Madrona Fest isn’t just about listening—it’s about joining in.

Madrona Fest starts at 12pm on Saturday, October 3, and the festival kicks off with old-time music workshops for musicians of all levels from 12pm to 1pm.

Banjo with Kendl Winter

Kendl Winter lives in Olympia and is one half of the Americana duo The Lowest Pair. She has put out solo records on K Records and Team Love, and her recent work, the Banjo Mantras, came out of daily improvisations on the open-back banjo, worked out in different tunings until they turned into something closer to meditation than practice.

She is one of the best old-time players in the Northwest and we are lucky to have her.

Guitar and fiddle breakouts with The Horsenecks

The Horsenecks are Gabrielle Macrae and Barry Southern, out of Astoria, Oregon. Four albums, tours across the US and the UK, and a sound built on early Appalachian fiddle and banjo music with classic country and bluegrass running through it. Their newest record, In the West, came out on Tiki Parlor Recordings.

Gabrielle came up in the Portland old-time scene and learned the Southeastern fiddle traditions the long way, by traveling to festivals and sitting with the players who carry them. She is teaching fiddle.

Barry played lead guitar in Liverpool for twenty years before he got deep into old-time and bluegrass. He flatpicks, he plays clawhammer, he plays three-finger. He is teaching guitar.