Moab Folk Camp 2019 is in the works.
Here was our fabulous 2018 staff:
Cyd Smith
Guitarist, singer/songwriter Cyd Smith is not easy to pigeonhole. In demand as a swing jazz guitarist and vocalist, she is also a highly respected songwriter. Well known as an educator, she has taught at prestigious music camps around the country, including the California Coast Music Camp, Port Townsend Vintage Jazz Workshop, Augusta Heritage Music Festival, and Colorado Roots Music Camp.
She began studying classical guitar in her early teens, then continued her musical studies at Stanford University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. While living in the Bay Area, she was introduced to the rich treasury of American folk music, especially bluegrass, vintage country music, and jug band music. From there it was a smooth transition into swing jazz, an idiom which she has delved into deeply. In recent years she has been living and performing primarily as a soloist in clubs and wineries in southern Oregon.
www.cydsmith.com
Guitarist, singer/songwriter Cyd Smith is not easy to pigeonhole. In demand as a swing jazz guitarist and vocalist, she is also a highly respected songwriter. Well known as an educator, she has taught at prestigious music camps around the country, including the California Coast Music Camp, Port Townsend Vintage Jazz Workshop, Augusta Heritage Music Festival, and Colorado Roots Music Camp.
She began studying classical guitar in her early teens, then continued her musical studies at Stanford University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. While living in the Bay Area, she was introduced to the rich treasury of American folk music, especially bluegrass, vintage country music, and jug band music. From there it was a smooth transition into swing jazz, an idiom which she has delved into deeply. In recent years she has been living and performing primarily as a soloist in clubs and wineries in southern Oregon.
www.cydsmith.com
Tony Marcus
Tony Marcus has found joy playing many styles of music. He has played bluegrass with mandolin legend Frank Wakefield, jug band music and blues with Geoff Muldaur, fiddle tunes with the Arkansas Sheiks, string swing with Cats & Jammers, big band jazz with the Royal Society Jazz Orchestra, weird old Hawaiian and hokum with R. Crumb and the Cheap Suit Serenaders and honky tonk country with Rose Maddox, to name a few. Playing music has taken him from Japan to Ireland, and from Alaska to Florida in the USA. He’s also had a career in theatre, appearing in shows all over the United States for the last twenty years. He currently performs with Patrice Haan in the vocal duo Leftover Dreams
Tony Marcus has found joy playing many styles of music. He has played bluegrass with mandolin legend Frank Wakefield, jug band music and blues with Geoff Muldaur, fiddle tunes with the Arkansas Sheiks, string swing with Cats & Jammers, big band jazz with the Royal Society Jazz Orchestra, weird old Hawaiian and hokum with R. Crumb and the Cheap Suit Serenaders and honky tonk country with Rose Maddox, to name a few. Playing music has taken him from Japan to Ireland, and from Alaska to Florida in the USA. He’s also had a career in theatre, appearing in shows all over the United States for the last twenty years. He currently performs with Patrice Haan in the vocal duo Leftover Dreams
Sloan WainwrightDefying standard categorization, singer/songwriter Sloan Wainwright, consistently demonstrates her easy command of a variety of American musical styles — pop, folk, jazz and blues — held together by the melodious tone of her rich contralto, with the end result being a unique and soulful hybrid.
Sloan’s incredible gift is not only her unique songwriting ability but also her dramatically voiced rendition of original songs. She has written numerous musical compositions for theater and dance and teaches at many of the best-known master songwriter series and workshops. Her open spirit and first-hand experience is welcome –year after year– in the musical classrooms of such prestigious song camps as Richard Thompson’s Frets and Refrains, The Swannanoa Gathering, SummerSongs, WUMB Radio’s Summer Acoustic Music Week (SAMW), Winter Acoustic Music Weekend (WAMW), Moab Folk Camp, Cape Cod Songwriting Retreat and Totally Cool Song School.
Sloan’s incredible gift is not only her unique songwriting ability but also her dramatically voiced rendition of original songs. She has written numerous musical compositions for theater and dance and teaches at many of the best-known master songwriter series and workshops. Her open spirit and first-hand experience is welcome –year after year– in the musical classrooms of such prestigious song camps as Richard Thompson’s Frets and Refrains, The Swannanoa Gathering, SummerSongs, WUMB Radio’s Summer Acoustic Music Week (SAMW), Winter Acoustic Music Weekend (WAMW), Moab Folk Camp, Cape Cod Songwriting Retreat and Totally Cool Song School.
Brooks Williams
Brooks Williams, called one of America’s musical treasures, is ranked in the Top 100 Acoustic Guitarists. In February 2014 he was nominated best male vocalist by the UK’s folk roots mavens, Spiral Earth.
In the time-honoured road-warrior tradition, Williams has honed his songs on stages from Dallas to London, Istanbul to Anchorage, Toronto to Dublin, Detroit to Glasgow, Nairobi to Belfast, New York to Sardinia. Recent appearances include Celtic Connections, Glastonbury, Shrewsbury Folk Festival, Cambridge Folk Festival, Birmingham Jazz and Blues Festival, Ards Guitar Festival, Kerrville Festival and Moab Folk Festival. All in all, thousands of gigs over thousands of miles.
In 2012 he was awarded the Cambridge Arts Award, appeared on Radio Ballads, a six-week BBC Radio broadcast celebrating the London 2012 Olympics, and guested on The Andrew Marr Show on BBC TV.
No stranger to teaching, Acoustic magazine writes, “There aren’t many people who can play guitar like Brooks Williams, and fewer still who can teach like he can.” Recent workshops include Anglia Ruskin University in the UK, La Grande Gennerie in France, and SAMW in the USA. His discography includes 20 CDs (with more on the way!) and two guitar instructional DVDs (praised for their accessibility as well as Williams’ “easy and engaging presence on screen.”)
Brooks Williams, called one of America’s musical treasures, is ranked in the Top 100 Acoustic Guitarists. In February 2014 he was nominated best male vocalist by the UK’s folk roots mavens, Spiral Earth.
In the time-honoured road-warrior tradition, Williams has honed his songs on stages from Dallas to London, Istanbul to Anchorage, Toronto to Dublin, Detroit to Glasgow, Nairobi to Belfast, New York to Sardinia. Recent appearances include Celtic Connections, Glastonbury, Shrewsbury Folk Festival, Cambridge Folk Festival, Birmingham Jazz and Blues Festival, Ards Guitar Festival, Kerrville Festival and Moab Folk Festival. All in all, thousands of gigs over thousands of miles.
In 2012 he was awarded the Cambridge Arts Award, appeared on Radio Ballads, a six-week BBC Radio broadcast celebrating the London 2012 Olympics, and guested on The Andrew Marr Show on BBC TV.
No stranger to teaching, Acoustic magazine writes, “There aren’t many people who can play guitar like Brooks Williams, and fewer still who can teach like he can.” Recent workshops include Anglia Ruskin University in the UK, La Grande Gennerie in France, and SAMW in the USA. His discography includes 20 CDs (with more on the way!) and two guitar instructional DVDs (praised for their accessibility as well as Williams’ “easy and engaging presence on screen.”)
Cosy Sheridan
Cosy Sheridan has been called "one of the era's finest and most thoughtful singer/songwriters." A storyteller as well as a songwriter, she weaves children's fables into tales of modern adulthood. She has written about the stock market crash of 2008 and fall-out from uranium mining in the American southwest. She has re-written greek myths: Persephone runs away with Hades the biker. And then there are her signature parodies on aging and women.
She first caught the attention of national folk audiences in 1992 when she won the songwriting contests at both the Kerrville Folk Festival and The Telluride Bluegrass Festival. She has been touring, writing and recording ever since. Her latest CD, Pretty Bird, was included in Sing Out Magazine’s “Great CDs of 2014”.
For the past 20 years she has taught classes in songwriting, performance and guitar at workshops and adult music camps across the country including the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, California Coast Music Camp and The Swannanoa Gathering. In 2008 she co-founded the Moab Folk Camp.
Cosy Sheridan has been called "one of the era's finest and most thoughtful singer/songwriters." A storyteller as well as a songwriter, she weaves children's fables into tales of modern adulthood. She has written about the stock market crash of 2008 and fall-out from uranium mining in the American southwest. She has re-written greek myths: Persephone runs away with Hades the biker. And then there are her signature parodies on aging and women.
She first caught the attention of national folk audiences in 1992 when she won the songwriting contests at both the Kerrville Folk Festival and The Telluride Bluegrass Festival. She has been touring, writing and recording ever since. Her latest CD, Pretty Bird, was included in Sing Out Magazine’s “Great CDs of 2014”.
For the past 20 years she has taught classes in songwriting, performance and guitar at workshops and adult music camps across the country including the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, California Coast Music Camp and The Swannanoa Gathering. In 2008 she co-founded the Moab Folk Camp.
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Eric Jones
Eric Jones plays mandolin (and guitar)(and is a vocalist) for the popular western slope Bluegrass and Swing band Big Timbre, and has been a cornerstone of the regional music scene for many years. He was a founding member of the Irish-American band Keltika, and his music reflects a fondness for an eclectic mix of traditional Americana styles. A former student at the Steve Kaufman Mandolin Kamp in Tennessee, Eric continues to explore the many nuances of mandolin expressions. |
Peter Danzig
Pete grew up listening to his opera trained, banjo pickin’, pipe organ mechanic, father play him tunes about riding the rails as Pete lay in bed trying to sleep. All these years later he has matured (if indeed banjo players ever truly mature) into an award winning multi-instrumentalist and songwriter touring coast to coast with his wife Mary as the folk/Americana duo Otter Creek. The title track from their most recent album, “The Fiddle Preacher” reached the top ten on the Folk DJ Charts in February of 2015. He has won the Utah State Fiddle, Banjo, and Mandolin Championships and took Second place in the National Mandolin Championship held in Winfield Kansas (where he also incidentally made history by playing clawhammer style banjo in the National Bluegrass Banjo Competition). He taught banjo and ukulele at the University of Utah for several years and maintains a small studio of private students when he’s not out on the road. More information is available at www.OtterCreekDuo.com
Pete grew up listening to his opera trained, banjo pickin’, pipe organ mechanic, father play him tunes about riding the rails as Pete lay in bed trying to sleep. All these years later he has matured (if indeed banjo players ever truly mature) into an award winning multi-instrumentalist and songwriter touring coast to coast with his wife Mary as the folk/Americana duo Otter Creek. The title track from their most recent album, “The Fiddle Preacher” reached the top ten on the Folk DJ Charts in February of 2015. He has won the Utah State Fiddle, Banjo, and Mandolin Championships and took Second place in the National Mandolin Championship held in Winfield Kansas (where he also incidentally made history by playing clawhammer style banjo in the National Bluegrass Banjo Competition). He taught banjo and ukulele at the University of Utah for several years and maintains a small studio of private students when he’s not out on the road. More information is available at www.OtterCreekDuo.com
Roland Tec
Roland Tec's work as a composer and playwright has been commissioned and performed widely in the U.S. and abroad. For 12 yrs. he served as Artistic Director of Boston's New Opera Theatre Ensemble, leading a core ensemble of singer-actors in the development and performance of new operas mounted in the most unlikely venues. In recent years Tec has also produced and directed several feature films, two of which he also scored – ALL THE RAGE and WE PEDAL UPHILL. Roland has taught Music Theory at Harvard and Brandeis Universities, is currently a faculty member at Hollins University and the Dramatists Guild Institute, and is a frequent guest at institutions throughout the country where he presents his popular and innovative workshops in music-theatre creation.
Roland Tec's work as a composer and playwright has been commissioned and performed widely in the U.S. and abroad. For 12 yrs. he served as Artistic Director of Boston's New Opera Theatre Ensemble, leading a core ensemble of singer-actors in the development and performance of new operas mounted in the most unlikely venues. In recent years Tec has also produced and directed several feature films, two of which he also scored – ALL THE RAGE and WE PEDAL UPHILL. Roland has taught Music Theory at Harvard and Brandeis Universities, is currently a faculty member at Hollins University and the Dramatists Guild Institute, and is a frequent guest at institutions throughout the country where he presents his popular and innovative workshops in music-theatre creation.
Anke Summerhill
Anke has been with the Moab Folk Camp since its beginnings and is an invaluable member of our staff. In recent years, she has worked with people of all ages in her community and beyond and is continually inspired by the healing power of music. She especially enjoys exploring songwriting & the creativity of playing the guitar with others as a way to weave community.
Originally from Munich, Germany, Vancouver, British Columbia; and now surrounded by Utah's desert beauty, Anke’s diverse background and powerful gift of observation has seasoned her songwriting and performances with qualities which show genuine compassion. In addition to recording her own well received full-length CD projects, The Roots Run Deep & Shine On Through, her songs have found their way onto many CD compilations and samplers used in a wide variety of community fund raising projects. She recently recorded Utah Phillips' song: "Miner’s Lullaby", for the 2010 tribute project, “The Long Memory ~ Utah remembers Bruce “Utah” Phillips” and loved singing harmonies on Hal Cannon's debut solo recording.
Anke has been with the Moab Folk Camp since its beginnings and is an invaluable member of our staff. In recent years, she has worked with people of all ages in her community and beyond and is continually inspired by the healing power of music. She especially enjoys exploring songwriting & the creativity of playing the guitar with others as a way to weave community.
Originally from Munich, Germany, Vancouver, British Columbia; and now surrounded by Utah's desert beauty, Anke’s diverse background and powerful gift of observation has seasoned her songwriting and performances with qualities which show genuine compassion. In addition to recording her own well received full-length CD projects, The Roots Run Deep & Shine On Through, her songs have found their way onto many CD compilations and samplers used in a wide variety of community fund raising projects. She recently recorded Utah Phillips' song: "Miner’s Lullaby", for the 2010 tribute project, “The Long Memory ~ Utah remembers Bruce “Utah” Phillips” and loved singing harmonies on Hal Cannon's debut solo recording.
Chad Niehaus
Chad is an award-winning artist based in Moab, Utah. He creates acrylic paintings, pastel drawings, and linocut prints inspired by the open spaces of the Colorado Plateau.
His work has been featured in A Century of Sanctuary: The Art of Zion National Park,Painters of Utah's Canyons and Deserts, and on NPR's Radio West.
Chad's work can be viewed at www.MoabArt.com.
Chad is an award-winning artist based in Moab, Utah. He creates acrylic paintings, pastel drawings, and linocut prints inspired by the open spaces of the Colorado Plateau.
His work has been featured in A Century of Sanctuary: The Art of Zion National Park,Painters of Utah's Canyons and Deserts, and on NPR's Radio West.
Chad's work can be viewed at www.MoabArt.com.
Charlie Koch
Charlie Koch has trained horses, sailed across the Atlantic more than once, and fronted an R & B band. He skippered a race boat for Buckminster Fuller. He whipped in for a fox hunt in Ireland and saddle broke young horses on a breeding farm in France. He taught tennis, skiing and horseback riding. He trained as a body oriented psychotherapist. These days, he tours as the bass player for his wife, singer/songwriter Cosy Sheridan. In his first CD, Help Me To Believe, Charlie sings of his father - who was also a sailor, and of his longing for a place to call home. His love songs are heartfelt - his melodies influenced by such diverse writers as Otis Redding, Ray Charles and James Taylor. His guitar playing has roots in soulful country blues.
Charlie Koch has trained horses, sailed across the Atlantic more than once, and fronted an R & B band. He skippered a race boat for Buckminster Fuller. He whipped in for a fox hunt in Ireland and saddle broke young horses on a breeding farm in France. He taught tennis, skiing and horseback riding. He trained as a body oriented psychotherapist. These days, he tours as the bass player for his wife, singer/songwriter Cosy Sheridan. In his first CD, Help Me To Believe, Charlie sings of his father - who was also a sailor, and of his longing for a place to call home. His love songs are heartfelt - his melodies influenced by such diverse writers as Otis Redding, Ray Charles and James Taylor. His guitar playing has roots in soulful country blues.