Carolina Folkworks
1516 S Main Street
Salisbury, NC 28144
704 223 1740 call/text
instructors
Connie Deese Christman (fine art, basket weaving, pottery, fiber arts)
South Rowan High School
BFA Ceramics from ECU
Post graduate classes at UNC-G
Rowan County Teacher since 1996
Current Art Teacher at China Grove MS
Previously taught at South Rowan and
Granite Quarry Elementary School
Daughter or Barbara and David Deese, mother of two boys and now a "Gramma", I started making pottery at home to add to the family income in 2009 when our family split up. It was therapy as well as a hobby. I sold functional pottery in my
grandmother's yard on Old Concord Rd. whenever my shelves got too full in order to make room for more. Eventually, I started signing up for local festivals such as Railwalk's Festival of Gifts, Troyer's Fall and Spring Festivals, Chickweed, Pops at the Post, Hippie Fest, and Rowan Arts and Ag. I have missed this during the pandemic.
Basketry and painting are areas of interest, in addition to clay. The surplus products often make it to the "Art Teacher Tent"
as items for sale. I have served as the "Village Basket Weaver" for the Bethlehem Market at North Main Baptist Church
for several years and truly love to weave baskets with my students at China Grove Middle.
I love to promote local farms and businesses and have pottery for sale at Montgomery General Store in Gold Hill, NC.,
Provisions in Rockwell, NC, and West Rowan Farm, Home, and Garden in Bear Poplar. Creating pottery makes me feel connected to "the ancestors" and The Creator. It brings me both joy and peace; and it is something that I love to share with others in the classroom setting as well as at local festivals.


Carrie Webster (fiddle)
CERTIFIED INSTRUCTOR of the MARK O'CCONNOR FIDDLE METHOD
Carrie grew up in a family that valued the arts. Her childhood
was filled with music festivals, concerts, museums, clogging lessons, and most importantly, violin lessons. At a young age, Carrie was inspired when she met
artists like Allison Krauss, Robin and Linda Williams, and many others. After
interning as a violinist with the Asheville Symphony for a year in high school,
she earned music scholarships to attend the North Carolina School of the Arts.
After college Carrie moved to the South Pacific and started listening to
and playing along with jukebox country music during her spare time in the Australian Outback (they love American country there!). After a refreshing
couple of years doing farm work "Down Under", she moved back to
North Carolina. Carrie started going to bluegrass pickins around
Salisbury and became completely hooked on roots music and the rest is history....
Carrie and her husband Eric are ecstatic about opening Carolina Folkworks. She loves teaching folk music and passing on the tradition of an art that is as old as our country, and in some cases even older. Her long experience of performing and 20 years as an instructor make her an outstanding teacher. Carrie has played in several symphonies and chamber music groups as a classical violinist. As a fiddler, she has performed as a soloist with the Salisbury Symphony, won numerous fiddler conventions, been honored at the East Rowan Fiddlers Convention, helped found the award winning Dry Run Bluegrass Band, and performed for two years with the national touring female group Sweet Potato Pie. She has taught in the Salisbury Symphony's After-School Strings program and also taught privately in local music schools. Her students have played at nursing homes, for many area events and festivals, in biannual recitals and placed in competitions and fiddler's conventions. Carrie enjoys playing musical games with her younger students to make learning fun and also loves to teach the history of the songs and tunes her students play.
Ms. Webster's musical influences range from Tony Rice and the Seldom Scene, to Vassar Clements, Hunter Berry, Allison Krauss, Mike Hartgrove, and Chris Thile. Carrie is mom to her son Gabriel and daughter Adelaide, and dog Artemis.She is an avid gardener, beekeeper, and bookworm.

Tori Jackson (Fiddle, Guitar, Mandolin, Voice)
Tori Jones is a singer, songwriter and an award winning fiddler.
She started playing at age 5 and hasn’t stopped since. She enjoys different
styles of music from celtic to classical to folk.
Tori grew up studying classical violin using the Suzuki method and after five
years she moved to bluegrass and has never looked back. Tori has focused her
talents on learning and perfecting the art of fiddling.
She plays several instruments including guitar, mandolin, and bass. Like many
musicians she has a musical family. As her two sisters learned to play
instruments they formed a band which
she still plays with. When she is not performing she enjoys teaching kids how
play fiddle by using a mix of bluegrass, hymns, and classical pieces. After
graduating high school in 2016, Tori has pursued music full time and is working
toward a degree in Music Studies from the Berklee College of Music.
Tyler Jackson (Banjo)
A Person County native, Tyler now makes his home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
While being a founding member of Drive Time, he has been in several other regional bands such as Megan White & Gate City Bluegrass, Bridgetown, Victoria Lee and New Ground, and Three Jack Jenny. Tyler has grown up around the bluegrass community and attended festivals and other events since he was three years old, and he started playing when he was twelve. His influences range from traditional and modern bluegrass bands such as Flatt & Scruggs, the Osborne Brothers, J.D. Crowe & the New South, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Tony Rice, IIIrd Tyme Out, Sideline, The Lonesome River Band, and countless others. Tyler’s music is also greatly influenced by a love for traditional country music instilled in him by his father. Tyler strives to display his love for music and what it means to him in the way he plays, and how he conducts himself, both on and off the stage. Having recovered from a brain aneurysm, he is incredibly blessed and excited to be performing and recording with Drive Time and is looking forward to sharing his music with the world.