James Leva, fiddle
Riley Baugus, banjo, fiddle

James Leva is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter whose music is deeply rooted in Appalachian tradition. He learned much of his fiddle, banjo and vocal repertoire from great traditional masters such as Tommy Jarrell and Doug Wallin. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s he performed with seminal traditionally focused groups that were exploring the boundaries of Appalachian music. Bands such as Plank Road (with Al Tharp and Michael James Kott), Ace Weems and the Fat Meat Boys (with David Winston and Chad Crumm), and the Hellbenders (with Bruce Molsky and Dave Grant) performed throughout the US and Europe, and their recordings were widely influential.

Riley Baugus, a North Carolina native who lives in Walkertown, began singing and playing music at an early age. Raised in a household where recordings of old-time music were often played, he developed a love and appreciation for traditional southern Appalachian music. He and his family attended a Regular Baptist church, where unaccompanied hymn singing was a long-standing tradition. Riley began playing the fiddle at age ten. Soon after that he took up the guitar. By the time he was twelve, he and his father built a banjo from scrap wood, and he once again began to learn another instrument.

Riley honed his musical skills with a close friend and neighbor, fiddler Kirk Sutphin. Together they visited elder traditional musicians in and around Grayson County, Virginia, and Surry County, North Carolina. Riley often visited, played with, and learned from fiddlers Tommy Jarrell, Robert Sykes, and banjo player Dix Freeman. During these visits he also met and learned from many other traditional musicians of the area, including former Camp Creek Boys members Verlen Clifton and Paul Sutphin. His singing is featured on the soundtrack of the Academy Award-winning film Cold Mountain. He built the antebellum-style banjos that were used in the film.