News

At age six, when Jens (Yens) Kruger heard the banjo on one of his dad’s American records, he yearned to play it. But having no access to one, Jens played their mother’s accordion, accompanying Uwe, who played their father’s guitar. When Jens turned ten he acquired a tenor banjo and started to play Dixieland jazz, […]

Aaron O’Rourke has, in a short period of time, gained recognition as one of the top innovators of the mountain dulcimer today. His musical journey began with playing bass in a punk band which continues to be a subtle but important influence on his composing and arranging. Having won numerous competitions on dulcimer he now […]

A Grammy Award winning recording artist and performer, Al Petteway has played nearly every type of popular, folk and classical music. Though his primary instrument has always been the guitar, he has also studied lute, string bass, percussion and music composition. His compositions for acoustic fingerstyle guitar are strongly influenced by his love of Celtic […]

For the past fifteen years, Ron Block has been the spiritual touchstone of Alison Krauss and Union Station, contributing sterling musicianship on banjo, guitar and vocals. Block’s first solo album, Faraway Land (Rounder, 2001), met with great critical acclaim and raised the bar for Block as an artist for his Rounder Records follow-up, DoorWay. Alison […]

Multi-intrumentalist Singer Songwriter Performer. Born in 1955, Douglas John Cameron grew up in Midland, Ontario where he studied piano and began composing songs at the age of nine. Through high school and University he styled himself after the folk-singers of the day and played bass and guitar in rock, country and quasi-jazz bands. In the […]

Edward Dick has been a professional luthier for the past 34 years and has built everything from classical & steel string guitars to lyres & lutes to basses & banjos to harps & bouzoukis. All this just so he could finally create the Banjola. And, of course, then he had to learn how to play […]

Steve Mullins, multi-instrumentalist, is perhaps best known for his fabulous flamenco guitar work. He teaches World Music at the University of Colorado in Boulder and is a columnist for Mandolin Magazine. He has also wrote the very first 6-string Banjola instruction book.