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| Pat Brack - Guitar, Accordian, Autoharp |
| Wife, Mother, and Grandmother.
Tina has been working at SBC for over 28 years. While she has held various positions during these years, she is currently a Senior Technical Security Manager, a position from which she will be retiring from this year after she wins the California lottery. Tina first learned to play the violin in public school at the age of 12--and then quit after only 3 years because it just wasn’t “cool” to carry a violin to school. 31 years later, while going though what she says must have been her “mid-life crisis,” she decided she wanted to play the violin again, so she began taking lessons at the tender age of 43. Today, 4 years later, she now plays with the world famous ladies of Extended Roots…and the rest is history. |
| Tina Bradley - Fiddle |
| Barbara Clement - Guitar |
| Mother, grandmother, wife, daughter. Attorney. Second generation Californian. Former youth coach, real estate broker, business manager, editor/photographer, writer of personnel procedures, information specialist, librarian. Colonial lady. Mississippi connected. Golf and tennis player. Gardener, poet, guitar picker, singer of songs. Lover of nature and all things beautiful. Worrying about a son serving in the military. Looking after aging parents. Hurrying to get everything done. |
| Barbara Daggett - Fiddle, Mandolin |
| Susan Ellis - Fiddle, Viola |
| Susan Ellis is a wife, a stay-at-home mother of four children ages 3-9, a former teacher, an active Girl Scout leader, an after-school music teacher. Susan grew up in Berkeley in a musical family, oriented towards folk music. In 1989 she moved to Seattle where she discovered her love of old-time fiddling. She joined a 5-piece string band “Idyll Hands” and was a founding member of “Smoke Creek” and recorded a CD with the same title. She met her husband, a Texas native, in Seattle. They moved to the Bay Area in 2000. |
| She currently performs on fiddle and backup vocals in three Bay Area bands: Extended Roots; No Hiding Place; and a currently nameless contra dance band featured often at the El Cerrito women’s dance. She also plays guitar, piano, saxophone, viola, recorder and kazoo. |
| Patty Gomez - Banjo |
| Patty looked at the guitar, it has six strings, then the banjo, it only had five. She picked the banjo.
When not playing her banjo, she volunteers for local charities and animal rescue groups. |
| Marian Harris - Fiddle |
| Marian's musical life began with piano lessons at age six. She always secretly wanted to play the violin, and got the chance when her five-year-old daughter asked for violin lessons. Marian was delighted when the Suzuki violin teacher told her the Suzuki method required her to learn to play along with her daughter! She was bit by the fiddle bug in a very serious way, when she took her daughter to Mark O'Connor Fiddle Camp at age 10, and there has been no turning back. |
| She also plays and sings in a folk group at the Shell Ridge Community Church in Walnut Creek, and jams with friends whenever possible. |
| When not hanging out with her Extended Roots buddies, and playing fiddle, Marian does computer and administrative work for an investment manager, and is a Printmaker, sometimes showing artwork in area galleries. |
| Lou Ann Lanham - Bodhran, Guitar |
| Lou Ann played drums as a kid in a local drum and bell corps. and then in the Clayton Valley High School Band. As a mother of 4, she supported their musical and dance endeavors with all of her heart. As they became adults, she began playing a guitar (that was given to to her), with a little more earnest. She took lessons from John Blasquez, of Walnut Creek, and he urged her to get out and play with other musicians, but she was too shy. A few years ago, John started a class with about 24 other aspiring musicians. There, Lou Ann met most of the women in Extended Roots... she's in and she's lovin' it!
Presently, her sons are still playing the guitar and mandolin and her two grandsons are taking guitar and drum lessons. |
| Nancy McGhee - Bass |
| Nancy has been involved with music in some way since 3rd grade, starting with the flutaphone (remember those?). Perhaps due to short attention span or a need for continual novelty, she has played many different western European instruments (clarinet, flute, trombone, bassoon, guitar) and several eastern European ones (gadulka, tapan, dumbek and lyrica) - but none of them very well! OK, she got pretty good on the flute, but that was years ago. Nancy picked up the bass about 15 years ago because you play fewer notes on it so it was easy to play up to speed with all her other talented musician friends. Until she joined Extended Roots in July, 2004, her playing was relegated mostly to occasional jam sessions at her house, contra dances and a few gigs with the Westwind International Folk Ensemble. For her day job Nancy is a wife and mother and a pediatric occupational therapist in the public schools and with a private practice in Pleasanton. |
| Lauren Nourse - Flute, Pennywhistle |
| Jean Olds - Fiddle |
| Jean started piano lessons with her grandmother at 3;
continued lessons through high school; played violin
in junior and senior high school orchestras; taught piano for 4 years in Contra Costa county; pianist/accompanist for Contra Costa Ballet Centre in Walnut Creek for 7 years; choir director at Grace United Methodist Church, San Ramon, from 1991 to 1995; started back into playing fiddle in early 2003. Jean is a preschool teacher in Pleasanton |
| Kathleen Rushing - Mandolin, Bouzouki, Guitar |
| Teri Sugg - Fiddle |
| Teri is a ceramic artist who specializes in sculpture and combines her love of clay and music by making ocarinas. She also teaches several ceramics classes to older adults. She began playing violin again after a 30 year break when a friend lent her the fiddle she inherited from her dad (thank you Lori!) She thought she’d learn to play Cajun style, and one of these days she may get around to it. But her musical exploration has taken her on a meandering route, around the world and into the past......she has eclectic musical tastes, including many types of world music, swing, with a special fondness for Celtic. She also loves playing with her husband and son and a couple of other groups, including Willie and the Random Band. |
| You can view her ceramic work at www.suggarts.com/ceramics, and also some more recent work at www.suggarts.com/gallery |
| Sadie Golden Retreiver - Rubber Chicken |
| Sadie, Golden Retriever, 5 years old, thinks she's human and is a comedian. She joyfully plays the rubber chicken on queue. Here you see her tuning her chicken to 'A.' |
| Lauren can’t imagine her life without music. Piano from age 7, elementary school tonettes and then the flute and always singing. But, as with so many of us, work and family obscured the need for music. Singing around the camp fire at Girl Scout Camp met some of the needs but she was always sorry she didn’t keep up playing in a band. Luckily this crazy band of women playing celtic music needed a penny whistle. Even with the need to juggle teaching, directing a high sierra camp and just the general chaos that surround being over 50 she jumped at the chance to join this eclectic, fun loving and dedicated group. |
| Barbara Daggett grew up in a family surrounded by art and music. She is married and has four grown children. A watercolorist and pastel artist by trade, she has been painting for 20 years. She is a freelance teacher of art in the local elementary schools. Barbara studied piano for eight years in her youth and played off and on over the years as a hobby. .She began playing violin at age 50 wanting to pursue classical music. |
| Once introduced to Irish fiddle music she abandoned classical to dedicate her time and energy to Irish and Old Time genres. For a sampling of Barbara's artwork, please check out her website: www.barbaradaggett.com. |
| Besides being a proud Grammy of Ellie and Craigy, and mother of 3 grown
kids, Kathleen is a semi-retired Kindergarten/music teacher at Pioneer
Elementary School in Union City.
She uses music as a strong teaching tool in her classroom and also leads an
after school music program. When she is not teaching Kindergarten, she
visits local schools with her way too fun Bingo Schmingo Music business.
Please visit her website www.bingoschmingo.com and tell your favorite
principal or teacher that Bingo Schmingo needs to come to their school!
Kathleen has produced a CD, BINGO SCHMINGO MUSIC which is available on her website (soon, if not already). Kathleen hopes to completely retire someday soon and play music till her fingers drop off and then she'll be playing the harmonica. |