Phil Jamison, Program Leader
Phil Jamison is nationally known as a dance caller, old-time musician, flatfoot dancer, and scholar of traditional Appalachian music and dance. He has called dances, performed, and taught at music festivals and dance events throughout the U.S. and overseas since the early 1970s, and he has been teaching traditional Appalachian music and dance at Warren Wilson College for close to thirty years, including twenty-five years as the coordinator of the Old-Time Music and Dance Week at the Swannanoa Gathering. Phil has done extensive research in Appalachian music and dance – the fiddle tunes and dances, as well as the ballad singing tradition – and his book Hoedowns, Reels, and Frolics: Roots and Branches of Southern Appalachian Dance (University of Illinois Press, 2015) traces how the jigs and reels of Scotland and Ireland influenced the music and dance traditions of southern Appalachia.
Madeline Wadley, Program Assistant
Madeline Wadley is the Associate Director of Community Engagement at Warren Wilson College and also a WWC alum, class of 2012. As a student at WWC, she studied traditional Appalachian ballad singing and performance under Phil Jamison and Sheila Kay Adams. Madeline also worked on the Swannanoa Gathering student crew, and enjoyed exploring the connections between Appalachian, Scottish, and Irish music each summer. Though her current work primarily focuses on connecting students with community engagement experiences, Madeline is thrilled to return to her love of traditional ballad singing while exploring Ireland with this Mountain Institute course.