Fabulous Musicians accompanying me on "Under The Winter Moon":
Albert Dulin: Fiddle, Mandolin, Bouzouki
Albert’s musical life began when picked up the violin in elementary school. He continued violin into junior high and finished by playing cello. After college he discovered bluegrass, but then fell in love with Old Time and Celtic music. In 1990 he was invited to join the band Ireland Butterfly, which later became The Ruffians. He has toured parts of the United States and Great Britain and released a recording titled “Arovin”.
While no longer playing with the “Ruffies” as a band, you can often find him jamming with the area’s finest Celtic artists on Sunday nights at Ri Ra, an Irish pub in Charlotte NC. His first love is performing Celtic music, but he still enjoys classical, jazz, South American, Mexican and Eastern European music. While specializing in hammered dulcimer and violin, his other instruments include the Irish bouzouki, banjo, mandolin, the Mexican guitarron, and the Bolivian charango
Dan Bright: Guitar, Concertina
Dan has been involved in performing traditional folk music for nearly 40 years. He is currently a session leader at Ri Ra, an Irish Pub in Charlotte, NC on Sunday evenings. He has performed at GFMHG, Piccolo Spoleto. And was involved in developing the 18th and 19th C. dance program at Historic Brattonsville in McConnells South Carolina. He is accomplished on fiddle, guitar, concertina, button accordion, mandolin, whistles, harmonicas, and all class of percussion. When he isn’t playing music he works as School Psychologist for the public schools.
John Trexler: Clarinet
John plays Irish flute, tin whistle, hurdy-gurdy (he owns three of these!), fife, clarinet, sax, shruti box (a foot drone), recorders, bombarde (Breton oboe), assorted Celtic percussion instruments and the Galician gaita (a bagpipe from Celtic Spain). John has studied tin whistle with Grey Larsen of Metamora and with George Jackson of the Scottish group Ossian; John has been a frequent performer at the Atlanta Celtic Festival, the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games and for the Irish Society of Charlotte. His recording, “Old Man of Storr”, has been featured on the internationally broadcast public radio program “The Thistle and Shamrock.”
Henry Trexler: Bass
Henry began his musical career playing the blues on electric bass. Since then he's played classical music and jazz in addition to spending many years as bass player for the Ruffians. His current passion is playing early music on the viola da gamba.
As a solo artist Susan nurtures a calling that includes performing, composing, songwriting and teaching. Sharing the music and its stories is her mission, and her love for tradition in a new age is evident as each tale, tune and song attain a life of its own.
Susan is acknowledged as a Folk Art and Traditional Artist by the South Carolina Arts Commission and has been selected to serve on the North Carolina Arts and Science Council Talent Bureau 2004-present. She is also a recipient of a Regional Artist Grant from the North Carolina Arts and Science Council, and a former member of the Charlotte Folk Society Board of Directors.
The daughter of a mandolin player with a rich family history in traditional music, Susan’s childhood was filled with sounds of Tennessee Waltz and Red River Valley on a daily basis. Frequent family gatherings spanning several generations often included fiddles, guitars, mandolins and lots of Carter-style singing!
Susan’s father, Harry Vinson Sr., was her mentor as a child and, in the aural tradition, instilled in her a deep connection and love for the old hymns, traditional songs and the wonderful nuances of old time harmonies. Harry Vinson died in 1986, ten years before Susan’s true musical journey commenced. The decade that followed his death was filled with homemaking, raising children, and establishing a career, but little music; only singing occasionally at family gatherings. Then, in late 1995 Susan was drawn to the beautiful, mysterious sounds emanating from a hammered dulcimer in the mountains of North Carolina. Little did she know that this chance encounter would be the beginning of a musical odyssey; a journey that would transform her from casual music lover to hammered dulcimer player/teacher, songwriter, recording artist, and event creator/promoter.
Since the late 1990s Susan has been invited to teach and perform at numerous music camps and festivals including two years at the Cork Dulcimer Festival in Cork City, Ireland, Swannanoa Gathering in Asheville, NC, South West Dulcimer Festival in Dewey, AZ, Bay Path Dulcimer Festival in Northborough, MA, Cranberry Dulcimer Gathering, Binghamton, NY, and the Winston-Salem Dulcimer Festival in Winston-Salem NC. Susan has also published instructional articles for the hammered dulcimer on the Mel Bay webzine www.DulcimerSessions.com.
After an unforeseen hiatus Susan enjoys a musical homecoming with greater passion, vision and determination with her third recording due to be released in the fall of 2009. With this album she makes her debut as a singer/songwriter and is joined by James Leva, Jon Singleton, Wes Chappell and many other friends and loved ones to share in the renaissance.
During the summer months Susan spends her time performing and teaching hammered dulcimer; however she also holds a Master's Degree in Structural Engineering and during the nine month academic year splits her time between her music and York Technical College in Rock Hill SC where she has taught since 1986.
