2025 Guests of HFonor

Kellie Allen
An accomplished old-time singer and sought-after backup guitarist and bass player, Kellie Allen hails from Kansas but now lives in Oxford, Pennsylvania with her husband, Pete Peterson. She started playing old-time tunes with her brother, fiddler and banjo player Greg Allen, while she was in her teens and was inspired to sing and play by her musical family. She served a stint in Pay Attention, a 1980s indie rock band, and later toured Europe playing old-time music with the Delaware River String Band. Known for her old-time backup style, which draws on such sources as Riley Puckett, Roy Harvey, Gene Meade and Maybelle Carter, she sings old-time and early country duets with her partner Pete Peterson, teaches old-time guitar, bass, and singing at festivals and music camps, and has won prizes with the Orpheus Supertones, Waking Up Tillie, and Cottonwood String Band, as well as individual awards in Old-Time Singing. She has also judged numerous old-time music contests.

Paula Jeannet
After college and a career as a photo archivist in North Carolina, Paula was struck senseless by the lightning bolt of old-time music, and now revels in playing her Gibson guitar at jams, festivals and concerts, while branching out and exploring blues, rags and country songs with her partner in crime Randy Johnson.
Paula was born in Boulder, Colorado and grew up in Texas and in southeastern Pennsylvania in a musical house with her Oklahoma father, an amateur classical tenor and musician, and her Italian mother, a poly-generic music lover. Picking up the guitar as a preteen, she left the world of classical piano competitions behind and was forever bonded to folk and American roots music.
She is now based in Chapel Hill, NC and is a founding member of the Piedmont band Blue Star Travelers and is one of the few people who loves sitting next to a banjo player. 

Randy Johnson
Randy Johnson, (the Amiable Fiddler) hails from Greensboro, North Carolina and has steeped himself in old-time music since the 1980s, listening to what he once described as “all Skillet Lickers, all the time.”   Interested in the violin and its construction, he spent time with Albert Hash in Whitetop, Virginia helping to produce violins in his shop and continuing to this day with Joe Thrift’s Luthier classes. He has toured with the North Carolina Ramblers playing Charlie Poole’s music in England. His other bands include the Blue Ridge Mountain Minstrels, the Carolina Jug Stompers, Waking Up Tillie (along with Pete Peterson and Kellie Allen), the Blue Star Travelers, and the Glenwood Choppers (where he is the Banjoist). Throughout this time, he has played for countless dances and events with the Coal Country Cloggers, Apple Chill Cloggers, and the Cane Creek Cloggers. He has fiddling ribbons from Galax, Mount Airy and even a first place in fingerpicking guitar at the Charlie Poole festival in Eden, North Carolina. He loves to sing and harmonize with his partner, Paula Jeannet, and friends and neighbors just like you !

Pete Peterson
Pete Peterson is a legendary (and prize winning) three-finger banjo player, guitarist and traditional singer. His extensive knowledge, skill and experience playing traditional old-time music is unrivaled, making him in high demand as a teacher and contest judge as well! Pete has taught banjo, guitar, and singing  at Mars Hill Blue Ridge Old-time Week, Augusta Heritage Camps, and others including Gainsborough, UK, Dorrigo (AUS) and Wirrina (AUS). He has been a judge at Clifftop, the Charlie Poole Festival, the Florida Fiddle Contest and other places. He got his first guitar and banjo over fifty years ago and now plays one of Charlie Poole's banjos. Pete's signature and distinctive sound on the banjo echoes Charlie Poole, who played three-finger banjo, backup style. Pete also plays guitar with a thumb pick, following in the style of old-time guitarists such as Roy Harvey, Maybelle Carter and Riley Puckett. He was a regular contributor of articles and reviews to the Old-Time Herald.