Board Members - Huntsville Traditional Music Association

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Dan Malloy, President

Dan enjoys most types of music, that is, music played by people on musical instruments, not computers. At age 11, at the peak of the British rock'n'roll invasion, he got a Tiger Guitar, which was a small plastic guitar with a little battery-powered amp. Somehow, he learned to play on it. Once he got a proper guitar, he and two friends - another guitarist and a drummer - provided the entertainment at their grade school basketball games. The team won the Catholic League city championship, no doubt because of the musical support. Actually, they were really good and may have won without the music.

Over the years, Dan played socially in groups with high school and college friends. In the late 1980's, he sold his '57 Vintage Reissue Fender Telecaster and Deluxe Reverb amp and has been strictly acoustic since. Well, except for the used Stratocaster he picked up last year from a banjo player from Fayetteville, TN. But it's just a toy, really.

In college, Dan served as President of the Penn State Jazz Club and as a member of the University Concert Committee, helping to bring local and national artists to the university.

Dan and his wife Patricia lived in Naples, Italy from 2014 to 2021. His souvenir gift to himself was a handmade Neapolitan style mandolin, the kind with the big, round belly. He taught himself to play, somewhat. Returning to Huntsville, he purchased a more conventional f-style mandolin. He took lessons for a few months at the Fret Shop, and made a commitment to actually learn to read music. Still a work in progress, that.

Dan is a regular participant at HTMA Jam Sessions and events. He plays locally at Huntsville area open mic nights, and at several senior living communities.

Russ Holder, Vice President

Russ has been playing Guitar/DobroTM Resonator Guitar since he was in Junior High School and has been teaching those instruments since the year 2000. He is a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist that has performed across the United States from Florida to Ohio and North Carolina to Hawaii. His parents introduced him and his younger brothers to music at an early age. Once he and his brothers & friends learned to play guitar/mandolin/banjo/bass/Dobro in their teen years, they formed a music group and began performing around the Southeast US. They were early members of the Huntsville Association of Folk Musicians (HAFM) and Russ is the current Vice-President of the Huntsville Traditional Music Association (HTMA).

From 1998 to 2025, Russ performed and recorded with several different music groups touring the mid-South region. He has been a regular performer at the Bluebird Café, Big Spring Jam, Panoply, Concerts in the Park and regional music Festivals. Russ has had the honor to perform/jam with such artists as Charlie Louvin, Ken Mellons, Rob Ickes, John Hartford, Charlie Collins, Vassar Clements, Claire Lynch, Pete Wernick and hundreds of jammers at IBMA, SPBGMA, Great American Jam, Station Inn, CMA Fest, ABMA and HTMA events.

Russ is a current member of the Grasstronauts Bluegrass band, the WoodPickers acoustic Americana band, Cristina Lynn Trio songwriter group, teaches at the Huntsville Strings Shop, attends local/regional music Jams & enjoys working with music students of all ages. In 2025, Russ became a certified Wernick Method Jam instructor and enjoys helping students play music together in groups.

Tut Smith, Secretary /Treasurer

Tut likes all kinds of music and thinks of it as a participative sport through guitar, vocals, and harmonica. Gifted a harmonica when he was around 10, he was playing songs before the day was out. At 12 he had 6 months of guitar lessons at Dudley Wales Studio on Jordan Lane. The studio is long gone but a firm foundation was laid which was not forgotten as the guitar lay fallow for several years. At 17, a good friend visited with his 12 string and a book of John Denver songs. Shortly thereafter Tut took his Hardee's Hamburger savings to Hornbuckles Music Shop where he acquired a brand new Yamaha 6 string. He has been on an enjoyable journey ever since.

Tut is a regular participant at HTMA jam events and participates with others from HTMA at several senior living communities. Most Wednesdays will find him at choir practice and working with the Praise Team where he goes to church.

Erin Keniston, Communications/Membership Chair

In the early 1960s, my grandmother had an album by the "Singing Nun," a Belgian nun singing her songs in French. I listened to this album often, and by late 1963 had my heart set on a guitar. For Christmas - at 9 years old - I got a cheapo Sears guitar. About ten years later, I was given my first 12-string guitar by my parents, and since then the 12-string has been my instrument of choice. My current guitar is an Epiphone Hummingbird 12-string.

While living in south Alabama, I taught folk songs in elementary school and was active in church music. After moving to the Tennessee Valley, I played my guitar at home but was yearning to find people to play with. As Jerry LeCroy points out, playing and singing with others is the best way to grow as a musician, but it's also a great way to make friends.

When the pandemic closed churches on Easter 2020, a neighbor asked me and another neighbor to join in playing/singing "Amazing Grace." This led to a little garage band, which still gathers almost weekly - a lifesaver for me, then a recent widow.

In July 2025, while at Lowe Mill for a visit to Cattyshack, I walked by the HTMA studio and saw the Saturday Jam going on. I went in to listen and by the end of the Jam I realized I had, at last, found my people.

I have worked as office manager, admin assistant/secretary and purchasing coordinator, as well as managing conferences, trade shows, and other events. I retired in 2023 but in 2025 began working part time again, which is fine.

I share my life with two dogs and three cats, two adult daughters/sons-in-law and three grandchildren. Aside from music, I enjoy weaving, embroidery, knitting and crocheting, gardening, and am in graduate school for a Master's in History at the University of North Alabama. I'm so happy to be part of this wonderful group!

Jani Cross Carter, Performance Chair

Jerry LeCroy, Operations Chair (Acting)

Jerry is a child of the fifties who received his first guitar, an almost totally unplayable Kay, when he was 14 or so. After that he struggled with a succession of slightly less unplayable guitars until 1974 when he was able to buy a new Guild D-40 from a friend who was opening a guitar shop.

For almost twenty years that poor guitar spent most of the time in its case, but in the early 90s Jerry began attending meetings of what was then the Tennessee Valley Association Of Folk, Traditional And Old Time Musicians. Being exposed to better musicians and playing in front of a room full of people were both terrific growth factors for Jerry, and he became engaged in helping the organization later re-named Huntsville Traditional Music Association continue to operate and grow.

Jerry likes most genres of music, though he might have limited patience with operatic forms. Early in his career he learned tunes from the great 1960s folk music scare, as performed by Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Tom Paxton, and a hundred others. Today he mostly tries to learn tunes that catch his attention for the lyrical quality and content. Never one for fancy guitar picking or note-for-note recitations, he plays by ear despite being half deaf.

Jerry has served in most of the HTMA officer and Committee Chair positions at one time or another, though he may have skipped the vice president slot. He continues to support and hope for the long term success of the association.

Mike Ball, Previous President

Mike began playing guitar at 10 years old and picked up several other instruments along the way including piano, fiddle, bass, banjo, and mandolin. Although, he sings hundreds of country classics, bluegrass, western swing, popular (mostly from the 60’s and 70’s) and gospel songs, Mike also greatly enjoys providing musical accompaniment and vocal harmony for other singers.

Music comforted him during childhood tragedy and helped him through adolescence and his many years of service as a Marine, State Trooper, Criminal Investigator, and State Representative, as outlined in his book, “Picking, Politicking, and Pontificating.” Since his retirement from the Alabama Legislature in 2022, Mike has enjoyed living the happiest time of his life surrounded by music, friendship, and faith. But most of all, love.