WHIPPOORWILL ARTS FELLOWS
2024-25 Whippoorwill Arts Fellows have been awarded!
2024-25
Gaelynn Lea
Gaelynn Lea is a composer, violinist, and disability rights advocate from Duluth, Minnesota. Her fellowship project involves mixing, mastering, and releasing her original compositions for the soundtrack of Macbeth on Broadway. She will also travel for an artist residency to study with traditional Irish fiddle musicians.
PROJECT:
Mix, master, and produce her long-awaited album, “Music from Macbeth.”
Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton
Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton plays banjo, guitar, piano, fiddle, harmonica, Cajun accordion, and the bones (percussion). Paxton has an eerie ability to transform traditional jazz, blues, folk, and country into the here and now, and make it real. His project will be to study with masters of instrument-making to build old American banjos, an instrument vital to the history, present, and future of Black music.
project:
Study with masters of instrument-making.
Abel Rocha
Abel Rocha is a Mexico City-born folklorist, singer and multi-instrumentalist who performs music of Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Chile and Argentina. During the fellowship, Abel will learn, observe, and document Mexican folk music from two regions, with emphasis on their specific instruments. Upon return to Seattle, he will work on recording a new album with his primary band, Correo Aereo.
PROJECT:
Learn, observe, and document Mexican folk music from two regions—Son Huasteco and Son Jarocho—with emphasis on their specific instruments.
Angie K
Angie K is shaking up Nashville with her fresh blend of hard hitting country with a nod to her Latin roots. Fresh off the momentum of a new record release, Angie will spend part of the fellowship developing a music video for her song “Red Dirt on Mars,” as well as rehearsing with her band for upcoming performances.
project:
Developing a music video for her song “Red Dirt on Mars.”
2022-23
Pura Fé
Pura Fé (Tuscarora/Taino) is an Indigenous activist, singer-songwriter, and storyteller known for her distinct, soulful vocals and for breathing life into several musical genres. As the founding member of the internationally renowned Native Women’s a cappella trio Ulali, Pura Fé helped to create a movement throughout Indian Country, which not only empowered Native Women’s hand drum and harmony, but also built a bridge for Native music into the mainstream music scene.
project:
Record an album and film of traditional Canoe songs.
Fabiola M. Méndez
Native to Caguas, PR, Fabiola Mendez began playing the Puerto Rican cuatro at the age of 6. She was a student at the Hogar del Cuatro Puertorriqueño, the Humacao Musical Institute, the Antonio Paoli School of Music in Caguas, the Conservatorio de Artes del Caribe, and Berklee College of Music, where in 2018 she graduated as the first student to play the Puerto Rican cuatro as principal instrument.
project:
Record Puerto Rican folk tunes with a modern twist.
Nina Gerber
After carving a career out of what some might call the shadows, guitarist Nina Gerber is at last beginning to dare the light. Her first album as a leader, Not Before Noon, follows two decades which brought her to prominence without ever placing her name on the front of an album cover. Since her accompaniment of Kate Wolf first earned her recognition, her acute skills as performer, producer and arranger have continued to deepen. Her contributions to acoustic music have earned her a following as loyal as for the numerous high talents she has accompanied--proving the shadows equal to the spotlight in the creation of honest, powerful, and beautiful music.
project:
Record album in honor of loved ones passed on.
Miles Quale
Miles Quale is a fiddler from Alameda, CA who plays and sings with depth beyond his years. Miles is accomplished in both bluegrass fiddle and jazz violin, playing with his own bands and as a guest on stages and at music festivals throughout the country and internationally. He is the fiddler for and a founder of bands Crying Uncle Duo, Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band, and Jubilee. He has been fortunate to play with many of his musical heroes, including Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, Brittany Haas, and Country Music legend Marty Stuart.
project:
Study with Masters of Traditional Music around the world.
2020
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott
One of the last true links to the great folk traditions of this country, with over 40 albums under his belt, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott is considered one of the country's legendary foundations of folk music. Long before every kid in America wanted to play guitar—before Elvis, Dylan, the Beatles or Led Zeppelin—Ramblin’ Jack had picked it up and was passing it along. From Johnny Cash to Tom Waits, Beck to Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder to Bruce Springsteen, the Grateful Dead to The Rolling Stones, they all pay homage to Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.
project:
Purchase a new guitar and reinvent myself.
Kamara Thomas
Kamara Thomas is a singer, songspeller, mythology fanatic, and multi-disciplinary storyteller based in Durham, NC. In 2021 she will release a new album: Tularosa: An American Dreamtime, a song-cycle exploring the current American zeitgeist through the lens of the mythic West.Currently, Kamara is also spearheading Country Soul Songbook, a music performance and documentary project that spotlights under-represented voices in Country and Americana music. The project explores and demonstrates how these genres share roots and history within a diverse and multi-ethnic American identity.
project:
Record a song cycle: Tularosa, challenging American mythology of “settling” the West.
Snap Jackson
In July of 2006, after hearing John Hartford’s Mark Twang album, singer-songwriter, Snap Jackson , walked into a music store in Stockton, California and purchased his first banjo. He has been obsessing over it ever since. Aside from playing both Scruggs Style and clawhammer banjo, Snap also plays the ukulele and mountain dulcimer. In recognition of his efforts, Snap received both the Northern California Banjo Player of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year Awards in 2018.
project:
Refresh all music assets to support touring and income: ie new recordings and a music video.
Annie Staninec
Born to a musical family, and imbued with an undying passion for traditional music, Annie Staninec was destined to play the fiddle, and has unwaveringly followed that path since childhood. It has been her sole profession, and she has saturated herself in the early generation artists and traditional idioms spanning bluegrass, old-time, Irish, and Cajun/Zydeco and swing. Her performances and teaching have inspired countless players—young and old—to follow her path.
project:
Equipment for recording, streaming.
Brittany Haas
Brittany Haas is widely regarded as one of the most influential fiddlers of her generation. Born in Northern California, Brittany grew up honing her craft at string camps nationwide, and developed her unique style of fiddling at the influence of her mentors, Bruce Molsky and Darol Anger. A prodigious youth, Haas began touring with Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings at the age of 14. At 17, she released her debut, self-titled solo album, produced by Anger.
Project:
Record Solo Fiddle album and Banjo album.
2018 Whippoorwill Arts/Freshgrass Inaugural Artist Awards
Molly Tuttle
The 24-year-old Northern California native has been performing on stage since she was 11 years old. She recorded her first album, The Old Apple Tree with her father Jack Tuttle, at age 13; she has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion and at San Francisco’s prestigious Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and RockyGrass festivals; and she’s been featured on the covers of Flatpicking Guitar and Acoustic Guitar magazines. And she is no stranger to awards: Molly took first place in the General category of the Chris Austin General Songwriting Competition at Merlefest 2012, and she won a 2016 IBMA Momentum Award in the instrumentalist category.
Project:
Record new album: “When You’re Ready”.
Keith Little
Veteran bluegrass and country multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter Keith Little grew up playing the ukulele, guitar, 5-string banjo, and later added mandolin and fiddle to his musical arsenal. By the time he was 13 years old he landed his first professional gig, playing banjo with local musicians around a campfire for a post-trail-ride party in the Sierra foothills of Northern California. “I earned $25, a mountain of cash to me at the time,” he recalls. Ten years later, after a decade of developing his skills on acoustic guitar and banjo, and as a harmony singer, Little committed to becoming a professional musician.
Projects:
Recorded solo album "Golden Sierra Sessions". Additional grant funded "Lincoln Chapel Sessions".