George Jackson & Brad Kolodner

George Jackson is a Nashville-based fiddle player and the 2022 IBMA Instrumentalist Of The Year Momentum Award Winner, who performs as a band leader and fiddler for hire with artists such as The Jacob Jolliff Band, Jake Blount, Tall Poppy String Band, The Local Trio, Front Country, Peter Rowan, Missy Raines, Charm City Junction and others. Born in New Zealand, George grew up in a musical family and first heard bluegrass music around the age of 14, immediately falling in love with the style he started trying to work out how to play it from recordings and from mentors in New Zealand. Moving to Australia as a 16-year-old, he won the Australian National Bluegrass Championship on fiddle three times and toured the country with his bluegrass band, “The Company”, playing all the major folk festivals on the Australian circuit. As a resident of Nashville and the USA from 2016, George has released three albums of fiddle tunes, “Time and Place” in 2019 and “Hair & Hide” in 2021 and most recently “George Jackson’s Local Trio” with Eli Broxham and Frank Evans in 2023. He was awarded first place in the Mike Auldridge tune composition award by the DC bluegrass union in both 2019 and 2021 for his tunes “Chapel Hill Deer Stalk” and “Neighbor Mike” respectively.

Baltimore-based clawhammer banjoist Brad Kolodner represents the next generation of Old-Time musicians pushing the boundaries of the tradition into uncharted territory. Regarded for his delicate touch, expressive style, and original compositions, Kolodner has rapidly gained national attention for his unique approach to the banjo. He regularly performs across the country in a duo with his father Ken Kolodner, a world renowned hammered dulcimer player and with the acoustic roots quartet Charm City Junction. Off the stage, he is an acclaimed teacher, award-winning radio broadcaster for Folk Alley and Bluegrass Country Radio, jam leader, festival organizer, community builder and ambassador for Old-Time and Bluegrass music.