The Wrack

We are pleased to welcome these performing artists to the ninth Punkinfiddle.

Gordon Bok

Gordon Bok grew up around the boatyards of Camden, Maine. In his early years, he worked on a variety of vessels, from passenger schooners to yachts. He learned many tunes, sea songs, stories, legends and ballads from the people he worked with. Where he couldn't find songs that matched his experiences or needs, he began to write his own, and has kept up a lively flow of poems, songs, stories, choral and instrumental works. He has performed extensively in the United States, and in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. He has appeared on the radio show "A Prairie Home Companion" with Garrison Keillor. Gordon's music has been sung by many performers.

Ellie Buckland

Ellie Buckland is a young fiddler/singer/dancer from the Farmington area who grew up in a musical family and in the tutelage of the vocal and instrumental music programs of the Mt. Blue Regional School District. In addition to her classical violin studies with Laurie Kennedy, Ellie studies dance at Broadway Academy of Dance in Farmington, and, with the help of the Mt. Blue Music Boosters, has studied fiddling at Maine Fiddle Camp, violin at USM String Camp, and violin and voice at the Maine Summer Youth Music Camp at the University of Maine, Orono.

Andy Buckland

Andy Buckland grew up in a musical family of professional and teaching musicians going back at least 3 generations. As a youth he fell asleep to the sound of bluegrass music as his mother played banjo in late-night jams and rehearsals with early bluegrass greats. Andy later pursued rock 'n' roll with a vengeance, cutting his teeth in the Boston music scene, and toured New England and Texas with the folk-rock group Dougherty & Grace. In 1998, while researching an article on his mother's involvement in bluegrass, Andy became enamored with the "ring of the banjar" and taught himself to play the 5-string banjo. After a year and a half on banjo with Wilf Clark and the Misty Mountaineers, Andy left performing for seven years to teach general music and chorus in the Mt. Blue School District. Andy is now the bassist for Boréal Tordu.

Laura Cortese

Welding the propulsive grace of ancient fiddle styles to disarmingly open-hearted original pop songs, Laura Cortese has emerged among the most intriguing and versatile, musicians in the bountiful New England post-folk scene. At home in any number of traditional styles, her highly-visible work as a supporting musician (on fiddle, vocals, and bass) includes appearances with Uncle Earl, Tao Seeger, Band of Horses, and—as part of Pete Seeger's 90th birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden—Patterson Hood and Michael Franti. The past two years have found Cortese in creative overdrive, balancing sideman duties, solo tours, and recording sessions with an increased devotion to her own music: a kaleidoscopic hybrid that is enriched by roots music undertones and yet remains defiantly contemporary.

Ariel Friedman

Ariel Friedman graduated from Northwestern University in 2008 where she studied cello performance with Hans Jorgen Jensen, and will graduate from New England Conservatory in 2011 with a Masters in Contemporary Improvisation. A winner of ASTA's 2009 Alternative Styles Award, she is an inventive cellist and, aside from playing in a band with her sister Mia, she performs, tours, and records with Scottish National Fiddle champion Hanneke Cassel. She is also a member of the new Boston-based girl band, Long Time Courting, as well as Childsplay. She teaches at various fiddle camps during the summer and has her own private studio.

Mariel Vandersteel

Mariel Vandersteel grew up in the rich musical scene of the San Francisso Bay area. During high school, she played for local contra dances, as well as performing with Alasdair Fraser and the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers and the Black Brothers. After immersing herself in the traditional music of Ireland and Scotland, she studied Violin Performance at Berklee College of Music then traveled to Norway to study the Hardingfele and Norwegian folk music. She now plays with Blue Moose and the Unbuttoned Zippers, Laura Cortese's Acoustic Project, Putnam Smith, The Paper Star Trio, and as a duo with Emma Beaton.