15th Ever Los Angeles Old Time Social is a Social!
Instructor and Jam Leader Bios:
Ruth Alpert first saw flatfooting at Don West’s festival held at his homestead in Pipestem, West Virginia in 1968. It went straight to her heart and never let go! She is a Grand Champion in 2019 and 2023 at The Appalachian String Band Festival at Clifftop, WVA. She was a member of The Fast Peso String Band in Santa Fe, NM for 15 years and The Honeysuckle Possums, a Santa Barbara all female Americana band, prior to relocating to Western North Carolina last summer.
Nick Bachman is an Iowa-born fiddler and animator living in Altadena.
Chris Berry has been playing country blues and old-time country music on guitar and banjo for about 35 years. He’s been a fixture at the Old-Time Social and LA-area festivals for almost that long. Find him with his band Sausage Grinder or on YouTube at @banjochris.
Traditional fiddler and banjoist David Bragger has become a ubiquitous figure in traditional American folk music. He is a musician, documentarian, UCLA ensemble director, 78rpm record collector, musical festival director and co-founder of the independent folk label Tiki Parlour Recordings. Having learned the “old-time” art of fiddling directly from two generations of traditional masters, David has been passing down these archaic musical secrets and sounds to fiddlers and banjo players worldwide.
His critically-acclaimed debut CD Big Fancy instantly put him on the traditional music map and paved the way for his groundbreaking sophomore release, “King’s Lament–Old-Time Fiddle Duets.” David has also recorded and performed with artists as diverse as Brad Leftwich & Linda Higginbotham, Hog-eyed Man, Rafe Stefanini, Bad Religion, Social Distortion, Paula Poundstone, Greg Graffin, and also provided the banjo and fiddle solos for the western feature film “Gone Are The Days.” David has also produced, directed and recorded over 30 CDs and video projects for Tiki Parlour Recordings
Dee Farnsworth works in animation as a Visual Development Artist. She loves bluegrass and old time harmony and plays mandolin in Smoke Holler band.
Jeremy Horton has been calling square dances in Southern California since 2017. He’s beyond stoked that LAOTS is happening.
Kelly Marie Martin plays old time American music on guitar, banjo, and upright bass. Her solo album The Last Kind Word is available on bandcamp along with an album of duets with accordionist Erin Schneider, Trials, Tribulations, and Tune Sandwich with quintet Echo Mountain. An erstwhile touring bassist with San Francisco-based band Skillet Licorice, she is also a guest on their Tiki Parlour Recordings release, All Sorts Orchestra. She hosts a First Thursday Jam at 1642 and was a founder of the Social!
Susan Platz, originally from Illinois, has been singing and playing the violin all her life. She holds a degree in music from Lawrence University, and became a permanent member of the band Sausage Grinder after years of studying Old-Time fiddle with David Bragger in Los Angeles. She is a powerful singer and has taught Old-Time yodeling workshops at festivals around the country. When she’s not playing music, Susan is a pediatric occupational therapist and has been serving children with special needs and their families for over 7 years.
Tom Sauber has played oldtime, bluegrass and Cajun music for over sixty years, learning personally from numerous great older generation players, and has performed and taught extensively throughout the U.S. and internationally.
Joe Wack began playing guitar, banjo, and fiddle during his younger years in W. Va., living in the country and working as a spoonmaker. Having moved to Los Angeles in ‘93, he is retired from a career in animation, plays music with his wife and friends, and hosts the monthly Audubon Old Time Jam in Debs Park.