Sept 9, 2017
Vancouver BC
Meet the Instructors
Janie Rothfield, WB "Bruce" Reid and Bex Winnick
Bex Winnick
Appalachian Clogging-Guitar
WB "Bruce" Reid
Fiddle, banjo, guitar
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 released 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)! Jane performs with numerous bands, including Coracree, Hen's Teeth,The Janie Rothfield Old Time Duo/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
Bex Winnick
Bex plays guitar, fiddle, and calls square dances with the Wooly Bears and the Western Family String Band. She started playing fiddle at the Portland Oldtime Gathering in 2012, and has been addicted to the oldtime lifestyle ever since. The Wooly Bears host monthly square dances in Vancouver and plays for a variety of community events. The Western Family String Band is on a tent-camping tour this summer in northern BC, playing square dances at music festivals and tree-planting camps in the forest!
Bex is a founding member of EVOS (East Van Oldtime Social), which kicked off it's first yearly event in April 2017. She also founded LiveWire, a fusion dance in Vancouver that features a different blues-inspired band each month.
WB "Bruce" Reid WB Reid is known for his accomplished playing on several instruments in a variety of styles. WB played and learned alot from Lee Stripling and they started playing together soon after they met around 1998. Lee is the son of the famous Alabama fiddler Charlie Stripling of the duo "The Stripling Brothers," and he moved to Seattle just after WWII, and soon after quit playing the fiddle much. Lee & WB performed as a duo, and as "The Lee Stripling Trio" (with Bonnie, doing western swing trios and twin fiddling), and as "Lee Stripling and His Six Footed Boys" (with Tony Mates and Glenn Dudley, specializing in playing Lee's dad's tunes for contra and square dances). Lee Stripling passed away in April of 2009 at the age of 87 after a brief fight with cancer.
WB was the fiddler for four year with the premier Seattle band, The Tallboys,playing regular square dances twice a month and scores of parties and weddings. At the same time, he played guitar-banjo and fiddle in the traditional New England contra dance band, The Rhythm Rollers, with the legendary Bob McQuillen at the piano. All while frequently playing jugband music and fiddle rags with The Todalo Shakers with Eric & Suzy Thompson, and just about everything in a duo with his wife, Bonnie Zahnow. He has taught for four decades at music camp and in private lessons.
https://soundcloud.com/wb-reid/sets/wb-bonnies-new-cd-ryestraw-sample-tracks
