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Cathy Barton Para - Cathy Barton Para has been playing banjo for more than thirty-five years in both the clawhammer and two-finger picking styles. She worked with Grandpa and Ramona Jones in their crafts shop and dinner theater in Mountain View, AR in the 1970s and 1980s, and she toured with Ramona Jones for several years. Her banjo repertoire is influenced by Grandpa and Ramona, and by Missouri fiddlers such as the late Taylor McBaine and Pete McMahan. Her musical interests also include early country music, and music from the Civil War and Lewis-and-Clark eras. She and her husband Dave Para tour the United States, Europe and Canada and are best known for performing songs and tunes collected from traditional singers and fiddlers in their home state of Missouri and the Ozarks region. Cathy won the Tennessee State Banjo Championship two times, she appeared on the "Grand Old Opry," and on the television shows "Hee Haw" and "Nashville Now." She and Dave have made ten duet recordings. (The Cathy Barton and Dave Para Web Site) (Cathy Barton Para at Elderly.com)

Mac Benford has been playing the 5-string banjo for 40 years. He was fortunate enough in his formative years to have direct contact with great players like Wade Ward, Kyle Creed, Tom Ashley, and Roscoe Holcomb, all of whom strongly influenced his playing. He came to prominence during the 70s as a member of the legendary Highwoods String Band. Later on, while performing and recording with the Backwoods Band and the Woodshed Allstars, Mac expanded on the traditional role of the clawhammer banjo as a lead and backup instrument. His recent releases Kentucky Favorites and Half Past Four: A Tribute to Ed Haley, showcases his ability to capture the melodic subtlety of complex fiddle tunes without sacrificing the ring and drive of the best traditional playing. (Mac Benford Web Site) (Mac Benford at Elderly.com)

Howie Bursen is best known for his gravity-defying, triplet-filled fiddle-tune variations, and his eclectic recordings contain quite a number of extraordinary clawhammer solos. He is not only one of today's foremost practitioners of the style, but he is also an excellent singer, song-writer and guitarist. His responisibilities as foreman of a Connecticut winery generally keep him close to home, but when possible he tours with his wife, folk-singer Sally Rogers, with whom he has made two recordings -- "When Sally Met Howie," and "Satisfied Customers." Howie has taught clawhammer at the Maryland Banjo Academy, Common Ground on the Hill, and Banjo Camp North. His recordings include "Cider in the Kitchen," "Building Boom," and "Banjo Manikin." (Howie Bursen at Elderly.com)

Bob Carlin has taken the distinctive southern banjo style to appreciative audiences all over the US, Canada and Europe and he is a three-time winner of the late Frets Magazine "Favorite Banjoist" readers poll. He has several solo recordings with Rounder Records, including Banging and Sawing, Where Did You Get That Hat?, and Fiddle Tunes For Clawhammer Banjo, in addition to which he as recorded duo CDs with Bruce Molsky and John Hartford. He also played as a regular in Hartford's band for several years prior to the latter's untimely demise. A noted teacher, Bob recorded a two volume instructional series on clawhammer for Homespun Tapes, and he has served as instructor at the American Festival of Fiddle Tunes and at the Ashoken Fiddle and Dance Camp. He started his career as sought after producer of acoustic recordings by organizing the seminal recording, Melodic Clawhammer Banjo back in the 1970s. He is also a highly regarded folkloris (Bob Carlin's Web Site: cartunesrecordings.com) ( Bob Carlin at Elderly.com)

Chris Coole (co-leader, old-time novice program), was first attracted to the sounds of old-time and bluegrass music as a teenager growing up in Toronto, Ontario. In the late 90s, his style of clawhammer began to reach a wider audience with the release of his first two C.D.s - both collaborations with fellow Torontonian Arnie Naiman -- entitled "Five Strings Attached With No Backing" and "Five Strings Attached, Vol. 2." Both recordings featured sparse, well played rrangements of traditional tunes as well as a number of original compositions. Apart from his own recordings he can also be heard as a sideman on over thirty CDs by Canadian artists such as Sylvia Tyson, Ron Hynes, Jenny Whiteley and April Verch. Chris performs regularly with Crazy Strings, The Foggy Hogtown Boys and with fiddler Erynn Marshall. ( Chris Coole at Elderly.com) (Chris Coole Web Site)

Cathy Fink In 1980 Cathy Fink became the first woman to win the West Virginia State Old Time Banjo contest, an honor she earned 3 times. Beginning in 1984, she has taught banjo, guitar, fiddle, vocal styles and more at a number of major music camps such as Augusta Folk Heritage, the Maryland Banjo Academy, the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, Steve Kaufman's Kamp, and Swannanoa. Cathy's banjo recordings include " Banjo Haiku: 26 Clawhammer Banjo Tunes," " Old Time Music Party," " Old Time Slow Jam" with Bruce Molsky and Marcy Marxer, and the new " Singing With the Banjo, Clawhammer Style" DVD on Homespun Tapes. Cathy has won two GRAMMY awards and performs full time with Marcy Marxer. (Cathy Fink at Elderly.com) (Cathy Fink Web Site)

Joe Newberry Joe Newberry is a Missouri native and North Carolina transplant who has played music most of his life. His powerful and innovative banjo playing has won contests around the country, including first-place at the Appalachian String Band Music Festival. He has taught at the Augusta Heritage Workshops, the Swannanoa Gathering, Ashokan, and Pinewoods. His bands include the prize-winning Big Medicine, and the Grey Eagles, a trio with Rafe Stefanini and Jim Collier. Joe also performs with original Red Clay Ramblers Jim Watson, Bill Hicks, and Mike Craver. In addition to his banjo work, Joe is also a fine guitarist, fiddler, and singer. His solo CD "Two Hands" has earned praise from reviewers and fans alike. (Joe Newberry web site) (Joe Newberry at Elderly.com)

Dave Para (Camp Old-time Guitarist) - Dave first studied guitar at the Old Town School of Folk Music in his hometown Chicago where the folk revival has continued unabated. While attending college in Columbia, Mo., he managed the Chez Coffeehouse, an active center for folk music in Central Missouri for 20 years. There he started accompanying several fiddlers and began playing in local string bands. Dave has since been noted often for his expert and distinctive back-up guitar style and has taught workshops at festivals and camps around the U.S. (Dave Para at Elderly.com) (The Cathy Barton and Dave Para Web Site)

Ken Perlman - Perhaps the best-known exponent of the "melodic" clawhammer style, Ken is known where-ever banjos are played as a master of clawhammer technique and an expert teacher of clawhammer mechanics. He has been a Banjo Newsletter columnist for over 20 years; he has written several books on clawhammer instruction including the well known works Melodic Clawhammer Banjo and Clawhammer Style Banjo, and he has recorded several series of audio and video banjo instruction. He has taught at well over a dozen banjo and general music camps including the American Banjo Camp, Banjo Camp North, Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Maryland Banjo Academy, the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp, Common Ground on the Hill, Suwannee Banjo Camp, and the Tennessee Banjo Institute. His most recent recording is Northern Banjo, and his most recent book is Everything You Wanted to Know About Clawhammer Banjo. (Ken Perlman's Web Site)(Ken Perlman at Elderly.com)

Tom Sauber - is an old time musician equally at home playing banjo, fiddle, or guitar. Tom grew up near Los Angeles, where as a teenager he was inspired to learn the 5-string banjo by attending a Pete Seeger concert. Soon afterwards, he began learning the styles and repertoire of Mike Seeger and his band, the New Lost City Ramblers. Following the Ramblers' lead, he began learning from a number of older generation musicians, and while still a teenager he visited such notables as Sam and Kirk McGee, Dock Boggs, Clint Howard, and Doc Watson. At the same time he began playing with older Southern musicians who had emigrated to Southern California, suchas Earl Collins, Ed Lowe, Bob Rogers, and Mel Durham. From over 25 years playing with Ed Lowe, the nephew of Round Peak legend Charlie Lowe, Tom has absorbed both the essence and the subtle techniques of the Round Peak style of clawammer banjo as it is played on both fretted and fretless banjos. He is also a master of finger-style banjo, equally at home playing thumb or index lead 2-finger or old-time 3-finger style. (Tom Sauber at Elderly.com)

Scott "Stretch" Reinsmith - is a repair technician at Elderly Instruments. He started repairing instruments at his home in the late 70's and was the owner of Stretch Guitar Repair in the 90's. Stretch enjoys working on banjos and can do everything from basic setups to refrets, inlays, repair broken headstocks, re-cut neck heels and reset dowel sticks for proper neck angles, Binding repair and replacement and make new fingerboards, He has run a banjo repair shop and taught a repair class at the Midwest Banjo Camp IV & V. ( "Stretch" at Elderly.com)