Winston Mitchell
Winston started playing guitar at 14, learning from his dad who was a skilled guitarist, singer, songwriter, and pedal steel player. Playing mostly electric guitar until his early-20s, he was introduced to the music of Jeff Austin and Yonder Mountain String Band and was immediately captivated by the energy and improvisation coming off of a pile of bootleg CDs. After being in bands full of guitar players he decided to try out mandolin and immediately was hooked. With his strongest inspirations deriving from Jeff & Sam Bush’s playing, he worked his way backwards through time to get to the origins of bluegrass.
In July 2025 he joined forces with the legendary Larry Keel, playing mandolin in the Larry Keel Experience after touring with Into The Fog for 7 years. Larry Keel is an award-winning innovative flat picking guitarist and singer/songwriter hailing from Appalachia and currently residing in historic Lexington, VA
“I shopped around a bit when it was time to move on from my beginner mandolin. I played a lot of mandolins that cost A LOT more than this one; brand new mandolins and used mandolins but I just kept coming back to Valerie. She’s just got something extra. Smooth, loud, and modern-sounding with still enough of the old sound to please everyone.”
