Janie Rothfield is an award winning clawhammer banjo player and powerhouse fiddler who has been playing Old Time Music “forever”! Janie got her start playing with older generation fiddlers and banjo players from New England, North Carolina and Quebec and since high school has had bands that played music rooted in Traditional American and Celtic music styles. She is known for her melodic and rhythmic style on both fiddle AND clawhammer banjo!, and original tunes. Two of her tunes have won the Best Non-Traditional Tune at Clifftop Appalachian Stringband Festival! Her newest solo CD, OUT OF THIN AIR, features all of her own compositions and songs, and in 2016 she release both wonderful CD of Fiddle/Harmonica duets with harmonica master, Brendan Power called PUFNSAW, and OFF THE CUFF AND ON THE FLY with her duo Hen's Teeth (With Nathan Bontrager)! Jane performs with numerous bands, including Coracree, Hen's Teeth, The Janie Rothfield Old Time Trio and with daughter Shona Carr as Little Missy.
Janie has taught clawhammer banjo and fiddle for over 35 years, privately and at camps and festivals such as Banjo Camp North, Old Songs Summer Camps, Janie's Jumpstart, Heart of the Alleghanies Festival, Philadelphia Folk Festival, Folk College and the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes and even as far away as Australia! Her teaching method combines an easy to learn technique that combines strategies for learning to play by ear quickly with a focus on musicality and rhythm!
"Janie came highly recommended so I had high expectations. They were met and exceeded. I've been playing fiddle for years, trying to learn from books and the internet. After Janie showed me the proper way to hold the fiddle and bow, and proper bowing technique, all those tunes I know became so much easier to play. Then she showed me the most important thing about playing any instrument; the difference between playing notes and making music. And the whole time I never feel like I'm taking lessons. I feel like I'm just hanging out playing music and learning new things. Most importantly, I'm excited about learning because it has become fun again." Jamie McCracken- Janie's Fiddle student
“Janie has shown me how to pull the melody out of old time tunes on my banjo… to make them less busy and more musical. I had developed some poor habits throwing every banjo cliché I ever learned into each tune I played. Janie showed me how to strip out all of the unnecessary stuff… to concentrate on the melody and rhythm which ultimately “pops” the tunes and makes them more beautiful.” Tim Wade-clawhammer banjo (Doylestown, PA)
https://hensteethduo.bandcamp.com/releases Listen to Janie with Hen's Teeth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnGu_bHMLMY Garfields Blackberry Blossom
November 10-12, 2017
Oxford PA
Meet the Instructors
Paul Brown
Paul Brown is a prize winning old time musician who can’t get enough of down home, old time and bluegrass music. And he loves to share it. He started singing the songs his mom knew from central Virginia when he was a little kid. He picked up the banjo at age ten and the fiddle and guitar as a young man. He steeped himself in the music of his elders the best way possible: by playing with them at home and on the road for decades. Paul is prize winning banjo picker and fiddler and has taught at workshops, camps and festivals throughout the US. Paul is a retired NPR radio journalist who started his radio career at WPAQ in Mount Airy, NC. He’s a veteran of the Toast String Stretchers and the Smokey Valley Boys with Benton Flippen, among other old time bands. He currently performs with his wife, Terri McMurray as The Mountain Birch Duo.
Paul and Terri Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoRFJd47rtU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vGsbwaHQsw
Terri McMurray Terri brings a sharp wit, a smile and great chops on 5-string banjo, banjo uke, and guitar to every performance. She looked and listened hard during her years around some of the great master traditional musicians in North Carolina and southern Virginia, including Tommy Jarrell and Luther Davis, and it shows in her playing. After winning the Galax Fiddlers Convention old time banjo contest in 1982, Terri played with the Old Hollow String Band. Then she played with the Toast String Stretchers for more than 20 years. She has taught banjo at festivals and camps throughout the US and currently performs with her husband, Paul Brown at The Mountain Birch Duo.
Kellie Allen started playing old-time music in her teens playing tunes and singing with her brother, a wonderful fiddler and banjo player, Greg Allen. She is known for her powerful and inventive back up guitar style that is firmly rooted to the traditional old time way for backing up a fiddler, playing in a stringband or accompanying a singer. Kellie has taught old-time guitar, bass, and singing at festivals and music camps around the world: including Janie's Jumpstart (PA and CA), Blue Ridge Old Time Week (NC), Breaking Up Winter (TN), Folk College,(PA), Stephen Foster Old Time Weekend (FL), Gainsborourgh (UK) and Maldon FF (Australia). Kellie has won many old time music prizes playing with the Orpheus Supertones and Waking Up Tillie, as well as awards in Old Time Singing. She currently plays with her husband Pete Peterson, singing old time and early country duets, with The Orpheus Supertones (with Clare Milliner and Walt Koken), Sugar Pie (with Janie Rothfield and Hilarie Burhans) and the Janie Rothfield Old Time Trio. She and Pete have a CD of duets titled "I'll Never Forsake You", and numerous CD's with the Orpheus Supertones and Waking up Tillie.
"Kellie Allen has been giving me guitar lessons for almost a year now. Since she is immersed in OT music and it is literally her life, she plays beautifully and instinctively and yet understands what she is doing so well, she can break anything down and talk about it on whatever level you are at. Just pick a song and Kellie can teach you everything you want and need to know about how to play it. In addition, she is kind, patient and fun. Kellie quickly tunes into you and your needs as a guitar student. She cares that you “get” what she is teaching you and will work with you patiently until you do. Kellie is the best guitar teacher I could ask for." Amy Sternhell
"Kellie Allen is one of, if not my favorite teacher. Her style and teaching techniques are second to none. I have taken her class several times. From as far away as Florida, Tennessee and North Carolina. If she teaches anywhere close by, I am there. I never get tired of taking her class. Few teachers have ever had such a profound influence on my musical journey and one I am and will always be thankful for. She is the best." Fred Staples
Shona Carr is an award winning singer and song writer who was born into a musical family rich in traditional Old Time and Celtic Music. She grew up surrounded by fiddle and banjo music from her mother Janie Rothfield, and Scottish traditional singing and Celtic music from her father, Allan Carr who is from Aberdeen, Scotland. Shona’s music and singing reflects the fusion of these musical styles and she is known for her unique voice, song and tune writing. Shona plays fiddle, banjo, tenor guitar and guitar and performs with her band THE BUCK STOPS HERE, LOST INDIAN and with Jane Rothfield as LITTLE MISSY. Shona’s original tune “Fly Bird” won the 2014 Best Original Tune at the Clifftop Appalachian Stringband Festival and her band, The Buck Stops Here took home 2nd place for Neo-Traditional band! In 2015, Shona’s band, Buffalo Gap won FIRST PLACE TRADITIONAL BAND at Clifftop Appalachian Stringband Festival! She has performed throughout the East Coast of the U.S. in concerts and festivals such as the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Old Songs Festival, the Music Fest at Sugar N’ Grove, Merle Fest, New Bedford Folk Festival and the Portsoy Traditional Music Festival in Portsoy, Scotland! Shona teaches out her home in Staunton VA and has taught numerous times at Janie’s Jumpstart Old Time Weekends in Oxford, PA. www.thebuckstopshereband.com
