Some musicians perform American roots music. Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer live inside it. Two-time Grammy winners, teachers to the likes of Kaki King and Rhiannon Giddens, and fixtures at folk festivals and music camps for more than 40 years, they have spent their careers doing something rare: making deeply rooted American music feel genuinely welcoming to everyone in the room. On May 6th, they bring that approach to ArtistWorks with the launch of American Roots Songs and Arranging. Before the school opens, you can get an early look inside. Read on to find out how.
Table of Contents
- Who Are Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer?
- What Is American Roots Songs and Arranging?
- What You Will Actually Learn
- Who This School Is Built For
- Get a Sneak Peek Before Launch
- How Learning Works on ArtistWorks
Who Are Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer?
If you have spent any time in the American folk, bluegrass, or roots music world, you have likely crossed their path. Cathy and Marcy have been performing and teaching together for over 40 years, releasing more than 53 recordings, earning two Grammy Awards, and accumulating over 60 Washington Area Music Association awards across folk, bluegrass, and children’s music categories. They have performed at the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They have shared stages with Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, and Theodore Bikel.
But the credential that might matter most to anyone who wants to learn from them is this: they have taught at close to 100 music camps, and their past students include Kaki King and Rhiannon Giddens. They are not just performers who decided to teach. They are the people serious musicians go to when they want to go deeper.
Tom Paxton put it well: “Cathy and Marcy are at home in a dozen musical styles. They swing you, jazz you, and old timey you till you just give up and bliss out.” The Boston Globe called them “spellbinding acoustic musicians with a rare mastery of American roots styles.”
Their instrument range alone tells a story: guitar, five-string banjo, ukulele, mandolin, and cello-banjo. That breadth is not incidental. It is the foundation of how they teach.
What Is American Roots Songs and Arranging?
This is not a single-instrument course. American Roots Songs and Arranging is built for players across the spectrum: banjo, guitar, ukulele, mandolin, cello-banjo, and voice are all explicitly welcome. It is also built for all levels, from players just getting comfortable with chord changes to experienced musicians who want to dig into arrangement and style.
The school covers old-time, bluegrass, folk, country, and swing through a song-based curriculum designed for real musical participation. The goal is not just to learn songs. It is to understand how those songs are built, how to arrange them, and how to play them confidently with other people.
The feel of the school matches the personalities of its instructors: warm, playful, and genuinely communal. Pull up a chair. Join the party.
What You Will Actually Learn
The curriculum goes beyond chord charts and melody lines. Here is what students can expect to work through:
- Chord changes and arranging approaches across multiple American roots styles, from old-time and bluegrass to swing and folk
- The number system for calling out chords, a practical tool for jamming with others across instruments and keys
- Songs taught in multiple keys so every voice finds a home, including Swing and Turn Jubilee, Careless Love, Get in the Water, and Wild Rose of the Mountain
- Music theory through a roots lens, practical and approachable rather than academic
- Backing tracks to practice with real musical context
- Arranging skills that translate across styles and situations
The through-line across all of it is community music-making. Cathy and Marcy have spent four decades helping people find their place in a room full of musicians. That is exactly what this school is designed to do.
Who This School Is Built For
American Roots Songs and Arranging is explicitly designed to be multi-instrument and multi-level. But beyond the practical logistics, the school is built around a specific kind of learner: someone who loves American roots music and wants to participate in it, not just observe it.
This school is particularly well suited for:
- Players who want to sit in at jams but feel uncertain about navigating chord changes and keys on the fly
- Singers who play an instrument and want to understand how to arrange songs for their own voice
- Instrumentalists who have technique but want to develop more musical instinct and style
- Anyone drawn to the social, communal dimension of folk and roots music
- Players of any level who want world-class guidance from instructors who genuinely love to teach
If you have ever stood at the edge of a jam session and wished you knew how to jump in, this is the school that teaches you exactly how.
Get a Sneak Peek Before Launch
The school opens May 6th, but you do not have to wait until then to see what Cathy and Marcy are bringing to the platform. Get a preview of the school right here:
Want to go deeper before launch day? Sign up for the sneak peek experience and we will send you early access content directly, including lesson previews and a closer look at what Cathy and Marcy have built. Get your sneak peek here.
How Learning Works on ArtistWorks
American Roots Songs and Arranging is built on the ArtistWorks platform, which means students get more than a video library. At the center of the experience is Video Exchange Learning, ArtistWorks’ proprietary feedback method. You record a video of yourself playing, submit it directly to Cathy and Marcy, and receive a personalized video response addressing your specific playing. Not generic tips. Your actual playing, reviewed by your actual instructors.
Every school also includes:
- A structured lesson path designed by the instructors
- Access to the full archive of other students’ Video Exchanges
- Offline study materials including MP3 and PDF downloads
- A student forum and community across all ArtistWorks schools
If you are new to how Video Exchange Learning works, read our full explainer here.
Sign up for the sneak peek and get early access content before May 6th.