Chris Testerman

Chris Testerman

Instrument Making
Independence, VA

Chris Testerman of Independence, Virginia was raised in the traditions of instrument making and Appalachian music. He attended Mount Rogers Combined School in Grayson County and played in the Albert Hash Memorial Band, led by Whitetop Mountain Band banjo player Emily Spencer, as a teenager. The late Albert Hash, born in Whitetop in 1917, mentored some of the greatest luthiers and instrument makers in Southwest Virginia, including Gerald Anderson, Randal Eller, Walter Messick, and Wayne Henderson. Albert Hash’s daughter Audrey Hash Ham used to run the Old Time Music Program at the school. When he decided to pursue instrument making, following the encouragement of his teachers and bandmates, Testerman sought Ham’s instruction.

Daniel Smith

Daniel Smith

Violin Making and Repair
Lynchburg, VA

Daniel Smith of Lynchburg, Virginia found his way into becoming a luthier while he was working full time for the local fire department. It was discovering Cajun music while serving in the Army in Germany during the Vietnam War that led Smith into a love for old-time music—and especially the fiddle. When he saw Dolly Parton play a guitar made by a friend of his, Donald Watts, on television he became interested in instrument repair. In addition to being a luthier, Watts was known locally for hosting Porter Wagner and Dolly Parton’s tour bus on his land in Monroe. He taught Smith some foundational skills and also introduced Smith to Russell Burford, his nephew. The two became fast friends and went on to build fifteen instruments together.

Dr. Dena Jennings

Dr. Dena Jennings

Gourd Instrument Making
Nasons, VA

Dena Jennings is a physician and artist in Central Virginia. She was born in Akron, Ohio during its booming years of ingenuity as the rubber capital of the world. Her father was an executive at Goodyear International; her mother, a banker at a hometown savings and loan. On her mother’s side, Jennings can trace her ancestry in Appalachia back five generations. Twenty years after establishing her medical practice and ImaniWorks, a non-profit organization for conflict transformation and human rights advocacy, Jennings moved to Ontario, Canada, where she entered a four-year arts apprenticeship. There, she learned to hand carve modern instruments made from gourds and other natural fibers in the style of traditional instruments from around the world. At the end of her apprenticeship, she opened a workshop, studio, and retail music store in a small town in Central Ontario.

Karlie Keepfer

Karlie Keepfer

Instrument Making
Sparta, NC

Seventeen-year-old Karlie Keepfer from Alleghany County, North Carolina, has been described as an old soul by many, so it’s no surprise she became an enthusiastic student and, later on, an instructor of traditional Appalachian music through the AJAM (Alleghany Junior Appalachian Musicians) program. Keepfer sings and plays clawhammer banjo with her band, Karlie Keepfer and Smokey Holler.

KT Vandyke

KT Vandyke

Instrument Making
Bristol, VA

After working on the road as a sound engineer for the bluegrass fiddler Michael Cleveland, KT Vandyke found himself back in Southwest Virginia, doing instrument repair and setup at Front Row Music in Abingdon. It’s there where he met Walter “Skip” Herman of the nearby Frog Level Guitar Shop. Herman had learned the luthier trade from “Uncle” Dave Sturgill in Piney Creek, North Carolina, and decided to pursue repair full-time once he saw the reliable demand for, and importance of, the work. As Herman explains, “You can make the very best instrument in the world and if there is no one out there to repair it, it’s like having a Ferrari where there’s no mechanic in the world who can fix it.”

Lisa Ring

Lisa Ring

Guitar Making
Troutdale, VA

Lisa Ring was born and raised on her family’s farm in Grayson County, where she lives today. Ring remembers family visits always included music, her relatives on her mother’s side were nearly all musicians. Her grandfather and his brothers played fiddle, her great aunt played autoharp and her great-grandmother played the dulcimer. Ring’s mother did not learn to play, but she knew how deeply important music was to the family, going so far as to track down her father’s fiddle after learning he loaned it out when he fell too ill to play. Ring remembers seeing that fiddle as a young girl in her mother’s dresser drawer. After encouraging her to learn piano and guitar, her mother gave Ring the family fiddle when she turned 18. Ring went on to connect with Hick Edmonds, a neighbor of her grandparents, who learned how to play fiddle from her grandfather. While she did not learn from her grandfather directly, his teaching made its way to Ring through Edmonds.

Mac Traynham

Mac Traynham

Banjo Making
Willis, VA

Mac Traynham of Floyd County became interested in handmade instruments in 1975 when he commissioned a friend to build him a Gibson RB-100 copy on which to play a three-finger style of bluegrass and other experimental music. He became even more interested after commissioning (the now legendary) guitar maker Wayne Henderson to build him a Martin D-28 style guitar in 1976. Being attracted to beautiful woods and a serious player of Southwest Virginia-style clawhammer banjo music, Traynham built his first banjo in 1978 using recycled birdseye maple flooring that had been made previously into a door. During the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, he continued to make banjos and was part of an instrument makers seminar at the 1981 National Folk Festival.

Michael Brewer

Michael Brewer

Guitar Making
Marion, VA

Michael Brewer was raised in Grayson County, Virginia. At eleven years old, he started taking music lessons from Jim Lloyd of Rural Retreat. Lloyd also fostered Brewer’s interest in instrument making and repair, giving him broken instruments to take home to work on. When Michael was thirteen, his father took him to see Gerald Anderson at his workshop in Volney, Virginia. After visiting and talking with Anderson, Brewer knew that he wanted to pursue instrument-making. Shortly thereafter, his parents bought him his first guitar-building kit and he was hooked.

Richard Maxham

Richard Maxham

Violin Making and Repair
Alexandria, VA

Richard Maxham has spent his life with the violin. The fifth generation in his family to make or play the instrument, he began playing at the age of three and performed extensively as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral violinist. As he grew up, he also watched his grandfather make, repair, and adjust violins. While at St. John’s College in Annapolis, he cultivated an interest in violin repair and making. After inheriting his grandfather’s tools, wood, patterns, and violin book library, he began the lifelong process of studying all aspects of the violin world.

Sophia Burnett

Sophia Burnett

Instrument Making
Boone, NC

Sophia Burnett of Boone, North Carolina has been deeply involved with Appalachian culture in and around her home and southwest Virginia since she was a child. She started playing fiddle at age five and was a member of The Tater Hill Mashers band as a student in the Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM) program. She said it’s her love of her family’s Scotch-Irish heritage that keeps her playing old time and bluegrass music. Sher performs with her sisters as The Burnett Sisters Band.

Spencer Strickland

Spencer Strickland

Mandolin Making
Lambsburg, VA

Spencer Strickland grew up in southwestern Virginia in a family steeped in music. His mother sang and his father played guitar in a family gospel band that performed at churches and community events in the region. At age ten, Strickland began taking mandolin lessons with local musician and sound engineer Wesley Easter. Since then, Strickland has gone on to win prestigious awards for his playing, including first place in the 2004 and 2008 mandolin competitions at the Galax Old Fiddler’s Convention. In 2004, Strickland apprenticed with the late guitar and mandolin builder Gerald Anderson through the Virginia Folklife Program.

Mark Cline

Mark Cline

Fiberglass Sculptor
Natural Bridge, VA

Mark Cline began making sculptures just after graduating high school. A part-time job had him working at Red Mill Manufacturing in Lyndhurst, near Waynesboro, mixing material for small resin statues. It was there where the owner of the company, John Sewell, showed him how to cast sculptures and sent him home with a five-gallon bucket of resin. From that point on, Cline’s path to roadside attraction notoriety was clear.

Brently Hilliard

Brently Hilliard

Fiberglass Sculpture
Richmond, VA

Brently Hilliard is a musician and sculptor working in Richmond. Hilliard mostly makes small-scale, short-run cast resin toys and action figures inspired by B-grade horror movies and so-called “gross out” cartoons like The Ren & Stimpy Show. MadBalls, sculpted foam ball toys with names like Bash Brain (a zombie with exposed brains) and Slobulus (a one-eyed slobbering creature), are another source of inspiration for Hilliard. In 2019-2020, he received support from the Virginia Folklife Program to apprentice with Mark Cline of Natural Bridge, Virginia. While Cline is known for large-scale roadside attractions like Dinosaur Kingdom II and Foamhenge, he began sculpting by casting small resin figures.