Guitar

My mother brought a ukulele on a family trip to Atlanta. The 7 hour drive was pretty stressful as three unruly bored brothers turned the backseat into a war zone. In addition to our battles this trip we each learned to play 5’2″ on the uke. My first experience with a stringed instrument. Of course we performed for Grandma, Aunts, Uncles, and cousins. That was over 50 years ago.

Since then I’ve played guitar, upright bass, and uke in assorted bands and groups mostly in Mississippi and Maine. (more…)

Eleanor Buckland is a songwriter, singer, and fiddler, but not always in that order. As a 4th generation performing musician, Eleanor has been singing melodies since before she could talk. So it seems only natural that she would eventually fall in love with writing songs. Growing up in Maine in a musical family, her passion for songwriting and performing grew out of an influence of traditional fiddle, country & bluegrass music, as well as contemporary songwriters and musicians from the Dixie Chicks to Bonnie Raitt to Crooked Still. Her primary musical endeavor is Lula Wiles, her band with fellow Mainers, Isa Burke and Mali Obomsawin. (more…)

Susie Burke has been singing and performing since the early 80s, as a soloist, and a member of several bands and duos, the longest running being with David Surette. Her musical tastes and influences are varied, encompassing contemporary and traditional folk, swing, country, topical songs, and acapella singing, with detours along the way for Broadway showtunes and classic ballads. “She posesses one of the finest, purest ballad voices heard in folk music today” wrote Scott Alarik in the Boston Globe, noting that “her phrasing is unerringly devoted to the lyric…Burke displays a gift for pulling honest emotional chords – all too rare in these clever and cynical times.”  (more…)

Guitarist John Coté has been performing for contra dances since he first fell in love with this pastime back in 1995. John did his music studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston as well as the University of Maine at Augusta and incorporates a variety of influences in addition to what he has absorbed through the music of New England contra dance. Bringing his love of community and potent dance music, John has earned national recognition on the contra dance circuit, touring the United States with fiddler and fellow Maine Fiddle Camp instructor Ed Howe in their duo, Perpetual e-Motion. (more…)

Dan Faiella is a guitarist specializing in traditional Celtic music.  Trained as an accompanist through years of playing for New England contra dances and for Irish fiddlers, he has performed at venues and festivals around the country with numerous traditional music groups, as well as in a duo with his sister and longtime musical collaborator, fiddler and singer Liz Faiella.  In his solo playing, Dan’s fingerstyle arrangements of traditional songs and tunes draw extensively on techniques and ornamentation from traditional idioms such as Celtic harp-playing and Sean-nós singing.  To hear music from his duo project with his sister Liz, visit www.lizanddanmusic.com.

Noah Fishman is a multidimensional performer, composer, and educator who bends the lines between folk, chamber, and jazz. Raised in coastal Maine, Noah studied music at Princeton and the University of Michigan, and in 2019 was selected for the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead residency at The Kennedy Center. Noah attended and volunteered at Maine Fiddle Camp for many years before joining the staff, and adores the MFC community. For more information go to noahfishmanmusic.com.

Vogue magazine calls musician Owen Marshall “A guitar/mandolin/banjo player rivaled in character only by the occasional three-pronged carrot” (Vogue 2009). With the music traditions of Quebec and Nova Scotia just over the border from his home in Vermont and the strong Irish musical scene of Boston to the south, Owen was immersed in the various textures and sounds of the Celtic music from an early age. In addition to touring with acts such as The Seamus Egan Project, Copley Street, Riptide, and The Press Gang. Owen is in demand at music camps throughout New England and the U.S., where he shares his approach to accompanying traditional music. www.owenmarshallmusic.com

Eric McDonald has been instructing and performing on the mandolin for a number of years. In addition to his experience in the world of traditional music, Eric spent two and a half years studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he learned from some of the best including mandolinist John McGann and cellist Eugiene Friesen. Exposure to jazz and other styles come through in his playing. Eric has spent the last three years touring with bands such as The Dave Rowe Trio, Matching Orange, Jaded Mandolin and others. You can hear him on many independent recordings by Boston based artists, and you can catch him teaching at the Passim School of Music in Cambridge.

Jeff plays button accordion, guitar, banjo, and the hammiest of bones. Jeff has played with The Old Grey Goose for over twenty years, doing innumerable workshops in schools all over the state, and keeping the old-time music in Maine alive. A resident of Montville, he gets the fire permit every year and helps host the camper concerts, and providing the best of accompaniment for fiddlers.
RFD 1 Box 2155 Freedom ME O4941 207-342-5253

Bill Olson teaches both guitar and upright bass at Maine Fiddle Camp. He is probably best known at home and abroad as a contradance caller and choreographer. Bill has played and called for dances in 25 states and his dance compositions, known for their high potential energy and excellent flow, and are called by contradance callers all over the world. Bill started playing guitar in 1958, dancing in 1976, calling in 1985, and playing bass in 1993. He has been singing all his life.

Award winning musician, educator and founding member of The Gaslight Tinkers, Peter Siegel contributes a radical chord to American Roots music. Influenced by the songwriting of Pete Seeger and Phil Ochs, dixieland, old time fiddle tunes and Afro-Caribbean rhythms, Peter’s music defies categorization.  Over the years he’s shared the stage and been mentored by  folks like Pete Seeger, Jay Unger and Molly Mason, Judy Collins, Dar Williams, Utah Phillips, Noel Paul Stookey, and was a bandmate of bluegrass powerhouse  Michael Daves and poet Alicia Jo Rabins in the 90’s “New Old Time” band Underbelly which the Berkshire Eagle called “a supergroup of New England talent”.

David Stimson began backing up country dance music on the guitar in 1965 at the age of eleven. During several summers the 1960s he attended Pinewoods cape with his family while his stepfather, Bob Guillard, taught Morris Dancing and English Country Dance. David’s was first exposed to Contra Dance during the evening dances at Pinewoods; however, the disease remained latent until he learned English Concertina and joined the Woods Hole Folk Orchestra in1979. (more…)

Bethany Waickman is a guitarist based out of Portland, Maine. She grew up in a musical family in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York state. After college she spent some time traveling, hiking, and playing music in Ireland. Upon returning, she moved to Boston to focus on music. She co-founded the contra dance trio, Anadama, and is the guitarist for VT-based fiddler/singer Lissa Schneckenburger. (more…)

Fred ‘s (guitar, percussion, vocals) musical debut occurred on the floor of his parents’ kitchen, surrounded by pots and pans, long before he ever heard of Ginger Baker or Gene Krupa. For the most recent 45 years he has been performing and recording oldtime, string band, hillbilly, rockabilly, blues, bluegrass, jazz, swing, minstrels, ragtime and Americana music. His trio, Waxlips, made award winning waves in North Carolina in the mid-80’s and (more…)