Musicians
Here you will find a directory of our local musicians who regularly play for our events. Please contact them directly to inquire about booking them for private functions such as weddings, birthday parties, or even for your own dance!
Judi Morningstar
Judi Morningstar has been playing hammered dulcimer since 1978. She plays piano & hammered dulcimer for traditional American Historical Dances, English Country Dance and Contra & Square Dances both locally & throughout the U.S. With husband Glen, they established The Old Michigan RUFFWATER STRINGBAND now in its 39th year. She has taught hammered dulcimer since 1981. She has played & taught workshops at several festivals & weekends including Berea Christmas Country Dance School, Michigan Dance Heritage’s Fall Camp & Trillium Twirl (Spring Camp). She fronts a contra dance trio, Aunt Lu (a/k/a Uncle Lu) & the Oakland County All Stars (dulcimer, fiddle & piano) in addition to playing & recording in several other groupings of musicians. With her women’s group, Just Friends, she has performed at such venues as the Detroit Institute of Arts Brunch with Bach series, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Old Songs Folk Festival NY, Madison (WI) Folk Festival, to name a few, throughout the Midwest and Eastern US. She has composed many pieces of music and her compositions have been played and recorded all over the world. Folk music has opened up a world of friendships around the world and her music has taken her and Glen to such countries as Canada, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden & Norway.
YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Dulcilady?feature=mhee
www.judimorningstar.com
Brad Battey
Brad is an accomplished and innovative fiddler of many styles, including contras and squares, English country, swing, and Scandinavian. Brad can be found playing contra and English Country dances in and around Ann Arbor most weeks with Big Fun, Debbie Jackson, The Ruffwater String Band, or other fabulous Michigan musicians. Brad has also staffed dance weeks and weekends from Colorado to Denmark and Cape Breton to Texas. Along with his fiddling partner, Bruce Sagan, Brad recently released “Letter from America”: 17 tunes composed by American musicians in Scandinavian style. Brad has also been known to play nyckelharpa for English and Scandinavian couple dancing.
Susie Lorand
Born in Boston, Susie Lorand grew up in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, where she studied classical violin and recorder. She graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy in 1983 and got into fiddling during her first week at Earlham College. Ever since then, she has enjoyed accompanying contra, English & Scottish country, Morris, and sword dancing—in New Jersey for many years, and since 2006 in Ann Arbor. She also performs with the Celtic roots band Nutshell, and currently directs the Threshold Singers of Ann Arbor (on Zoom or in masks when necessary). She has served on the music staff at Pinewoods, Buffalo Gap, Berea, and numerous weekends. In her spare time, she works as an editor and librarian.
Luke Panning
Luke Panning began "fiddling" around at the age of five using cereal boxes, rubber bands, and a dowel rod. He quickly advanced to a real instrument, from which he has been inseparable ever since. Luke studied classical violin at the Indiana University Junior String Academy and went on to earn a degree in Music from Hope College in Holland, MI. While there, he performed regularly with jazz ensembles, the symphony orchestra, and as a soloist. Luke spent eight years with the 126 Army Band as the Drum Major for the marching band and fiddling with the country-rock band. Since 2002, Luke has enjoyed performing with his family band, FiddleFire, joined by his siblings Eve (fiddle) and Josiah (bass), and his parents Roween (guitar) and Dave (percussion). FiddleFire has performed for numerous festivals, private events, and contradances through the Midwest. Luke met his wife, Katherine (violinist), while at Hope College and moved to Ann Arbor in 2013 when she began studying medicine at the University of Michigan. Luke immediately immersed himself in the traditional music community, performing at the Ark, subbing in with local bands, and assuming various leadership roles with the Saline Fiddlers Philharmonic. Luke is a two-time State Champion of the Michigan Old Time Fiddlers Contest and continues to perform and record across all genres with a wide variety of musicians.
Debbie Jackson
We know Debbie as a dance musician and singer, but her musical avenues began in 1960’s when she had her first piano lessons in Owosso, Michigan! After a few years of theory and lessons, her mom wondered if she would want to try jazz/ragtime. She had the privilege of working with a local blind, ragtime pianist for 10 lessons and her practice at improvisation and music experimentalism began then- it changed her views of music forever.
She sang in her school choirs until her senior year at Owosso High School, when she was selected to be a Rotary Exchange Student in Horsens, Denmark. During her year abroad, she was involved with Danish and Scandinavian Folksong and Folk Dance on a regular basis.
In the 1980’s, she was a part of the National Songwriter’s Guild composer team based in Pontiac, Mi. People from around the US would send in either a melody or a lyric, and a team of writers would complete the product and produce it on a 45 record!
A pivotal intersection occurred when she went to a meeting about an upcoming Danish Exchange hosted by the Paint Creek Folklore Society. (Rochester, Mi). She participated in both the outbound dance/music tours to Denmark and also served on the host committee for the US sponsored part of the exchange. She also credits PCFS members with her branching out to play bluegrass.
She fondly remembers her bluegrass days when she played electric bass, sang tenor/high baritone and toured with the Wendy Smith and Blue Velvet Band and later, the Division Street bluegrass band.
Debbie was a member of the Contrapreneurs (Contra Band) with Marty Somberg, David Orlin and Paul Winder and the Contratones (Jazz, Swing, blues, tango, vintage) with Kathy Gravlin and Cheri Whalen. Debbie, Paul Winder, & Myron Grant formed a band for a cultural trip to Vienna with Peter Baker as caller/coordinator.
She has taught and played piano at numerous music and dance camps, including the Michigan Dance Heritage Spring and Fall Camps. Over the years, she has played Piano, Bass, Mandolin, Guitar, Marimba, Banjo, and Organ.
More recently, she became fond of English Country Dance music and was a member of the band Childgrove with Martha Stokely and Anne Ogren. They recorded 2 CD’s (Early Instincts and Wanderlust) and played at various ECD camps as well as many AACTMAD sponsored dances and events. She later produced one solo CD, Inner Spaces, that also featured Brad Battey and Suzan Lazar. She began composing English Country Dance tunes and has collaborated with many choreographers such as Sharon Green, Gary Roodman, and Joseph Pimentel. Her ECD tunes have been recorded and played all around the world.
She has performed at numerous Folk Festivals and also in the Slovak Republic. She was even interviewed on Ukranian National Radio!
Debbie currently works part-time as a church organist in Clarkston, Mi and has been revisiting many of her earlier musical paths. During the COVID months, she, along with Josh Burdick and Susie Lorand, have been making music. What’s next? More with Susie and Josh, she plans to continue composing and playing for dances and last but not least, diving into her love of vintage Brazilian bossa nova music!
Marty Somberg
Marty Somberg grew up in Detroit and began his musical career as a rock guitar player. His youth was spent listening to everything from Classical music to Pop, Folk and Bluegrass. Marty landed in Los Angeles with the rock band Southbound Freeway in the late 1960s, but migrated north to Berkeley in the early 1970s where an intense musical renaissance was in full swing. It was here, as a fledgling fiddle player, that he fell in with an eclectic group of musicians who exposed him to the joys of various forms of folk and ethnic music. He performed up and down the West Coast with an assortment of Old-time and Irish bands including: First Day in Town, The Arkansas Sheiks, The Bonny Doon String Band, The So-called Band, The Graniog Ceili Band, and Knock-na-Shee, which he with traveled East in 1979. He also studied drawing and painting during this time at Laney Community College in Oakland. While Marty developed a driving, lyrical style that he applied to a variety of genres, he found a special interest in Irish music. Knock-na-Shee, which included Marty, Mark Simos, and Jo Allen, toured East in 1979 and recorded the album Last Night’s fun on the Shanachie label. After the break up of Knock-na-Shee, Marty was a member of the well-known Washington D.C. band Celtic Thunder and also played for Contra dances in the D.C. area with accordion player Laurie Andres. Marty moved back to his native Michigan in the early 1980s. After being a college sophomore for more than 10 years, he finished his art degree and began a career as a graphic designer. While living in the Ann Arbor, he has performed with the Irish band Finvarra’s Wren and contra dance bands The Contrapreneurs, Sharon Hollow String Band, and Big Fun. He owns and operates Somberg Design, a graphic design studio (www.sombergdesign.com) and has also completed a Master of Fine Art degree.
Jim McKinney
I was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan and have lived near there all my life. I started playing guitar in 1978 and fiddle in 1987. I played for my first square dance in 1987 at an Original Michigan Fiddlers Association jamboree as part of an all-come back-up band to the real fiddlers and have focused on playing for dances ever since. I started composing fiddle tunes in 1989.
Myron Grant
Myron Grant has been playing contra dances with Big Fun since 2011, and before that was a long-time member of the Sharon Hollow String Band. Myron is a multi-instrumentalist and singer, playing guitar, mandolin, harmonica, and the bones. His musical background crosses many styles, starting with church choir when he was a kid, to rock-and-roll, folk, country, bluegrass, contra, swing, and jazz. He has been playing professionally since 1968. He played concerts and festivals around the Midwest from the mid-70's to the early 90's with the eclectic acoustic group Footloose, and from the mid-90’s to 2013 with the swing and jazz ensemble Five Guys Named Moe. He is a founding member of both of these groups, as well as his current swing and jazz ensemble, Treetown Swingtette, that has been playing gigs since 2003. Myron also currently has a folk group named, Playin’ Chicken, and a rock and R&B group, The Cellar Cats.
Myron has written songs and tunes over the decades for most of his groups and has made many recordings beginning with a “45” with the rock ‘n roll band, Love’s Alchemy (in 1971), eight recordings with Footloose, and one with Five Guys Named Moe. During the pandemic Myron has been recording original and covers with many musician friends. Some of that material is on YouTube.
Suzanne Camino
Suzanne Camino is a pianist and accordionist who performs regularly at sessions, dances and concerts in Michigan. She maintains a full studio of piano students and is a member of the band, The Time Travelers.
Bruce Sagan
Bruce Sagan has been playing folk music from Scandinavia and the Balkans for over 40 years. He is much sought after as a teacher and performer throughout the US on fiddle, nyckelharpa (Swedish key fiddle), and gudulka (Bulgarian rebec). Bruce has been music director for various events, including Nordic Fiddles and Feet (formerly Scandinavian Week at Buffalo Gap) and the Stockton Folk Dance Camp in California. He was awarded the Zorn Diploma in Bronze on the basis of his playing before a jury of some of Sweden's best fiddlers. This honor has been accorded to very few non-Swedes.
Bruce's albums have won critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. In a review of his second CD, With Friends, the premier Swedish folk music magazine Spelmannen said that he played "som en inföding," i.e., "like a native." This is high praise in a country where it is sometimes felt that you should only play tunes from your own village.
Bruce first came to Michigan in 1980 as a postdoc in mathematics at the University of Michigan. At that time, he became heavily involved in International Folkdancing (which he had started when growing up in the California Bay Area) and Morris (he had been part of the Black Jokers Morris Team in Boston where he did his graduate work). He formed the Brown Bag Band to play for the international dancers, so named because they practiced in the Brown Bag room of the UoM Union. After many years away from Michigan at other universities, he returned in 1986 to a permanent position at Michigan State University. Although he lived for a number of years living in Lansing, he returned to Ann Arbor as a more congenial place for the more specialized folk music in which he was interested.
Bruce has been involved with a number of bands during his time in Michigan. He is part of the trio Veselba, which means "merriment" in Bulgarian, along with Nan Nelson on tambura (long-necked lute) and Chris Rietz on kaval (shepherd's flute). They play for international dances as well as for the Bulgarian community in Detroit. He has been playing Scandinavian music for many years as a duo with Brad Battey. They play regularly at Dancing in the Streets as well as for other concerts and dances. Brad and Bruce have recorded two albums together. Finally, Bruce organizes a group of musicians interested in Scandinavian music named En GÃ¥ng Till. This Swedish expression means "one more time" and is often called out by someone playing with others who wants the tune to be repeated once more. During the covid crisis, the sessions have moved online and attract musicians from all over the US and Canada.
Bruce has been involved in AACTMAD through their support of many of the groups he is in. He is also, as of this writing, a board member for the organization.
Discography
Spelstundarna (1993) with Andrea Hoag and Larry Robinson
With Friends (2002) with Brad Battey, Nan Nelson, and Chris Rietz
Northlands (2010) with lydia ievins, [Note to typesetter: lydia spells her name all lower case.]
Letter from America (2018) with Brad Battey
More information about these CDs, Bruce's compositions, and other things can be found at his music website: https:www.brucesagan.com