Jake Blount is a fiddler, banjoist, singer and scholar based in Washington, DC. He has studied with modern masters of old-time music, including Bruce Molsky, Judy Hyman (of the Horse Flies), and Rhiannon Giddens and Hubby Jenkins (of the GRAMMY-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops). He centers and venerates his racial and ethnic heritage through his approach to music and its history. In 2016, Blount became the first Black person to make the finals at the prestigious Appalachian String Band Music Festival in Clifftop, WV, and the first to win in the traditional band category. In the following year, he received his B.A. in Ethnomusicology from Hamilton College and released his debut EP, “Reparations,” with award-winning fiddler Tatiana Hargreaves. He has since shared his music and research at the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA and numerous other museums, colleges and universities. He recently released a CD and toured Scandinavia with the Moose Whisperers, his decorated old-time string band, and opened several shows for MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient Rhiannon Giddens.

Libby Weitnauer, originally from Maryville, Tennessee and now living in New York, is a classically trained violinist who has been playing since age four. Libby has been described as being “in love with Old Time”, taking the same dedication and discipline necessary to play classical violin and transmitting it to the old music, bringing something really special to the tradition.