Meet The Band

Sandra Brown picked up her first autoharp in 1997. Now she is the proud owner of four very beautiful sounding ones. She is a complete believer that music is "the window to the soul", and her vocals prove it. She also travels widely conducting workshops on rughooking, color and dyeing. Sandra is the president of Preservation Pittsburgh and is active in sustainability issues in southwestern Pennsylvania.

George Bradshaw discovered late in life (well, not that late) the joy of musical composition, having turned over a dozen of Kathy Ayers' wonderful poems into song. For Hands All Around he arranges most of the songs, plays the guitar, produces scores, and runs a 4-track recording studio out of his living room. Ancillary duties have included financial management, inventory control, chronicling and roadie chores. Oh, wait a minute, this sounds like real work! After the first million sales he'll outsource that stuff.

Bob Fagan has played the appalachian mountain dulcimer and sung silly tunes to his three daughters (now all young adults) since they were babies. A founding father of Hands All Around with George Bradshaw, Bob has written the lyrics for almost all the songs offered in our albums and has quite a few more waiting in the wings. He also plays a variety of drums, kazoos, limberjacks, and weird sounding instruments. He also hails from Pittsburgh, PA.

Peggy Martin is our jet setting, train riding, RV traveling, car hauling, dulcimer and upright bass player.  She delights in finding space for A lberta (her bass) in any transport vehicle and enjoys sprinkling the recording studio with baby powder.  In her spare time, Peggy directs the North Georgia Foothills Dulcimer Association annual festivals and performs out of the Atlanta area with the Celtic and Appalachian folk trio Haggis & Hominy and the instrumental dulcimer duo Whisperwood.

Howard Parker brings his exciting resonator guitar and vocals sound to Hands All Around, and much more. Howard has been a fixture in the Baltimore and Washington Bluegrass scenes since 1987, and currently also performs with The New DeSoto. In 1989 Howard, along with singer Cathy Coakley, formed the bluegrass band Too Far Gone. The band recorded one album, Drawn To The Flame, toured England for the British Bluegrass Association and performed at the 1992 Presidential Inaugural. Howard's solo awards include a first place for resonator guitar at the Deer Creek Fiddlers Convention. Howard has also recorded and performed with singer/songwriter Mike Hamilton. Howard is world-renowned for hosting the RESOGUIT website and email list, devoted to fans and practitioners of the instrument he plays.