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Judges

RED HENRY
Red Henry has played mandolin, banjo, fiddle, and guitar since the 1960s. He and his wife Murphy made their living for many years playing bluegrass full-time, and they recorded a dozen band LPs and CDs.
Since 1982, Red and Murphy have taught several thousand people to play with their extensive and successful “Murphy Method” series of bluegrass music-instruction tapes and DVDs, marketed worldwide.
Red has helped judge many contests over the years, including the prestigious national music championships at Winfield, Kansas, the Maryland State Fiddle Contest, the Shenandoah Banjo and Fiddle Contest in Virginia, and the official Georgia State Fiddle Convention. He is always “pulling” for the contestants and hoping that they will play their very best.

 

CHUCK NATION
Chuck Nation (fiddle/mandolin/guitar), from Gainesville, GA, has performed across the U.S. and in 20 different countries.  In addition to his singing and songwriting skills, Chuck is equally skilled at playing fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and guitar.  Chuck has performed at the Grand Old Opry, New Orleans World’s Fair, Savannah Music Festival, Carnegie Hall, Smoke On The Mountain, Always Patsy Cline, and The High Lonesome Mass. He has opened shows for a diverse list of folks ranging from Ernest Tubb to Mother Maybelle Carter, Mac Davis, John Hartford, Charley Pride, John Anderson, and Bill Monroe.  He was a member of the historic band from Louisville, Kentucky—The Bluegrass Alliance (whose alumni includes Vince Gill, Sam Bush, & Tony Rice)—which paved the way for the modern “Newgrass” music style.  Besides being an in-demand studio musician for others, Chuck has recorded two solo projects:  Fiddle Favorites and One Man Band.

 

BILL CUNNINGHAM
Bill Cunningham has been playing music since the age of 12 when he began playing bass at local square dances and on the Georgia Mountain Fair Staff Band with his dad, Fiddlin’ Howard Cunningham. Bill began playing pedal steel guitar at age 14. As a teenager he and several other local teenagers formed a country and bluegrass band that played regional shows including one week summer runs at the Civic Auditorium in Gatlinburg where they backed Mac Wiseman, Stringbean, and Barbara Fairchild.

Bill served four years in the Marine Corps and played the local clubs around Cherry Point, NC. After the Marines, Bill settled in the Atlanta area in 1980. Over the years Bill worked in bands with Gerry Hall, Nelson Rogers, Vernon Maney, Tiny Tate, and Jim Wood’s Dixie Fried Band. Bill was also Tommy Dodd’s sub.as steel player on several major runs of the musical “Always Patsy”

At the same time he has continued as a member of the Georgia Mountain Fair Band and just past 41 years with that group. Over the years the GMF band has backed many national artists including Hank Locklin, Ray Pillow, Jack Green, Jeannie Seeley, Hank Thompson, and Johnny Gimble.

With the 2008 passing of the production of the GMF shows from Fiddlin’ Howard Cunningham to Jim Wood, Bill became the band leader of the GMF Band until retiring of the event in 2021 and celebrating 50 years for that event.

Bill enjoys playing steel regional steel guitar shows and is a staff bass player on the Phoenix and Dallas steel shows.