Bob Carlin & Friends, “My Life & Music”

Bob Carlin has been offering performances, lectures, and workshops for over 50 years. His banjo style and solo recordings have been influential to generations, and he has authored over 100 books and articles on the history of old-time music, players, and instruments. In 1995, Carlin was invited to join the band of songwriter John Hartford and toured with him for six years, even accompanying him on a ten-day Japanese sojourn. Since the death of Hartford in 2001, Carlin has returned to solo performing, teaching, and appearances with other musicians, including the Hartford Stringband, Dan Levenson, as well as Erynn Marshall and Carl Jones.

Rachel Combs (and Family)

Rachel Combs is an accomplished old-time rhythm guitar player from Mentone, Alabama. Raised in a musical family, she grew up playing with her father, legendary fiddler James Bryan, and now makes music with her husband, renowned fiddler Matt Combs. Rachel has performed on iconic stages like the Grand Ole Opry and Prairie Home Companion. She appears on The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Collection, Volume 1 with Brittany Haas and on Rising Fawn Gathering, a collaboration with the Bryans, Norman and Nancy Blake, and The Boys of the Lough.

Mike Compton

A true American mandolin master and expert in old-time and deep Southern musical styles, Mike Compton’s straight-from-the-still vocal and instrumental style merges vintage grit with modern authenticity. Whether he’s working with rock stars Elvis Costello and Sting or acoustic legends John Hartford and Americana producer T-Bone Burnett, Compton can entertain audiences ranging from rockers and urban hipsters to die-hard country, folk, and bluegrass fans as a soloist, duo, or band performer.

Gina Dilg

Gina Dilg is a multi-instrumentalist, dancer, and artist who was raised with and loves old-time music and the community at its heart. When not playing energetic tunes for dances or leading jams in her community in Southwest Virginia, she can be found teaching in after-school music programs, organizing events, or creating art and designs celebrating music heroes. Gina will also facilitate the popular Young Old-Time program, which creates opportunities for younger folks at Old-Time Week to hang out, jam, and perform together.

Gordy Hinners

Gordy Hinners, known for his driving fretless banjo style and his masterful, rhythmic flatfooting, has been performing traditional Appalachian music and dance for over 50 years. He spent many years touring with the influential dance company the Green Grass Cloggers, and for over 20 years he performed with master fiddler Ralph Blizard as a member of the New Southern Ramblers. Gordy has won many awards for both his dancing and banjo playing. He was at the first Swannanoa Old-Time Week over 30 years ago and still goes every year. Gordy lives in the high country of North Carolina with his wife, musician and dancer Rebecca Keeter.

Phil Jamison

Founding Coordinator of Old-Time Music & Dance Week, Phil is nationally-known as a dance caller, flatfoot dancer, and old-time musician, playing banjo, fiddle, and guitar. Since the 1970s, he has called dances, performed, and taught at music festivals and dance events throughout the U.S. and abroad. He is member of the Green Grass Cloggers and a 2017 inductee to the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame. A scholar of Appalachian dance and author of Hoedowns, Reels, and Frolics: Roots and Branches of Southern Appalachian Dance, Phil recently retired from teaching traditional music and dance at Warren Wilson College.

Carl Jones

Carl Jones is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist born in Macon, Georgia, and living in Hillsville, Virginia. He is widely respected for his instrumental talents and original songs about the joys and tribulations of life in the South. Carl’s songs have been recorded by The Nashville Bluegrass Band, Kate Campbell, Rickie Simpkins with Tony Rice, and others. He was part of the Rising Fawn String Ensemble with James Bryan and Norman and Nancy Blake. Today he tours the globe with wife, fiddler Erynn Marshall. Carl is known for his fine musicianship, sense of humor, songwriting, and charismatic teaching.

Rhys Jones

Rhys took up fiddle when he was 6 years old and learned from the older generation of West Virginia fiddlers like Wilson Douglas, Glen Smith, Ernie Carpenter, and Melvin Wine. Rhys is equally comfortable with a number of regional styles of fiddling and has appeared everywhere from Carnegie Hall to the Kennedy Center. He has won the Clifftop Fiddle contest twice, recorded five albums, been featured in PBS documentaries, and appeared on the BBC. His band Bigfoot has been performing old-time music around the world for the last 10 years and received the Blue Ribbon at Clifftop multiple times.

Kevin Kehrberg

Kevin Kehrberg, Interim Director of The Swannanoa Gathering, is an award-winning bassist who enjoys playing a variety of styles. He has toured nationally and internationally and is currently the bassist for Organic Records recording artist Zoe & Cloyd. He also performs widely as a sideman and session artist. In 2021, his collaborative recording for Bluegrass at the Crossroads won IBMA's Instrumental Recording of the Year. Kevin has taught at many workshops and clinics in addition to being a professor of music at Warren Wilson College, where he maintains an active bass studio and teaches courses in music and culture.

Paul Kovac

Paul Kovac was a child drummer, then guitar and banjo took over in high school. The “big three”—Hotmuds, Highwoods, and Red Clay Ramblers—played a lot in his area and he was hooked. Though bluegrass, Hank and Lefty, and Bob Wills all played a part, old-time was the driving force and at the root of it all. Paul is a good communicator and he’s got lots of experience performing, teaching, and sharing music with anyone willing to listen and learn.

Vivian Leva

Vivian Leva’s voice is the sound of living tradition. Raised by parents who absorbed ancient tunes and ballads during visits to legendary old-time musicians, Leva grew up steeped in the Appalachian and country music of her Lexington, VA home. On 2018’s Time Is Everything, her label debut on Free Dirt Records, Leva earns a spot in the lineage of great neo-traditional songwriters like Gillian Welch and Sarah Jarosz. And much like these singers, Leva finds inspiration in the past without being stifled by it

Erynn Marshall

Erynn Marshall, coordinator of Swannanoa Old-Time Music & Dance Week, is a fiddler known internationally for her music. She loves to teach tunes from the repertoire of traditional fiddlers she visited over the last 25 years or to sleuth out playing secrets from archival recordings. She has won blue ribbons at Clifftop (the 1st woman to do so) and Mt. Airy fiddlers conventions and performed across Europe, Australia, and China with her multi-instrumentalist/husband, Carl Jones. Erynn has produced several recordings, is featured in 3 books, 5 films and the Women of Old-Time Music exhibit at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum (VA).

Joe Newberry

Known around the world for his clawhammer banjo playing, Joe Newberry is also a powerful guitarist, singer, and songwriter. A longtime and frequent guest on A Prairie Home Companion, he sang with the 2016 Transatlantic Sessions, and at the Transatlantic Session's debut at Merlefest in 2017. The Gibson Brothers version of his song “Singing As We Rise” won the IBMA award for Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year, and with Eric Gibson, he shared the IBMA Song of the Year award for “They Called It Music.” 

Travis Stuart

Travis began playing the banjo as a teen in Haywood County, NC. A respected multi-instrumentalist known for his rich style and accompaniment, he's especially known for his banjo/fiddle duets with his late brother Trevor. He learned from old-time masters like the Smathers family, Oscar "Red" Wilson, Snuffy Jenkins, Byard Ray, and Tommy Hunter, and has toured throughout the U.S. and several foreign countries as a member of several bluegrass and old-time bands. He appears on a number of recordings, teaches in the old-time music program at ETSU, and has led the Haywood County JAM for many years.