Rick Brockner started playing drums at age eleven and was soon
playing in a rock band. By high school, his musical interests
had matured to include folk and acoustic music. Rick headed
to Nashville in his 20s where he worked for an artist booking,
management, and production company. For three years, he logged
many hours in the studio with some great artists such as Joe
English from Paul McCartney & Wings. Moving to New York in the
early 1980s, Rick started writing songs with his longtime friend,
John Knapp, producing projects for other singers and releasing
separate material on their own label. They began touring together
as The Howling Brothers in the 1990s while Rick continued to
play cafes and bookstores as a solo act. Over a two-year period,
he played every Borders Books & Music store on the East Coast
from New York to Florida and back. Before disbanding, The Howling
Brothers had become a fixture at The Fast Folk Café in New York
City where they regularly drew large, enthusiastic crowds. Rick
eventually returned to his native North Carolina where he is
a member of the NC Storytellers Guild and continues to expand
on traditional acoustic folk music by way of mountain dulcimer,
mandolin, guitar, and more recently the claw hammer banjo, which
he picked up from the teachings of music legends David Holt
and Don Zepp.
Jan Johansson, while a young man in Sweden, fell in love with
the album Will the Circle be Unbroken by the Nitty Gritty Dirt
Band. An accomplished mandolin and fiddle player, Jan was in
high demand after relocating to North Carolina, playing with
some of the most popular acoustic artists in the business such
as Kenny Baker, Josh Graves, Peter Rowan, Vassar Clements, and
more recently, Carolina Road. He joined the New Vintage Bluegrass
Band (NVBB), which went on to become one of the most successful
bluegrass bands from North Carolina. The band toured the Midwest
and East Coast for years and had five singles on the bluegrass
charts. Jan left NVBB after he and his wife adopted four orphans
from Russia. Besides concentrating on his teaching at Johansson’s
Acoustic Music School, Jan organizes the annual Amazing Grace
Blue Grass Festival benefit concert he founded in Raleigh, which
raises proceeds for orphaned children in Russia.
Cora Beth Bridges was born and raised in Fuquay-Varina, North
Carolina. Picking up the violin for the first time in sixth
grade, she discovered that she had a natural talent for the
instrument and fell in love with bluegrass music. She went on
to study under the tutelage of Jan Johansson from the late NVBB
(see above), and played with, among others, Zak McLamb (also
of NVBB) and Ramona Church, formerly of Carolina Road. Only
17-years-old, Cora Beth is currently studying other musical
genres including classical and jazz to complement her folk roots.
