Performers & Workshop Leaders

Lynn "Chirps" Smith has been playing fiddle and mandolin for dances, shows, workshops and fun for over 50 years. He has always been interested in the dance music of the Midwest. He knows more tunes than just about anybody we know. He was an original member of the Indian Creek Delta Boys, of which influential fiddler, composer, and tune collector Garry Harrison was the fiddler. He also played with Mark Gunther in the Polecats, and later midwest supergroup the Volo Bogtrotters. 

Sweet Milk & Peaches are a husband and wife duo (Jesse Downs and Liz Voz) from the Driftless Area in Wisconsin, where they play music and tend to their family and orchards. Jesse and Liz play a mix of traditional old-time music, original songs, with melodies that reflect influences from the Upper Midwest to the Southern Appalachians and beyond. They write songs from the gut and pull musty tunes from the attic of the early 20th century and air them out in the 21st century air.

Steam Machine is a midwest based old time/bluegrass music project fronted by award winning Minneapolis fiddler AJ Srubas and Twin Cities old time music & dance instigator Rina Rossi on guitar. A shortlist of spectacular musicians perform with the band on banjo and bass. Two time Appalachian String Band Music Fest (Clifftop) Trad Band Contest finalists, Folk Alliance Midwest Official Showcase Artists, and Class Notes teaching artists, since 2018 they have been touring the region and the country performing at diverse venues from roots music hubs to bluegrass and Americana festivals, and teaching workshops at traditional music enters across the country. At home in Minneapolis, they stay busy volunteering as organizers for many of the local community old time and bluegrass institutions. more info at steammachinemusic.com

Patrik Ahlberg is a multi-instrumentalist from Sweden. His current projects include duets of contemporary tunes and arrangements with Nashville fiddler George Jackson, and a solo exploration of Swedish fiddle tunes on the classical guitar.

Vidar Skrede is a Nordic folk musician and teacher from Haugesund, Norway, currently living in Milwaukee, WI. He is a performer and a teacher of Harding-fiddle, fiddle, and guitar. He has toured all the Nordic countries, Scotland, Canada and the United States, and he has performed with a wide range of artists, such as Arja Saijonmaa (FI), Liz Carroll (US), Bruce Molsky (US), Natalie Haas (US), to mention a few artists outside of his own tradition.

Vidar Skrede and Patrik Ahlberg join their Scandinavian fiddle forces together in this Norwegian-Swedish folk music duo – lynx lynx. This is what music sounds like between two Scandinavian transplants in the Midwest coming together to share their fiddle tunes.

Pop Wagner and Bob Bovee met in 1971 over a bowl of chili one winter's night in the West Bank neighborhood of Minneapolis. After dinner, they played some old-time music. They've been doing that off and on ever since. Pop Wagner lives in St. Paul and performs solo and in various other musical combinations. Bob Bovee resides in the rural area of southeastern Minnesota.  He performs solo as well as with Wagner, plays guitar, harmonica, autoharp and banjo, sings and yodels, and is also a humorist and storyteller. Together they have entertained audiences spanning America, Canada and across the pond, including the Winnipeg Folk Festival, the San Diego Folk Festival, the Five Colleges Folk Festival in Massachusetts, and four tours together in Europe. Bovee and Wagner have been frequent performers at such seminal Midwest venues as the Coffeehouse Extempore and the New Riverside Café (Minneapolis) and Public Radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion”.

Danielle Enblom is a North American dance specialist, fiddler, choreographer, sean-nós dancer, and award-winning step dancer and jigger from Mni Sota Makoce – Minneapolis, Minnesota. Danielle is Red River Métis, with French Canadian and Swedish ancestral roots. She has spent most of her life immersed in Irish tradition, and in adulthood has reconnected to the Métis and French Canadian traditions of her grandparents. Danielle holds a research-based master’s degree in Ethnochoreography (dance anthropology) from Munster Technological University, Ireland, and a Diploma in Traditional Irish Music from University College Cork, Ireland. Danielle has studied with tradition bearers across genres and cultures including Irish, Métis, French Canadian, Appalachian, American Tap, Scottish, and Ottawa Valley. Described as “wild, refined, and joyful” by Deirdre Cronin of Irish Music Magazine and “nothing short of spectacular” by legendary Irish musician and academic, Mick Moloney, Danielle brings a unique, inspired, embodied, and authentic intersection of traditions and cultures to her work as a performer, researcher, and teacher. 

Danielle has shared the stage throughout North America and Europe with many of the world’s top traditional musicians. Her recent work includes the Dance Corps (Corps di Dansii) for Canada’s first full-scale Indigenous-led, and award-winning, Métis Opera, Li Keur: Riel’s Heart of the North. She currently tours with two of Canada's leading traditional musicians - Franco-Ontario master fiddler, Pierre Schryer, and guitar player, Adam Dobres. 

The Wild Goose Chase Cloggers are a non-profit educational organization whose mission is to promote and sustain interest in traditional Appalachian clogging by offering concerts and workshops anywhere they can find an audience. The Wild Goose Chase Cloggers was established in 1979 and consist of 12 dancers accompanied by a live old time stringband. They have been performing across the midwest and internationally for over 40 years and are a frequent favorite at international dance festivals.

Joe Zavaan Johnson (he/they) is a multi-instrumentalist, arts educator, Black music researcher, and native of Ohio. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology at Indiana University-Bloomington, where his dissertation looks at the Black banjo renaissance through the lenses of Black studies, human geography, folklore, and ethnomusicology. Johnson frequently collaborates with grassroots organizations focused on coalition building, community healing, and cultural reparations. He is an inaugural recipient of the Black Banjo Fellowship at the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, where he teaches beginner banjo classes. Recently, Johnson was a featured artist at the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention, the DeFord Bailey Legacy Festival, and the Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival. His mentors include Jake Blount and Brad Leftwich.

Ironstill is the dynamic old-time duo of Josh Rabie and Russell Pedersen. They combine fiddle and banjo traditions into a unique blend of thundering instrumentals and original music. Beautiful harmonies honed in coulee country blanket a spread of down-home songs about the Midwest. Russell is a member of the Wisconsin based touring band Horseshoes & Hand Grenades and Josh plays locally in various projects. Their music is sure to bring a dance to your feet and a smile to your face.

https://www.facebook.com/Ironstillband

Bonfire Music Group recording artists and Twin Cities staple the Roe Family Singers are led by wife & husband Kim and Quillan Roe. Singers, instrumentalists, and songwriters, In 2011 the band was awarded the prestigious McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians; in 2012, they won the Minnesota Duet Contest at the MN State Fair; in 2016, 2018, and 2019, they won the title of Entertainers of the Year from BMAI;  in 2018, they won Album of the Year from BMAI; in 2019, they won Best Band and Best Band Overall from BMAI; and in 2020 their song, “Don’t Worry About the Rich Man,” was #10 overall on the Bluegrass Grassicana charts.

A Michigander originally hailing from the banks of the Thornapple River, Micah has deep roots in Michigan's traditional music community. She cut her teeth as part of her father's Hawks and Owls String Band as a young teen. You can find her performing on cello, clawhammer banjo, and voice with artists like Chris Bathgate, Anne Erlewine, and Molly McBride. This background in traditional music led her to pursue a PhD in Folklore from Indiana University, where she is currently a doctoral candidate. Her dissertation research centers on the relationship between music, material culture, belonging, and nostalgia through an analysis of dress in the American old-time scene. She also worked for the Archives of Traditional Music, the Sage Historic Dress Collection, and Traditional Arts Indiana during her graduate studies. Now based in Lansing, MI, she serves as public programs coordinator and folklorist for the Michigan Traditional Arts Program, Michigan’s statewide folklife organization, and stewards the folklife research collection at the Michigan State University Museum. Info on Molly coming soon!

Bill Peterson is from Canton, South Dakota and has been active in the traditional music scene there since the late 1970s. In 2001 he received a grant from the South Dakota Arts Council’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program to study with fiddler and National Heritage Award recipient Dwight Lamb. Bill made over 300 visits to Dwight’s house in Onawa, Iowa and traveled with him to his gigs in Denmark and all over the United States. He helped Dwight preserve and spread his unique fiddle repertoire to many fiddlers since 2001 to the present time.

Dedo Norris has been backing up fiddlers on the piano, bass, and guitar since the 1970s, as well as being a fiddler herself.  Raised in Connecticut, her mother was her primary mentor- a pianist and singer of classical, ragtime, and Broadway music- but Dedo became entirely “ate up with” traditional fiddle music which she began to discover as a teen.  She has lived in Olympia and Seattle (WA), Philadelphia, western Massachusetts, and now makes St. Louis her home.  These places…strangely…coincidentally… all had lively traditional music and dance communities.  As regards the piano, she was first inspired by the playing of Bob McQuillen, Randy Miller, Sandy Bradley, and others at contra and square dances from the little town of Nelson NH to the big city of Seattle.  Her love of Irish, Québécois, and Cape Breton fiddle music with their history of great piano players also heavily informs her playing. 

She respects the differences in stylistic piano accompaniment for all of these genres and does not think there is “one size fits all”.  As regards the piano in old-time fiddling, she sticks to a basic boom-chuck but sometimes incorporates a slight backbeat and/or swing from her love of Irish, Québécois, and Cape Breton fiddle music with their history of great piano players. 

Jim Nelson is a veteran of the old-time music scene, having sharpened his guitar skills over many years of playing with senior dance fiddlers, especially Bob Holt of Ava, Missouri and Lotus Dickey of Paoli, Indiana, and by keeping a close eye on some of their guitar players. With Geoff and Curt Buckhannon, he played with the St. Louis-based Ill-Mo Boys for over two decades, and produced their three critically acclaimed recordings. He also played with the Volo Bogtrotters from 1985 to 1991 and rejoined the band in 2011-2022. In addition to recordings by the previously mentioned fiddlers and bands, Jim’s solid, creative guitar playing can also be heard on recording projects and performing bands with “younger” contemporary fiddlers like Rhys Jones, Stephanie Coleman, and Jim Lansford, and more recently with Joseph Decosimo in the Rocky Creek Ramblers and the Midwestern Harvesters with Fred Campeau and Chirps Smith. These days he and his wife, Dedo Norris, keep a steady schedule playing dances throughout the Midwest. In addition to performing and playing for dances, Jim also has taught guitar classes and numerous workshops on old-time music at camps and festivals across the country.

Sue Hulsether leads dances from a variety of American folk traditions: square, circles, reels, contras, play parties, singing games, and more. Guided by a passion for creating positive human connections, she calls dances for groups of all types and ages, and is recognized for her clear teaching, welcoming manner on the mic, and engaging humor. Sue lives in rural Southwestern Wisconsin and drives far and wide to call and dance.  www.suehulsether.com

Described by What’s Up Magazine as “a time capsule unearthed, fine-tuned and re-imagined”, McKain Lakey draws creative inspiration from far corners of the American folk music tradition. Lakey blurs lines of old and new, referencing musical textures of past eras while unabashedly exploring topics of mental health, family separation, rural identity and queer love. “My introduction to American folk music was so rooted in the knowledge that I am a part of living tradition, a web connected across time and distance, and built by generations of creative and resilient people.” - McKain Lakey

Mumblin’ Drew’s Oldfangled Orchestrators (MOO) are purveyors of novelty, squeezed through a cheesecloth filter of eccentricity and entertainment. A string band at its core…but with a reed section - fiddle, clarinet, and saxophone play the important notes, while guitar and string bass hold down the rhythm.  MOO reanimates music from the first quarter of the 20th century - silly tin pan alley numbers, string band rags, and a tinge of jazz. Meet MOO with an open mind, and prepare to be zazzled and zowed!

The Upper Midwest Folk Fiddlers are a jam group based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, who are determined to spread the mostly forgotten early-pioneer fiddle music of the Upper Midwest. Through research, tune preservation and sharing, weekly sessions and performing at dances, workshops and concerts, the group encourages this great old music to be heard and played again.

Eric Mohring has performed Cajun music for over 30 years. He is a nationally recognized Cajun fiddler whose fluency in French contributes to his authentic Cajun vocals. Eric has been a fiddle instructor at Cajun/Creole week at Augusta Heritage Center, and played for many years with the nationally-known Bone Tones. A versatile musician who plays a number of styles of music, he can also be found playing mandolin and fiddle with the Café Accordion Orchestra.

Gary Powell is a multi-talented multi-instrumentalist who has played in many projects including playing accordion for legendary midwest Cajun band the Bone Tones.

John Terr (guitar, vocals, triangle) has been learning about Cajun music and culture since 1975. A co-founder of the Chicago Cajun Aces, since moving to the Twin Cities in 2001, John has also played and recorded with the Cajun Hot Soles and with Kevin Anthony, Pop Wagner & the Twin City Playboys. He began playing Cajun accordion with the New Riverside Ramblers in 2014.

As a regular attendee of all the Minnesota old time music events, Sam is excited to participate in the inaugural TTOTMF!  Sam enjoys fiddle music of all kinds, playing old time tunes with friends, square dancing, and can be found playing music most tuesday nights with the waxwing stringband at the Waldmann brewery in St. Paul.

Keith Dudding was born and raised in Fairmont, Minnesota, where he was introduced to bluegrass by classmate Mark Nelson, the banjo-playing younger brother of Warren Nelson, founder of the Lake Superior Big Top Chatauqua. He owes his old-time education to Geoff Seitz, Jim Nelson, and others in the St. Louis old-time community. For 31 years, Keith was the host of "Down Yonder," a bluegrass and old-time music show on St. Louis's now-defunct community radio station, KDHX. During the show's run, he hosted in-studio visits with many of the greats of bluegrass and old-time music, including Del McCoury, John Hartford, Norman Blake, Sam Bush, Billy Strings, Sierra Hull, The Infamous Stringdusters, Bruce Molsky, and the Foghorn Stringband. Keith taught mandolin at the Folk School of St. Louis. He performs with several string bands, including The Lodge Brothers, The Mound City Slickers, and Three Crooked Men. Keith and his wife, Diane, live across the river from St. Louis in Edwardsville, Illinois.  

Rob Daves is a Twin Cities clawhammer banjo teacher.  He played for the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers for nearly a decade and currently plays with The Gritpickers Old Time String Band.  He's performed, led jams and conducted workshops at Minnesota Bluegrass festivals for years and looks forward to seeing old and new friends at this first Twin Town Old Time Music Festival. 

Brenton Haack is a singer and multi-instrumentalist who can be found playing with Waxwing Stringband.