Vicki Baker and Tim St. Jean
(Coordinators)
Tim St. Jean and Vicki Baker have been making music
together as a couple since 1997. In performance, Tim
plays the guitar, mandolin, banjo,fiddle, hammered dulcimer
and concertina. He has a long history of playing in
a number of bluegrass bands, including Springwater and
Shady Creek. As educators, Tim teaches private lessons
on all his instruments; Vicki teaches English at Three
Rivers Community College and is a certified horseback
riding instructor. As Kids' Academy Coordinators, they
combine their strengths and divide the labor; they have
coordinated the Kids' Academy at Strawberry Park for
the last two years, making the 2008 Podunk Festival
Kids' Academy their third. Tim serves as musical director,
selecting the tunes and organizing the performance.
He also teaches mandolin. Vicki takes care of all the
paperwork and incidental organization details. They
are both looking forward to meeting the Kids at Podunk!
Peggy Harvey (fiddle)
Peggy Ann Harvey is probably most familiar to fans
of the bluegrass band "Traver Hollow" with
whom she played fiddle for 25 years. Peggy is a classically
trained clarinetist who also plays piano, flute, soprano
saxophone, autoharp, and harmonica in addition to
the fiddle. She has played with Springwater and Amy
Gallatin’s all-female trio called The Hot Flashes.
Currently she is performing with Gail wade and "Turning
Point" and the Bluegrass Band "Truegrass".
Her immense talent for harmony arrangement allows
for some stunning vocal blends in any musical endeavor
she is involved with. She has toured extensively throughout
Europe and Canada and has performed on nine recordings
to date.
Cathy Day (fiddle)
Cathy Day is a bluegrass singer/fiddler/mandolin
player. She started with a year of guitar lessons
at age 9 with Mike Kropp and then taught herself the
other bluegrass instruments for the next few years
before settling down on the fiddle at age 12. She
performed throughout her adolescence with her family
as the Bumgarner Family, which became the Rose City
Bluegrass Band. In college she also played with SassyGrass.
Both bands toured New England, New York, and Pennsylvania.
More recently, she has performed with Blue Angel,
Blackstone Valley Bluegrass, Kelliana, Marcy Hill
Band, and Glenn Stewart. She also works as a studio
musician at Hidden Valley Studios, in Granby, CT for
Burt Teague, and other local studios.
Dave Dick (banjo)
Dave began playing the guitar at age seven in his
local church and at age thirteen he started banjo
lessons. Rapidly, he became skilled enough to join
a band, and also teach banjo lessons. Starting in
1981 with Bear Acker and Billings Gap, through recording
with Roger Williams, Dave has played with Back Roads,
the John Herald Band, The Robin Kincaid Band, Southern
Rail, Salamander Crossing, and Northern Lights. He
has done studio work with Valerie and Walter Crockett,
Paul Della Valle and the Ink Stained Wretches, Rick
Lang and Friends, Go!, Little Big Wheel, and Mark
Erelli. He is also a producer for CMH Records. In
addition, Dave is a teacher of banjo, mandolin, and
guitar, and also works full-time as a stringed instrument
repairman at Union
Music in Worcester.
Gail Wade (guitar)
Gail Wade's music is an evocative melange of Americana,
bluegrass and blues. A strong guitarist possessing
a rich soulful voice, her interpretations of the classics
are fresh and her original songs beautifully crafted.
For twenty years she has performed on stages in the
U.S., Ireland, and Europe. Gail has toured as a member
of The Hot Flashes and as a side-musician with singer-songwriter
Gary Ferguson. In recent years she has stepped to
the forefront, recording Journey, her debut CD, and
currently performs with her band Turning Point.
Tim St. Jean (mandolin)
See above
Linda Turner (bass)
Linda Turner grew up with bluegrass music and first
played bass in 1977 with Kentucky Wind. She joined
her banjo-playing brother backing up Dick Lee, playing
country music and square dances as The Eight Mile
River Band. She is currently the “token adult”
performing on bass with Sugar Creek, a kids’
band comprised of Taylor Cyr, Jaime Harvey, and Ben,
William, and Patience Trickett—who have all
been regular attendees of Kids’ Academies at
a variety of bluegrass festivals. This is Linda’s
third year teaching in the Kids’ Academy, and
she really enjoys encouraging young people to take
a look at bluegrass music and see how much fun it
is.
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