Wernick Method Teachers

Billy Lee Farmer has been playing Bluegrass and traditional music for over 30 years, and performing with several bands including “Raisin Pickers” (Michigan) and “WhoYaSay” (Colorado), as well as cajun/zydeco bands.

Bill’s passion for Bluegrass jamming was ignited at his first Bluegrass festival in 1992, where he studied with Pete Wernick and others, leading him deep into the wonderful kinship of Bluegrass jamming. As an experienced Bluegrasser, Bill’s objective now is to share the joy and knowledge he has gained and, through the Wernick Method, to welcome new members into our growing, jamming Bluegrass community.

Bob Amos was the lead singer, guitarist and principal songwriter of the IBMA award-winning Front Range band from 1988-2003. The Colorado-based band toured America and Europe, and their 5 Sugar Hill records received airplay on bluegrass and Americana radio. Sing Out! magazine called Bob “one of the most consistently interesting and intelligent songwriters in American music.” Bob now lives in northeastern Vermont and enjoys performing with his daughter Sarah as a duo and in a bluegrass band format. He also enjoys teaching guitar, banjo, singing and songwriting.

Buck Thrailkill was born in Meridian, MS and started playing banjo at age 12. Mentored by his big brother and Lee Jackson (Carl Jackson’s Dad), he grew up playing all over the south, touring on the Magnolia State Bluegrass Circuit at age 15. He played and taught banjo and guitar till joining the Army in 1981.

After his service Buck settled in North Carolina where he performs and records with several bands ranging from hardcore Bluegrass to Country, Blues, and Folk. Buck owns Fifth String Studio in Fayetteville, NC where he teaches and creates customized “Made in Carolina” leather instrument straps.

Chris Armstrong is a multi-instrumentalist who has performed and taught private and group lessons for over fifteen years, and is now teaching at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky. He can be seen playing guitar, banjo, mandolin or bass on the KET television program, The Lanham Brothers Jamboree and has played bass on the Kentucky Opry. Chris currently performs in the local production of the Steve Martin musical ”Bright Star.”

Chris Brashear plays fiddle, mandolin and guitar and sings lead and harmony parts. With over 25 years of professional experience as a performer, producer, teacher, recording artist and songwriter, he also maintains a veterinary practice! Chris has performed in numerous bands including Robin and Linda Williams, Kentucky Rose and the Maurizio Geri Swingtet.

He is a popular instructor at camps and festivals nationwide, including Augusta Heritage, the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival, Banjo and Mandolin Camps North, Berea College Music Festival, and the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention.

Chris Roszell is a recent arrival in Denver from North Carolina. He has played bluegrass banjo professionally for over 15 years with many bands including Colorado’s Blue Canyon Boys, Scott Slay and The Rail, and Big Fat Gap. He spends a lot of time thinking about teaching and about music. Since picking up the banjo he has taught a wide variety of students, hoping to instill in them the confidence and ability to play with others and to foster a love for bluegrass music. During that time, he also spent 7 years as a middle school math teacher.

Dan Whitener is from Washington, DC, and is currently performing on banjo in the New York / New Jersey / Pennsylvania scene. He has hit the Billboard Bluegrass charts with both the Emmy-nominated bluegrass-hiphop band Gangstagrass and Philadelphia’s own Newgrass Americana band Man About A Horse. Dan has taught banjo, guitar, mandolin, piano, and voice since 2008 up and down the East Coast and enjoys teaching bluegrass fundamentals.

Dave Howard has enjoyed years of singing and playing mandolin throughout the U.S. with The 23 String Band – winners of the Louisville Music Awards Bluegrass Artist of the Year – and with the Louisville-based Relic Bluegrass band. He has played and sung on numerous television, radio, and feature film programs.

He recently apprenticed as a fiddler, supported by the Kentucky Arts Council. Dave directs the Louisville Folk School, a traditional music education community he founded in 2015, and sits on the board of Bluegrass Anonymous – Louisville’s Bluegrass Music Association.

Dave Kiphuth became well-known for his banjo work with the respected Connecticut band Apple Country, performing throughout the Northeast and South in the 1970s and 80s. He went on to work with Lonesome Dave and the North Dixie Road Kings, Chestnut Grove, Walt Michael & Company, and the Red Hen String Band.

Dave has taught banjo and guitar extensively since the 1960s and ran a popular bluegrass jam in Ballston Spa, NY before moving to Maine.

David Benway started picking rhythm guitar and singing on tailgates, fields, and around campfires some 15 years ago. Bluegrass festivals throughout New England became a passionate summertime experience, with jamming always a highlight. In 2010 David formed the VT-based band “Chasing 440” from fellow parking-lot pickers who stepped out of the field and onto the stage, performing locally.

The transition to Wernick Method jam teaching is a natural evolution of his musical direction. David makes no pretense about his instrumental skills: he will tell you that he makes the most of the gifts he has.

Ed Harvey has been playing, writing, performing and recording music since the 1990s, mostly on acoustic guitar and upright bass. He also plays banjo, mandolin, mountain dulcimer, autoharp, and fiddle at the beginner level. Ed is a geologist, water scientist, and former university professor, and now also plays upright bass with the Nebraska Bluegrass Boys band.

He’s released a CD, Stories Seldom Told, featuring his original folk and bluegrass music. Ed jams regularly, attends several bluegrass camps each year, and hosts a weekly bluegrass jam in Fort Collins for beginner and intermediate players.

With a Master’s in Education and 15 years of teaching math, Ellen Carlson knows what it means to be accountable for students learning what she teaches. Having started fiddle at a young age, she is a versatile and in-demand performer as well as a sought-after teacher. She has taught bluegrass at Fiddle Hell, festivals including Grey Fox and Pemi Valley, and with Pete and Joan Wernick at their Jam Camps. She runs her own camp as well and leads the NH Fiddle Ensemble, a 100+ member “orchestra”. Ellen performs bluegrass with High Range, Rock Spring, and EC & The Darrellicks.

Ellen Carlson and Melissa Bragdon Caron co-direct the New Hampshire Fiddle Ensemble. Ellen has been performing for 35 years, currently with High Range. She teaches fiddle, guitar and mandolin, privately and at major festivals.

Melissa, a versatile fiddler and music teacher, helped develop the 317 Main Community Music Center in Yarmouth. She teaches at her home studio, and plays with the Jerks of Bluegrass.

Erik Yates has been singing and playing the banjo for the past twenty years as a means of self-expression, a way of connecting with tradition, and surprisingly, as a way of making a living.

He tours nationally with California-based Hot Buttered Rum (a group he started in college), plays around Colorado with both his own quartet and the Lyons Bluegrass Collective, and has appeared with touring acts such as Rapidgrass, Railroad Earth and Peter Rowan. He also maintains an active schedule teaching banjo, rhythm guitar, dobro and vocals.

Gabe Hirshfeld grew up in Newton, Massachusetts. At fifteen, listening to Car Talk on the radio he heard Earl Scruggs. The sound of the banjo spoke to him as no other and it changed his life. After obsessing over the banjo for several years and attending three Pete Wernick camps, Gabe started to play in bluegrass bands around Boston and studied at the Berklee College of Music.

While at Berklee he co-founded The Lonely Heartstring Band, which made successful records and toured nationally for several years. Gabe now lives in a house full of musicians in Brighton, Massachusetts.

Gilles Rézard discovered bluegrass music at 16. He started learning guitar, then fell in love with the banjo. His two solo albums and recent cover feature in Banjo Newsletter magazine have brought him international acclaim. Based in Ige, Burgundy, music is his full-time activity, performing with Saga Trio as well as teaching. Gilles has taught hundreds of students (on banjo, guitar and mandolin) in more than 80 music camps since 2005. To improve connections between French bluegrass musicians, he has created a map locating all who register by emailing him.

Graham Sones is a more than forty-year veteran of the banjo, a Scruggs-style picker who enjoys his craft and helping students learn to play. Born in Rochester, MN with strong family ties in Des Moines and the Arkansas hills, he grew up with bluegrass music and festivals. His picking, singing, and recording experience includes three years with Monroe Crossing all over the Midwest at festivals, concerts, and fairs, as well as with bands such as DriveTime and No Grass Limit, and currently the Tony Rook Band.

Ira Gitlin is widely known and respected in Washington-Baltimore music circles as a versatile multi-instrumentalist, teacher, and writer. A winner of the National Bluegrass Banjo Championship at Winfield, he has also performed with such nationally known performers as the Johnson Mountain Boys, Laurie Lewis, and Peter Rowan. Ira has taught at many camps and workshops, helping students master the basic skills that will make them a welcome presence at any jam session.