THE WICKERS CREEK BAND

The Wickers Creek Band has been playing together for more than 20 years. All of us are amateur musicians (which means we have another way to make a living) and, apart from the band, have active involvements in various other musical pursuits. We try to reflect the history and tradition surrounding the origins of old-time and bluegrass music, but also to incorporate a lot of the wonderful developments that have evolved over the years. Traditional American string band music began as a community effort and an expression of community values, and we feel very fortunate to be able to have so much fun doing the music in the context of a band comprised first and foremost of good friends.

Peter Paden, a resident of the Town of Taghkanic, retired after a career in law and conservation, most recently having served as Executive Director of the Columbia Land Conservancy. He has been playing traditional music since he was a teenager in St. Paul, Minnesota, where, to their mother's eternal frustration, he and his brother Don whiled away countless hours exploring the virtues of old-time and bluegrass music.

Andy Bing lives in Castleton-on-Hudson and has been playing and studying bluegrass music for over 40 years. He's been a fan of Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs since childhood and started playing the resonator guitar when he lived in Washington D.C. in the early 1980s. Andy is the band's resident scholar of bluegrass, and the author of a regular blog on the history of the music for the Hudson Valley Bluegrass Association, https://hvbluegrass.org/category/articles/education/, where he serves on the Board of Directors.

Rob Bradley divides his time between Long Island and Hillsdale. A native of Montreal, has been singing and playing bluegrass and folk music in the Hudson Valley for many years. He plays upright bass and sings with the Long Island rockabilly group Los Bad Hombres. He is also the webmaster of the wickerscreekband.com.

Charlene Paden, a former environmental consultant, has lived up and down the Hudson Valley for over 45 years. She currently spending a great deal of her time as a gardener, goatherd, and cheesemaker. She became interested in New England fiddling in the 1980's through contra dancing in Columbia County, but her true downfall occurred when she met Peter in 1983 and was introduced to bluegrass. After all these years, she's still in recovery, but the prognosis is good.

Vivian Walsh is a native of the Hudson Valley and enjoys a career as an accountant for a local philanthropic foundation. She began playing bluegrass bass in the mid-nineties. Preferring to stay in the background, she quickly learned the bass player cannot hide. She started joining her husband and friends at jams, and has been playing with local bands ever since.