2020 Island Camp Instructors
Zoe Guigueno
Zoe Guigueno is a bassist, singer and songwriter headquartered in New York City. She tours and records with avant-pop string quartet Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards, Americana ensemble Della Mae, klezmer band Tsibele, and many other groups. She has taught at several music camps, busked in the NY subway, performed on CBS, the Grand Ole Opry, and A Prairie Home Companion, played upright bass on a moving white-water raft, and written and recorded two albums of her own material. A graduate of the jazz program at Humber College in Toronto, Zoe is originally from a tiny island in British Columbia (though not as tiny as Three Mile Island). www.zoeguigueno.com
Jennifer Kimball
Jennifer Kimball is a musician known for her unusual choice of notes, her passion for dissonance and her willingness to create harmony where none has been envisioned before. She began songwriting in earnest in 1995 after leaving her first band, the critically acclaimed duo, The Story. Her first solo record, Veering from the Wave, was released on Imaginary Road/PolyGram in 1998. Then in the early aughts she and her partner Ry Cavanaugh started a band called Maybe Baby; Duke Levine played electric guitar, Kimball ukelele and acoustic guitar, Cavanaugh baritone electric guitar and Billy Beard drums. The two shared songwriting duties and harmony singing and released one record What Matters (2003), recorded at Hi-n-Dry, Cambridge, MA. After the birth of their son (and deciding it was better to stay married than to have a band together), Cavanaugh started Session Americana; Kimball released Oh Hear Us (2006) and headed to Harvard’s Landscape Institute to pursue a degree in landscape design. https://www.jenniferkimball.com/
Valerie Thompson
Valerie Thompson is a native of Kansas City, MO. She began classical cello studies at the age of ten, and is a graduate of Berklee College of Music with a B.M. in music performance. She has performed in the Czech Republic as a participant of the Ameropa Chamber Music Festival, at the Banff International Youth Symphony Festival in Alberta, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine with the Berklee String Orchestra. When not freelancing or teaching cello, Valerie can be heard in any of her fine musical projects FLUTTR EFFECT, the Yurodivy Quintet, and the Ephemeral Duet. www.valeriethompson.com
Lauren Balthrop
Lauren Balthrop is a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter born and raised in Alabama where her family gatherings always included sing-alongs of the Everly Brothers, the Andrew Sisters, the Louvin Brothers, and the Beatles. After 10 years making her way in NYC, she heard the siren call of Nashville where she now calls home. Lauren released her debut solo album in late 2018 and is primed to record her second. She partnered with NYC’s Blue Balloon Songwriting School to open her own music school in Nashville where she teaches the young ones to express themselves through songwriting. Her big folk-rock band and "small town" with her brother called Balthrop, Alabama toured all across the states to a cultish following. Her 60's inspired girl group, The Bandana Splits, has released two records with songs landing on shows such as HBO's 'Bored to Death'. She's also toured extensively as a multi-instrumentalist for Elizabeth & the Catapult, Kevin Morby, Michaela Anne and Ximena Sariñana. Lauren is a knitter and tap dancer too! www.laurenbalthrop.com
Chris Miller
“The Chris Miller” - as he is affectionately referred to - could not imagine his life without Miles of Music Camp. Chris plays a variety of instruments (banjo, clarinet, dobro, flute, t’fer), but it’s his captivating saxophone style that has brought him around the world and earned him a GRAMMY nomination with his band The Revelers (2016 Best Regional Roots Music). His versatility and sunny disposition have also earned him gigs with A.C Newman, Doug Wamble, John Mailander and many more. At time of print Chris defines 'home' as Lopez Island, Washington and splits his time between the Revelers and his recently named acoustic trio The Faux Paws. www.chrismillersax.com
Rennie Elliot
Rennie Elliot is a singer, banjo player and drummer who spends her time between Brooklyn, Nashville & Austin. She loves to play everything from old time, country, cajun, mariachi, punk, & viper jazz in such bands as Woody Pines, Kings County Queens, Wild Angles & The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. She also works professionally in video production, tv commercials and film, as well as puts on camps and festivals. Rennie would love to help you get you started on drums, banjo, singing or video making. www.rennieelliot.com
Dietrich Strause
Dietrich Strause is a multi-instrumentalist from Cambridge, Massachusetts. His songs are a mix of timeless melody, literate lyricism, and a "virtuosic command of imagery.” (The Artery, WBUR) In less than one year, Strause released two albums -- How Cruel That Hunger Binds and Dietrich Strause & The Blue Ribbons -- proving to be one of the most prolific and eclectic writers and performers coming out of New England. He has taught songwriting at the Passim School of Music, played piano for English balladeer Sam Lee, recorded and produced an album of Chinese children’s songs, all the while touring the US and UK supporting folk luminaries such as Anais Mitchell, Sarah Jarosz, and more. Dietrich is an apprentice guitar builder at Outlier Workshop in Cambridge. More information can be found at www.dietrichstrause.com.
Celia Woodsmith
Celia Woodsmith is a GRAMMY Nominated performer, vocalist, and songwriter. The daughter of the Vermont based poet Sybil Smith she is influenced by artists such as John Prine, Janis Joplin and Mahalia Jackson. Over time, and without any formal training Celia molded her own vocal style and has been hailed by the Boston Globe as "Unvarnished and intimate (...) but then sounds like she's about to part the Dead Sea".
Woodsmith's performances can be described as "one of a kind: gritty, muscular, folksy and intimate sometimes all at once" (Bluegrass Situation) Not confined by genre she is as comfortable playing Bill Monroe as she is singing an old jazz standard, or a Led Zeppelin rocker.
In the last 14 years Celia has released nine albums of original music most recently with Nashville based bluegrass band Della Mae and her Boston based vintage rock project SAY Darling. In 2014 Della Mae was nominated for a Best Bluegrass Album GRAMMY for their record "This World Oft Can Be".
The all-female Della Mae has performed in 19 countries with the US Department of State's cultural diplomacy program "American Music Abroad". Woodsmith recently spoke about her experiences with travel and music at TEDx Piscataqua River in Portsmouth, NH.
Taylor Ashton
Born in the last year of the 1980s, Taylor Ashton grew up surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and the old growth rainforests of Canada's west coast. His songs are inspired by the crooked primeval funk of traditional old-time music, the humor and heartbreak of Randy Newman, the cosmic emotionality of mid-career Joni Mitchell, and the sage vulnerability of Bill Withers. Somehow, he finds a way to make this all work on the clawhammer banjo.
He spent most of late teens and early 20s as the frontman of Vancouver-based five-piece Fish & Bird, releasing four albums of heady progressive folk. In the past few years he has increasingly spent his days in New York City. His most recent release finds him swapping songs with Grammy-nominated songwriter and guitarist Courtney Hartman, on the pair's 2018 duo album "Been On Your Side". The album is an acoustic, stripped-down affair, which Rolling Stone had to admit, "packs a punch in today's mainstream".
After well over a decade of varied and fruitful collaborations, Taylor released his debut solo recording in late 2019 on Signature Sound. To find out more: taylorashton.com
Adam Moss
Brooklyn based fiddler and songster Adam Moss’ musical career can most easily be characterized by the variance of his influence. Adam loves and plays in the Klezmer, Bluegrass, Old-time and swing traditions which lends itself to a very unique and innovative style in performance setting. He is actively touring with his brother duo The Brother Brothers, but you may have seen him playing in the past with some of his favorite artists, such as Boston’s Session Americana, Brooklyns The Defibulators, Ana Egge, and Anais Mitchell’s “Hadestown,” to name a few.
Dinty Child
Besides being the off-season manager of Three Mile Island, Dinty Child is a longtime member of the Boston roots/folk scene. A fearless multi-instrumentalist he can most often be seen with the band Session Americana, as well as the Chandler Travis Philharmonic, the unapologetically loud and grimy Catbirds, as sensitive side man to any number of singer/songwriters, including Rose Cousins and Kris Delmhorst, and even fronting the 15 piece party band, the Funky White Honkies. In 2020, he’ll release his first solo album! www.sessionamericana.com/
Thomas Brown
Thomas Brown is a mixed media artist and an occasional songbird. Originally from Muscle Shoals, Alabama and raised up in Louisville, Kentucky, he has now been based in New York City since 2008 working as an ice sculptor. In addition to ice sculptures, Thomas creates environmental art installations, and has collaborated on music videos with Anna and Elizabeth, Cuddle Magic, and Star Rover. Through his collaboration with his mentor, Takeo Okamoto, and Okamoto Studio, Thomas had had the opportunity to show his work in many of the great venues of NYC, including the MET, the MoMA, Guggenheim, Lincoln Center, MSG, Central Park, Columbus Circle, WTC, Rockefeller Center, NY Botanical Gardens, the House of Love, and many more. Sculpture has also given him the opportunity to travel to Japan, and the Middle East, and around the U.S.. He has been featured along with the studio on Iron Chef American three times. Thomas’ passion for working with ephemeral elements and for performing are exemplified during live carving exhibitions for the public to enjoy. These works invite the audience to embrace the experiential aspect of witnessing the creation of impermanent art objects and to be mindful of the moment as they change and disappear.