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MLAG 2009 Featured Performers

Mike FentonMike 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 MuellerKaren 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 TrashRed 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 WhitmerCharles 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 LewisBob 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 HarrelCraig 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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