Faculty & Staff

Bing Futch

2016 International Blues Challenge Finalist Winner - "Best Guitarist (Solo/Duo)" Award

"A master of the mountain dulcimer" - Connections Magazine

"Musical Tabasco!" - The Orlando Weekly

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Bing Futch Bio

Using Appalachian mountain dulcimer, Native American flute, ukulele and a board full of stomp-boxes, Bing Futch celebrates traditional and modern Americana music with passion, humor and boundless energy. Known for his musical shape-shifting, Bing switches the channels on style and tone with every new song, from his roots-rock and blues originals to The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Disney covers.

As a nationally touring solo performer he's headlined at such events as The Walnut Valley Festival, The Florida Folk Festival, Old Songs Festival, Indiana Fiddlers Gathering, The Big Muddy and Common Ground On The Hill.

Bing has enjoyed a career as both folkie and rocker, first with post-punk act Crazed Bunnyz in 1986 and much later in 1999 as co-founder of Mohave on mountain dulcimer. That band, with bassist Mike Burney and drummer McGyver, made their debut performance at the House of Blues at Walt Disney World and would go on to open for Molly Hatchet, St. Somewhere and The Crests.

In 2006, Bing began performing solo at festivals and music venues across the country. Since then, he has recorded a number of albums and published several music-education books including the best-selling Blues Method For Mountain Dulcimer 101. In 2014, Bing won the Solo/Duo Artist award in the Central Florida Blues Challenge competition, earning a coveted entry into the 2015 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN, where he advanced to the semifinals. Several months later, Bing competed in the 2015 Central Florida Blues Challenge and won his category for the second year in a row, which led him back to Memphis to compete in the 2016 International Blues Challenge. There, he advanced all the way to the finals and was given the award for "Best Guitarist" in the Solo/Duo category, despite competing solely on the mountain dulcimer.

Bing's music has been featured in film, video, on stage and in exhibits at the Orlando Museum of Art. He was composer and musical director for "The Jungle Book: A Musical Adaptation" at Stage Left Theater in Orlando, Florida. He also contributed music to the soundtrack of The Castle of Miracles attraction at Give Kids The World Village in Kissimmee, Florida.

In 2008, Bing became the first endorsing artist for Folkcraft Instruments and has written a number of books for them, including the best-selling Method For Beginning Mountain Dulcimer. Around that same time, he worked with V-Picks to develop a pick specifically for mountain dulcimers. This collaboration resulted in both the “Bing” Lite and “Bing” Ultra-Lite models.

Typically traveling over 35,000 miles a year in a 32’ Jayco Greyhawk named Marahute, Bing keeps a busy schedule of performances, workshops and production that includes shooting episodes of Dulcimerica, a video series on YouTube that’s been viewed by millions of people worldwide and is currently in its 14th year. Since the spring of 2020, when coronavirus began to make its presence widely known, he’s been producing music and video from his home in Orlando, Florida and spending lots of time with his wife, Jae, and a menagerie of rescued critters.

Chris Kennison

Respected and award-winning steel guitar player, Chris is active in promoting Hawaiian Steel guitar playing for the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association in Hawaii to help promote Hawaiian steel. www.hsga.org

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Chris Kennison Bio

I finished my fifth season as one of the staff musicians on stage at the Arizona Opry in April 2015. What a great time I had working there. I recently had the rare opportunity to join a new show band called The Rhythm Cats in Mesa AZ, appearing at the Silver Star dinner showroom. I spend the winter entertaining visitors to the Valley of The Sun. I hope to see you there!

When the winter season ends in AZ I return to Colorado and play music locally. I also operate my recording studio and teach music.

I have 30 years in the audio recording and engineering business, along with 40 years professional music performance experience.

Concurrent with the above, 30 years in the computer industry. I also spent 4 years in the US Navy programming computers for the Naval Weather Service.

I'm a professional musician specializing in pedal steel, non-pedal steel, dobro, as well as fiddle, banjo, mandolin, acoustic and electric guitar. I love Country Swing, C&W, Folk, Rock, Hawaiian, and Blues. I also teach steel guitar. I'm volunteer on the Board of Directors for the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association in Hawaii to help promote Hawaiian steel. www.hsga.org

I love working in the music and media industry. My main goal is to continue to expand as a professional steel player and perform around the country and the world.

I also love being able to use my managment and technology skills acquired in the IT and music industry, to help improve operations in non-profit organizations.

Specialties: Steel Guitar (country, Hawaiian, Blues, Rock) People managment, project and program managment. Organizational and team development. Process development. Effective communication. Fundraising. Professional audio recording and engineering, Live sound engineering, Professional musician. Software development. (Computer Science degree) Operations and Data Center managment for computer industry.

Steve Eulberg

"smile-inducing, toe-tapping folkgrass" -CDBaby.com

"like Jimmy Buffet in Appalachia"

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Steve Eulberg Bio

He’s a versatile full-time folk musician who specializes in fretted and hammered dulcimers, but his first instrument was his mother’s ukulele. At a youth retreat the weekend after Jim Croce’s plane went down, he became so fired up about the guitar that he grabbed the only thing in the house with strings. His mother wanted her ukulele back so that Christmas, he got a guitar. As a college student, he heard his first dulcimers, but never thought he could afford his own. It wasn’t until graduate school when he realized that he wouldn’t have to live on peanut butter sandwiches the rest of his life, because the Hughes Dulcimer Company was just down the street. He bought a kit and built his first dulcimer. It’s been love ever since - through a career performing folk for kids to seniors, as a composer, and as an inner-city pastor, this award-winning touring musician brings joy to all who hear him.

He’s been called an Appalachian Jimmy Buffet because of his personable stage presence and warm voice, but Buffet doesn’t have Steve’s on-the-money musicianship on dulcimers and more. Whether he’s tapping out a joyful traditional tune like “St. Anne’s Reel,” or an original like “Blacktail Weasel and the Groundsquirrel Clan,” he’s showcased the versatility of these instruments in a variety of venues, from a featured spot at the Walnut Valley Festival (Winfield, KS), to the Cheyenne Celtic Festival (Cheyenne, WY), to the John F. Kennedy School (Berlin, Germany). He’s also played in many liturgical settings, including St. Annen Kirche (the church which Rev. Martin Niemöller served), and as a featured artist at the Christian Church-Disciples of Christ Washington State Convention. In 2012 alone, he did 183 performances.

He has produced 15 recordings; the newest, Old School Old Time, was released in December 2012 and recorded with third-generation fiddler Vi Wickham. Calling themselves Fiddle Whamdiddle (the latter is slang for hammered dulcimer), this collection of old-time folk includes tunes they “can’t remember not knowing.” Steve offers his considerable hammered dulcimer talents on “Fisher’s Hornpipe,” and “Golden Slippers,” the latter a song that Steve jokes is the hammered dulcimer’s national anthem. He plays a mountain dulcimer on “Barlow Knife” and “Boil ‘em Cabbage Down,” a standard with dulcimer players and one of the first songs he ever learned. Other songs feature both fretted and hammered dulcimers. It all makes for a knee-slapping good time.

Other releases include A Piece of it All (2007), I Celebrate Life (2005), Random Acts of Fiddling (2005, with Carole and Teresa Lundgren), and many more, including contemporary and traditional folk, some for general audiences and some, done in the folk tradition and performed in and outside of religious settings.

Steve has a musical soul influenced by many, including Tchaikovsky, Jean Ritchie, and Stevie Wonder. He’s shared the stage with folk artists John McCutcheon, Bryan Bowers, Maggie Sansone, Emma’s Revolution, and Mundy Turner. Steve is a five-time National Winner in Mountain Dulcimer and a three-time National Finalist for Hammered Dulcimer, in addition to other honors.

His music has appeared on National Public Radio and on United Airlines Inflight Audio; his “Soaring” was licensed by PBS’ RoadTrip Nation. Several songs have charted on The Music Review, including “War Is Sweet,” which topped the Independent Country chart in September 2007. In the Roots Music Report for November and January 2013, he had 3 albums in the Top 50.

He also plays guitar, bass, piano and hand percussion. His mother is lucky that his musical curiosity led him to many wonderful places. Otherwise, she never would’ve gotten that ukulele back.

Staff

Erin Mae Lewis

Festival Technical Support

" Technology is our friend!"

Erin Mae will be available throughout the day to provide technical support.

Erin Mae Lewis Bio

Erin Mae is a freelance mountain dulcimer and folk music teacher who has taught at hundreds of dulcimer festivals and conferences around the world.

She has pioneered online mountain dulcimer instruction and helped numerous festivals pivot to online events during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Additionally, Erin Mae teaches kids folk music workshops at schools and libraries, and organizes kids camps at bluegrass and folk festivals.

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