20-May-15
May 20, 2015
FolkWorks extends a big hand to all the participants of the 2015 Topanga Banjo-Fiddle Contest. It was a perfect day.
Congratulations to Larry Wines who was this years Legend Award Winner. See below.
Band
1. The EM Band, Woodland Hills
2. The New Historians, Pasadena
3. New Roads, Santa Monica
Traditional Banjo – Advanced
1. Andy Roberts, Mariposa
2. Ken Leiboff, Newbury Park
3. Laura Osborne, Glendale
Traditional Banjo – Intermediate
1. Mark Thompson, Buena Park
2. Scott Vilhauer, Torrance
Traditional Banjo – Beginning
1. Milena Reed, Culver City
2. Kimberly Brandel, Seal Beach
3. Ashley Atkinson, Los Angeles
Bluegrass Banjo – Advanced
1. Dennis Nowack, San Diego
2. Jack O’Shea, Santa Barbara
3. Casey James Holmberg, Culver City
Bluegrass Banjo – Intermediate
1. Mason Unthank, Santa Clarita
2. Aaron Wardell, Marlow, NH
3. William Rigert, Lancaster
Bluegrass Banjo – Beginning
1. Heidi Lindblom, Huntington Beach
2. Scotty Lomaglio, Castaic
3. Piper Keesee, Toluca Lake
Fiddle – Advanced
1. Aarun Carter, Portland, OR
2. Grant Wheeler, Los Angeles
3. Anya Sturm, Santa Monica
4. Honorable Mention: Joyce Pan, Burbank
Fiddle – Intermediate
1. Lucas Braun, Los Angeles
2. Shira Ellisman, Encinitas
3. Sofia Miranda, Los Angeles
4. Honorable Mention: Jonathan Shifflett, Los Angeles
Fiddle – Beginning
1. Michael Paller, Los Angeles
2. Charlotte Bradley-McKinnon, Pasadena
3. Cassidy Mahoney, Redondo Beach
Mandolin – Advanced
1. Roland Sturm, Santa Monica
2. Jonathan Trawick, Portland, OR
3. Calvin Anderson, Huntington Beach
Mandolin – Intermediate
1. Bill Birrell, Santa Monica
2. Aarun Carter, Portland, OR
3. Robert Wheeler IV, Corona
Mandolin – Beginning
1. Vincent Green, Los Angeles
2. David Omerod, Bakersfield
3. Claire Masters, Valencia
Flat-Picking Guitar – Advanced
1. Nathan La Franchi, San Clemente
2. Calvin Anderson, Huntington Beach
3. Jonathan Trawick, Portland, OR
Flat-Picking Guitar – Intermediate
1. Sean Conlon, San Pedro
2. Fred Miller, Newbury Park
3. John Drake, Fountain Valley
Flat-Picking Guitar – Beginning
1. Matthew St. Claire, Bakersfield
2. Michael Koscelnick, Bell Gardens
Finger-Style Guitar
1. Craig Lincoln, Woodland Hills
2. Jill Fenimore, Los Angeles
3. Richard Marchetta, Valencia
4. Honorable Mention: Jeff Greenman, La Mirada
Other Instruments
1. Ken Leiboff, Newbury Park [Harmonica]
2. Chris Teuber, Venice [Harmonica]
3. Diane Ippel, Ventura [Hammered Dulcimer]
4. Honorable Mention Steve Berman, Agoura Hills [Harmonica]
Singing
1. The Emersons, Woodland Hills
2. Harmonistas, Claremont
3. The Three Belles, Harbor City
Best Backup Instrument
1. Jonathan Trawick, Portland, OR [Guitar]
2. Aarun Carter, Portland, OR [Guitar]
3. David Aks, Granada Hills [Cello]
4. Honorable Mention Ron Vance, Santa Monica [Bass]
Oldest Musician
Stan Shapin (1937), Orange, Advanced Traditional Banjo
Youngest Musician
Rebekah Wilson (2007), Saugus, Beginning Fiddle
LAWRENCE (LARRY) WINES – 2015 Legend Award Winner
LAWRENCE WINES is a longtime photojournalist, consultant to artists and the music industry, and events producer. His Acoustic Americana Music Guide has actively promoted thousands of individual artists, bands, tours, and festivals, including Topanga, throughout California and beyond for over 12 years. Reporting “inside music news,” it’s even a “go-to” source for other journalists. He’s acclaimed for teaching artists how to have successful experiences with the media, a key to getting traction.
He created and hosted the weekly 4-hour broadcast/simulcast radio show “Tied to the Tracks,” a multiple-award winner honored among the “Best of L.A.” winners in Los Angeles magazine. Its live interviews, performances and on-air music collaborations featured artists playing upcoming festivals, including TBFC, the Irish Faire, Cowboy Festivals, Cajun & Blues Fests, Huck Finn, Stagecoach, Live Oak, and more. Guest artists played live and talked about a festival or concert before it happened, building its audience.
He pioneered the now familiar terms “acoustic americana” and “acoustic renaissance” back in the 1990s, broadening the genre to bridge gaps between traditional Folk, Americana and younger contemporary acoustic artists, growing the audience appeal for related kinds of music.
As a photojournalist, Lawrence has convinced hardboiled editors to let him cover folk-americana and traditional music and musicians. He’s out there for online and print outlets, promoting, attending and reporting on festivals and music conferences, large and small. He’s met and interviewed iconic figures, and was writing about great bands before they gained fame, including Old Crow Medicine Show, Mumford & Sons, Hot Club of Cowtown, and many more.
He was one of the first journalists to promote Folk Alliance and actually attend and cover it. When the FAR-West Conference came to Woodland Hills, he devoted his entire four-hour radio show to live performances by its artists from all over, gaining exposure for the music and touring/performing artists.
Here at Topanga, he has been an emcee for many years. He says, “Music Legend honoree! All these trailblazers and mentors. People with passion and devotion. Grammy winners. Howard and Roz’s ‘FolkScene.&rsquo My fellow writers at ‘FolkWorks.’ Social justice musician Ross Altman. Grammy winner Richard Greene. Beth Lomax Hawes, whose own Smithsonian music work continued her famous family’s legacy. Sam Hinton and his Library of Congress recordings. Scottish fiddler Jan Tappan, last year’s honoree. Bluegrass pioneer Peter Feldmann. Elaine and Clark, so essential in spreading traditional music in California. Devoted music presenters and guiding lights Bob Stane and Russ and Julie. All the way back to the ones I never knew – Mel Durham, who launched the Old Time Fiddlers, and Dorian and Dalia Keyser, who all of us owe for making Topanga a great event. So many great folks! Such an honor. And now ME?! Wow!”
There’s more that music folks don’t know. He’s climbed mountains, rock and ice walls by new routes, and even frozen waterfalls. He recently completed a “30-states-in-30-days” train odyssey around America. He’s restored and run steam locomotives, founded historic preservation projects, and conceived and hosted the first-ever reunion of the crews of the two Freedom Trains – the Bicentennial train from 1975-76 and the original postwar train from 1947-49 that first broke the color barrier in the South (the reunion featured trips on a steam train and a paddlewheel steamboat). He’s taught in classrooms, studios and the wilderness, designed and built museum exhibits and authored educational, visitor, and interpretive plans for museums. He’s been involved in progressive politics, chairing the Democratic Coalition, co-founding Latinos for Social Justice, and editing the journal, “Democritus.” He’s written engineering standards, developed industrial processes, and done proposals for industries chasing multi-million dollar contracts. He’s done field geology and investigated ancient trees and climate.
Now, he’s immersed in preserving the only habitat of a critically endangered species in a single and quite beautiful mountain complex where all is slated to be destroyed by surface mining – “gone completely, natural rock arches, scenic beauty, species” habitat, and all. Erased from the face of the Earth and the mind of humankind.” Not if he can help it.
You can contact Lawrence about music, music promotion, or pretty much anything else at: tiedtothetracks@hotmail.com