Carl Jones is an American songwriter and multi-instrumentalist born in Macon, Georgia. He presently lives in Hillsville, Virginia and
is widely respected for his instrumental talents and original songs about the joys and tribulations of life in the south.
Carl’s songs have been recorded by The Nashville Bluegrass Band, Kate Campbell, Rickie Simpkins w/ Tony Rice, and others. His song Last Time On The Road was on the grammy award winning album Unleashed by The Nashville Bluegrass Band. He has recordings with James Bryan, and also with The Rising Fawn String ensemble ( James along w/ Norman & Nancy Blake). For many years now he has recorded and tours with his wife, fiddler Erynn Marshall. Their latest releases are entitled Old Tin and Old Time Sweethearts Vol 1 & 2. www.dittyville.com
Frank Solivan is a multi-Grammy nominee, multi-IBMA award recipient, and multi-instrumentalist who sings with power and passion and writes articulate songs that go straight to the heart. He combines the pure, hard drive of classic bluegrass with contemporary twenty-first century acoustic music sophistication. He has been nominated for many International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) awards including Male Vocalist of the Year, Instrumental Player of the Year (Mandolin), Instrumental Group of the Year, and more. He is known for his blistering chops on the mandolin, and is also a talented fiddle and guitar player. Frank and his regular band, Dirty Kitchen have toured around the world and racked up a steady stream of awards and nominations, including 2 GRAMMY nominations and 2 awards for IBMA Instrumental Group of the Year.
Music has long been present in the life of Lauren Price Napier. Growing up, she learned to sing duet-style harmony with her twin sister, Leanna, by listening to their parents sing together. Although Lauren and Leanna were gifted instruments as children, it wasn’t until they attended a few workshops and festivals in their high school years and saw some of their favorite artists performing live, that they girls began to take a strong interest in bluegrass music.
Lauren holds the role of co-founder, mandolinist, and vocalist with ‘The Price Sisters’ band and most of her professional work in the music industry comes from within that position. While still in college, Lauren and Leanna signed with Rebel Records, released an EP, and subsequently began touringas The Price Sisters. The Sisters’ released their first full-length album for Rebel, “A Heart Never Knows” in spring of 2018. The five-piece band to-date has performed at numerous venues and festivals across the United States, Canada, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Lauren has been an instructor at the Monroe Mandolin Camp, the DelFest Academy, Camp Bluegrass, Mandolin Camp North, Augusta Bluegrass Week, the Bobby Osborne Mandolin Roundup, and workshop-leader at various festivals where The Price Sisters have performed. Lauren has also hosted or been guest on several virtual mandolin workishops including the Lousiville Folk School. Lauren has worked as an Artist-in-Residence with the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum. In June 2019, she was the featured for an interview on Mandolin Cafe. In 2019, Lauren was nominated for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA) Momentum Vocalist of the Year, and in 2020, was nominated for Momentum Instrumentalist of the Year. The Price Sisters have a debut album to be released February 16, 2024 on McCoury Music titled “Between the Lines”.
Befriended and mentored by Bill Monroe, the acknowledged Father of Bluegrass Music, Mike Compton is one of today’s foremost interpreters of Monroe’s genre-creating mandolin style. Compton’s mastery of mandolin is at once effortless and exceptional. A compelling entertainer either alone or with a group, his skills as a singer, arranger, instrumentalist, composer and accompanist also make him in-demand as a band member and ensemble player at festivals, clubs and concert halls, recording sessions, music workshops and as a private instructor.
Compton’s decades of touring and recording with musical luminaries ranging from rockstars Sting, Gregg Allman and Elvis Costello, to straight-fro-the-still acoustic legends like John Hartford, Doc Watson, Peter Rowan, Ralph Stanley and David Grisman, have established him as a true master of the modern American mandolin and a premier interpreter of roots and Americana musical styles. With over 140 CDS in his discography, Compton has helped keep mandolin a cool, relevant sound as the modern musical styles ebb and evolve to reach an every-broadening audience.
A native of Meridian, Mississippi, Compton picked up the mandolin in his teens and absorbed the area’s native blues, old-time country and bluegrass sounds. He soon gravitate to Nashville, where he helped found one of the 20th Century’s most admired and influential bluegrass groups, the iconic Nashville Bluegrass Band. He’s also been a part of the Hubert Davis Band, John Hartford Stringband, 1942, Compton & Newberry, and other seminal groups.
When A-list Americana producer T-Bone Burnett needed experts in authentic rural musical styles to anchor the landmark ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ movie project and subsequent tour, he called upon Compton’s unique knowledge and signature mandolin style to authenticate the Soggy Bottom Boys’ rootsy sound. That Grammy Award Album of the Year-winning album went on to sell seven million copies and sparked a global revival in old-time and bluegrass musical styles.
Connoisseur of hand-painted vintage silk ties, popularizer of the denim overall urban fashion statement, lover of iconic men’s hats and curator of oddball official days (ask him about National Lost Sock Memorial Day or National root Canal Appreciation Day), Mike Compton thrives at the intersection of traditional funk and modern authenticity.
Equally skilled in bluegrass, old-time string band music, country blues, roots Americana styles, and much more, Compton soars beyond easy categorization as n acoustic mandolin player and singer. Gifted at tastefully incorporating rural, roots-based learn and rhythm mandolin styles into modern Americana music, Compton’s unique musical skill set allows him to entertain audiences ranging from racers and urban hipsters to die-hard country, folk and bluegrass fans.
A mandolin master able to channel the Monroe-style playing better than anyone, Compton is a preservationist who continues teaching the music that Bill Monroe innovated, and which set the standard for generations of bluegrass mandolin players to come. For more information about Mike, visit his website at mikecompton.net
