Chuckanut Ridge Bluegrass Band - Band leader, and Skagit Valley resident, Mike Faast, has assembled a band of veteran bluegrass players from Bellingham to Marysville. The band features Ian McLelland on banjo, Bryan Thurber on Fiddle and Michael Medler on Stand-up Bass. Western Swing Hall of Fame member, Mike Faast, sings most of the lead vocals and Toby Simcox hits that high lonesome tenor. They play traditional, hard drivin' bluegrass and feature all the bluegrass instruments in their five-piece band. 

Bios:
Guitar/vocals & band leader - Mike Faast serves as lead singer and guitarist for Chuckanut Ridge. Mike has been performing concerts on the West Coast for over thirty years, and his bands have performed in hundreds of concerts and events in the great Northwest. Mike has a repertoire of several hundred songs in various styles and fronts several bands in the NW including, Swing 48, the Archtops, and the Mike Faast Jazz Trio. He has also performed in prominent NW bands, the Cascade Mountain Boys (bluegrass), the Jangles (western swing), and gospel band, Brother's Keeper.  In 2016 Mike was inducted into the Northwest chapter of the Western Swing Hall of Fame!

Banjo - Ian McLelland has been playing bluegrass in and around Bellingham for 12 years as a founding member of the High Mountain Band. Ian is also a career stewardship forester and wildland firefighter.  In his spare time Ian enjoys hanging out with his wife and son on their small farm in Whatcom County growing food and raising chickens.

Bass - Michael Medler, has played bass in Whatcom County for The High Mountain String Band, The Yankee Drivers, and Heron Crow. He is also a professor at Western Washington University where he studies forest fires.

Mandolin/fiddle/vocals - Tobias Simcox is a mandolin and fiddle player from Marysville, Washington. He sings tenor and plays both mandolin and fiddle in Chuckanut Ridge. He has been a lifelong NW musician and a prominent member of bands such as A Well-Known Stranger, and String Theory.

Fiddle - Bryan Thurber has been active in the NW music scene since the 1970s. He's been in several prominent NW bands over the years ranging in styles from swing to bluegrass. He was a founding member of the Gadjo Gypsies (Gypsy swing) and is a current member of Swing 48 (string swing). In the bluegrass genre he was a member of the High Mountain String band, The Dunton Sisters, The Stilly River Band and now serves as fiddle player for  Chuckanut Ridge. Bryan is a retired ferry boat captain. He and his wife raised their family on beautiful Lummi Island, where they currently reside. Bryan enjoys traveling the world with his wife Kathy and always brings his fiddle along to take advantage of a jam.