY, performs with The McKrells throughout the year, the Upstate Bluegrass Band at the Saratoga Race Track during summer months, teaches Wernick Method Bluegrass Jam Camps, teaches at Music Camps North, conducts the Empire State Youth Orchestra's Concertino Brass Ensemble, and has a studio of private in-person and virtual banjo students. Scott joined the Caffe Lena School of Music as a banjo instructor in the fall of 2022 and has a number of dates with his new group The Scott Hopkins Jazz Trio in 2023!

ScottHopkinsBanjo.com

Paul Hubert guitar

Paul has performed extensively as a solo artist on classical guitar and as a singer/songwriter. He is the guitarist extraordinaire with the NH-based band The Buskers, featuring tasteful finger-style guitar to blues-to-the-metal rock licks. He has produced three solo recordings and is featured on several other recordings and has an ongoing relationship with the New Hampshire Very Special Arts program.

www.PaulHubertMusic.com

Carter Logan banjo, dobro

Carter is a founding member of the Maine-based bluegrass band "Jerks of Grass" and has played with the group for 25 years. He is a veteran of the acoustic music scene in New England. When he's not busy teaching music, performing or practicing, he enjoys spending time with his daughter Sarah when she's home from college. He studied music at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Carter teaches at 317 Main Community Music Center and is often referred to as "317 Main's Ambassador of Fun." Carter has taught at our camp before and we are excited to have him back.

Steve Muise fiddle

Steve is a graduate of Berklee College of Music. He is in his 29th year as a music educator (strings specialist) in the Mt. Blue Regional School District (centered around Farmington, ME). His responsibilities include directing the Mt. Blue High School and Mt. Blue Middle School Orchestras, and teaching stringed instruments to elementary students. Steve also teaches at the Maine Fiddle Camp, has taught at the USM Summer Strings Academy, and has been the associate conductor for MMYO. He founded and directs the Franklin County Fiddlers, a multi-stylistic fiddle band comprised of talented students at Mt. Blue High School. Steve and the fiddlers have toured New England and Québec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI, Ireland and throughout the deep South (including Nashville and New Orleans). Steve was awarded Maine’s Music Educator of the Year in 2007, and in December 2010 he was named as a “Director Who Makes a Difference” representing Maine in “School Band and Orchestra” Magazine. He regularly performs throughout New England and beyond with his bands Boréal Tordu,  Frigate, and Muisette.

Mitch Reed fiddle

"I am a multi-instrumentalist, traditional music instructor, and storyteller. Born in Bayou Vista, raised in Lafayette by musicians and storytellers from Mamou, at 15 I began playing the fiddle and studying traditional Cajun and Creole music. By 17 I toured as a cultural ambassador in Smithsonian Institution Office of Folklife Programs, and have continued to work with them since 1989. During my career, I have played alongside Louisiana greats such as Canray Fontenot, Bois Sec Ardoin, Charles Neville, and George Porter. I have performed on four Grammy Nominated albums, and in 2009 I was awarded a Grammy with BeauSoleil for the album 'Live at the 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.' Over the years I have built an extensive repertoire and learned an old style of playing which is evident in my sound today."

- Mitch Reed

Steve Roy bass, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, ukulele

Steve is a multi-instrumentalist from Eliot, Maine who plays and teaches upright bass, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, and ukulele. He is fluent in a vast array of musical styles, including bluegrass, jazz, folk, rock, jam, country, old time, heavy metal, etc.

As a sideman, he has toured nationally and internationally with many of the acoustic world's top acts, including Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum, John Reischman and Eli West, Molly Tuttle, Joe K. Walsh, Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen, Joy Kills Sorrow, Hit and Run Bluegrass, and many others. Locally, he is well known for his work with groups such as OldHat Stringband, High Range, Jazzputin and the Jug Skunks, Steve and Dave Play Dead, Spinal Tarp, and countless others. He has been leading a weekly open bluegrass jam on the NH seacoast for over a decade.

Bluegrass Now Magazine calls Steve a "devastating weapon." He is currently a faculty member at 317 Main Street Community Music Center in Yarmouth, ME, and at Portsmouth Music and Arts Center in Portsmouth, NH.  Steve is the Program Director at Nimblefingers Old Time & Bluegrass Workshops in British Columbia, and he has taught many other music camps and workshops throughout the USA and Canada, including Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Kamp (TN), Fiddleheads Jam Camp (NH), Ossipee Valley String Camp (ME), Walker Creek Music Camp (CA), Aloha Bluegrass Academy (HI), and many others.  

Steve is also a violin maker, and works in the violin shop of Jonathan Cooper, in Portland, ME. 

Celia Woodsmith vocals, guitar

Celia is a GRAMMY Nominated performer, vocalist, percussionist, and songwriter. With a style that can be described as "one of a kind: gritty, muscular, folksy and intimate sometimes all at once" (Bluegrass Situation) she has been a fixture of the New England Roots Music scene since 2005.

For the last 12 years, Woodsmith has predominantly performed with the Americana string band, Della Mae. In 2014 Della Mae was nominated for a Best Bluegrass Album GRAMMY for their record "This World Oft Can Be". Their 2020 album "Headlight" has been described as "...powerful writing, soaring vocals, and moving musical unity — challenge us, energize us, and touch us as they light the way. This is an album on which you can feel the emotions of the group in each song as they evoke anger, sadness, hopelessness, and joy". (No Depression)

Kathy Sommer, Fiddle, Fiddleheads Jam Camp Original Co-Organizer

Kathy started Jam Camp with Ellen in 1998 and they ran it together for over 22 years! Kathy continues to be an inspiration to many of our campers, including Ellen and Melissa!

Kathy plays fiddle, electric violin, mandolin, and sings with the band The Buskers, a wild and fun, folky and funky band based in NH, and performs with Northern NY musicians as Yellow Moon Jazz. She is adept at folk, swing and jazz, and has tried her hand at the Latin jazz scene as well. You can catch her performing across state lines, traveling with The Buskers or playing a variety of gigs in northern NY, including the Northern Lights Orchestra. She also has played many years for New England contra and square dances, was a member of The Fiddleheads Band, and Sweet, Red, Hot, and Sassy, and gives fiddle workshops in NH and NY.

Bob Amos, banjo, guitar, songwriting

Joyce Andersen, fiddle and vocals

Darol Anger, fiddle

Jason Anick, fiddle, mandolin

Byron Berline, fiddle

Paul Bourgelais, guitar

Andre Brunet, fiddle

Denny Breau, guitar

Erica Brown, fiddle 

Isa Burke, fiddle, guitar

Liza Constable, guitar, vocals

Shane Cook, fiddle

Alan Epstein, mandolin

Matt Glaser, fiddle

Skip Gorman, mandolin and cowboy historian

David Greely, Cajun fiddle

Nancy Harrowitz, vocals

Donna Hebert, fiddle

Sue Hunt, piano, accordion and Calling

Todd Jones, guitar, banjo, vocals, song writing

Bob Kordas, banjo, resophonic guitar (dobro)

Diane Kordas, bass, vocals, song writing

Amanda Kowalski, bass

Andrea Larson, Swedish

Rodney Miller, the great contradance fiddler

Jim Prendergast, guitar, Irish

Woody Pringle, old-time banjo

Harvey Reid, guitar and vocals

Matt Shipman, guitar, bass, mandolin

Peter Stillwagon, guitar

David Surette, folk and bluegrass, guitar and mandolin

Dave Talmage, banjo, fiddle

Ryan Thomson, fiddle, accordion, penny whistle, dance

Tony Trischka, banjo

Andrew VanNorstrand, fiddle, mandolin, guitar

August Watters, guitar, bass, mandolin, vocals