Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering Performers

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MLAG 2009 Featured Performers

Mike Fenton -From Worcestershire, England, Mike Fenton was inspired to take up the autoharp after meeting Mother Maybelle Carter in Birmingham, England, in 1968. In 1986 he quit his job as a school principal to play autoharp professionally, and in 1987, won the International Autoharp Championship in Winfield, Kansas. He is also a three-time winner of the blue ribbon for Autoharp at the Galax Old Fiddlers’ Convention in Virginia. He has led workshops at many festivals including the Autoharp Jamboree in Mountain View, Arkansas, the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering in Pennsylvania, the Willamette Valley Autoharp Gathering in Oregon, and Winfield. In 1997, Mike was inducted into the Autoharp Hall of Fame for contributions to the autoharp community. Known for the clarity and variety of his styles on the instrument, he has a particular interest in its place in the old-time setting. He is a respected teacher and jam session leader, well-known for his ability to teach large multi-level groups. Also skilled on guitar, dobro, mountain dulcimer, and Jew’s harp, his ability to play fast fiddle tunes on the autoharp is legendary.

Karen Mueller - Karen Mueller is one of the top autoharp players performing and teaching today. Her exciting and innovative performing style, featuring Appalachian, Celtic and contemporary music, has been applauded by critics and audiences from LA to Boston. In 2006 she was inducted into the Autoharp Hall of Fame, twenty years after winning the International Autoharp Championship (1986), making her the youngest player recognized for either honor. Karen has made her mark on the acoustic music scene as both an interpreter of tradition and an innovator, and has performed with such legendary artists as Liz Carroll (all-Ireland fiddle champion) and Tony Trischka (banjo master). Karen has recorded four CDs: Landscape of the Heart, Clarity, Still Point and Autoharp Gourmet, and is featured on numerous anthologies, including Autoharp Legacy and Masters of the Mountain Dulcimer. She is the author of Mel Bay Publishing’s Celtic Autoharp book, and her own Autoharp Gourmet book. Karen has taught and performed at weeklong programs such as the Augusta Heritage Center (WV), the Swannanoa Gathering (NC), and Sore Fingers Week (England), and at festivals coast to coast, including the California Traditional Music Society Summer Solstice Festival, New York’s Old Songs Festival, the Mountain Laurel, California and Willamette Valley Autoharp Gatherings, and the Walnut Valley Festival in Kansas. In 2006 she cofounded the Seattle Autoharp Week with Bryan Bowers, Cathy Britell and Richard Scholtz.

Red Mountain White Trash - Red Mountain plays good-time, old-time string band music. At festivals and clubs you’ll hear them play high-energy dance tunes and old-timey blues, and sing songs from the earliest days of country music, when folks like the Carter Family and the Delmore Brothers were the stars. You’re likely to hear a lot of impromptu humor as well. Red Mountain’s expertise as a dance band has garnered them invitations to dance festivals across the country. At dances they dip into their large repertoire of powerful contradance medleys and driving square dance tunes. They learned many of their tunes from older fiddlers in Alabama and Tennessee, and they play in a style that reflects the region in which they live. Folks often describe Red Mountain as a wall of sound. Components of this sound are fiddle by Jim Cauthen, guitar by Joyce Cauthen, mandolin by Phil Foster, harmonica and banjo uke by Jamie Finley, autoharp by Bill Martin and bass by Nancy Jackson.

Charles Whitmer - Charles Whitmer has been teaching autoharp workshops since 1985 and has been teaching music in the public schools from 1982 to the present. Currently teaching middle school band in Coldspring, Texas, he has a bachelor of music degree (1980) and a master of music education degree (1989) from the University of Houston. His workshops outside the public schools are teaching autoharp and Sacred Harp shape note singing. Programs for which he has taught autoharp and performed include The Augusta Heritage Arts Workshops in West Virginia, The Ozark Folk Center in Arkansas, The Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering in Pennsylvania, The Willamette Valley Autoharp Gathering in Oregon, The California Traditional Music Society’s Summer Solstice Festival in California, the Summer Stringalong in Wisconsin, the Winter Festival of Acoustic Music in Texas, as well as many festivals across the US and Japan. In addition to teaching autoharp workshops and performing on autoharp, he also has over 500 traditional songs of sheet music arranged for autoharp in print. He also was a staff member for The Autoharpoholic magazine.

Bob Lewis - Originally from southern Pennsylvania, Bob Lewis began playing the autoharp after purchasing one of the very first 21 bar models in 1975. Bob won the second Mountain Laurel contest in 1992 after placing third the year before. He won the International Autoharp Championship in Winfield, Kansas, in 1996 after placing second in 1995. Bob has performed and/or led workshops at a number of festivals including Mountain Laurel (MLAG), the Willamette Valley Autoharp Gathering in Oregon (WVAG), and the Cranberry Dulcimer Gathering. Carolan tunes played cleanly and with authenticity are central to Bob’s music. That Celtic theme also often carries over to choices in songs. Rounding out the programs are some fast fiddle pieces taken mainly from Bob’s contest material or other fiddle jam tunes. He avoids autoharp stereotypical material. An important element of Bob’s music, aside from precisely prepared instruments, is the special way his instruments are tuned. Without consideration for playing with other instruments, Bob is able to find an instrument’s best voice by way of temperaments that are sweeter sounding than conventional equal temperament application and keys that may not be encountered often in day to day playing with others.

Craig Harrel - Craig Harrel is an autoharp wizard. In 2008, he was the first place winner of both the International Autoharp Championship (Winfield) and the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Championship (the two premier autoharp contests in the world) – making him only the third person in history to win both competitions in the same calendar year. Craig’s music captures a wide range of human emotion and spans several different genres including classical, old time, Celtic, gospel, blues, and patriotic. His earliest musical influences came from singing in his church and listening to classic Beatle records. Growing up he was also a member of The Singing Boys of Houston (now known as the Houston Boychoir) where, at the age of 12, he performed with the Houston Symphony Orchestra in Jones Hall. Craig has been an autoharp instructor at the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering in Pennsylvania, the Walnut Valley Festival’s “Autoharp Junction” in Winfield, Kansas, the North Harris County Dulcimer Society in Houston, the Palestine Old Time Music & Dulcimer Festival in Palestine, Texas, and the Bayou City Old Time Music Festival in Houston. Craig’s major autoharp influences have been Charles Whitmer and Lucille Reilly. He lives with his wife, Anne, in Houston, Texas.

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