2026 Presenters & Performers

Breakin’ Up Winter XXIX

March 6-8, 2026

We are excited to announce that Breakin’ Up Winter will be held at the Cedars of Lebanon State Park on starting Thursday evening, March 5 through Saturday night, Mar. 7, 2026. Checkout of cabins and group lodge will be Sunday, March 8. Registration opens December 1, 2025.

Ready to Have Some Fun? Join Us Mar 6-8, 2026!

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Breakin’ Up Winter 29 is just around the corner for 2026!

Thanks to all our loyal participants in this great annual event. We continue to hold the event at Cedars of Lebanon State Park, which will mark this as the 28th year at that location. We are thrilled to have great food provided by Wilson County’s own Wildberry Catering. We want you all to enjoy the weekend, have wonderful meals with wonderful company and fellowship! 2026’s lineup includes the high-caliber talent of Snappin’ Bug (Mark Tamsula, Richard Withers, Barbara Rosner, and Dave Krysty); Spenser & Rains (Tricia Spenser and Howard Rains); and our Heritage Award winner this year is none other than John Harrod. It’s a lineup not to be missed!

The 2026 schedule will be coming soon.

Register early and let’s make this the best Breakin’ Up Winter ever!

We have wonderful performers in our lineup and are looking forward to seeing everyone again! Please check out the bios below to our amazing performers that will be joining us in 2026. Registration will open on Dec. 1, 2025.

All 3 Campgrounds are now available

2 of the 3 campgrounds at the park had undergone renovations for the last year+. They are all back open! This is great news for our participants who love to camp. Also note, there are ALWAYS plenty of bunk beds available in the group lodge – so take advantage of those. Also, there are several motels, hotels and such just up the road in Lebanon, TN. It’s a quick 6-mile drive to the park from HWY 40 – so consider staying in town as an option.

Performers

Spenser & Rains

Tricia Spencer & Howard Rains are both fiddlers, guitar-players, and singers who preserve and build upon the traditions of their home states of Texas and Kansas. The husband and wife duo are known for their distinct twin fiddling and close-knit vocal harmony. Both multi-instrumentalists, they are steeped in family musical tradition and are dedicated to the preservation, performance, and sharing of old time music. They are also both artists, Howard in watercolor and Tricia in pen and ink, and their artwork weaves in closely with their music.

Learn more at their site

Snappin’ Bug:
featuring Mark Tamsula, Richard Withers,
Dave Krysty, and Barbara Rosner

Pittsburgher / old time music icons Mark Tamsula, Richard Withers, and Dave Krysty are giving new life to a regional music tradition. Their newest and sixth album Neighbors In The Cloud Land presents traditional Appalachian music historically rooted in Southwestern Pennsylvania. They perform tunes collected by the renowned music historian and Penn State professor, Samuel P. Bayard. Bayard visited fiddlers and fifers in this region between 1928 and 1963, and published over 1000 of their tunes in two books, Hill Country Tunes, and Dance to the Fiddle, March to the Fife. Many of the tunes are performed on fiddle and banjo, the traditional “old time” instrumentation, as well as the fife in keeping with the rich heritage of fife music Bayard drew on as well. They are joined by veteran guitarist Dave Krysty, also a pioneer in the revival of traditional music with Pennsylvania roots. Barbara Rosner plays bass with the group for festivals, dances, workshops and numerous celebratory occasions.
Samuel Bayard and his source musicians are gone, but Tamsula, Withers, Krysty and Rosner are bringing their music back to life on fiddle, banjo, guitar and bass.

Visit their site

John Harrod

John Harrod has documented, recorded, and performed traditional music for more than 45 years. Born and raised in Shelby County, Kentucky, he has a B.A. from Centre College (1967) and an M.A. from Oxford University (1969) which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. Now retired, he taught History and English at Owen County High School and Frankfort High School. In the 1970s and ’80s, he played with a number of bands, including the Progress Red Hot String Band, the Bill Livers String Ensemble, and the Gray Eagle Band that re-introduced traditional musicians such as Bill Livers and Lily May Ledford to Kentucky audiences. During this time he also worked for three years as a Kentucky Arts Council folk artist-in-residence in Wolfe, Estill, and Trimble Counties.

Along with Mark Wilson and Guthrie Meade, he produced a series of field recordings of Kentucky fiddle and banjo players that is still available on Rounder Records. In 2015, the Field Recorders Collective issued his recordings of Carlton Rawlings and Darley Fulks, two exceptional and heretofore unknown fiddlers who have had a great impact on his life. John’s field recordings are housed at both Berea College and the Kentucky Center for Traditional Music at Morehead. He has taught fiddle and conducted workshops at the Augusta Heritage Center, the American Festival of Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend, Washington, the Berea College Celebration of Traditional Music, and the Cowan Creek Mountain Music School. He continues to perform with Kentucky Wild Horse, a band that draws on a wide variety of Kentucky music past and present. In 2004 John received the Folk Heritage Award of the Governor’s Awards in the Arts for his work in traditional music.

Visit John’s site

Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher comes to every Breakin’ Up Winter (and other NOTSBA events) to share his passion and expertise in old-time recording technologies. His wax-cylinder recordings are as authentic as it can get, and he’ll show you how those are made and record you in true old-time style.