Picknbow Instructors - Aug 25-27, 2023

DANNY GOTHAM’s musical roots spread deep and broad, a master flatpicking and fingerpicking instrumentalist, cutting his musical teeth playing in various rock, jazz, blues, bluegrass and country bands. In 1980, Gotham took Second Place in the prestigious National Fingerpicking Guitar Championship in Winfield, KS. His musical collaborations include accompanist to the great folksinger Tom Paxton and original "Prairie Home Companion" music director, Peter Ostroushko. As a teacher, he has maintained an extensive private student roster, and, since 1974, conducted numerous workshops in the US and Canada. Gotham, along with Jane Peppler and Bob Vasile, founded Picknbow in 2011.

Danny teaches mandolin, guitar, uke, and leads the Sunday afternoon uke parade.

JON SHAIN is a veteran singer-songwriter who’s been turning heads for years with his words, his fiery acoustic guitar work, and his evolved musical style – combining improvised piedmont blues with bluegrass, swing, and ragtime. He is the 2019 winner of the International Blues Challenge in the solo/duo category. Shain’s most recent solo disc, Gettin’ Handy with the Blues: A Tribute to the Legacy of WC Handy, was released in 2018 and is soon to come out as a music book published by Mel Bay. Shain’s latest releases recorded along with long-time collaborator FJ Ventre are the gorgeous roots album, Tomorrow Will Be Yesterday Soon (2019) and Never Found Way to Tame the Blues (2021).Jon is the Teaching Workshop Coordinator at Picknbow.

Jon teaches classes on guitar technique and blues.

JOE NEWBERRY is a Missouri native and North Carolina transplant who has played music most of his life. His powerful and innovative banjo playing, as well as his songwriting, guitar skills, fiddling, and singing has delighted audiences around the world.

Joe grew up in a family full of singers and dancers. He took up the guitar and banjo as a teenager and learned fiddle tunes from great Missouri fiddlers. He came to North Carolina as a young man and quickly became an anchor of the incredible music scene in the state. Still going strong more than 30 years later, he does solo and studio work, and plays and teaches at festivals and workshops in North America and abroad

Joe's songwriting is characterized by the same clean, elegant style as his banjo playing. Musicians in the folk and bluegrass world often record his songs. The Gibson Brothers' version of his song Singing As We Rise, featuring guest vocalist Ricky Skaggs, won the 2012 IBMA "Gospel Recorded Performance" award. In 2013, Joe shared co-writing honors with Eric Gibson for the IBMA Song of the Year, They Called It Music.

Joe teaches guitar, banjo, and songwriting.

JIM WATSON went to his first fiddlers convention in 1965. He played with the Hollow Rock String Band and in 1972 was a founding member of the Red Clay Ramblers playing mandolin, guitar, and autoharp. In 1988, he started playing with Robin and Linda Williams and their Fine Group. He works with the world-famous country duet Duke LaCrosse and Pinky Wyoming and plays string bass with the Green Level Entertainers. Jim also performs with the Piedmont Melody Makers, which features IBMA Hall of Fame member Alice Gerrard, Chris Brashear & Cliff Hale. Besides his recordings with the Red Clay Ramblers and Robin & Linda Williams, he has several solo recordings, plus ones with the Piedmont Melody Makers, Craver Hicks Watson & Newberry, and the late Alan Jabbour and Ken Perlman. 

Jim teaches guitar and mandolin.

KENNY JACKSON traces musical roots back to gatherings at his grandparents’ Kentucky home when he was very young. By 1980 he was playing in various bluegrass configurations around the musically fertile university community of Bloomington, IN. In the mid-80s he established a musical reputation as a spot-on guitarist performing in a premier old-time trio with Brad Leftwich and Linda Higginbotham. Later, he co-founded, performed, and recorded with acclaimed string bands The Rhythm Rats (with Paula Bradley and Whitt Mead), Big Medicine (with Joe Newberry, Jim Collier, LaNelle Davis, and Bobb Head), and the Bow Benders (with Erynn Marshall, Carl Jones, and Bobb Head).  

 Well-known for his old-time fiddling, Kenny is also a wonderful banjo player and singer, personal in his interpretations while remaining well-rooted. As a composer, he’s contributed fresh tunes to the ongoing tradition, and more recently he has begun to show his hand as a distinctive songwriter. Over the decades he has played many concert venues, dances, and dodgy dives, and has appeared on notable broadcasts, including A Prairie Home Companion, with Big Medicine.

 Kenny Jackson teaches old time fiddle and guitar.

JULIE ELKINS has toured internationally with several different bands, and has recorded all kinds of cool music on various projects throughout the past two decades. With family roots in East Kentucky, she comes from a long line of bluegrass musicians and singers. By age 12, she was the three-time winner of the Classic West Open Banjo Competition, and was invited to join her first band before she was old enough to drive. Julie received her bluegrass education while performing a long stint with North Carolina's renowned bluegrass band, New Vintage. In 1999, she joined the trailblazing bluegrass/Americana band, Kane's River, and in 2006, she was awarded an IBMA award for "Recorded Project of the Year" for her contribution to "Back To The Well," a recording  featuring the Daughters of Bluegrass.  Originally from Bozeman, Montana, she now makes her home in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she teaches banjo, guitar and vocal lessons.

Julie teaches banjo, singing, and harmony.

FJ VENTRE plays some of the most brilliant, kick-ass upright and electric bass you’ll ever see and sings honky-tonk and country-swing as if he’s borrowed Bob Will’s hat and string tie. He performs with numerous acts from The Triangle area, including Jon Shain, Wes Collins, and others. He’s also played with the Chris Stamey Group, the Swang Brothers, Rebecca and The Hi-Tones, Mel Melton and the Wicked Mojos, The Stars Explode, and Tom Maxwell.

As a highly sought-after teacher of upright acoustic and electric bass, one of the most popular music teachers in the area. Many local musicians have also benefited from his expertise as a recording engineer. His studio, Good Luck Studio, has recorded and mixed projects for Jon Shain, The Swang Brothers, Jeff Hart, Hailey Clark, The Infidels, Tad Walters, Tom Maxwell, and many others including Picknbow campers.

FJ teaches sound system use, home recording, and all levels of acoustic and electric bass.

CATHERINE ALDERMAN is one of the NC Triangle's most experienced voice instructors. With over thirty years of experience, she will be leading vocal technique workshops at Picknbow, and showing all of us how to bring out the best in our singing.

Simply put, ALICE GERRARD is a talent of legendary status. In a career spanning some 50 years, she has known, learned from, and performed with many of the old-time and bluegrass greats and has in turn earned worldwide respect for her own important contributions to the music.

Alice’s four solo albums, Pieces of My Heart, and Calling Me Home, and Bittersweet (produced by Laurie Lewis), were released to critical acclaim in Billboard, Bluegrass Unlimited, New Country, and other publications. These superb recordings showcase Alice’s many talents: her compelling, eclectic songwriting; her powerful, hard-edged vocals; and her instrumental mastery on rhythm guitar, banjo, and old-time fiddle.

She also co-produced and appeared in two documentary films and is the subject of a Kenny Dalsheimer (Groove Productions) documentary: You Gave Me a Song: https://thegrooveproductions.com

JIM ROBERTS is a percussionist, producer, artist, and educator who resides in Chapel Hill, NC, USA. His skills include drum set, djembe, congas, production using Ableton Live, and Cubase and performing with groups or solo. He is also an educator, teaching drum set and percussion at Elon University as well as directing the Elon World Percussion Ensemble. Also, he teaches several classes on the music of the 1960s and 1970s, the period in which he grew up.

In 1991, he hosted African djembe master Mor Thaim for a weekend workshop. This workshop resulted in a study trip that year to Senegal and The Gambia which Roberts helped organize. This life-changing trip became the foundation that has led to a lifetime of study of the music of African and the African diaspora and the mixing of African influenced music with other genres such as rock, country, jazz, and more.