Rob Ickes

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area, Rob Ickes (rhymes with “bikes”) comes from a musical family. His grandparents played old-time fiddle music, and Rob trained his young musical ear at their weekly jam sessions. Although his family wanted Rob to play fiddle, the instrument didn’t interest him. Then, at the age of thirteen, Rob was exposed to the Dobro playing of Mike Auldridge, and the sound immediately caught his attention. Soon after, Rob got his first Dobro, and he has been playing music ever since.

Rob moved to Nashville in 1992 and joined Blue Highway, the highly esteemed bluegrass band, as a founding member in 1994. He is recognized as one of the most innovative Dobro players on the scene today, contributing signature technique and greatly expanding the boundaries of the instrument’s sonic and stylistic territory. He won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Dobro Player of the Year award for a record-setting fifteenth time in 2013; IBMA notes that he is the most awarded instrumentalist in the history of the IBMA awards.

As an active session player and touring musician, he has collaborated with a wide range of musicians, including Charlie Haden, Merle Haggard, Earl Scruggs, Tony Rice, David Grisman, Alison Krauss, Willie Nelson, David Lee Roth, Dolly Parton, Patty Loveless, Peter Rowan, Claire Lynch, and Mary Chapin Carpenter.

The youngest dobro player on The Great Dobro Sessions (Jerry Douglas & Tut Taylor, producers), which won the 1994 Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album, he was also on the Alison Krauss & The Cox Family album, I Know Who Holds Tomorrow, which won the 1994 Grammy for Best Southern Gospel. His most recent release is a dobro-piano jazz album, Road Song (ResoRevolution 2009); he has also released four acclaimed solo albums on Rounder, eight albums with Blue Highway (Rounder, Ceili, Rebel) and a self-titled CD with Three Ring Circle, comprising Rob, Andy Leftwich and Dave Pomeroy (Earwave).

In 2015 Rob left Blue Highway to pursue other musical projects. Rob’s latest project is with singer/guitarist Trey Hensley. Starting full time in 2016, the duo has performed throughout the US, Europe and also Australia.  Their first recording, “Before the Sun Goes Down,” was nominated for a Grammy in 2016.

Rob is also a gifted resonator guitar teacher; in 2007, he founded ResoSummit, a three-day annual instructional event in Nashville, featuring leading Dobro players and luthiers as faculty.

Jerry Douglas

Dobro master and 14-time GRAMMY winner Jerry Douglas is to the resonator guitar what Jimi Hendrix was to the electric guitar, elevating, transforming, and reinventing the instrument in countless ways.  Additionally, Douglas is a freewheeling, forward-thinking recording and touring artist whose output incorporates elements of country, bluegrass, rock, jazz, blues, and Celtic into his distinctive musical vision.

Called “Dobro’s matchless contemporary master” by The New York Times, three-time CMA Musician of the Year award recipient Jerry Douglas is one of the most innovative recording artists in music as a solo artist, band leader for The Jerry Douglas Band and his GRAMMY winning bluegrass band The Earls of Leicester, as well as a member of groundbreaking ensembles including Alison Krauss & Union Station, J.D. Crowe & the New South, The Country Gentlemen, Boone Creek, and Strength In Numbers. Douglas shines and soars.

His distinctive sound graces more than 1500 albums with artists such as Garth Brooks, George Jones, Paul Simon, Little Big Town, James Taylor, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Earl Scruggs, Ray Charles, Dierks Bentley, and Tommy Emmanuel, among many others.

In addition to touring, Douglas has co-produced and performed on a series of platinum albums. He has produced albums for Alison Krauss, Del McCoury Band, Maura O’Connell, The Whites, Jesse Winchester, and Steep Canyon Rangers. He is co-music director of the acclaimed BBC Scotland TV series Transatlantic Sessions. In 2004, Douglas was recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts with an American Heritage Fellowship, and he served as the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Artist in Residence in 2008.

As Jerry Douglas continues his incalculable influence on country, Americana, bluegrass and their many related genres, he forges ahead as a true pioneer in American music.

Trey Hensley

Keeping true to the roots of country music is not only a lovely sentiment of nostalgia, but a necessity for the growth of an artist…and staying true to the roots just comes naturally for Trey Hensley. After picking up a guitar at the age of 10, he quickly took the bluegrass world by storm —even performing on the Grand Ole Opry when he was 11. Through the years, Trey has had the opportunity to perform with the likes of Marty Stuart, Earl Scruggs, Johnny and June Carter Cash, Charlie Daniels, Steve Wariner, The Oak Ridge Boys, Ricky Skaggs, Blue Highway, J.D. Crowe and many others and Trey has opened shows for Marty Stuart, President George W. Bush, Former First Lady Laura Bush, Dick Cheney, Charlie Daniels, Peter Frampton, Alabama front-man Randy Owen, Sara Evans and others.

In the Fall of 2012, Trey had the opportunity to sing a “scratch vocal” on a song in the studio for legendary Bluegrass super group Blue Highway. The group ended up liking the vocal so much that they left Trey’s vocal on the finished product. The album, titled “The Game”, was released January, 2014 with Trey Hensley as a special guest on the song ‘My Last Day in the Mine’. In reference to Trey’s vocal on the song, Tim Stafford of Blue Highway said,

“It’s one take, live from the control room. That tells you how good this guy is!”

In the Summer of 2013, Trey relocated to Nashville, TN and started playing on a regular basis with IBMA’s 15-time “Dobro Player of the Year”, Rob Ickes. In the Fall of 2013, Trey and Rob decided to go work on an a duo album together. The outcomes of those recording sessions have turned into a new album, titled “Before the Sun Goes Down” due for release in January 2015. The duo has recently been signed to Compass Records in Nashville, TN and will start working on the second album sometime in 2015. “Before the Sun Goes Down” features new material from Trey, Bobby Starnes and Barry Ricks as well as a few standard covers and several more obscure covers from artists as diverse as Jimmy Martin, Merle Haggard and Bob Wills to Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Marty Stuart recently said this about Trey:

“I first met Trey Hensley at a concert in East Tennessee when his guitar was almost bigger than he was. He played me his version of “Jimmy Brown the Newsboy” by the Carter Family that night and I instantly became his fan. As a musician, singer and songwriter, I’ve watched him evolve since that first meeting, but the one thing that has never changed is Trey’s authenticity. It’s one of his God-given virtues. In the ever changing world of country music, it’s comforting to know that the real deal still exists. I’m counting on Trey to keep the voice of the mountains alive because mountain boys always have something to say that’s worthy of a listen.”

Greg Booth

Greg Booth found his way to the dobro after playing banjo as a teen and a thirty year career playing pedal steel in Alaska. A thriving music scene during the oil boom gave him the chance to play as much as 7 nights a week and 7 hours a night for many years. That much time playing diverse music forged a style that is uniquely his own. When Greg finally picked up the dobro, he hit the ground running, winning the RockyGrass dobro competition after playing the instrument just one year. Interest in Greg’s dobro playing took off with his YouTube channel of 40+ dobro videos. Viewed up to 12,000 times daily, it surpassed 6 million views this year with more than 12,000 subscribers. https://youtube.com/user/aksliderdobro Greg plays and records with The Kathy Kallick Band.

A regular instructor at Rob Ickes’ ResoSummit, Greg has also taught at the California Bluegrass Association Music Camp, Puget Sound Guitar Workshop (Washington), ResoMania (Washington), Rockygrass Academy (Colorado), Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Kamp (Tennessee), Nimblefingers (BC, Canada), Sore Fingers (England), and several music camps in Alaska.​

Billy Cardine

Billy Cardine has a way with his listeners.  His distinctive voice powers through any instrument he plays, song that he composes, and album that he produces.  Cardine has been recognized as a slide guitar pioneer, taking the dobro with him into unchartered genres. You can sense that he takes great pleasure in bringing the audience along for the ride: setting you off on a gentle float down a river before throwing you into the middle of a raging storm, only to drop you off on the other side, wondering what just happened.

Cardine’s patchwork of diverse musical influences contributes to his chameleonesque ability to fit in with whatever collaboration he joins on the stage, or in the studio.   He has performed at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, the Ryman Auditorium and major festivals, such as Bonnaroo, Merlefest and Rockygrass.  As an internationally featured artist, he has toured in India, Japan, Europe and Canada.

Billy’s distinct voice on all things slide has lead him to collaborations with Led Zeppelin’s own, John Paul Jones, world renowned, Edgar Meyer in his Porous Borders of Music, and alongside dobro king, Jerry Douglas, who said,  “Billy Cardine is an amazing Dobro player…He is fluent in everything that I do, and Josh Graves, and everybody that has come before. I got to be with him for a little while at Carnegie Hall for Edgar Meyer’s “Porous Borders”… I couldn’t have picked a better example for them of where the Dobro is now or what the possibilities are with the instrument.”

As an engineer and producer, his works have won national and international awards and recognition including Indie Acoustic Music Project’s Roots Album of the Year, Chicago Tribune’s Best Bluegrass records of the year and an Apple iPod Playlist Hot Pick.  His memorable compositions and emotive playing have been featured on The History Channel’s “Our Generation”, BBC World’s “Destination Music”, and PBS’ “RoadTrip Nation”.

As an educator, Cardine is known for his gentle yet thorough approach to shining light on musical mysteries, creating lots of “ahaaa” moments for his students.  He has taught throughout the country, including: Resosummit, Rockygrass Academy, and the University of North Carolina Asheville, as well as internationally, in France, Canada and India.

As an innovator, he was recognized by music mogul, Moog Music, to help design their first electric slide guitar, which he debuted at Moogfest.

From a founding member of the internationally acclaimed, The Biscuit Burners, Cardine launched a prolific and sundry solo career alongside his dynamic collaborations, including:  The Billy Sea, Acoustic Syndicate, North of Too Far Downs, Mary and William, Road Less Traveled Octet, The Bhattacharya Family, and RapidGrass.

Abbie Gardner

Best known as a founding member of Americana harmony trio Red Molly, Abbie Gardner is a joyful dobro player and singer/songwriter with an infectious smile. She loves teaching dobro and songwriting, whether in person or with her down-to-earth “Woodshed” YouTube lessons filmed from her home in the shadow of New York City. Abbie goes out of her way to make it fun and achievable, while seeking to forever expand her own knowledge of the instrument. She has taught at Nashville Dobro Camp, Grand Targhee, and Rockygrass Academy as well as several songwriting camps. She specializes in singing while playing, dobro as a rhythm instrument and creating lyrical solos in G tuning or D tuning.

Her bluesy song, “Down the Mountain” was included on Phil Leadbetter’s 2021 Masters of Slide CD and named a “show stealer” by Bluegrass Unlimited. That same song landed her a slot in the 2021 International Bluegrass Music Association’s Songwriter Showcase. After making seven fully produced albums with Red Molly and four solo, Abbie’s latest recording DobroSinger masterfully captures the sound of her vocals and dobro unaccompanied. It’s a raw intimate recording full of blues, heartfelt ballads and the ache of the unknown. It’s quite a contrast to her previous CD, Wishes on a Neon Sign (2018) which featured a co-write with Chris Stapleton and leaned on full band production. Though she has traveled around the world with Red Molly, Abbie stands strong as a solo act and has opened for Lori McKenna, Hot Rize, and Martina McBride.

Jimmy Heffernan

Jimmy Heffernan is a highly respected Nashville session player, sideman, and producer. He’s a versatile multi-instrumentalist, and one of the true masters of the resonator guitar.

Jimmy also happens to be an outstanding music instructor who loves to teach, and has a real gift for it.

Jim’s latest recording project was the 2003 release, The Resocasters, on which he collaborated with Dobro® legend Mike Auldridge (I’m going to interject right here, like I’m not the guy writing this…..this guy changed my life!!! I would not be playing this “poverty box” if not for Mike. Thank you Mike, for all you have done and meant to me.) and pedal steel guitar ace Hal Rugg (To be mentioned in the same sentence as Hal is a life well lived.)

The Resocasters has become an instant classic, a “must have” CD for any resonator guitar enthusiast’s collection.

(Back to the “other guy” talking)

Here is a brief biography, that spotlights a few of the highlights and accomplishments of Jim’s career, which has spanned nearly thirty years as an active member of the professional music industry.

Jim started playing on the road in 1974 with a Bluegrass band called “Raintree”, from western Massachusetts, touring full time up and down the east coast and playing lots of festivals and clubs. “We played the Philadelphia Folk Festival and Lincoln Center”, recalls Jimmy. “I played Dobro® and banjo, and drove the truck till I invented Rap. By the way…I have never received any monies from Suge Knight or Dr. Dre. I did however learn how to play Salt Creek, so I figure we’re even.”

For the next two years Jim played Dobro® with “Transatlantic Bluegrass”, a popular (but not well paid) French Bluegrass band that acted as Bill Kieth’s backup band whenever he did his European touring. One of the highlights of that period was Transatlantic Bluegrass’ appearance on a PBS special called Bill Monroe and Friends.

In 1980 Jim joined “Larry Sparks and the Lonesome Ramblers”, again as Dobro® player. He toured with Sparks for two years, helping record two albums for Rebel Records and two more for Old Homestead Records.

Over the next six years Jim played with Red Allen and Bill Grant and Dehlia Bell and started learning to play the pedal steel guitar( In bars, where it was meant to be played}.

1988 was a momentous year for Jimmy Heffernan. He played electric guitar for Doug Kershaw for a year, and then joined Joe Diffie’s band, where he stayed 9 years. Jim reflects fondly on this time: “We toured every major venue and appeared as a members of the Grand Ole Opry. We played lots of television, including The Grand Ole Opry Live, Regis and Kathy Lee, The Tonight Show, Good Morning America, and Hee Haw, to name but a few. Joe sold over eight million records during this time.”

“Someone else wrote that, but it sounds good so I’ll leave it.”

Upon leaving Joe Diffie’s employment, Jim stayed in Nashville, producing albums and working with new artists before finally joining Brad Paisley’s band in 1999.

Jimmy says, ”I toured with Brad for two years as well as played Dobro® on Brad’s second ARISTA album, “Part Two”. On this platinum record I had an opportunity to play on a track called “Too Country”, which featured performances by George Jones, Buck Owens, and Bill Anderson. Another track ‘Munster Rag’, was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Country Instrumental in 2001.” Thanks Brad (oops!!! I’m not writing this)

Since leaving Brad Paisley’s band, Jim has been busy playing with Mark Cosgrove (The Jerry Douglas Band) and producing records for new artists (guys that don’t have record deals), including Michael Mason, who’s song, Cape Lonely, reached #32 on the country charts and Sony recording artist, Buddy Jewell, first winner of the popular television series, Nashville Star. I, I mean he, toured with Charlie Louvin of the Louvin Brothers fame in 2008 on the Lucinda Williams tour. He really enjoyed that, “the Louvin Brothers have always been a couple of my big heros”.

These days, Jimmy Heffernan is shifting gears (getting too old to play the road), devoting more time to one of the things he loves best, teaching up-and-coming players. If you get a chance, be sure to attend one of Jim’s highly popular Dobro® Workshops.

Jimmy’s been crossing the pond lately teaching at “Sore Fingers” in England in and in Munich.

Jay Starling

Jay Starling, son of Seldom Scene founding member John Starling, is currently a multi-instrumentalist and dobro player for Leftover Salmon. He was recently a member of the band, Love Canon and has performed with Emmylou Harris, The Seldom Scene Steep Canyon Rangers, String Cheese Incident, Larry Keel, Railroad Earth, Jerry Douglas, Del McCoury etc. He’s also a time instructor at the Delfest Academy.

Josh Swift

Josh Swift was born on September 25, 1986. He started playing drums when he was 2 years old and eventually started traveling with his family in the Southern Gospel circuit. When he was 16, Josh was playing a session when he saw a dobro for the first time. A year or so later, Gibson Guitars gifted him his first dobro. At 18, Josh played with a local group called Set Apart. He fell in love with Mountain Gospel while traveling with those guys. He soon became a part of Carrie Hassler and Hard Rain. At 19, he had left CHHR and was filling in with some friends in Gatlinburg, TN when Doyle Lawson rounded the street corner and listened for nearly a half hour. Josh was soon invited to jam with DLQ and that jam turned out to be a showcase at IBMA. Doyle asked him if he knew a song of his and Josh replied “I’ll know it by the time it gets to me.” Doyle hired Josh that night on October 5, 2007. For the next 13 years, Josh served as band leader for Quicksilver. In January of 2020, Josh joined both The Isaacs and Lyle Lovett, as part of Lyle’s Acoustic Group. He currently still tours with both artists. On a side note, Josh was brought on board with Sony Music Publishing, recording a bulk amount of productions for their writers.

Chris Eldridge

As a member of Punch Brothers since the band’s inception, guitarist Chris Eldridge has been at the vanguard of acoustic music for over a decade. Although initially drawn to the electric guitar, by his mid-teens Chris Eldridge had developed a deep love for acoustic music, thanks in part to his father, Ben, a banjo player and founding member of the seminal bluegrass group The Seldom Scene. Eldridge later gained in-depth exposure to a variety of different musical styles while studying at Oberlin Conservatory, where he earned a degree in music performance in 2004. During his time at Oberlin, Eldridge studied with legendary guitarist Tony Rice.

After graduating he joined the Seldom Scene with whom he received a Grammy nomination in 2007. In 2005 he founded the critically acclaimed bluegrass band The Infamous Stringdusters. At the 2007 International Bluegrass Music Association awards Eldridge and his Stringdusters bandmates won Emerging artist of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year for their debut album, Fork in the Road.

Meanwhile, in 2005 he had caught the attention of mandolinist Chris Thile, who enlisted him, along with banjoist Noam Pikelny, violinist Gabe Witcher, bassist Greg Garrison (and later, bassist Paul Kowert) to start working on an ambitious side project. Soon after they decided to focus all of their collective energies into band and Punch Brothers was born. The band has since released 6 critically acclaimed albums, won a Grammy for Best Folk Album in 2018 and toured the world.

Eldridge also plays in a duo with guitarist Julian Lage. They have released 2 full length records and an EP. Their most recent, Mount Royal, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album in 2017.

In addition, Chris Eldridge has worked with a diverse cast of musical luminaries including Paul Simon, Renée Fleming, John Paul Jones, Marcus Mumford, Justin Timberlake, T-Bone Burnett, Jon Brion, Fiona Apple, The War and Treaty, Jerry Douglas, I’m With Her, and Del McCoury.

In 2019, Eldridge was named Instrumentalist of the Year by the Americana Music Association.

Eldridge was the house guitarist on the public radio show, Live From Here (formerly known as A Prairie Home Companion), from 2016-2020.

Tim Scheerhorn

I built my first resonator guitar in 1989. It was from a desire to build something that I could not buy, an instrument that would project and be heard in a jam session. With the encouragement of Mike Auldridge, my unique design changes created something different. I have been flattered by the fact that many builders have copied these design ideas in the instruments they build and many top level musicians have used my instruments. I have made over 700 instruments in my career and am now retired but am thrilled that my instruments have become the benchmark for today’s resonator guitars.

Byrl Murdock

All of my life I’ve had vision.  First I saw visions of custom hot rods.  I could see the design in my head along with the finished product that I wanted to create and all of the work in between.  So I pursued it and put my visions to work.  Before long, my custom paint designs were winning awards.
One of my hobbies was playing the guitar.  I had played it since I was a kid.  But I admired the dobro. The sound is what drew me to it.  But again, I was envisioning a different and better sound.  My vision for a piece of art mixed with a better and unique sound took over my thoughts.  With a vision in my head, I gathered together pieces of wood.  Some old, some even older, some from a desk and a few new pieces.  It was then that I created my first do bro.  I used my vision to see beauty and my ear for a unique sound.  I wasn’t even sure it would work, but it did.  That dobro “The Desk”, sits in my office to this day.  It serves as a reminder that we can create something beautiful from only scraps.  I play it still. 
      After that one, I created another.  And then another. And with each one I finished, they seemed to get better in some way. Sometimes the art, sometimes the design, and sometimes the build.  No two are ever the same. Even though some have a bit of a different sound, being custom made for each individual, each one makes extraordinary music.  So as I custom design, build and play each one, it gives me great satisfaction to see one of my resonators handed over to that new owner who will make it sing.
     I not only love to build these amazing instruments, I love to work one on one with each of my customers to insure that each instrument is made particularly suited for their personality and tastes. I don’t desire to be a big business. My goal is to make between 12-18 guitars a year, that way I can continue my relationship with my customers.

Paul Beard

He first became fascinated with resonator guitars when he was 18 years old, about the same time he started repairing stringed instruments. Paul was dissatisfied with the quality of available resonator guitars at that time and focused his skills on design and construction of a next generation instrument, a guitar that would take advantage of new technologies and techniques while honoring the tradition of the Dopyera family.  Paul started Beard Guitars in 1985 and today hand-crafts custom squareneck and roundneck instruments.  His guitars are played by many of today’s top players including Jerry Douglas, Anders Beck, Vince Gill, Andy Hall, Mark Knopfler, and Josh Swift.

Bobby Ingano