2013 Instructors
We're excited to announce the initial faculty listing for the 2013 Song School. Watch for more faculty additions in the coming weeks.
Songwriting Instructors
Ysaye Barnwell | Mary Gauthier | Vance Gilbert | Bonnie Hayes | Lynn Miles | Pat Pattison | Paul Reisler | Steve Seskin
Elective Instructors
"Chicago Mike" Beck | Michael Bowers | Ron Browning | Terri Delaney | Val Denn | Ellis | Rebecca Folsom | Robby Hecht | Arthur Lee Land | Clare McLeod | Bill Nash | Siobhan Quinn | Justin Roth | Alan Rowoth | The Sea, The Sea | Amy Speace | Judith Wade | Tom Wasinger | Kai Welch | Annie Wenz
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Dr. Ysaye M. Barnwell a native New Yorker now living in Washington, DC is an actor, producer, teacher, singer, instrumentalist, composer, writer, and member of the Grammy winning vocal ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock. A perfect blend of her mother, a registered nurse and her father, a classical violinist, Dr. Barnwell studied violin for 15 years beginning at age 2. With this background, she went on to earn a PhD in speech pathology and Master's in Public Health and for over a decade, Dr. Barnwell was a professor at the College of [more...] Dentistry at Howard University. Dr. Barnwell joined Sweet Honey In The Rock® in 1979 and her training as a Sign Language Interpreter, led her to facilitated the group’s practice of making concerts accessible to the Deaf through American Sign Language interpretation. Dr. Barnwell appears as a vocalist and/or instrumentalist on more than thirty recordings with Sweet Honey In The Rock and other artists. She has, for the past thirty years spent much of her time off stage working as a master teacher and choral clinician in African American cultural performance. Her workshop “Building a Vocal Community®: Singing in the African American Tradition” has during the past twenty-five years, been conducted on three continents, making her work in the field a significant source of inspiration for both singers and non-singers, a model of pedagogy for educators, and cultural activists and historians. [less...] 
Vance Gilbert burst onto the singer/songwriter scene in the early 90's when the buzz spread through the folk clubs of the Northeast about an ex-multicultural arts teacher who was knocking them dead at open mics. Word got out about this Philadelphia-area born and raised performer, and Shawn Colvin invited Gilbert to be a special guest on her 1992 Fat City tour. Gilbert took audiences across North America by storm. "With the voice of an angel, the wit of a devil, and the guitar playing of a god, it was enough to earn him that rarity: an encore [more...] for an opener" wrote the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in its review of a show from that tour. Gilbert's three albums for the Rounder/Philo label - Edgewise (1994), Fugitives (1995), and Shaking Off Gravity (1998) - are all essential additions to the American singer-songwriter collection. With guests as varied as Tuck and Patti, Jonatha Brooke, Patty Larkin, Vinx, and Jane Siberry, all three albums found significant niches on NAC (New Adult Contemporary) and Non-Commercial A3 radio.
These discs were followed by the self-released Somerville Live (2000), lionized by the Boston Globe as the disc "young songwriters should study the way law students cram for bar exams," and One Thru Fourteen (2002), a stylistically varied offering that New York's Town and Village called "lively, eclectic, electrifying and transcending." Gilbert followed with Side Of The Road (2003), a duo album with Ellis Paul, lauded as "haunting, artful, and lovely" by Boston Magazine and nominated for a 2004 Boston Music Award. Then came Unfamiliar Moon (2005). "The songwriter's most compelling work; literate, heartfelt, rippling…emotionally resonant songs" raved the Boston Globe, placing the album in its Top 10 CDs of the year (#4). On Angels, Castles, Covers (2006), "Gilbert's choice of an album of covers seems both fitting and fearless. …he displays his vocal virtuosity with some unexpected choices from the late 20th century songbook. From the sounds of Motown, through the R&B of Al Green to classic Joni Mitchell and Shawn Colvin…He makes each and every tune sound fresh and new," writes Roberta Schwartz of FAME.
Gilbert then launched into a year and a half as support for George Carlin, leading up to the creation and recording of Up On Rockfield (2008), a landmark album noted for being written in the styles of some of his favorite songwriters. Of this disk Vintage Guitar proclaimed that “His fervor for composing is as powerful as a Colorado thunderstorm...accomplishing the seemingly impossible...Up On Rockfield should be on your must hear list.”
Who else would name their most recent album “Old White Men”, and actually have recorded a groundbreaking, heartbreaking title song to back it up? That’d be Vance Gilbert.
This latest release has received raves based solely on the material folks knew would be on it! The soul aching title cut, OLD WHITE MEN, the winsome BOY ON A TRAIN, and the comic tour de force MY BAD are present. The lonesome KING OF THE RAILS will leave a diagonal crease across the listener’s heart. DRAGONFLY WINGS is a delightful throwback to 70‘s pop. NO ONE CAN LOVE YOU LIKE MARY is an all acoustic life story punctuated by Billy Novick’s funky saxophones. The maddened rant of HELPLESS MAN is followed by the big hearted NEW YEAR’S EVE AT THE LION’S HEAD HOTEL - HOURLY RATES, a one-sided conversation between a prostitute and a policeman. Vance’s original YOU SHOULD BE HERE sounds like a refugee from the Rogers and Hart songbook and is just Vance and a classical guitar. GO and COME HERE MY LOVE are both solo snapshots of breathless points in time. The acapella BRAKEMAN’S SON is a small story of a search for big peace. Eleven killer songs, pared down to their living core, listener ready (OK, there’s a buried track. Listen for yourself…). [less...]
These discs were followed by the self-released Somerville Live (2000), lionized by the Boston Globe as the disc "young songwriters should study the way law students cram for bar exams," and One Thru Fourteen (2002), a stylistically varied offering that New York's Town and Village called "lively, eclectic, electrifying and transcending." Gilbert followed with Side Of The Road (2003), a duo album with Ellis Paul, lauded as "haunting, artful, and lovely" by Boston Magazine and nominated for a 2004 Boston Music Award. Then came Unfamiliar Moon (2005). "The songwriter's most compelling work; literate, heartfelt, rippling…emotionally resonant songs" raved the Boston Globe, placing the album in its Top 10 CDs of the year (#4). On Angels, Castles, Covers (2006), "Gilbert's choice of an album of covers seems both fitting and fearless. …he displays his vocal virtuosity with some unexpected choices from the late 20th century songbook. From the sounds of Motown, through the R&B of Al Green to classic Joni Mitchell and Shawn Colvin…He makes each and every tune sound fresh and new," writes Roberta Schwartz of FAME.
Gilbert then launched into a year and a half as support for George Carlin, leading up to the creation and recording of Up On Rockfield (2008), a landmark album noted for being written in the styles of some of his favorite songwriters. Of this disk Vintage Guitar proclaimed that “His fervor for composing is as powerful as a Colorado thunderstorm...accomplishing the seemingly impossible...Up On Rockfield should be on your must hear list.”
Who else would name their most recent album “Old White Men”, and actually have recorded a groundbreaking, heartbreaking title song to back it up? That’d be Vance Gilbert.
This latest release has received raves based solely on the material folks knew would be on it! The soul aching title cut, OLD WHITE MEN, the winsome BOY ON A TRAIN, and the comic tour de force MY BAD are present. The lonesome KING OF THE RAILS will leave a diagonal crease across the listener’s heart. DRAGONFLY WINGS is a delightful throwback to 70‘s pop. NO ONE CAN LOVE YOU LIKE MARY is an all acoustic life story punctuated by Billy Novick’s funky saxophones. The maddened rant of HELPLESS MAN is followed by the big hearted NEW YEAR’S EVE AT THE LION’S HEAD HOTEL - HOURLY RATES, a one-sided conversation between a prostitute and a policeman. Vance’s original YOU SHOULD BE HERE sounds like a refugee from the Rogers and Hart songbook and is just Vance and a classical guitar. GO and COME HERE MY LOVE are both solo snapshots of breathless points in time. The acapella BRAKEMAN’S SON is a small story of a search for big peace. Eleven killer songs, pared down to their living core, listener ready (OK, there’s a buried track. Listen for yourself…). [less...]
Please note: Mary is asking all her students to purchase and read Brenda Ueland's classic book If You Want to Write, and bring a copy of this book to Mary's classes. Originally published in 1938, you should be able to find used copies of this book at your local bookseller or Amazon.com.
In conversation and in public, Mary Gauthier (pronounced "go-SHAY") comes off as a practical, no-nonsense woman. Stoic, even. Which wouldn’t seem unusual, except for the fact that her songs [more...] carry so much emotional punch, they can leave you staggering. She has a way of burrowing into that hole so many of us carry inside our souls, and emerging with universal truths that show we aren’t so alone after all.
Gauthier knows where our exposed nerve endings lie because she’s probed her own so deeply, finally learning to unlock the fear and loneliness that controlled her escape-seeking trajectory for so long before songwriting — and the sobriety that drew it forth at age 35 — gave her a steadier flight path.
But even though her six albums have received countless accolades (2005’s Mercy Now earned her the Americana Music Association’s New/Emerging Artist of the Year title, and 2011’s The Foundling was named the No. 3 Record of the Year but the L.A. Times), , Gauthier felt she needed to rack up her pilot hours, so to speak, before she could hit another major milestone: recording a live album. When she was ready, she captured Live at Blue Rock at a concert at the Blue Rock Artist Ranch and Studio in Wimberley, Texas, outside of Austin.
“People have been asking for a live CD for a long time and I just knew that I wasn’t ready yet,” admits Gauthier. “It took 10 years of trench work. Of bein’ out there, banging my head against all the things an artist has to bang against. Indifference. Poor attendence. Situations that are over your head. Every night, curve ball, curve ball, curve ball. But stagecraft cannot be taught. You have to be onstage to learn it. So after 10 years of doin’ it, I got good at it.”
Louisiana native-turned-Nashville resident Gauthier (it’s French; pronounced Go-SHAY), whose songs have earned praise from Bob Dylan and Tom Waits, and been recorded by Jimmy Buffett, Blake Shelton and many others, is not bragging, just explaining, in that practical way of hers. It’s the same way she discusses experiences that led to some of the extraordinary songs she performs on the album. Renowned songs, such as “I Drink,” “Drag Queens in Limousines” and “Karla Faye” — which addresses the famous fate of that convicted killer, but starts out with lines that undoubtedly reference their author as well: A little girl lost,her world full of pain.He said it feels good,she gave him her vein.
Then there’s “Blood on Blood,” from her last release, 2010?’s The Foundling, which plumbs the particular hell of children given up to closed adoption. With a cinematographer’s eye and a lyrical economy that suggests far more than her 15 years of songwriting experience, she chronicles an always-present sense of rejection and rootlessness, the nagging “whys” and “what ifs,” the endless search of every face for a possible resemblance. I don’t know who I am I don’t know who I’m not/I don’t know my name I can’t find my place, she sings, her voice rising from a whisper to a wail. She’s not just offering a vein here, she’s cutting several wide open. Like all of her songs, “Blood on Blood” takes on even more power when performed live.
“As a songwriter, I’m always trying to go to the deepest possible place inside of me. Past the navel-gazing, past the self-conscious, to get to that ‘we,’” Gauthier explains. “’Cause deep inside of all of us is the universal. And that is an artist’s job, to transcend the self. … I’m in there, but then hopefully, it goes past that and it hits something far, far bigger and more important than me. That’s what I’m aimin’ for every time I write.”
She’s proud that The Foundling opened the floodgates for thousands of fellow orphans who had never heard anyone articulate their pain with so much insight. Gauthier reports therapists are now using the album to better understand the adoptee experience. It’s also resulted in several reunions between children and their birth parents — though Gauthier’s birth mother declined that option after Gauthier made contact five years ago. And she understands that decision, even if she’ll never have the full closure she sought.
Sometimes, life just goes that way — particularly for the outsiders with whom Gauthier has always identified most. They populate Live at Blue Rock, which also contains covers of three songs by fellow poet/philosopher (and recent “Tin Can Caravan” tour leader) Fred Eaglesmith, another master at illuminating the sympathetic sides of characters society is not used to regarding kindly, if at all.
“I find the stories I want to tell are the stories of characters who may or may not make it,” says Gauthier. Though she’s no longer dangling on that precipice, she adds, “I believe in redemption. I needed redemption; I continue to need redemption.”
Luckily, she sometimes finds it onstage, in front of an audience. And just as audiences change from night to night, so do her accompanists.
When Live at Blue Rock was recorded, she had fiddle and percussion adornment. But she’s experimenting with different configurations all the time, which means the songs also take on new identities nightly.
“They’re living things,” Gauthier says of her work. “You record ‘em one way, but that’s just the way you played it that day. Some words change, the tempo changes. It has to go with the flow of the room and the flow of the night.”
Gauthier, a teen runaway who attended college in Louisiana and operated a Cajun restaurant in Boston before getting sober, long ago learned how to go with the flow. And to be patient. Because it takes time to get good enough to wing it.
Between Daylight and Dark, is filled with both hope and anguish, with faith as well as fear. Mary Gauthier knows these places well, having traveled through a night that had stretched into years, from a turbulent Louisiana childhood through odd juxtapositions of accomplishment and devastation. [less...]
In conversation and in public, Mary Gauthier (pronounced "go-SHAY") comes off as a practical, no-nonsense woman. Stoic, even. Which wouldn’t seem unusual, except for the fact that her songs [more...] carry so much emotional punch, they can leave you staggering. She has a way of burrowing into that hole so many of us carry inside our souls, and emerging with universal truths that show we aren’t so alone after all.
Gauthier knows where our exposed nerve endings lie because she’s probed her own so deeply, finally learning to unlock the fear and loneliness that controlled her escape-seeking trajectory for so long before songwriting — and the sobriety that drew it forth at age 35 — gave her a steadier flight path.
But even though her six albums have received countless accolades (2005’s Mercy Now earned her the Americana Music Association’s New/Emerging Artist of the Year title, and 2011’s The Foundling was named the No. 3 Record of the Year but the L.A. Times), , Gauthier felt she needed to rack up her pilot hours, so to speak, before she could hit another major milestone: recording a live album. When she was ready, she captured Live at Blue Rock at a concert at the Blue Rock Artist Ranch and Studio in Wimberley, Texas, outside of Austin.
“People have been asking for a live CD for a long time and I just knew that I wasn’t ready yet,” admits Gauthier. “It took 10 years of trench work. Of bein’ out there, banging my head against all the things an artist has to bang against. Indifference. Poor attendence. Situations that are over your head. Every night, curve ball, curve ball, curve ball. But stagecraft cannot be taught. You have to be onstage to learn it. So after 10 years of doin’ it, I got good at it.”
Louisiana native-turned-Nashville resident Gauthier (it’s French; pronounced Go-SHAY), whose songs have earned praise from Bob Dylan and Tom Waits, and been recorded by Jimmy Buffett, Blake Shelton and many others, is not bragging, just explaining, in that practical way of hers. It’s the same way she discusses experiences that led to some of the extraordinary songs she performs on the album. Renowned songs, such as “I Drink,” “Drag Queens in Limousines” and “Karla Faye” — which addresses the famous fate of that convicted killer, but starts out with lines that undoubtedly reference their author as well: A little girl lost,her world full of pain.He said it feels good,she gave him her vein.
Then there’s “Blood on Blood,” from her last release, 2010?’s The Foundling, which plumbs the particular hell of children given up to closed adoption. With a cinematographer’s eye and a lyrical economy that suggests far more than her 15 years of songwriting experience, she chronicles an always-present sense of rejection and rootlessness, the nagging “whys” and “what ifs,” the endless search of every face for a possible resemblance. I don’t know who I am I don’t know who I’m not/I don’t know my name I can’t find my place, she sings, her voice rising from a whisper to a wail. She’s not just offering a vein here, she’s cutting several wide open. Like all of her songs, “Blood on Blood” takes on even more power when performed live.
“As a songwriter, I’m always trying to go to the deepest possible place inside of me. Past the navel-gazing, past the self-conscious, to get to that ‘we,’” Gauthier explains. “’Cause deep inside of all of us is the universal. And that is an artist’s job, to transcend the self. … I’m in there, but then hopefully, it goes past that and it hits something far, far bigger and more important than me. That’s what I’m aimin’ for every time I write.”
She’s proud that The Foundling opened the floodgates for thousands of fellow orphans who had never heard anyone articulate their pain with so much insight. Gauthier reports therapists are now using the album to better understand the adoptee experience. It’s also resulted in several reunions between children and their birth parents — though Gauthier’s birth mother declined that option after Gauthier made contact five years ago. And she understands that decision, even if she’ll never have the full closure she sought.
Sometimes, life just goes that way — particularly for the outsiders with whom Gauthier has always identified most. They populate Live at Blue Rock, which also contains covers of three songs by fellow poet/philosopher (and recent “Tin Can Caravan” tour leader) Fred Eaglesmith, another master at illuminating the sympathetic sides of characters society is not used to regarding kindly, if at all.
“I find the stories I want to tell are the stories of characters who may or may not make it,” says Gauthier. Though she’s no longer dangling on that precipice, she adds, “I believe in redemption. I needed redemption; I continue to need redemption.”
Luckily, she sometimes finds it onstage, in front of an audience. And just as audiences change from night to night, so do her accompanists.
When Live at Blue Rock was recorded, she had fiddle and percussion adornment. But she’s experimenting with different configurations all the time, which means the songs also take on new identities nightly.
“They’re living things,” Gauthier says of her work. “You record ‘em one way, but that’s just the way you played it that day. Some words change, the tempo changes. It has to go with the flow of the room and the flow of the night.”
Gauthier, a teen runaway who attended college in Louisiana and operated a Cajun restaurant in Boston before getting sober, long ago learned how to go with the flow. And to be patient. Because it takes time to get good enough to wing it.
Between Daylight and Dark, is filled with both hope and anguish, with faith as well as fear. Mary Gauthier knows these places well, having traveled through a night that had stretched into years, from a turbulent Louisiana childhood through odd juxtapositions of accomplishment and devastation. [less...]
The songs of Bonnie Hayes have always been extraordinary, from "Shelly's Boyfriend", the post-punk badgirl anthem that put her on the map to the authentic passion of "Have A Heart" and "Love Letter," which restored Bonnie Raitt to superstardom with the multi-platinum, multi-Grammy-winning CD Nick of Time. Writing for artists as diverse as Bette Midler, Robert Cray, Adam Ant, David Crosby, Booker T and the MG's, and Cher, Hayes has continued to craft songs one critic described as "sparkling clockwork mechanisms with a tendency [more...] to do the unexpected."
On the new CD, Love In the Ruins, Bonnie infuses her barbed lyrics with her own unmistakable vocal style and adds a new fervor for crunchy guitars and incendiary drumming. The sum is ironic, literary, melodic, tragic, wild, honest, joyful music that also flat out ROCKS. Known for years as a keyboardist (she actually toured as a keyboard player/backing vocalist with such arena acts as Belinda Carlisle and Billy Idol), she turned to writing on guitar to stimulate the creative process. Bonnie's personal reinvention is typical of her uncompromising attitude: "I reject the idea that music has to be either smart or kickass---why not both?"
Famed for her kick-out-the-jams live show, Hayes has also enjoyed success as a recording artist and producer. In 1984, her pop/punk debut Good Clean Fun was released on seminal LA indie Slash Records to critical raves and national college airplay and in 1995, the Hayes-produced CD Steppin' Out by the Gospel Hummingbirds was nominated for a Grammy. Her new CD marks a return to center stage for this exceptional songwriter.
Bonnie Hayes is a popular and experienced teacher with an original slant on writing songs that satisfy both artistic and commercial criteria. She teaches classes in various aspects of songwriting and popular music regularly. Her students have won prizes in the John Lennon songwriting contest, the WCSA songwriting contest, the Soulmaking contest, and others. [less...]
On the new CD, Love In the Ruins, Bonnie infuses her barbed lyrics with her own unmistakable vocal style and adds a new fervor for crunchy guitars and incendiary drumming. The sum is ironic, literary, melodic, tragic, wild, honest, joyful music that also flat out ROCKS. Known for years as a keyboardist (she actually toured as a keyboard player/backing vocalist with such arena acts as Belinda Carlisle and Billy Idol), she turned to writing on guitar to stimulate the creative process. Bonnie's personal reinvention is typical of her uncompromising attitude: "I reject the idea that music has to be either smart or kickass---why not both?"
Famed for her kick-out-the-jams live show, Hayes has also enjoyed success as a recording artist and producer. In 1984, her pop/punk debut Good Clean Fun was released on seminal LA indie Slash Records to critical raves and national college airplay and in 1995, the Hayes-produced CD Steppin' Out by the Gospel Hummingbirds was nominated for a Grammy. Her new CD marks a return to center stage for this exceptional songwriter.
Bonnie Hayes is a popular and experienced teacher with an original slant on writing songs that satisfy both artistic and commercial criteria. She teaches classes in various aspects of songwriting and popular music regularly. Her students have won prizes in the John Lennon songwriting contest, the WCSA songwriting contest, the Soulmaking contest, and others. [less...]
Lynn Miles is one of Canada’s most accomplished singer/songwriters with five albums to her credit including the stark Unravel, winning Miles a 2003 Juno Award for Roots & Traditional solo album of the year and Love Sweet Love earning her multiple Canadian Folk Music awards (best English songwriter, best contemporary singer). Her album Slightly Haunted, was a Billboard magazine Top 10 pick for the year, while Unravel was praised by All Music Guide as "sounding as if it's been produced by Daniel Lanois in an Appalichian town" and "a diamond in the rough". [more...] Miles recently decided to record a double album of songs, entitled Black Flowers Vol.& 2, both new and old songs, in a simple fashion, accompanying her voice with either solo acoustic guitar or piano. This sparse presentation crystallizes the quality of Lynn’s songwriting – highlighting the melody and lyrics in a way that only great songs can be presented. [less...]
Pat Pattison is an author, clinician and Berklee Professor of Lyric Writing and Poetry whose students have composed for major artists and written number one songs. At Berklee, he developed the curriculum for the only songwriting major in the country. In addition to his four books, Songwriting Without Boundaries, Writing Better Lyrics, The Essential Guide to Lyric Form and Structure, and The Essential Guide to Rhyming, Pat has developed three online lyric writing courses, one on poetry, and one on creative writing available through [more...] Berkleemusic.com. He has filmed a series of lectures and masterclasses, available through Songwork.com and has written over 50 articles for various magazines and blogs. Pat continues to present songwriting clinics across the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Several of his students have won Grammys, including John Mayer and Gillian Welch. [less...]
“If I were Free” is a manifesto for living the musical, the creative life. It’s a 30-year journey for Paul Reisler as he explores the musical life—a life where you respond to what’s going on around you in music. Through his own music as performer, writer and recording artist and through his songwriting teaching for adults and children, he inspires others to explore that creative landscape. He’s created a direct and emotional music that cuts across borders—combining folk roots, world music eclecticism, classical precision, and new age mysticism [more...] with the vitality of contemporary music. As the Washington Post says, his music "climbs up the Blue Ridge and down to the bayou and back up to the Himalayas. Goose bumps are a risk."
He’s got a voracious musical appetite. Known for his many years as founder and leader of Trapezoid for over 25 years, he’s recently embarked on several new musical adventures: His new band Paul Reisler & A Thousand Questions featuring Howard Levy and Angela Kaset with their new album At Night the Roses Tango , his Kid Pan Alley children’s songwriting project, and his duo with Amy Speace. He also continues perform with the inter-disciplinary Ki Theatre and compose for film, theatre and orchestra.
He’s passionate about inspiring other people to live the musical life. He’s one of the most popular songwriting teachers in the country and he’s also the founder and artistic director of Kid Pan Alley, a project in which he has now written over 800 songs with over 18,000 children nationally. Their recent CD, Kid Pan Alley Nashville, features many of that city’s best-known artists recording the songs written with the children. That album received a Grammy nomination and won both Parents’ Choice and NAPPA Gold Awards. He has taught songwriting to adults at workshops and songwriting schools throughout the country including the Rocky Mountain Song School, Utah Song School, Swannanoa Gathering, Blue Ridge Songcamp, Augusta Workshop, Hollyhock, Kerrville, NSAI, Songcamp in the Mountains and many others. [less...]
He’s got a voracious musical appetite. Known for his many years as founder and leader of Trapezoid for over 25 years, he’s recently embarked on several new musical adventures: His new band Paul Reisler & A Thousand Questions featuring Howard Levy and Angela Kaset with their new album At Night the Roses Tango , his Kid Pan Alley children’s songwriting project, and his duo with Amy Speace. He also continues perform with the inter-disciplinary Ki Theatre and compose for film, theatre and orchestra.
He’s passionate about inspiring other people to live the musical life. He’s one of the most popular songwriting teachers in the country and he’s also the founder and artistic director of Kid Pan Alley, a project in which he has now written over 800 songs with over 18,000 children nationally. Their recent CD, Kid Pan Alley Nashville, features many of that city’s best-known artists recording the songs written with the children. That album received a Grammy nomination and won both Parents’ Choice and NAPPA Gold Awards. He has taught songwriting to adults at workshops and songwriting schools throughout the country including the Rocky Mountain Song School, Utah Song School, Swannanoa Gathering, Blue Ridge Songcamp, Augusta Workshop, Hollyhock, Kerrville, NSAI, Songcamp in the Mountains and many others. [less...]
Steve Seskin is a successful songwriter who has written seven number one songs, including Grammy-nominated “Grown Men Don’t Cry,” recorded by Tim McGraw, and “Don’t Laugh at Me,” winner of NSAI Song of the Year and Music Row Magazine Song of the Year in 1999 as recorded by Mark Wills. While Steve is best known for writing hits, he is also a successful performer and recording artist. He is currently touring in support of his latest CD, Steve Seskin "Live". This is his 17th recording released on his own record label. Steve is also an active [more...] keynote speaker and songwriting teacher for the West Coast Songwriters Association, the Nashville Songwriters Association International, the Swannanoa Gathering, and The Song School.
Steve's other #1 hits are “No Doubt About It” and “For a Change,” both recorded by Neal McCoy, “No Man’s Land” and “If You’ve Got Love,” both recorded by John Michael Montgomery, and “Daddy’s Money,” recorded by Ricochet. Other chart toppers include “I Think About You,” recorded by Collin Raye, and “All I Need To Know,” recorded by Kenny Chesney. The video for Raye’s “I Think About You” single was named the Academy of Country Music’s Video of the Year in 1997, and the song and video were also given an award by the Tennessee Task Force Against Domestic Violence. Recent recordings of his songs include “Pictures,” by John Michael Montgomery, “We Shook Hands,” by Tebey, and “I’ll Always Be There For You,” by Brian McComas.
“Don’t Laugh at Me” was recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary and became the impetus for the Operation Respect/Don’t Laugh at Me project, a curriculum designed to teach tolerance in schools. This program has already been implemented in more than 20,000 schools across the country. Steve now enjoys performing at school assemblies in support of this program. The song is now available as a children’s book, Don’t Laugh At Me, which was featured on PBS’s Reading Rainbow in September 2002.
Steve spends time in Nashville writing for Larga Vista Music and pitching his songs, while maintaining an active performing career both back home in Northern California and at festivals and acoustic venues throughout the United States and Canada. He has been a featured performer at the Kerrville Folk Festival, the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival, the Vancouver Folk Festival, and the Napa Valley Music Festival. [less...]
Steve's other #1 hits are “No Doubt About It” and “For a Change,” both recorded by Neal McCoy, “No Man’s Land” and “If You’ve Got Love,” both recorded by John Michael Montgomery, and “Daddy’s Money,” recorded by Ricochet. Other chart toppers include “I Think About You,” recorded by Collin Raye, and “All I Need To Know,” recorded by Kenny Chesney. The video for Raye’s “I Think About You” single was named the Academy of Country Music’s Video of the Year in 1997, and the song and video were also given an award by the Tennessee Task Force Against Domestic Violence. Recent recordings of his songs include “Pictures,” by John Michael Montgomery, “We Shook Hands,” by Tebey, and “I’ll Always Be There For You,” by Brian McComas.
“Don’t Laugh at Me” was recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary and became the impetus for the Operation Respect/Don’t Laugh at Me project, a curriculum designed to teach tolerance in schools. This program has already been implemented in more than 20,000 schools across the country. Steve now enjoys performing at school assemblies in support of this program. The song is now available as a children’s book, Don’t Laugh At Me, which was featured on PBS’s Reading Rainbow in September 2002.
Steve spends time in Nashville writing for Larga Vista Music and pitching his songs, while maintaining an active performing career both back home in Northern California and at festivals and acoustic venues throughout the United States and Canada. He has been a featured performer at the Kerrville Folk Festival, the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival, the Vancouver Folk Festival, and the Napa Valley Music Festival. [less...]
"Chicago" Mike Beck has been teaching at SongSchool since 2005, and he's been touring full-time in the USA and Europe since 2001. He performs several weeks each year at the Bright Angel Lodge on the south rim of the Grand Canyon and has toured Europe 19 times, performing in Switzerland, The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, France, Ireland, Belgium, Spain and Luxembourg as a solo performer and with his band Chicago Mike's InterGalactic Brother & Sisterhood of Big Eyed Beans. He has personally brought over 30 musicians [more...] on their first overseas tours. His debut CD, released in 2002 has received radio airplay in the USA, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Transylvania, Romania, Macedonia and Japan.
In addition to his performing and recording endeavors, Mike is the founder of Access Film Music Ltd., an organization that helps independent recording artists expose their music to directors, producers and music supervisors working in the realm of film, television and other visual media. The 10th annual Access Film Music Showcase will take place during Film Festival Week in Park City, Utah next January 17 - 27, 2013. Access Film Music is also the Official Music Partner of the ÉCU Film Festival in Paris, France and the On Location: Memphis International Film & Music Festival, where Access showcase events have helped further the mission to connect music-makers with film-makers.
Mike loves empowering and inspiring musicians to pursue their dreams, and enjoys sharing practical ideas, methods and information to help make them real. He's currently at work on a new album, and hopes to have some new recordings available in time for SongSchool! [less...]
In addition to his performing and recording endeavors, Mike is the founder of Access Film Music Ltd., an organization that helps independent recording artists expose their music to directors, producers and music supervisors working in the realm of film, television and other visual media. The 10th annual Access Film Music Showcase will take place during Film Festival Week in Park City, Utah next January 17 - 27, 2013. Access Film Music is also the Official Music Partner of the ÉCU Film Festival in Paris, France and the On Location: Memphis International Film & Music Festival, where Access showcase events have helped further the mission to connect music-makers with film-makers.
Mike loves empowering and inspiring musicians to pursue their dreams, and enjoys sharing practical ideas, methods and information to help make them real. He's currently at work on a new album, and hopes to have some new recordings available in time for SongSchool! [less...]
When he witnessed history in the making as a young boy in Selma, Alabama, Michael Bowers realized that his most prized possessions were not in boxes or on paper, but in his mind and his voice. He's known for his strong, sophisticated lyrics as well as cut-to-the-chase songs. The lessons of his storied southern roots sometimes surface in live performance and his lyrics range from the heartfelt to humorous. To add even more spice to his vocals and guitar, Michael will use resonator and high-strung guitars to create different approaches to his songs. 
Maestro Lorin Maazel, world-renowned conductor for the New York Philharmonic: “RON BROWNING is simply a master! The singers absolutely love working with him!” Ron is an internationally sought voice, performance, and crossover coach based in Nashville, Tennessee. His clients include Grammy® Award recipients and major recording artists in all genres of music. He has had the privilege of coaching leading singers from the Metropolitan and New York City Operas, and from other major domestic and international opera houses. He is a [more...] member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and a voting member of The Grammy Foundation® and Country Music Association. Ron has traveled the globe with celebrity singers, grooming them for events such as the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony Concert and Royal Command Performances. Her voice reduced to a whisper, Grammy® winner, Patti LaBelle, called Ron a “miracle worker” after he helped her quickly restore her voice by show time, avoiding a costly show cancellation. Accolades about Ron’s work by major artists on TV and radio talk shows, press, and liner notes of CDs have earned Ron the title of “Voice Coach to the Stars.” Wynonna Judd says in the liner notes of her 2006 CD A Classic Christmas, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears. God sent Ron to me just in time.” Ron is an accomplished jazz pianist and successful songwriter, which earned him Artist in Residence for the city of Winnipeg, Canada. He developed the voice and performance curriculum for the Nashville Jazz Workshop where he is currently on staff. Ron holds music degrees from UCLA, California State University at Northridge, and the University of Kentucky. [less...]
Terri Delaney is a Minneapolis-based social worker turned booking
agent. What started as a brief consulting gig for a local musician
turned into a full-time music career. Terri founded Peppermint Booking
Agency in 2000 and she received the National Association of Campus
Activities award of "Agent of the Year" in 2005. She also collaborates
with nationally touring folk/rock musician Ellis, co-managing her
record company Rubberneck Records. Terri applies her social work
training in her music career, and she is known for her passionate
commitment to helping [more...] artists reach their full potential. In addition
to coaching musicians and helping them to set goals and action plans,
Terri has taught music business workshops at several festivals and
music conferences throughout North America. [less...]
The Val Denn Agency was opened in 1994 when Val began booking legendary Texas songwriter, Ray Wylie Hubbard. They had met when she and her husband had opened for Ray. In 1980 Val attended Berklee College of Music in Boston where she studied jazz guitar. While there she met her future husband James. They married in 1982. Val Denn Agency has grown to 10 artists with a concentration on working with singer-songwriters and also working with artists from Atlantic Canada. Val Denn Agency's offices are located in Austin, TX [more...] and her Canada office in picturesque Upper Blandford, Nova Scotia outside of Halifax. Kelley Mickwee joined the agency as the office manager in 2008. in 2009 Val will finish out her 4 years of service on the Board of Directors for the International Folk Alliance where she was Secretary, Vice President and President. Val also plans and partners with other artists to lead coaching and creativity workshops for the enrichment of the creative/artistic process. [less...]
There's just something about Ellis. She is at once funny and wise, thoughtful and uninhibited, and her captivating voice is matched by her upli fting lyrics. After her recent appearance on A Prairie Home Companion, Ellis' music charted in the Folk Top 100 in iTunes and Folk Top 20 on Amazon.com. She also received hundreds of messages from strangers including, "you exude pure joy", "I heard you and fell in love" and "I was stopped in my tracks by your music and captivating laugh" as well as "Yours is a voice we all need to hear." [more...] Ellis' performances are transformational; she leaves her audiences better than she finds them, with softened edges & opened hearts. A winner of several awards and honors, Ellis has been recognized both for her songwriting skills as well as her engaging performances. Many folk festivals have "audience choice" awards, and Ellis has claimed those honors at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Moab Folk Festival, and Sisters Folk Festival. She also won the Midwest Mountai n Stage New Song Contest (US) in 2011 and the award for the Just Plain Folks (International) Best Female Singer Songwriter Album in 2009. If you haven't yet caught her engaging and disarming live show, take a
chance on Ellis and you'll become a lifelong fan. With compelling
songwriting and engaging performances, Ellis is quietly amassing a
loyal following of supporters across the country. She founded her own
record company at age 18 and has since released seven albums including
the critically acclaimed Right On Time (2010). Ellis has been
instructor at the Rocky Mountain Song School since 2006, and has
repeatedly taught at the Americana Song Academy in Sisters, OR and the
IAMA Songwriting Academy in Salt Lake City, UT. [less...]
Rebecca Folsom has taught the Art of Vocal Freedom for over 12 years. She finds great joy in helping others claim the natural resonance, strength, and passion of their own voice. She has a very effective and unique approach of mixing nontraditional shamanic exercises with traditional building block vocal practices. She has taught body centered Vocal Freedom workshops with some of the nations top elite athletes, and helps singers find fluidity and strength with martial arts, yogic, Taoist, and Toltec practices along with classical [more...] vocal techniques. Her years of study with Joy Gardner Gordon’s Healing Voice work, Stephen Chun-tao Chengs’s Tao of Voice work, the study of yogic posture and breath, Americo Yabar’s Salka Connection, and years of extensive performance and touring have created an instinctive, effective, and totally fun practice of vocal mastery. She has sung on hundreds of other artist’s recordings, has published two books of poetry, has a BFA in Fine arts and has exhibited her work, has released seven CDs, the most recent “Girls Like Us” with the Rhythm Angels has charted at number 4 on the national Folk/DJ chart and top 50 on College radio. She has performed on BBC radio and television in N. Ireland, Nashville’s Bluebird, Opryland, and Tin Pan South stages, NY’s Bitterend and Falcon Ridge Music Festival, and Colorado's own Rocky Mountain Folks Festival and Red Rocks Amphitheatre. She is happy to be back for her eleventh year at Song School. [less...]
Robby Hecht is a romantic realist. He writes melodic and captivating songs that don’t shy away from the complexity of human relationships and delivers them with a smooth tenor that evokes both sorrow and hope. His new record, and second solo effort, takes the listener through a broad spectrum of emotions touching on forgiveness, love, indifference, joy, self-doubt and more. He writes with an honesty that captures the truth of a sentiment, building allegorical themes that allow anyone to relate the songs to the experiences of his or her own life. [more...]
With its blend of acoustic and electric instrumentation, Last of The Long Days harkens back to a time when well-crafted lyrics and timeless melodies ruled the radio airwaves. “Real Someday” is a hopeful mid-tempo tune with a lyric that promises there will be better days to come. The chorus is a descending, wordless harmony with Jill Andrews, formerly of The Everybodyfields, supplying the soaring backing vocals. The folksy “Pot of Gold” sings the praises of a long time relationship while playing on traditional methods of fortune seeking. On this track, muted upright bass and James Digirolamo’s accordion complement Hecht’s warm, assuring vocals and intricate fingerpicking.
John Deaderick (Dixie Chicks, Patty Griffin) adds shimmering B3 organ and piano to the swelling melody of “A Reckoning of Us.” Here, Hecht’s heartfelt vocals tell the tale of a failed romance while assuring that forgiveness will eventually and inevitably ease the pain. Jill Andrews again supplies the harmonies that back this and so many of the other arrangements on Last of The Long Days. She duets with Hecht on Townes Van Zandt’s “If I Needed You” – where Hecht’s slight variation on the melody and the weeping pedal steel of Paul Niehaus (Calexico) make this cover something special. The album closes with the quiet, devotional sentiments of “Never Let Go.” Deaderick provides ambient notes on the accordion enhancing what may be Hecht’s most quietly passionate vocal.
Last of The Long Days is a low-key stunner, an album marked by well-crafted melodies, poetic lyrics and arrangements that bring every note and emotion to life. Producer Lex Price (Mindy Smith, Matthew Ryan) has fashioned an intimate yet powerful record full of understated touches that add emotional resonance to every song. “I loved working with Lex on the last project – we have complimentary styles and I wanted to build on that compatibility,” Hecht says. “He has a unique vision in the studio that adds incredible layering and nuance to my songs.” As with their first collaboration, Late Last Night, Hecht and Price have created a record that slowly unfolds to reveal its emotional depth, the more so with every listen.
Growing up in Knoxville, Tennessee, Hecht was exposed to his parents’ collection of 70s acoustic pop albums and his dad’s mandolin playing. “My mom loved Paul Simon, Jim Croce, Dan Fogelberg and other classic singer/songwriters. When I started writing songs, I was listening to their modern counterparts, artists like Tracy Chapman, Sarah McLachlan and David Gray. That combination was a big influence on my writing.”
The summer before he started college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Hecht made a conscious decision to become a singer/songwriter. “Playing music just never seemed like work, so I knew that was what I was meant to do. I used the Internet to teach myself guitar. I discovered I had an affinity for fingerpicking and went from there.”
After graduation, Hecht moved to Paris with a friend and busked on the streets to make money. “A guy who played bagpipes used to set up across the street from me; he’d drown me out and make all the money. It wasn’t an incredibly lucrative gig to be an American folksinger in Paris, but still was an amazing experience I’ll never forget.”
After returning to the states, Hecht moved to San Francisco where he fronted the folk/swing band AllDay Radio and then settled in Nashville to pursue his songwriting career. He toured and wrote relentlessly over the next several years, winning the Great Waters Music Festival Songwriter Competition in 2006, the Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk Competition in 2008 and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival Troubadour Contest in 2010—along the way garnering comparisons to early James Taylor, Paul Simon, and Amos Lee. Like these celebrated artists, Robby Hecht is a unique voice—one that is stirring, instantly recognizable and truly original. [less...]
With its blend of acoustic and electric instrumentation, Last of The Long Days harkens back to a time when well-crafted lyrics and timeless melodies ruled the radio airwaves. “Real Someday” is a hopeful mid-tempo tune with a lyric that promises there will be better days to come. The chorus is a descending, wordless harmony with Jill Andrews, formerly of The Everybodyfields, supplying the soaring backing vocals. The folksy “Pot of Gold” sings the praises of a long time relationship while playing on traditional methods of fortune seeking. On this track, muted upright bass and James Digirolamo’s accordion complement Hecht’s warm, assuring vocals and intricate fingerpicking.
John Deaderick (Dixie Chicks, Patty Griffin) adds shimmering B3 organ and piano to the swelling melody of “A Reckoning of Us.” Here, Hecht’s heartfelt vocals tell the tale of a failed romance while assuring that forgiveness will eventually and inevitably ease the pain. Jill Andrews again supplies the harmonies that back this and so many of the other arrangements on Last of The Long Days. She duets with Hecht on Townes Van Zandt’s “If I Needed You” – where Hecht’s slight variation on the melody and the weeping pedal steel of Paul Niehaus (Calexico) make this cover something special. The album closes with the quiet, devotional sentiments of “Never Let Go.” Deaderick provides ambient notes on the accordion enhancing what may be Hecht’s most quietly passionate vocal.
Last of The Long Days is a low-key stunner, an album marked by well-crafted melodies, poetic lyrics and arrangements that bring every note and emotion to life. Producer Lex Price (Mindy Smith, Matthew Ryan) has fashioned an intimate yet powerful record full of understated touches that add emotional resonance to every song. “I loved working with Lex on the last project – we have complimentary styles and I wanted to build on that compatibility,” Hecht says. “He has a unique vision in the studio that adds incredible layering and nuance to my songs.” As with their first collaboration, Late Last Night, Hecht and Price have created a record that slowly unfolds to reveal its emotional depth, the more so with every listen.
Growing up in Knoxville, Tennessee, Hecht was exposed to his parents’ collection of 70s acoustic pop albums and his dad’s mandolin playing. “My mom loved Paul Simon, Jim Croce, Dan Fogelberg and other classic singer/songwriters. When I started writing songs, I was listening to their modern counterparts, artists like Tracy Chapman, Sarah McLachlan and David Gray. That combination was a big influence on my writing.”
The summer before he started college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Hecht made a conscious decision to become a singer/songwriter. “Playing music just never seemed like work, so I knew that was what I was meant to do. I used the Internet to teach myself guitar. I discovered I had an affinity for fingerpicking and went from there.”
After graduation, Hecht moved to Paris with a friend and busked on the streets to make money. “A guy who played bagpipes used to set up across the street from me; he’d drown me out and make all the money. It wasn’t an incredibly lucrative gig to be an American folksinger in Paris, but still was an amazing experience I’ll never forget.”
After returning to the states, Hecht moved to San Francisco where he fronted the folk/swing band AllDay Radio and then settled in Nashville to pursue his songwriting career. He toured and wrote relentlessly over the next several years, winning the Great Waters Music Festival Songwriter Competition in 2006, the Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk Competition in 2008 and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival Troubadour Contest in 2010—along the way garnering comparisons to early James Taylor, Paul Simon, and Amos Lee. Like these celebrated artists, Robby Hecht is a unique voice—one that is stirring, instantly recognizable and truly original. [less...]
Arthur Lee Land combines diverse influences to create a fresh new musical vibe: Afrograss Flavored Folk Rock. During a tour of Nigeria and Ghana, West Africa in 2001, Arthur spawned the concept of Afrograss: a synthesis of West African percussion and bluegrass in a folk rock context with a touch of funk, reggae, latin and world beat. Touring as a multi-instrumental solo act Arthur calls “A One-Man Afrograss Folk Rock Ensemble,” he utilizes THE ART of LIVE-LOOPING to create a full band sound by layering African percussion, bass, acoustic [more...] & electric guitars, guitar synth, vocals and talk box. In and around touring and recording Arthur has been devoting more time to his passion of working with youth and teaching. Since 2007 Arthur's Musical Life Skills K-12 Assembly Program & Looping Clinics have been presented to over 20,000 students in more than 15 states. This is Arthur’s 7th year teaching at the RMFF Song School. [less...]
Australian Clare McLeod is a vocalist, teacher and assistant professor at Berklee College of Music, Boston, USA. Clare earned a Graduate Diploma of Education from Monash University
and she performed with the Australian Opera, including Der Rosenkavalier, Hansel and Gretel, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, and Turandot. In describing her teaching: “I want to help singers close the gap between what they intend to do and what they are currently able to do; to help them understand the physical aspects of how their instrument works. The voice of the [more...] singer is like a race car, the singer is the driver and I’m in the pit, getting them road ready.”
“I began singing classical works quite young, and when I was a teenager my father brought home the Complete Ella Fitzgerald Songbooks. I started exploring jazz and dived into all kinds of genres, always curious about the variety of tones and colors in different voices—including my own. I started attending voice conferences and reading journals, asking ‘How does this work? What’s the science behind it?’ That curiosity has become one of my strengths as a teacher.”
“I want my students to have a strong sense of the lyrics and what it is they are saying. Great singers have a connection not only with their instrument, but with their material and their audience. Once they have a vision and the training to produce a range of sounds freely and efficiently, they can express themselves with greater precision and emotion. Knowing the options they have removes some of the fear and guesswork from the process of singing. The answer to fear is knowledge. I live by that.”
“One of the best parts about teaching private instruction is building a relationship in which students expand their awareness, are able ask questions, and learn to trust their bodies. There are moments in working with people, not necessarily when they have mastered a skill or completed a task, but when they see new possibilities and paths open for them. That’s when the lights go on.” [less...]
“I began singing classical works quite young, and when I was a teenager my father brought home the Complete Ella Fitzgerald Songbooks. I started exploring jazz and dived into all kinds of genres, always curious about the variety of tones and colors in different voices—including my own. I started attending voice conferences and reading journals, asking ‘How does this work? What’s the science behind it?’ That curiosity has become one of my strengths as a teacher.”
“I want my students to have a strong sense of the lyrics and what it is they are saying. Great singers have a connection not only with their instrument, but with their material and their audience. Once they have a vision and the training to produce a range of sounds freely and efficiently, they can express themselves with greater precision and emotion. Knowing the options they have removes some of the fear and guesswork from the process of singing. The answer to fear is knowledge. I live by that.”
“One of the best parts about teaching private instruction is building a relationship in which students expand their awareness, are able ask questions, and learn to trust their bodies. There are moments in working with people, not necessarily when they have mastered a skill or completed a task, but when they see new possibilities and paths open for them. That’s when the lights go on.” [less...]
Bill Nash is a 14 year veteran of the Rocky Mountain Song school and has
been a
guitarist for the past 36 years, with 32 years of teaching experience under
his
belt. He has been mentoring guitar students at the Song School for the past
5
years, in a one on one basis under his canopy. He teaches fingerstyle guitar
technique (mostly three finger Travis style) and also instructs students on
the
use of altered tunings, capo use, assorted other guitar techniques and music
theory. More recently, he has been working on cutting edge guitar
technique,
using cut capos, [more...] multiple cut capos, altered tunings, and altered tunings
with
multiple capos. One of his songs even uses 4 capos, in DADGAD tuning, and
each
capo is critical to performing the song. He also works with songwriters on
polishing their melodies, chord choices in their songs, and honing their
musical ideas. [less...]
Siobhán Quinn received the 2006 WAMMIE award for Best Folk-Traditional Vocalist, has been a 2007 Kerrville New Folk Finalist (with Michael Bowers), a top 5 Boston Folk Festival songwriting Finalist, and Master Class vocal teacher at the Swannanoa Gathering, Kerrville Folk Festival, Rocky Mountain Song School (Planet Bluegrass), and Summersongs. She was born of immigrant parents, and is a force and talent that should not be ignored. Siobhan released “Dreamers, Lovers and Outlaws” with husband and music partner Michael Bowers in late April 2007. She previously released “Two Rivers” (1999) & “Grande Affaire” [more...] (ltd ed., 2003) with Ben Murray and an EP with the UK band Boneshaker (2005). She has toured through the U.S./U.K., and has had airplay on four continents. In addition to writing and performing, Siobhán has nearly two decades of professional arts and cultural administration experience in both public and private institutions including museum, cultural, arts center, educational, funding and presenting institutions. With an expertise is in jump-starting programs through evaluation, strategic planning, and the development of arts related community & educational programming, she has assisted individual artists with programmatic/artist-as-product business plans, booking, and has nearly two decades of experience developing program proposals for arts grant applications. [less...]
Justin Roth is a nationally touring singer/songwriter and fingerstyle acoustic guitarist who combines an artful blend of hooks laid on a bed of brilliantly inventive guitar technique for a unique mix of acoustic indie folk. His path to acoustic music was solidified at 17 with his "Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show" moment, when he saw innovative guitarist Michael Hedges open for Crosby, Stills & Nash. Seeing that the acoustic guitar was capable of so much more than he had been exposed to before, from that moment on he knew it would be the root of his [more...] musical world. His use of alternate tunings, partial capos and his two-hand tapping technique leaves audiences mesmerized and displays his impressive guitar playing that has been described as, 'more than just an instrument, but an extension of himself.' Justin has toured with John Gorka and David Wilcox, as well as opened for some of the finest singer/songwriters on the acoustic music scene, including Shawn Colvin, Martin Sexton, and Darrell Scott. Equally, his guitar playing has earned him shared stages with some of the greatest fingerstyle players of today, such as Tommy Emmanuel, Andy McKee and Pat Donohue. He has sold over 12,000 copies of his five independent CDs, won the Indie Acoustic Project's award for Best Song for "Shine," and was a core contributor to the Lifescapes - Solo Guitar CD produced for Target Stores which sold over 70,000 copies nationwide. Justin's fan-funded new album, Now You Know, which he engineered, produced, played and sang every note himself in his bedroom studio, was voted as one of the Top 100 Folk Albums of 2011 by Roots Music Report. His song, "Surrender," from Now You Know was featured on the #1 ranked soap opera The Young & The Restless reaching over 5 millions viewers worldwide. Roth has also taught and performed at Song School/Folks Fest for 10 years, as well as at Kerrville Folk Festival, Sisters Folk Festival and Folk Alliance. When not on the road, Justin is a producer and engineer for other artists in his home studio in Fort Collins, CO. [less...]
In 1991, Alan started the folk music listserv, and later organized the first
Internet Quartet Songwriters Showcase, a tour that took 24 songwriters to 11
cities in the Northeast in a total of 66 concerts. Alan has written for
several music magazines including Dirty Linen and Sing Out! and has taught
seminars on the internet for musicians at national and regional Folk
Alliance conferences, the Kerrville Folk Festival, Falcon Ridge Folk
Festival, Christine Lavin’s Martha’s Vineyard Singer Songwriter Retreat, and
of course, our own Song School.
Two voices that blend like smoke and air. Like night and a whisper. Two distinct award-winning songwriters that meet in the mercury, collide and create emotionally spare music. Simple and true. Borrowing their name from the cry of joy made by ancient Greek Soldiers upon their post-war homecoming.
Since the Fall of 2011, Chuck e. Costa and Mira Stanley have been touring the country, making new friends and evolving their sound. Now a playful mix of old and new, acoustic and electric, raw and graceful, TSTS has created
an inspired [more...] trove of harmony-rich, lyric driven songs.
Dynamic and sincere, simple and true, their live shows will leave you stirring. [less...]
Although Amy began her creative career in the theater, acting with The National Shakepeare Company and various other classical repertory theaters, she long ago left behind the stage to pursue music full time. She was discovered by Judy Collins and signed to Collins' imprint, Wildflower Records, releasing two critically-acclaimed albums. Judy Collins herself recorded Amy's song, "The Weight of the World," calling it "one of the best political folk songs I've ever heard." Along the way, she gained support and praise from such legends as Guy Clark [more...] and Nanci Griffith, Ian Hunter and Alejandro Escovedo, an unlikely combination until you hear Amy's songs. The Houston Press called her "The unconscious cool of Americana," nodding to the lean poetry of her rootsy folk, an edge possibly learned busking in the subways of NYC, or playing Juliet in parking lot productions of "Romeo & Juliet". But it's her voice that catches the audience off guard. A crystal clear voice with an emotional catch and a fluttering vibrato that seems grounded in another era yet somehow speaks to this one. Mary Gauthier says, "There are voices that serve as a bridge from the past to the future and act as soul connectors, and as a people we need them to keep singing. These voices open hearts with this rare, one in a million quality. Amy Speace has such a voice. Just ask the legendarily discerning Judy Collins; she'll tell you. Amy's got it, and then some. She is a timeless artist, a time traveler. Part past, part future. And that's a good thing, a really good thing." [less...]
Judith is gentle and compassionate intuitive channel for a variety of nurturing hands-on healing techniques that balance the body, mind, and spirit. She assists people in reaching their full potential and freely expressing their authenticity. She believes in the amazing transformation that energy work can provide just by being open to receiving it. Are you ready to live your life? Judith specializes in Reiki: a Japanese technique that uses Universal Energy (Chi, Prana) for stress reduction and relaxation that provides healing on all levels and brings the body back into balance with the universe and our heart space. [more...] Reiki enhances and generates creativity, relief from physical pain, and relief from stress, as well as energizing the body, strengthening the immune system, providing comfort from emotional stress, and helping you let go of those things you no longer need. Judith also practices Kundalini Reiki, providing the same benefits of Reiki while helping us open our hearts and see the oneness in everyone and everything. Kundalini Reiki works well with lower chakra issues such as insecurities, writers block, financial issues, childhood issues, etc. Judith has spent the last year traveling, working, and learning in the UK, India, and Ireland (including volunteering at a Buddhist Center) expanding her abilities as a healer bringing this back to share and benefit you. [less...]
Tom Wasinger is a composer, arranger, producer, and multi-instrumentalist based in Boulder, Colorado. Tom has received three Grammy Awards as producer of the “Best Native American Music Album” in 2003 and 2007, and 2009. Tom also produced two other GRAMMY nominated records, one in 2001, and another in 2005. Tom’s first commercial success as a producer came in 1994 when his collection of international lullabies “The World Sings Goodnight” reached #3 on the Billboard World Music chart. This collection has since been [more...] licensed by National Geographic for the release “Lullabies, Dream Songs From Around the World”. For other recordings Tom has received four A.F.I.M. Indie awards (American Federation of Independent Music), five NAMA Nammy awards (Native American Music Association) including best producer for 2001 and 2005, as well as awards from Amazon.com, the American Library Association, and New Age Voice. Please see discography for award details. As a composer, Tom wrote the score for the feature length mountain biking film “Tread”, and the scores for numerous commercial short films. His music has been used in programming and syndicated programming on ABC, NBC, CBS, HBO, ESPN, and Animal Planet. He has also been commissioned to compose music for prominent modern dance companies including Llory Wilson and Dancers of Seattle, and Helander Dance Theatre of Boulder, Colorado. Tom has performed live in concert halls around the world from Carnegie Hall in New York to the Cemal Resit Rey Concert Hall in Istanbul Turkey. Tom builds experimental musical instruments and is the founder of “The Lost Angel Stone Ensemble”, the world’s only touring ensemble of resonating stone instruments. Tom and his music have been featured twice on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered”. As an educator Tom has taught music privately since 1976, and has been a guest lecturer at the University of Colorado/Boulder and the University of Colorado/Denver. [less...]
I was born into a tribe of semi-nomadic back-to-the-land hippies in Eastern Oregon in 1980. "Lady" by Kenny Rogers was the #1 song in America and John Lennon had a few weeks left to live. My parents had figured out a pretty good gig with a bunch of their friends, planting trees in the mountains for the US Forest Service and living in camps of teepees and yurts. The rest of the time they tended their garden, took care of the horses, practiced midwifery on their friends, tanned buckskins and beaded clothes. It was like The Little House on the Prairie, [more...] crossed with a Grateful Dead concert. As I remember it, it falls somewhere between Eden and squalor.
Then we moved to town, and those sweetly subversive dreams of "getting off the grid" got papered over with the normal shit of child-rearing in the '90s; parent-teacher conferences, piano lessons, insurance, VHS camcorders, rollerblades and skis and skateboard ramps, high-school musicals, ramen noodles, roofing leaks, Les Miserables 2-CD-Box Set, puppy obedience training, TV-watching time limits. My mother turned to religion, maybe to counteract our bad hair-dos. My father got into the internet before it was very popular. And before I knew who I was, I was an under-size under-weight teenaged dubiously born-again-Christian who was really actually Jewish but who was raised a mystical-agnostic-wood-nymph, trying to fit into meth-riddled logging mill small-town America. I wasn't allowed to listen to Nirvana so I sneaked it on unmarked cassette tapes.
To the West of our town, the freeway disappeared into a mountain pass called Deadman's Pass, making a little notch like a gun sight between the hills. And when the sun went down into that notch, it was like watching the glow of a distant party. I wanted to go to that party. Like any other kid I wanted to be where the action was, and it was clearly elsewhere, or so I thought. Like I'm sure it was for a lot of people, breaking out of my hometown was a revelation for me. I was 17 years old and I'd only ever had 4 radio stations to choose from. I liked the pop country songs that blasted from the doors of mud-covered trucks with oversize wheels in the high school parking lot – they seemed like they were about us. But I had a feeling there were things going on somewhere else that I needed to know about.
I never learned the importance of specialization, still haven't. So when I went off to college I was like a raccoon and I got into everything that wasn't sealed shut. I studied everything I possibly could. It was a feeding frenzy for me. I gobbled up new music, languages, philosphy, poetry, math, physics, literature – I thought it was all… cool. This was in 1999 and I remember listening to a Led Zeppelin record under headphones at the library and feeling like I had just discovered some ancient Mayan ruins. I had never thought of myself as sheltered, I mean not in like the Amish sense of the word, but college was definitely blowing my mind. And I loved my alma mater, Eugene, OR. Then suddenly I couldn't wait to get out of there either. I wanted to go somewhere very far away, totally alone, to test out the theory of absolute freedom and to prove to myself that I could do it.
So I split. I had a plane ticket to anywhere, a graduation gift, and I opted for the South Pacific because it sounded like the most exotic place I could think of. A place so isolated by ocean that time hadn't had a chance to tarnish it. A place where paradises were so numerous as to be expendable, where whole islands could be nuked by atomic scientists wearing safari hats and sunglasses, and no one would miss them. Everyone was going for Costa Rica or Europe. Nobody I knew was buying the Lonely Planet guide to New Caledonia or The Cook Islands. I figured chances were good that I could find an uninhabited island and play Robinson Crusoe. I really just wanted to learn how to hang out and survive off the land. And if I happened upon some exotic fellow travelers, maybe Swedish backpacker girls or something, that would be fine too. But the basic goal was pretty simple: to get out of the cycle of earning and spending money to buy things that really only serve the purpose of facilitating that selfsame cycle. I had also started writing a lot by then, poetry and music, countless half-baked songs and one or two good ones. So it was a journey to get away from everything I knew and find my voice as an artist too. I wanted to tear it all down, everything I'd learned and seen and tried to emulate in the past. I wanted to start with nothing, a clean-burning unfiltered life-form reacting to a world full of wonders.
It never came out quite as clean as all that. When ideas become realities they take on a form and a shape that's unpredictable and always beautifully deformed and mutilated by the whims of circumstance. I headed for the "South Pacific", but I was waylaid cavorting with hooligans in Australia. Hooligans that I now love dearly, by the way. I did eventually find an uninhabited island to inhabit, but it was only about 100 yards from the shore of the mainland in New Zealand.
I only stayed there for a week or two, till I got tired of the sand-flies, and rowing back to the mainland every time my water jug ran dry. I hopped sailboats to the Tongan islands, in search of a pure virginal culture, a romantic Rimbaud-like disappearance into something impossibly distant. But there I found Mormon missionaries, donuts, a lot of pregnant stray dogs, and gangster rap. I learned gospel songs, in English, from Tongan fishermen who didn't speak English. I made some field recordings of their curious blend of Christian tradition with the sounds of the islands. They couldn't believe their ears when they discovered that they could listen back to themselves on my Minidisc recorder.
I was trying to get somewhere pure, away from the world I knew. And I was a little sad to find that I couldn't. But I think it took me until then to really appreciate that human life is mixed up and messy, that we are all painted into landscapes that are tarnished and inconceivably varied. Because that's the way the world is now. The fluctuating matrix stew of cultures and ideas that we exist in is so fast and so thick, you just have to let it wash over you, embracing what you can and rejecting what you can't. There are a lot of people trying to pose as purists of one type or another. Pure rocker, pure folkie, pure punk, pure street. I'm not a pure anything. I'm an American male, whitish, aged 31.
I have now moved to Nashville, Tennessee – bastion of "country" music, land-locked Southern-fried pseudo-Christian ecologically-insensitive comfort zone where rent is cheap, jeans come with rhinestones, "co-write" is the word on the street, and life couldn't be much more different from where I started out. But it is also in Nashville that I have found my indispensable musical comrades – people like Abigail Washburn, Bobby Bare Jr., Carl Broemel, Jamie Dick, James Wallace, Brittany Haas, Bela Fleck, Tommy Hans, and countless more. There are way too many great people in this town to list, and as much as I sometimes get a hankering for those heady, romantic days of high-seas, high-mountains, high-ideals, and a lot of general high-ness, I also love being in a place where even your pizza delivery dude is really good at music. It's headquarters, it's our community, and it's really good to us.
I'm now going to attempt to sum up my entire life, and leave you with a mission statement of sorts… The one constant that I can distill from the grand total of everything I've ever seen and done, and my strongest belief, is this: Life is mysteriously divine, and this planet we are a part of is host to infinite wonders. Our challenge while we are here is to appreciate them fully. [less...]
Then we moved to town, and those sweetly subversive dreams of "getting off the grid" got papered over with the normal shit of child-rearing in the '90s; parent-teacher conferences, piano lessons, insurance, VHS camcorders, rollerblades and skis and skateboard ramps, high-school musicals, ramen noodles, roofing leaks, Les Miserables 2-CD-Box Set, puppy obedience training, TV-watching time limits. My mother turned to religion, maybe to counteract our bad hair-dos. My father got into the internet before it was very popular. And before I knew who I was, I was an under-size under-weight teenaged dubiously born-again-Christian who was really actually Jewish but who was raised a mystical-agnostic-wood-nymph, trying to fit into meth-riddled logging mill small-town America. I wasn't allowed to listen to Nirvana so I sneaked it on unmarked cassette tapes.
To the West of our town, the freeway disappeared into a mountain pass called Deadman's Pass, making a little notch like a gun sight between the hills. And when the sun went down into that notch, it was like watching the glow of a distant party. I wanted to go to that party. Like any other kid I wanted to be where the action was, and it was clearly elsewhere, or so I thought. Like I'm sure it was for a lot of people, breaking out of my hometown was a revelation for me. I was 17 years old and I'd only ever had 4 radio stations to choose from. I liked the pop country songs that blasted from the doors of mud-covered trucks with oversize wheels in the high school parking lot – they seemed like they were about us. But I had a feeling there were things going on somewhere else that I needed to know about.
I never learned the importance of specialization, still haven't. So when I went off to college I was like a raccoon and I got into everything that wasn't sealed shut. I studied everything I possibly could. It was a feeding frenzy for me. I gobbled up new music, languages, philosphy, poetry, math, physics, literature – I thought it was all… cool. This was in 1999 and I remember listening to a Led Zeppelin record under headphones at the library and feeling like I had just discovered some ancient Mayan ruins. I had never thought of myself as sheltered, I mean not in like the Amish sense of the word, but college was definitely blowing my mind. And I loved my alma mater, Eugene, OR. Then suddenly I couldn't wait to get out of there either. I wanted to go somewhere very far away, totally alone, to test out the theory of absolute freedom and to prove to myself that I could do it.
So I split. I had a plane ticket to anywhere, a graduation gift, and I opted for the South Pacific because it sounded like the most exotic place I could think of. A place so isolated by ocean that time hadn't had a chance to tarnish it. A place where paradises were so numerous as to be expendable, where whole islands could be nuked by atomic scientists wearing safari hats and sunglasses, and no one would miss them. Everyone was going for Costa Rica or Europe. Nobody I knew was buying the Lonely Planet guide to New Caledonia or The Cook Islands. I figured chances were good that I could find an uninhabited island and play Robinson Crusoe. I really just wanted to learn how to hang out and survive off the land. And if I happened upon some exotic fellow travelers, maybe Swedish backpacker girls or something, that would be fine too. But the basic goal was pretty simple: to get out of the cycle of earning and spending money to buy things that really only serve the purpose of facilitating that selfsame cycle. I had also started writing a lot by then, poetry and music, countless half-baked songs and one or two good ones. So it was a journey to get away from everything I knew and find my voice as an artist too. I wanted to tear it all down, everything I'd learned and seen and tried to emulate in the past. I wanted to start with nothing, a clean-burning unfiltered life-form reacting to a world full of wonders.
It never came out quite as clean as all that. When ideas become realities they take on a form and a shape that's unpredictable and always beautifully deformed and mutilated by the whims of circumstance. I headed for the "South Pacific", but I was waylaid cavorting with hooligans in Australia. Hooligans that I now love dearly, by the way. I did eventually find an uninhabited island to inhabit, but it was only about 100 yards from the shore of the mainland in New Zealand.
I only stayed there for a week or two, till I got tired of the sand-flies, and rowing back to the mainland every time my water jug ran dry. I hopped sailboats to the Tongan islands, in search of a pure virginal culture, a romantic Rimbaud-like disappearance into something impossibly distant. But there I found Mormon missionaries, donuts, a lot of pregnant stray dogs, and gangster rap. I learned gospel songs, in English, from Tongan fishermen who didn't speak English. I made some field recordings of their curious blend of Christian tradition with the sounds of the islands. They couldn't believe their ears when they discovered that they could listen back to themselves on my Minidisc recorder.
I was trying to get somewhere pure, away from the world I knew. And I was a little sad to find that I couldn't. But I think it took me until then to really appreciate that human life is mixed up and messy, that we are all painted into landscapes that are tarnished and inconceivably varied. Because that's the way the world is now. The fluctuating matrix stew of cultures and ideas that we exist in is so fast and so thick, you just have to let it wash over you, embracing what you can and rejecting what you can't. There are a lot of people trying to pose as purists of one type or another. Pure rocker, pure folkie, pure punk, pure street. I'm not a pure anything. I'm an American male, whitish, aged 31.
I have now moved to Nashville, Tennessee – bastion of "country" music, land-locked Southern-fried pseudo-Christian ecologically-insensitive comfort zone where rent is cheap, jeans come with rhinestones, "co-write" is the word on the street, and life couldn't be much more different from where I started out. But it is also in Nashville that I have found my indispensable musical comrades – people like Abigail Washburn, Bobby Bare Jr., Carl Broemel, Jamie Dick, James Wallace, Brittany Haas, Bela Fleck, Tommy Hans, and countless more. There are way too many great people in this town to list, and as much as I sometimes get a hankering for those heady, romantic days of high-seas, high-mountains, high-ideals, and a lot of general high-ness, I also love being in a place where even your pizza delivery dude is really good at music. It's headquarters, it's our community, and it's really good to us.
I'm now going to attempt to sum up my entire life, and leave you with a mission statement of sorts… The one constant that I can distill from the grand total of everything I've ever seen and done, and my strongest belief, is this: Life is mysteriously divine, and this planet we are a part of is host to infinite wonders. Our challenge while we are here is to appreciate them fully. [less...]
Singer/songwriter/percussionist/multi-instrumentalist Annie Wenz has shared her songs & stomped her dusty musical boots & from festivals, rallys, street corners, schools & arts centers across the US & abroad, to refugee camps in Pakistan, spas in Malaysia, ESPN videos, mystical Independent Film scores, & blaring speakers at Major League Ballparks! As a writer & performer, she is known for her Kerouac-ish magnifying glass-ified lyrical portrait story songs & her unique way of blending roots, multi-cultural influences & funky rhythms. [more...] As a multi-instrumentalist, she accompanies herself & others on guitar, piano, indigenous flutes & percussion instruments on stages around the world…
Annie’s experiences span over 25 countries "bringing people together through music”, performing & teaching for earthquake victims & dignitaries in SE Asia, to "New Zealand's Millennium Celebration", The Kennedy Center, festivals & theater productions in Costa Rica, Germany, Sweden, Thailand, Vietnam, Bali & more!
Her former band members & include Senegalize talking drum wizard Massamba Djop of Babba Mal's band, percussionist Jose Gonzalez, Steppenwolf's Guy DeVito, & London's Robert Dean (of “Japan” & Sinead O'Connor's guitarist). She’s taught with Roy “Futureman” Wooten of Bela Fleck & the Flecktones & co-written/collaborated with Dr Jeri Nielsen of the Ice Bound book & movie, and National Boyd Award winning novelist Robert Macomber.
Her story songs are inspired by her journeys... as a biker, kayaker & backpacker, working as a registered nurse, rafting guide, activist and teacher. Annie also travels throughout the world sharing her grant winning songwriting, percussion, flute, piano accompaniment & dance/yoga/movement inspired workshops !
She has 7 recordings on her own indie label “Island Gypsy” including her newest buzzed about CD “Ride The Sky” penned at stoplights while twirling about dusty back Americana roads on her Harley. She lives in her natty boots. "it's a muddy road out there, but somebody's gotta ride thru it!" [less...]
Annie’s experiences span over 25 countries "bringing people together through music”, performing & teaching for earthquake victims & dignitaries in SE Asia, to "New Zealand's Millennium Celebration", The Kennedy Center, festivals & theater productions in Costa Rica, Germany, Sweden, Thailand, Vietnam, Bali & more!
Her former band members & include Senegalize talking drum wizard Massamba Djop of Babba Mal's band, percussionist Jose Gonzalez, Steppenwolf's Guy DeVito, & London's Robert Dean (of “Japan” & Sinead O'Connor's guitarist). She’s taught with Roy “Futureman” Wooten of Bela Fleck & the Flecktones & co-written/collaborated with Dr Jeri Nielsen of the Ice Bound book & movie, and National Boyd Award winning novelist Robert Macomber.
Her story songs are inspired by her journeys... as a biker, kayaker & backpacker, working as a registered nurse, rafting guide, activist and teacher. Annie also travels throughout the world sharing her grant winning songwriting, percussion, flute, piano accompaniment & dance/yoga/movement inspired workshops !
She has 7 recordings on her own indie label “Island Gypsy” including her newest buzzed about CD “Ride The Sky” penned at stoplights while twirling about dusty back Americana roads on her Harley. She lives in her natty boots. "it's a muddy road out there, but somebody's gotta ride thru it!" [less...]
Past Instructors
2012 Song School Instructors
Mary Gauthier, Peter Himmelman, Holly Near, Pat Pattison, Gretchen Peters, Paul Reisler, Darrell Scott, Steve Seskin, Richard Shindell, "Chicago" Mike Beck, Michael Bowers, Ron Browning, Don Conoscenti, Terri Delaney, Ingrid Elizabeth, Ellis, Rebecca Folsom, Girlyman, Jagoda, JJ Jones, Diana Korpi, Arthur Lee Land, Danielle Morales, Bill Nash, Brendan Okrent, Siobhán Quinn, Justin Roth, Alan Rowoth, Maggie Simpson, Christopher Smith, Amy Speace, Mary Vyn, Judith Wade, Tom Wasinger, Annie Wenz
2011 Song School Instructors
Ysaye Barnwell, Mary Gauthier, Vance Gilbert, Sarah Lee Guthrie, Johnny Irion, Anais Mitchell, Pat Pattison, Paul Reisler, Steve Seskin, Livingston Taylor, "Chicago" Mike Beck, Tim Burlingame, Michael Bowers, Ron Browning, Ellis, Rebecca Folsom, Girlyman, Bob Hemenger, Jagoda, JJ Jones, Diana Korpi, Arthur Lee Land, Terri Mazurek, Bill Nash, Siobhán Quinn, Etan Rosenbloom, Justin Roth, Alan Rowoth, Sarah Sample, Kathrin Shorr, David Slater, Amy Speace, Mary Vyn, Judith Wade, Annie Wenz
2010 Song School Instructors
Jonatha Brooke, Sheila Carabine, Vance Gilbert, Pat Pattison, Paul Reisler, Darrell Scott, Steve Seskin, Amanda Walther, David Wilcox, "Chicago" Mike Beck, Michael Bowers, Ron Browning, Joe Craven, Ellis, Girlyman, Bob Hemenger, Jagoda, JJ Jones, Diana Korpi, Arthur Lee Land, Terri Mazurek, Bill Nash, Brendan Okrent, Siobhan Quinn, Justin Roth, Alan Rowoth, David Slater, Amy Speace, Mary Vyn, Judith Wade
2009 Song School Instructors
Mary Gauthier, Peter Himmelman, Karin Bergquist, Linford Detweiler, Pat Pattison, Steve Seskin, Vance Gilbert, Paul Reisler, Carmen Allgood, "Chicago" Mike Beck, Michael Bowers, Ron Browning, Tim Burlingame, Chuck E. Costa, Ellis, Rebecca Folsom, Thomas Golubic, Jagoda, Jennifer "JJ" Jones, Diana Korpi, Arthur Lee Land, Terri Mazurek, Ryan Mintz, Kathy Moser, Bill Nash, Brendan Okrent, Siobhan Quinn, Justin Roth, Alan Rowoth, Kathrin Shorr, Maggie Simpson, Christopher Smith, Amy Speace, Annie Wenz
2008 Song School Instructors
Josh Ritter, Melissa Ferrick, Pat Pattison, Susan Werner, Steve Seskin, Vance Gilbert, Paul Reisler, Carmen Allgood, "Chicago" Mike Beck, Michael Bowers, Ron Browning, Tim Burlingame, Ellis, Rebecca Folsom, Jagoda, Jennifer JJ Jones, Arthur Lee Land, Terri Mazurek, Bill Nash, Brendan Okrent, Julie Portman, Siobhan Quinn, Justin Roth, Alan Rowoth, Kathrin Shorr, Moira Smiley, Amy Speace, and Annie Wenz.
2007 Song School Instructors
Peter Himmelman, Darrell Scott, Mary Gauthier, Zoe Lewis, Catie Curtis, Steve Seskin, Vance Gilbert, Arthur Lee Land, Moira Smiley, Annie Wenz, Rebecca Folsom, Ellis, Terri Mazurek, Alan Rowoth, Amy Speace, Kathrin Shorr, Tim Burlingame, Jennifer "JJ" Jones, Siobhan Quinn, Michael Bowers, Anna Wolfe, Justin Roth, Ben Wisch, Carmen Allgood, and "Chicago" Mike Beck.
