Instructor Bios
Jenny Lester
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Ben Brookes
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Mark Thibeault
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Scott Atchison
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Mark Perry
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George Stokes
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Jenny Lester
|
Ben Brookes
|
Mark Thibeault
|
Scott Atchison
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Mark Perry
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George Stokes
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Raised in Smithers, BC on bluegrass music with her family as the Driftwood Canyon Family band, achieving a degree in music at South Plains College, Texas, performing in many bands from Colorado, Taiwan and Australia, Jenny is now an internationally received performing artist with the Yukon based group Hungry Hill. Along side of performing, her years of experience as a teacher of guitar, fiddle and voice extends past the studio to the release of 3 instruction DVDs released by Mel Bay publications.
Ben has taught guitar in the Bulkley Valley for 4 years. He has instructed at the Bulkley Valley Folk Music Societies Adult and Youth Guitar Camps and has performed locally with various bands including Ribcage, Foxy Autopsy, Wolfchild and The Vapour Daddies.
Mark has recorded and performed with The Grapes of Wrath, The Undertakin Daddies and presently with Canadian Folk Music Award nominee for Best Ensemble, Hungry Hill. Mark plays lap steel, resonator guitar, pedal steel, electric and acoustic guitar in several styles of music and has a keen understanding of the core rhythmic and melodic elements that are shared between but also differentiate and define musical genres.
With musical influences ranging from early "ska" and running all the way to "western swing", Scott Atchison has played in his fair share of bands along the way. He continues to refine his multi-instrumentalist chops on guitar, mandolin, resonator, weissenborn, banjo, lapsteel, and ukulele. A 10 year veteran of the Bulkley Valley music scene, Scott has performed regularly alongside Mark Perry, Hungry Hill, and most recently Rachelle Van Zanten, while also recording several CD's with the now defunct Colorado "alt-bluegrass" band "Raised on Rhubarb". A lifelong student of music himself, he has taught "Fingerstyle" and "Swing" Guitar, vocal (harmony singing) workshops, as well as "Mandolin for Guitar Players" at the Bulkley Valley Guitar Camp in years past. Scott continues to teach, write, perform, and record his own unique "folk-island-blues-alt-grass" style tunes here in Smithers.
Mark is one of BC’s finest singer songwriters, with a total of seven albums to his credit, with his latest compilation of favourites just released in 2009. He has performed at numerous folk festivals, coffee houses and concerts throughout BC. Mark has opened for Connie Kaldor all over Western Canada and continues to play from Calgary to Victoria, performing songs with a small town slant. In 1990 he worked on the first of his 2 albums with Roy Forbes. The album “Dreams of the Highway” earned him a nomination for roots traditional album at the West Coast Music Awards. Mark’s music has been featured on CBC, and he has appeared on Murray McLauglin’s “Swinging on a Star” radio program. A hockey game on a frozen lake, dying towns and towns being born, a railroaders last trip, characters, painters, laughs and tragedies are sketched out in his songs.
When George was a kid he would sneak into his sister's room and "borrow" her guitar and chord charts. After being caught repeatedly he got a guitar of his own and has been playing ever since. George has played live in many living rooms, coffeehouses and festivals along the way. Quite some time ago George picked up the bass and has thumped away on that too. When George isn't in front of a mic or an audience he can often be found behind a sound board as a sound man or monitor guy. George will be offering his expertise at Camp as "Beginner Guitar" instructor as well as instructing "Survival Sound for Musicians".
