India & Keith Bios

     Providing entertainment and song in central North Carolina

India is a singer-songwriter with a strong early classical background in piano, organ, cello and voice with over 50 years experience on the guitar. She was caught up in the Greenwich Village-inspired folk scene of the ‘60s when folk music became her primary musical focus.

Keith is a self-taught banjo picker and songwriter with a strong bluegrass and traditional music influence. He was swept up in the folk revival of the ‘60s and ‘70s and rapidly migrated toward the bluegrass end of the folk spectrum. 

India's Background

In the ‘70s India sang professionally with Silk’nSteel, an Ohio folk/rock band, and over a ten-year period presented a program called “Ballad Workshop” to local schools in the Dayton-Cincinnati area. Her strong musical influences include Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Linda Ronstadt, Judy Collins, Emmylou Harris, Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen, Jackson Browne, Ian & Sylvia, Kate Wolf, Nanci Griffith and Iris Dement. Upon taking early retirement in 2001 after 17 years in Administration at Duke University Medical Center’s Department of Ophthalmology, India again began devoting full time to her art and music. A mixed media artist working primarily in collage and jewelry, she has long been associated with the Alamance County Arts Council and runs her own art studio, Willow Oak Studio, in Elon, NC, where she also lives.

Keith's Background

In the early ‘70s Keith played banjo in Whetstone, an acoustic folk-rock group in Charlotte, NC. Influenced by thegenius of Bill Monroe, Keith counts Pete Seeger, Earl Scruggs, Bill Keith and Alan Munde as the strongest influences on his self-taught playing style. He continues to strengthen his repertoire with a variety of traditional, blues and “old-timey” tunes that complement his unique vocal style. After teaching mathematics and computer science for 20- plus years at several universities (including UNC Charlotte, UNC Asheville and Clemson), Keith decided to become a professional furniture maker and designer (Allenwood Furniture). He lives and has his workshop in a beautiful rural setting just north of Mebane, NC, near the Orange County line where he also spends many hours playing his banjo and researching the traditional bluegrass and blues music he loves.