Whether he’s playing upright or electric bass, on stage or in the studio, Craig Akin is comfortable and creative, and consistently delivers the goods. Born in Tulsa, OK to a musician mother, Craig was encouraged to take piano lessons before learning trumpet in the public school music program. In high school he picked up the guitar and soon began learning theory and harmony.

This obsession led Craig to pursue a degree in music education starting in Gunnison, CO. While at Western State College, he switched from guitar to electric bass and after two years transferred to the University of Kansas to play trumpet, electric bass, finish his degree, and begin what would change his life forever-the upright bass.

After 10 years cutting his teeth in Kansas City’s jazz & blues scene, followed by 17 years in NYC where he played blues, jazz, pop, rock, and bluegrass, he currently can be found playing and recording in Nashville, TN. Craig has performed over 5,000 shows, contributed to more than 100 albums and added a home recording studio to his artistic arsenal.

The summer of 2024 he was honored to teach at the Kansas City Bass Workshop, where 65 bass players gathered to further their skills on the instrument.

John Corzine has been part of the southern California acoustic music scene for more than 40 years. Festivals and contests, Disneyland and dance floors, coffee houses and concert halls — John has performed throughout the southland, having gathered a collection of some of the best bluegrass, old-time, country and folk music you’ll find.  Influenced and inspired for life by meeting Doc Watson at age of 9 years old, John spent his early years in local flatpicking and clawhammer banjo contests and began performing bluegrass and old-time music professionally shortly thereafter.  John performed and toured with Philo/Flying Fish recording artists Jim Ringer and Mary McCaslin, and was featured on Mary’s A Life and Time album.

John has played in many area bands over the years, often with his wife Peggy Corzine on bass and vocals. John and Peggy currently perform with their youngest son Cody as the Corzines, and you can hear him this summer with the Coyote Brothers at the California Bluegrass Association’s Father’s Day Festival in Grass Valley, CA.

John comes to Camp for the first time this year to share his teaching and performing experience in the use of the guitar as a lead instrument, as the rhythmic foundation in a bluegrass and old-time band setting, and as the melodic and complementary background to vocal performance. (Last update 2021)

Ryan Drickey is a lifelong student of musical styles. He immersed himself first in classical music, eventually earning a Masters degree in Violin from the University of Colorado at Boulder. There he studied jazz in addition to classical violin, which began his fascination with American musical traditions. He cut his teeth in the thriving bluegrass scene of the Colorado Front Range, winning the Rockygrass fiddle contest and playing at festivals across the country. He plays with the bluegrass/americana outfit FY5, and freelances in styles ranging from classical chamber music to old time American fiddle. Ryan is a Fulbright scholar, having spent a year in Sweden teaching American roots music through the Royal College of Music, Stockholm, while learning from Swedish folk masters such as Roger Tallroth, Ale Möller, and Ellika Frisell. (Last update 2025)

Dave pulls out the “take no prisoners” style of playing at every dance – bringing the tunes to their full potential and beyond. He is a tune-meister and music jams are super fun when he is in the driver’s seat.

Originally a drummer, his strong sense of rhythm and syncopation is the foundation of his playing and tune writing, and truthfully he is never happier than when he gets to pull out the laptop drum kit to back swing and honky tonk tunes. Don’t worry, he can access his sensitive side when playing waltzes and beautiful melodies.

Dave is a music vagrant retiree now, but before that, he was Senior Gyzmologist building lightning detection systems. He is currently playing with the dance bands STEAM! (www.dancetosteam.com) and The Privy Tippers.

Best known as a founding member of Americana harmony trio Red Molly, Abbie Gardner is a joyful dobro player and singer/songwriter with an infectious smile. She loves teaching dobro and songwriting, whether in person or with her down-to-earth “Woodshed” YouTube lessons filmed from her home in the shadow of New York City. Abbie goes out of her way to make it fun and achievable, while seeking to forever expand her own knowledge.

Abbie has taught dobro at Nashville Dobro Camp, Grand Targhee, ResoSummit and Rockygrass Academy. She specializes in singing while playing, dobro as a rhythm instrument, treating musician’s injuries (as an Occupational Therapist) and creating lyrical solos in G tuning or D tuning. On the songwriting side, Abbie has taught at Swannanoa Gathering, Summer Songs, and New England Songwriter’s Retreat; as well as running her own Zoom writing classes seasonally since April 2020. She’s endlessly fascinated by music, so there are no dumb questions in her classes. (Last update 2023)

Emory Lester has been a notable fixture in the acoustic mandolin world for the past four decades, and is an innovator of mandolin technique and a renowned creative artist, multi-instrumentalist, and instructor. His large body of recorded work has placed him among the elite mandolinist of our time. He has inspired and influenced many of our current generation’s mandolin players, and pointed the way with his clean, clear, fast and efficient mandolin technique.

Emory has performed across the U.S., Canada, Europe, U.K. and Czech Republic, with Clawgrass banjoist Mark Johnson, Wayne Taylor and Appaloosa, and his own Emory Lester Set, as well as a roster of famous notables such as Del McCoury, Tony Rice, Steve Martin (on The David Letterman Show), Babik Reinhardt (son of Django), and Jim Hurst, to name a few.

He has a long and impressive body of recordings including nine solo albums, all of which showcase Emory’s skills as a composer, arranger and creative multi-instrumentalist. A sought-after instructor of mandolin, banjo and guitar, he has a world-wide roster of online students and has taught at many prestigious music camps and workshops in the U.S., Canada, Europe and the U.K. for the past 25 years. (Last update 2024)

Award-winning multi-instrumentalist Joy Louise, whose guitar playing has been praised by critics as both “...heartfelt and technically immaculate,” enjoys an active career as a collaborative band member and soloist. She made her solo debut at the age of three, often singing in front of large audiences in the American Southwest. Joy is a prodigious songwriter and teacher, as well as a busy studio musician. Even as a teen, Joy Louise won many flatpicking guitar contests, often competing against seasoned players two or three times her age.

Joy performs with her own band “Joy Louise Band” and is in high demand as a session musician in Los Angeles. She is also an active member of Spectrum Bluegrass Band, which has opened for musical icons such as Stephen Stills and Neil Young. She recently made her national debut as part of a duo with GRAMMY-nominated fiddler and vocalist Laura Orshaw at IBMA. She’s toured as a guitar duo act alongside renowned guitarist and National Flatpicking Champion Tyler Grant.

An experienced instructor, Joy has taught at top national workshops and music camps across the country, including Augusta Heritage Bluegrass Week (Elkins, WV), Puget Sound Guitar Workshop (Seattle, WA), CBA’s Summer Camp (Grass Valley, CA), Idaho Bluegrass Camp (Weiser, ID), and Walker Creek Music Camp (Petaluma, CA), just to name a few. Joy is also the acting director of the Parkfield Bluegrass Festival’s Kids Music Program in California. With many years of private teaching experience, Joy is dedicated to sharing the art and emotional impact of traditional music with audiences and students of all ages around the world.

Cindy Scott’s path has been, well, different. Raised in a family of musicians, her first instrument was flute, which earned her a scholarship to Louisiana State University. She went on to get an MBA and learned to speak German and Spanish along the way. During a study abroad program, she began singing in the jazz cellars of Germany with local musicians. Back in the US, she climbed the corporate ladder for a while, but in 2005, left a successful business career for a musician’s life in New Orleans, where she promptly lost all her household belongings to Hurricane Katrina. She decided to stick around and has since become firmly rooted in the rich music scene of the Crescent City.

Cindy maintains an active performance schedule in New Orleans and elsewhere. She has performed in cities all over the US and Europe and in more exotic locales like Mexico, Turkey, and Kazakhstan. Her recording “Let the Devil Take Tomorrow” won OffBeat Magazine’s Best Contemporary Jazz Album award for 2010, and All About Jazz said of her, “The Devil may take tomorrow, but … Cindy Scott clearly owns today.” She is currently working on her fourth album, which will reflect more of her singer-songwriter tendencies.

Cindy is also a respected voice instructor of many styles. She has taught contemporary voice at both the University of New Orleans and Loyola University, and as of 2016, Berklee College of Music.  She’s taught a myriad of professional vocalists, and was hired to coach Oscar-winning actor Octavia Spencer and actor-comedian Russell Brand.  One of her former students, Jon Cleary, just won a GRAMMY™ for his recording “GoGo Juice.”

…and Roots Camp founder Charlie Hall was proud to claim her as his cousin. (Last update 2018)