March 24-26, 2017
Meet the Instructors
Betty Vornbrock
Gailanne Amundsen
Shona Carr
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 has She is known for her melodic and rhythmic style on both fiddle and banjo, and original tunes. Her newest solo CD, OUT OF THIN AIR, features all of her own compositions and songs, and she released two recordings in 2016-a 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)!
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. 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! Her tunes have won the Best Non-Traditional Tune at Clifftop Appalachian Stringband Festival TWICE! Jane performs with numerous bands, including Coracree, Hen's Teeth, The Janie Rothfieldand with daughter Shona Carr as Little Missy.
Betty Vornbrock
Betty Vornbrock is an accomplished fiddler in several different traditional styles. Her first love is that of the Appalachian Mountains, and has focused on the tunes of West Virginia, Kentucky, and the Blue Ridge since the late '70's. Her classes concentrate on the diversity of these regions and players to help students develop their own sound. Betty's Old-Time influences include West Virginia fiddlers Wilson Douglas, Melvin Wine, Sarah Singleton, and Burl and Edon Hammons; Kentucky fiddlers J.P. Fraley, Ed Haley, Clyde Davenport, and Snake Chapman; and, close to her home in Virginia’s Blue Ridge, Ralph Blizard, Tommy Jarrell, Emmett Lundy, and Henry Reed. Betty has taught at private homes, Augusta Heritage Workshops, Cowan Creek Mountain Music Week, Blue Ridge Old Time Music Week (Mars Hill), and Chestnut Creek School of the Arts. She also teaches private lessons, and is on faculty of a valued after-school program in Galax, VA – Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM).
Betty and her band, the Reed Island Rounders, hit the festival circuit each summer, and have taken honors at Galax, Mount Airy, Clifftop, Glenville, Fiddler's Grove, and many of the other fiddlers' conventions. The band loves to play for squaredances and contras, festivals, and house concerts. The Rounders have produced 3 CDs as a band; Betty joined J.P. Fraley on their twin fiddle CD “Side by Side”; and she has a few collaborations with others over the years.
Please visit: www.reedisland.com/RIR/rounders.htm
Gailanne Amundsen Gailanne Amundsen is an award winning fiddler, singer and clawhammer banjo player and Song writer from Orlando Florida. She has been playing and performing since she was before 10 years old and has numberous recordings with her family band, Jubals Kin with whom she was in the finals at Clifftop Appalachian Music Festival Neo Trad band 2011-2013. More recently, she won the Florida State banjo competition in 2014, and won ribbons in dulcimer, fiddle and autoharp. In 2014, her new band, “The Buck Stops Here” finished 2nd at Clifftop, and won the “Best New Tune” award. In 2015 Buffalo Gap (with Gailanne and Shona Carr), won the prestigious Traditional Band Competition at Clifftop.
She has participated in and led workshops in fiddle, banjo, guitar and songwriting. She has been a staff assistant on banjo and fiddle on many occasions, for instance at Suwanee Banjo Camp and at numerous Janie’s Jumpstart camps. Gailanne's also plays with The Buck Stops Here (with Shona Carr), and their debut CD has garnered them critical acclaim and bookings at festivals and concerts, including MerleFest, IBMA, and more!
Shona Carr
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 has taught clawhammer banjo at 3 Janie's Jumpstart weekends, as well as singing and harmony mini classes. She uses an easy going approach for teaching both Novice and Intermediate level players, to help use more technique and rhythm in their playing.
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!
