Neal Walters

Neal and Coleen Walters live in Greencastle, PA but grew up in Southern California. Singing and playing since the ‘60’s, their music has been influenced by many different artists and styles of music. Their current repertoire includes songs from the 1700’s through Gordon Lightfoot, Doc Watson, the Carter Family,’40’s standards and even a couple of Beatles songs.

Autoharp, dulcimer and banjo are Neal’s instruments of choice and Coleen adds bass to the mix. You’ll hear lots of harmony singing as well as some instrumentals. Along with John and Heidi Cerrigione, they perform as Doofus and, over the last ten years, have recorded four albums. Neal was a member of the Mill Run Dulcimer Band for over 20 years and recorded nine albums with them. He also edited Music Hound Folk: the Essential Album Guide to Folk Music, published by Visible Ink Press.

In addition to their concert appearances, Neal has taught dulcimer, autoharp, banjo and guitar for nearly forty years in and around Washington, DC and at camps and festivals like Boone, Augusta, Kentucky Music Week, Winterfest, Summerfest, Black Swamp, Autumn Hills, Autumn Acoustics, John C. Campbell Folk School, Tolland Arts Center, Sand Lake Art Center, Cranberry, String-A-Long, Housatonic, Dulcimer Daze, Swannanoa and Old Songs. An evening spent with them in concert will take you to lots of different places. Neal and Coleen have three duet albums, Snowbirds, My Pathway Leads to Pennsylvania, and Old Friends.

When not traveling and making music, Neal and Coleen run Basement Studios, providing high quality studio recording and engineering in a rural and relaxed environment with beds and meals Included as part of the package. Other services include graphic design, WEB page design, acoustic music for all occasions, CDs from your old LPs or cassettes, and private and group lessons for dulcimer, autoharp, guitar, banjo and bass. In their spare time, they are on the board of the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering.