Colby Maddox – mandolin, fiddle

Originally from California, Colby moved to the Midwest to attend Oberlin College and escape the tech boom. Immediately after college Colby and his now wife Debby traveled out to Berkeley, California for a summer so that he could study with mandolin great David Grisman. Colby spent the early 1990s in Ann Arbor Michigan transcribing his lesson tapes, working for the public schools, recording for the Schoolkid's Records label and playing with at least two or three bands at a time.

Colby moved to Chicago in 1995 to work with The Special Consensus bluegrass band where he rubbed elbows and shared the stage with many of his heroes like Tim O’Brien, Scott Nygaard, Sally Van Meter, Laurie Lewis, Slavek Hanzlik, J.D. Crowe and John Hartford. Along the way Colby studied fiddle with Missouri State Champion Charlie Walden and played for a short time in a duo with young banjo wizard Noam Pikelny. In 1999 Colby moved on to teaching at the Old Town School of Folk Music. In 2006 Colby won first prize at the Rocky Grass mandolin competition in Lyons, Colorado. Recent side projects include playing on the soundtrack for the recent PBS documentary The Hayloft Gang: The Story of the National Barn Dance, narrated by Garrison Keillor.

Mike Church – guitar

Mike Church hails from Lenoir, North Carolina, just down the road from where Doc Watson is from. Raised on the sounds of The Grand Ol’ Opry and Hee Haw, Mike started playing guitar at 13 years of age and just like Doc, he played in rock and roll bar bands from 16 to 25 years of age. 

Mike relocated to LA in 1990, studied jazz at the Grove School of Music and also took with jazz guitar legend Ted Greene for 18 intensive months.  Playing jazz in and backing up numerous singer-songwriters on LA club circuit and nationwide made for a rich music life, and Mike has many great stories about this time.

In 1996 during a major snowstorm, Mike moved to Chicago and quickly became a favorite with area musicians.  Playing with numerous individuals and teaching music lessons take up Mike’s extra time now, and every May he talks about making a run back to North Carolina for Merle Fest. Mike’s diverse influences include Doc Watson, Tony Rice, The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Robben Ford and Miles Davis, and his spot on wardrobe keeps the rest of Sunnyside Up on its toes.

For more on Mike, please visit www.mikechurchmusic.com

Steve Hartley – bass

Steve comes to Chicago from Hammond, Indiana and has played with many Chicagoland players. He began his musical journey as a drummer, and played the rock club circuit in Chicago in the 1990s. Steve enjoyed a stint as a drummer on the Lilith Fair tour and upon returning to Chicago, spent some time working in the improv acting scene – even underwent training to act in Blue Man Group.

In 2005 Steve began to study upright bass so he could play on the local and regional barn dance scene. He literally threw away their television and began spending all available time studying string band music. Since that time Steve has studied with notable players such as Missy Raines, Mike Bub and Jon Weisenberg and played with several area bluegrass bands. Rock’s loss is acoustic music’s gain, and Sunnyside Up has leans on Steve’s solid foundation.