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meet the band |
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Wil Maring: Guitar, Bass, vocals Wil's enchanting voice and especially her beautiful original songs contribute a large part to Shady Mix's unique sound. She also enjoys digging up old, almost forgotten songs that suit the band's style. In late 1997 Wil released her first solo album "An Ocean From Home" which earned excellent reviews throughout the acoustic music scene. Shortly thereafter she won the renowned Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at Merlefest in North Carolina with her song "Bottomlands". A second solo effort entitled "The Turning of a Century" was released in the U.S. in 2002. She has just started working on a third solo CD. When Wil is not busy with Shady Mix, or touring out on her own or in a duo formation, she spends her free time "messing around" with the clawhammer banjo, upright bass and her horses. |
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Robert Bowlin: Lead acoustic guitar, fiddle, vocals Robert is the newest Shady Mixer, having just joined forces with Wil, Mark and Geoff in January of 2004. Referred to by the others as "our long lost musical brother", Robert adds a lifetime of experience and tasty licks to the Shady Mix musical soup. Most well-known as Bill Monroe's last fiddler, and most recently as the guitar player for the Osborne Brothers, he is also a veteran of Kathy Mattea, Maura O' Connell, and Tom T. Hall's road bands, and a two time winner of the National Guitar Flatpicking and National Guitar Fingerpicking contests in Winfield, Kansas. Robert is truly an eclectic musician, as he is also an accomplished classical pianist, and can play nearly anything that has strings on it. Hailing originally from Pocahontas, AR, he lives in the Nashville, TN area, working there as a session musician and running his own violin repair shop. |
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Mark Stoffel: Mandolin, fiddle, vocals Mark has been addicted to bluegrass music since 1979, when as a teenager in Munich, Germany, he asked for a "ukelele" for Christmas and received a mandolin by mistake instead. Since then he has become well-known in the European country and bluegrass scene for his tasteful mandolin picking and also his work on the fiddle. He has been recognized not only in Europe for his high level of musicianship - in 1991, as he was living in Carbondale, Illinois, Mark was awarded the "Illinois State Fiddle Championship". At Shady Mix concerts Mark is well-loved for his humorous and spontaneous emcee work - you never know what he'll say or do next. Besides his involvement with Shady Mix, Mark likes working at home in his recording studio: All Shady Mix and Wil Maring albums were recorded there, in addition to other CD projects by regional acoustic musicians. Hopefully many other projects will follow. |
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