Instructor and Jam Leader Bios:
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.
David Brägger is an enigmatic force in contemporary traditional American music, known for his work as a fiddler, banjoist, documentarian, UCLA ensemble director, and producer, as well as his explorations into experimental electronic and drone-based sound. Described by Rolling Stone as the “curator of the American music preservationist initiative the Old-Time Tiki Parlour,” he later founded the indie folk label Tiki Parlour Recordings. A dedicated 78rpm record collector, music festival director, and filmmaker, Brägger has produced more than 40 album and video releases, cultivating a global audience drawn to the depth and authenticity of early American music. His music and label releases have received praise from artists and outlets including Bruce Molsky, Brad Leftwich, Jody Stecher, John Paul Jones, Ry Cooder, Tenacious D, No Depression, and Dusted Magazine. And his greatest passion in life is teaching fiddle and banjo music to his students.
Dee Farnsworth works in animation as a Visual Development Artist. She loves bluegrass and old time harmony and plays mandolin in Smoke Holler band.
Lindsey Moore Ford is a writer and performer living in Los Angeles. She grew up in Atlanta and the old time spirit is deep within her. She became a caller after falling in love with the craft attending the third Saturday square dance in Los Angeles from 2016 to 2019. She started learning from Susan Michaels in 2019 at Dare To Be Square West and she’s happy to continue the tradition of bringing people into the fold. You can attend the second Saturday square dance which Lindsay is a member of the group, L.A. Squares that now organizes it. Catch her calling! Full circle moments baby!
James Hutson has been calling dances since before you were born.* His clear instructions and enthusiastic presentations are enhanced by his knowledge of social dance history, making him a popular favorite among Southern California dancers. His specialties are square dances, contra dances, English country dances, and historical dances from various eras.
*Assuming you were born after 1989.
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.
Tula B. Strong is a Liberian-American banjoist, choreographer, and educator. She creates art that centers cultural lineage, history, and storytelling — focusing her research specifically on the dances and sounds of the African Diaspora and Oceania Regions. As a banjoist training under the tutelage of Old-Time Musician, David Brägger, her work hones in on the African/African-American legacy within Old-Time Music and the banjo, specifically. You can find Tula on all social media platforms @tula.b.strong
Born and raised in Romney, West Virginia, multi-instrumentalist, Ben Townsend has studied Appalachian traditional music extensively. With banjo mentors such as Riley Baugus and Ron Mullennex, and Fiddle mentors the likes of Dave Bing, Joe Herrmann, and Earl White, Townsend has studied a variety of old-time traditions ranging from the archaic, haunting fiddle of his home to the Round Peak music of North Carolina and Virginia to the Bluegrass styles of East Kentucky and Ohio.
As a member of The Fox Hunt, Old Sledge, The Iron Leg Boys, The Hackensaw Boys, The Hillbilly Gypsies, and now as a solo performer Ben Townsend has traveled across the country and around the world spreading his unique take on West Virginia regional old-time music. He has shared the stage with acts varying from Ralph Stanley of Clinch Mountain, VA to the Henry Girls of County Donegal, Ireland to the Taiko drummers of Yamagata Prefecture, Japan, and the rowdy Aussies at the Yarra Junction Fiddler’s Convention in Victoria, Australia.
Townsend is also a devoted teacher of the music of his region both online and in person. He has been involved in the Augusta Heritage Festival in Elkins, West Virginia as a staff musician, teacher, and coordinator, and has also worked as an instructor at The Allegheny Echoes Festival in Marlinton, West Virginia, Common Ground on the Hill at McDaniel College in Maryland and The Upper Potomac Fiddle Festival in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia just to name a few. A lesson series Towsend maintains can be found at Patreon.
Currently, Ben is working on new projects combining tradition and technology to challenge the boundaries of performance art and music. Under the name Tabernacle, he combines synthesis and found materials with traditional instrumentation to create both albums and performances of evolving ambient music. He also performs as a fiddler in a 4 piece instrumental ensemble called Ice Mountain that blurs the lines between Appalachian history and contemporary jazz and heavy metal. All of his most recent works can be found on Questionable Records a small label he curates
Joe Wack began playing old time in his teens and twenties in West Virginia. He moved to Los Angeles in the early 90’s and is now retired after a career in television and movie animation. Throughout he has played in bands with friends at area dances and festivals. For the last two decades, Joe has hosted the monthly Audubon Old Time Jam in Debs Park.