Melody Walker
Melody Walker is a GRAMMY-winning songwriter, producer, performer, and fervent believer that songs can change the world. Best known for her writing with Molly Tuttle, Sierra Ferrell, Della Mae and her own band Front Country, Melody’s post-2020 recalibration has found her finally digging into her home of Nashville, TN, co-writing with her talented neighbors and hosting a weekly writers’ round, Writers’ Kitchen in East Nashville. Her blend of grassroots pop has won her accolades from Merlefest to Telluride and now the GRAMMYs with three songs on Sierra Ferrell’s GRAMMY-winning album Trail of Flowers, including winner of the Best American Roots Song “American Dreaming” and co-writes on Molly Tuttle’s GRAMMY-winning albums Crooked Tree and City of Gold. Recent years have found Melody releasing her first solo music in a decade, stepping into her own as a songwriter and artist and finding magic in queer collaboration. Whether teaching at music camps or playing Newport Folk Fest and the Kennedy Center with her Grateful Dead drag band BERTHA, Melody is ready to ride whatever cosmic creative waves the universe sends her way. See Melody’s website
Claude “Butch” Morgan
Butch Morgan is a songwriter, singer, bandleader, guitar ace, and a first-call sideman on electric and acoustic guitar, known everywhere to folks around Texas. He’s been playing rock ’n’ roll, country, folk, and blues, as a solo act and in bands and combos, for more than 60 years. Both his life and his musical style(s) defy conformity. He shares abundantly—his depth, wry sense of humor, and poignant sense of life. Now 78, he’s been writing songs since he was 13 years old. He played his first gig in San Antonio in 1964 at the USO with The Illusions, and his first PAYING gig with a Devine, TX-area Tejano/conjunto family band, blowing trumpet from the back steps of a venue he was too young to enter. He’s since worked Texas and beyond as a solo act, as a solo songwriter and with his bands The Buckboard Boogie Boys, The Blast, H!X, and the Bandaholics. Butch is full of surprises, tugs, hilarity, and kindness. See Butch’s website
Michael McNevin
Michael grew up in the train town of Niles, California in the San Francisco East Bay hills. His songs read like short stories, full of heart, humor, and a keen eye for detail. Seasoned vocals and clean guitar work underscore the characters and places in his travels. He tours the US as a solo act, and occasionally gets a band together as McNevin & The Spokes. He is a winner of the Kerrville New Folk Award in Texas, a seven-time winner of the West Coast Songwriters “Song Of The Year” award, and a Performing Songwriter magazine “DIY Artist Of The Year.” He’s shared hall stages with Johnny Cash & The Carter Family, Donovan, Shawn Colvin, Laura Nyro, Richie Havens, and many others across the US and Europe. Festival appearances include Strawberry, High Sierra, Kerrville, Redwood Ramble, American River, Philly Folk Fest, and SummerFolk. He has five CDs and a couple of hard-to-find cassettes. Michael is also an Etch-A-Sketch artist of some renown.
In his spare time, Michael runs The Mudpuddle Shop, a converted barbershop. Now in it’s thirteenth year, it is a hive for concerts, jams, swaps and workshops. See Mike’s website
Caroline Testard
Our fearless, tireless, fiddle-playing, guitar-strumming co-director Caroline helps run our camp and also lends her elbow grease to Sierra Fiddle Camp. She participates, promotes, and books the halls for the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers’ annual three-show fundraiser series, and you might spot her on Bay Area Celtic Fair stages. Caroline’s experience and vision make our camp uniquely fun, well-run, and creatively dynamic. As the ultimate cat herder (she’s an elementary school teacher by day), Caroline is firmly planted in the Northern California music and folk dance scene, but also has deep roots in Germany, where she was born. Her daughter and granddaughter live there, so she travels back and forth. A Niles Mudpuddle regular, she now resides in Oakland with her partner Lewis, a guitar builder and multi-instrumentalist also steeped in the NoCal trad and folk scene.
Late for the Train
David Pascoe and Laura Benson are founding members of the band Late for the Train, a modern string band rooted in American folk and bluegrass. Infused with the honest depth of the coastal redwood forests, the group provides a playful and poignant musical experience that uplifts the spirit and rouses the soul. Their most recent record, The Flowers of Yesteryear, was praised for “demonstrating that even well-trodden musical paths can yield fresh insights when approached with sincerity and skill.”
Late for the Train has toured extensively in the western US and recently took their first international tour to Ireland, where they played at the Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival and the Doolin Folk Festival. While there, they had a live performance of their original song “The Trouble With Love” featured on TG4—the national Gaelic language TV station. See Late for the Train’s website
Devon McClive
Devon McClive is a San Francisco-based singer-songwriter, cellist, pianist, and music teacher. She leads her own project, Devon McClive and Sons, and has released three albums, with her song “Shine Through” featured in a national television commercial. As a cellist, she tours extensively across the U.S., Mexico, and the U.K. with the folk-rock group The Sam Chase and the Untraditional.
When she’s home from the road, Devon shares her passion for music through teaching piano and cello to students of all ages—a practice she’s dedicated herself to for over 15 years. Outside of performing and teaching, she loves making up silly songs with her son.
Stan DeWitt
As a multi-faceted musician, Stan is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and conductor, in one amazingly musical power pack. He recently released the rock opera Silver Bullet in co-production with Derek O’Brien (Social Distortion). His album Long Day’s Journey was named a “DIY Top Ten” record by Performing Songwriter magazine in 2002. He has co-produced multiple records for Moonshine, Corrina Carter, Jellykka, Onward Etc., and Rick Schiller, among others. As an educator, he taught music at Coastline Community College for 26 years and authored an online music history course. He is the Minister of Music at Grace First Presbyterian Church in Long Beach, where he directs the choir for the traditional service and leads the band for the contemporary service, and he runs a band camp for kids every summer. Stan’s gifts are an invaluable part of camp year after year. See Stan’s website
Severin Browne
Severin was raised in a musical family where all the children were expected to play an instrument. He began with accordion, then moved to drums and saxophone before settling on guitar at the ripe old age of ten. His older brother Jackson, a talented singer/songwriter with many albums for the Asylum/Elektra labels, started out as first chair cornet in the elementary school band, where Severin soon joined him on the drums.
A former Motown recording artist and staff songwriter, Severin continues to enchant audiences with his clear voice, masterful guitar playing and finely crafted songs. After leaving Motown in the mid-seventies, Severin spent his time writing and performing in the Los Angeles area, where his songs were recorded by Thelma Houston, Patti Dahlstrom, Colin Blunstone, Twiggy, The Dillards, and Pamela Stanley, who had a Billboard #15 hit with Severin’s “I Don’t Want To Talk About It.”
His three post-Motown CDs, From the Edge of The World (1996), This Twisted Road (2001), and Lucky Man—A Songwriter’s Notebook (2012) have gotten great reviews. With roots in pop, jazz, country, rock and R&B, Severin surprises his acoustic audiences with his melodies. See Severine’s website
Sara Glaser
Sara has been writing songs for two decades and is an enthusiastic member of The Mudpuddle Shop gang. Raised in a musical family, she ran away from home to join The Hanes Family, and later the New Oak Pilgrims. She released her first album of original songs, Cinders in the Wind, in 2022 and is working on a second album.
A veteran graphic designer for the music industry, she has created CD packaging, websites, and other promotional materials for Holly Near, Laurie Lewis, Brittany Haas, Kitka, Ray Bierl, Wake the Dead and many others. She is happy to answer questions about copyrighting, publishing, streaming distribution, and CD packaging options. See Sara’s website
Rebecca Troon
Rebecca Troon has been writing songs since the tender age of 17, and has taught songwriting and vocal technique at Pacific Songwriting Camp (formerly SummerSongs and WinterSongs) for over twenty years.
Rebecca has recorded three solo albums, two records with the old-time and originals band Honeysuckle Possums, and two children’s records. She is currently working on a new solo album, and performs originals in a trio with Lisa Macker (bass) and John Goux (lead guitar), adding acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and banjo. Songwriting awards include the Gig Harbor Folk Festival and the International Acoustic Music Awards, Best Folk/Americana/Roots category. See Rebecca on Bandcamp
Mark Dann
Mark is a staple of the East Coast scene, and a musical Diehard battery at song camp as teacher and coach here in the West. A top-notch bassist and professional recording engineer for more than 30 years, he has worked with hundreds of artists at his studios in New York City and Woodstock, including engineering and playing on the legendary Fast Folk Musical Magazine recordings. He’ll be everywhere at song camp—tap Mark for bass lessons, combo performance help, chart writing, and Mac Garageband 101. He’s also the camp Guitar Doctor… we think he has a blue Gui-Tardis. See Mark’s website
Jaynee Thorne
Jaynee has been coming to camp for well… 20 years now! She was at the first camp in 2004 at Camp Whittier. Now she attends camp to be of service—to run sound for the evening Coffee House and for the performance classes during the day. She looks forward to camp every year and hopes to write a new song every winter. She will be available for guitar and harmonies throughout camp. Don’t be shy to ask for backup for the Coffee House! We’re here to have some fun! See Jaynee’s website