About Mara, Roger, and other people we play with

I played a violin for lots of years before I found that it could be a fiddle, and that I enjoyed playing it that way. I grew up in New England, but didn't discover contra dancing and the wealth of music for it until I moved to North Carolina and started going to contra dances in the early 1990s. I like dancing, but I really prefer playing for the dancers! One of my favorite things about playing for contra dances is making the music fit the shape and feeling of the dance. I also like playing for English and Scottish country dances. I enjoy playing for the Sun Assembly, the English country dance community in Durham, NC, whenever I can, and for a variety of Scottish country dances. I don't think of myself as very competitive, but I learned a lot from participating in Scottish fiddle competitions. In 1999 and 2000 I won the Loch Norman Scottish fiddle Open competition, and in 1999 I won (much to my surprise!) the Grandfather Mountain Scottish fiddle Open competition. I like playing for dances better than for competitions, but I've learned a lot from competing. In 2002 and 2003, I was on staff at Pinewoods for the Scottish sessions, and Ramblewood, another wonderful experience. In 2004, 2006, and 2008, I spent a delightful week as a staff musician for the Teachers Association of Canada (TAC) Summer School in Waterloo, Ontario. In Sept. 2005, I led a week-long Scottish fiddle workshop at John C. Campbell Folk School, in Brasstown, NC. In April 2009, I returned for another week to teach an intermediate fiddle class. It's an inspiring place to teach and learn. Since 2003, I have been part of The MacRowdies (Pete Campbell, accordion, and Dean Herington, piano), playing at the Loch Norman Highland Games, Stone Mountain, and many other Scottish weekends. I also team up with pianist extraordinaire Dave Wiesler, to play mostly Scottish country dances, but some contra and English country dance, too. In 2009 Dave and I released a recording of Scottish country dance music, Heather Hills, which is available through cdbaby.com. For my online calendar, and more information, see more about Mara...

Roger Gold grew up surrounded by music. His parents and older sister all sing and play various instruments. He knew at the age of six that he wanted to play guitar and persisted until his parents found a teacher. His interests took his guitar playing from the ever present folk, through electric teen-age-rock, to Traditional, Celtic, and more. He likes to "play" with the music; turning waltzes to klezmer, Bach into swing, and doing even stranger things to the tunes he writes. Roger's guitar styles range from classical to hard driving, rhythmic, contra dance music. He enjoys contra dancing, and enjoys playing music for contra dances, and has yet to figure out how to do both at the same time.

Sometimes The Elftones join up with other musicians, for example, with Roger, Laura Lengnick, and Paul Moore as Land of Sky, or with Roger, Mara, Laura, and Paul as The Skytones! Take a look at Laura Lengnick's website to find out more.