Local 1000 AFM

The Traveling Musicians Union

Private Music Lessons

Erin Mae Lewis

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Mountain Dulcimer Aficionado and Folk Music Educator

Erin Mae is a mountain dulcimer virtuosa who has taken an obscure American folk instrument, and with it has developed a high level of technical proficiency and musical expression. Erin has been playing traditional mountain dulcimer for over twenty years and chromatic mountain dulcimer for over ten years. In that time, she has developed a unique and progressive style. Carrying the rhythm section with her signature percussive chop and flat-picking fiddle tunes with impressive dexterity; audiences nationwide show amazement as they watch her fingers dance over her dulcimer strings.

Erin Mae is also a respected teacher who has taught at hundreds of dulcimer festivals and conferences around the world. She has pioneered online mountain dulcimer instruction and helped numerous festivals pivot to online events during the Covid-19 pandemic. Additionally, Erin Mae teaches kids folk music workshops at schools and libraries, and organizes kids camps at bluegrass and folk festivals. 

Casey Neill

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Singer songwriter and band leader. Side electric guitar player in rock bands, and back up for traditional Celtic acts. Touring throughout the USA.

Dave Rowe

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Singer-songwriter and folk musician specializing in traditional music of US, Canada, Ireland, Scotland, and songs of the sea.

Vi Wickam

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From bluegrass and jazz to rock & roll and old-time fiddle, Vi the Fiddler exudes energy, passion, humor, and musical mastery in every performance.

Vi Wickam is an accomplished solo performer and also fronts his own band, cleverly named Vi Wickam and The Band. In addition, he’s a member of Fritto Misto, and Fiddle Whamdiddle. The latter’s albums Old School Old Time and Not My Monkey were honored by inclusion on the Grammy Ballot in 2014 and 2016 respectively.

In 2018, Vi had 2 albums chart in the top 5 of Folk DJ Radio. His album Armadillo on a Hot Tin Roof hit #4 in April and ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas hit #5 in December. He’s a 4-time Colorado State Fiddling Champion, a finalist at the Grand Masters’ Fiddler Championship, and Runner Up in the National Fiddle Contest.

In addition to performing, Vi is a highly regarded music instructor. He’s a founder of the online music school myTalentForge.com, and is much in demand as a teacher at music workshops and camps around the US.

Carolann Solebello

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CAROLANN SOLEBELLO is a performing songwriter born and bred in New York City. Her smooth, compelling voice and warm acoustic guitar style nod to rural folk traditions while her rhythmic precision and sophisticated phrasing plant her firmly in the urban present. She is a founding member of noted harmony groups RED MOLLY and NO FUSS AND FEATHERS, and an active proponent of her union, AFM Local 1000. In 25 years on the acoustic music scene, Carolann has recorded five solo albums, six band albums, hosted open mics, curated songwriter series, and won a bunch of songwriting awards along the way. She loves peace, justice, yoga, coffee, and cats. 

AILEEN VANCE

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Singer. Songwriter. Music Educator. Choir director.  I am especially passionate about music that gets ordinary people singing along.

Arthur McGregor

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Arthur performs with The Celtic Rathskallions, a children’s musical theatre, Moore & McGregor, ( recording ‘Dream With Me’ ) a duo with my wife, Wendy, and McGregor and Lindsay with Graham Lindsay along with solo shows with a mix of my songs and others. I ran the Ottawa Folklore Centre for 34 years, and I’m currently the Canadian Vice-president of Local 1000. I’ve played and worked in folk music all my life…so far!

Ken Giles

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Ken Giles teaches violin/viola at D.C. Youth Orchestra Program and in private lessons.  He also sings with the D.C. Labor Chorus.  Longtime peace and civil rights activist, Ken was a member of the topical song group “Bright Morning Star” and played for peace demonstrations, environmental activists, and human rights groups.  Ken teaches his students all kinds of music, including classical, folk, blues, labor songs, and civil rights songs.

Aaron Fowler

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Aaron has been performing since he was 16. Working alongside several musicians throughout his career he has built a breadth of musical experiences from house concerts to festivals and concert halls. His passion for the music and the power it can have with groups of people is part of why he keeps bringing the music to audiences across the country. Aaron brings a polished fingerstyle and rhythm guitar playing to a warm tenor voice. His songwriting tells the stories of common folks bringing uncommon stories to life. Whether one of the more than 100 songs from rural communities across this country or songs of passion and purpose, Aaron delivers a performance that will move you. As an educator, Aaron began his teaching career in 1984 after he graduated from Friends University in Wichita, KS. Aaron intended to teach a couple of years at the elementary level then move to middle school and then high school and then land a career at the college. Well, part of that became a reality. Aaron taught 2 years at the elementary level and 2 years at the middle school level. The problem is that he stayed another 7 years, teaching middle school for 11 years! Some love middle school kids and Aaron is one of them. It was in 1995 when Aaron decided to pursue songwriting and touring more intentional. Now 32 years later he still loves working in the classroom drawing music and stories out of students. Aaron’s work includes work with the itty-bitty one, birth through 6-year-olds through Wolf Trap Early Learning Through the Arts. As a National Trainer, he loves getting these very young ones finding the music and rhythm inside themselves. Aaron is a Certified National Teaching Artist with Young Audiences in New York and a Wolf Trap Master Teaching Artist with Wolf Trap Early Learning through the Arts in Vienna Virginia. His current home in Wichita, Kansas keeps him connected with Arts Partners Wichita working with students K-12. The work of integrating the arts into science, math and language arts is a wonderful way to inspire kids to use the creative space in their heads to think about the world they live in. In early 2020 Aaron began thinking about how to leave some of the stories he was telling students about Bella and Choco, the two classroom therapy dogs that work with Aaron in the classroom. He came up with the concept of a children’s book about the two adventurous dogs that visited the classroom with him as Therapy dogs. The first book, Being YOU-Neek, was written during the 2020 Pandemic. It became the first book in the series The Adventures of Bella and Choco. This book helps children learn about character traits and a variety of academic lessons. The second book is entitled, The Boat, and is about how all us belong on this great plant we call Mother Earth. The 3rd book will come out in the spring of 2022 and is an Alphabet book highlighting local businesses in Wichita Kansas where Aaron and illustrator Peter Mader live.

Eve Goldberg

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Imagine a kitchen party where Mother Maybelle Carter, Ella Fitzgerald, Mississippi John Hurt, Bessie Smith, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and Patsy Cline show up, and you begin to get a sense of what it feels like inside songwriter Eve Goldberg’s head. Eve has performed her trademark mixture of folk, blues, country, bluegrass, old time, and jazz in venues ranging from small house concerts to the prestigious Kennedy Center in Washington DC since 1990. 

Eve’s performances are uplifting, intimate and relaxed, and her watercolour voice and solid instrumental style (guitar, ukulele) has become a favourite at festivals, folk clubs, and concert series across Canada and the US. Along the way she’s earned the respect of legendary musicians like Peggy Seeger, Geoff Muldaur, and Penny Lang. She has released three solo albums to widespread acclaim — “Ever Brightening Day,” (1998) “Crossing the Water,” (2003) and “A Kinder Season” (2006). Her instrumental tune “Watermelon Sorbet” was used for years as the opening theme to “Richardson’s Roundup” on CBC Radio One. 

In addition to being a fine performer, Eve is an experienced teacher who excels at passing on her skills and knowledge to others through private lessons, workshops, and classes. She has taught at colleges, music camps, schools, and festivals, and specializes in teaching adults in community settings.

Eve is also one half of the folk/roots duo Gathering Sparks with musical partner Jane Lewis. In a short time, Gathering Sparks has gained a reputation for sparkling harmonies, solid instrumentation (piano, guitar, ukulele, accordion, and banjo), and stellar songwriting. Gathering Sparks was nominated for a 2014 Canadian Folk Music Award for Vocal Group of the year based on their self-titled debut EP and their first full-length album, “All That’s Real,” was released in fall 2019 by Borealis Records.

Beyond performing and teaching, Eve has been involved in numerous community efforts over the years. She was one of the organizers of The Woods Music and Dance Camp for over twenty years, was a founder of Common Thread: Community Chorus of Toronto, helped start ArtsCan Circle, served on the board of the Ontario Council of Folk Festival (now Folk Music Ontario), and was the first office manager at Borealis Records. 

In 2021 Eve was recognized with the Estelle Klein Award for her outstanding contributions to the folk music community in Ontario.

Tret Fure

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Tret Fure began her career at the age of 16, singing in coffeehouses and campuses in the Midwest. At 19, she moved to LA in hopes of obtaining a record deal. Within a year she was performing as guitarist and vocalist for Spencer Davis, touring with him and penning the single for his album “Mousetrap”. She went on to record her own album “Tret Fure” in 1973, on MCA/UNI Records, with the late Lowell George of Little Feat as her producer. With the success of that release, she opened for such bands as Yes, Poco, and the J Geils Band.

 

A prolific artist in the contemporary singer-songwriter arena, Tret Fure has released 18 albums and CDs over the course of her 53 year career. She just released, “Lavender Moonshine”. 

 

In addition to being a gifted songwriter, Fure has engineered and produced countless recordings by a variety of artists, including her own work.

 

In the early 80s, Tret moved to the independent side of the industry discovering the blossoming genre known as Women’s Music. She recorded with and produced some of the best of women’s music including mixing the legendary “Meg & Cris at Carnegie Hall” (1983). She worked as a duo with Cris Williamson throughout the 90s, producing, engineering and releasing 3 CDs together. Now after 9 acoustic releases on her own label, “Tomboy girl Records”, she has re-established herself in the folk world.

 

Wanda A. Fischer from WMAC Northeast Public Radio has this to say, “Roses in November is yet another masterpiece from Tret. Exceptionally crafted songs delivered with passion, conviction and, yes, soul. Tret weaves magic both in the lyrics and between the lines. This will certainly be on my “Best of 2018” list.”

 

Some highlights from her career include:

 

2023 Tret was awarded the Phil Ochs Award in recognition of her music and her activism for social and political justice.

 

2022 – Finalist in the USA Songwriting Competition with Tret’s new song, “Home You Go”.

 

2021 – #1 song “Roses in November” from the CD “Roses in November” (2018) for the month of November in the FAI FOLK CHART.

 

2021 – #14 Album for the year with “Stone by Stone”.  #9 song for the year with “Monuments” and #25 artist of the year.

 

2021 – 2nd place winner in “A Still Small Voice 4U” songwriting competition with the song “Louder Than the Guns”.

 

2021 – #1 song “Monuments” from the CD “Stone by Stone” (2020) for the month of February in the FAI FOLK CHART.

 

2018 – #1 song ”Lessons From Home Plate” from the CD “Roses in November” (2018) for the month of June in the FAI FOLK CHART. 

 

2020 – 1st place winner in “A Still Small Voice 4U” songwriting competition with her song “Monuments”.

 

2017 – 2nd place winner in the “Musicians United to Protect Bristol Bay” songwriting contest for her song “The Fishermen of Bristol Bay” (2015).

 

2015 – “Rembrandt Afternoons” (2015) was chosen by the acclaimed folk music show ‘Midnight Special’ as their album of the week.

 

2011 – Winner of the Women in the Arts “Phyllis Roark Memorial Award” for Philanthropy.

 

2009 – Winner of the Women in the Arts “Janine C Rae Award” for the Advancement of Women’s Culture.

 

2009 -Voted “Pride In The Arts” Favorite Female/Lesbian Musician.

 

2004 – Winner of the South Florida Folk Festival Singer/Songwriter Competition in 2 out of 3 categories, Best Overall and Best Up-Tempo Song.

 

2004 – Winner of the Women in the Arts “Jane Schliessman Award” for Outstanding Contributions to Women’s Music.

 

1990 – Voted both Best Guitarist and Best Engineer in a Reader’s Choice poll in “Hot Wire: The Journal of Women’sMusic & Culture”.

 

In addition to touring and recording, Tret teaches guitar and songwriting individually and in workshop settings. She paints pet portraits on commission and, an accomplished cook, Fure has also published a cookbook, “Tret’s Kitchen”, featuring her own recipes. Along with bridging the marketing, production, music and art worlds,

Tret is truly a Renaissance Woman!