The Fog burners

Mary Anderson 

Mary plays rhythm guitar and sings with the Fog Burners.  She started playing a Sears Roebuck catalogue guitar in 3rd grade.  Most of her musical instruction was provided by the Albuquerque public schools.   Mary’s favorite music is vocal harmony.  She has a good ear for the 3rd and the 5th, and a minor or 7th, developed while singing along to songs during long New Mexico car rides.  Since the singers were mostly male, to sing along she had to harmonize. She loves to listen to the harmonies in old gospel tunes.

For years Mary focused on labor and protest songs and other folky tunes.  An early influencer was Joan Baez who she got to hang out with for a day, including getting sketched and watching creation of the Quinn the Eskimo harmonies. Her first and longest gig was a solo show at an Albuquerque coffee house while in high school. 

Mary turned to bluegrass and country music after moving to Nashville.  A young, working mother, she was up at 6 am every day with the baby and the only thing on TV that early was the Ralph Emery Show – she fast became a fan!   Since then, Mary has sung in several groups, including the Nashville Symphony Chorus, Electric Blanket, Left on Lonely, the Egrets, and Singers Marin. She has played guitar in bands as time and opportunity permitted.  Now retired, she enjoys being able to practice in the daylight. 

While Mary also plays some slack key tunes and the mountain dulcimer.  

Keith Forsman  

Upright “stick” bass player Keith Forsman has been with playing bass and singing with the Fog Burners for about 6 years.  He also plays a 4 string electric bass in a local rock and blues cover band, Bubba’s Taxi.  Bubba’s Taxi started as a dad’s group of people who had kids in a Corte Madera school.  They joined the Crossroads Music Community as a band.  Keith took bass lessons from Rob Fordyce, and the rest is history.  

Keith lives in Mill Valley and enjoys music, mountain biking, hiking and other outdoor activities.

Jeff Harris 

Jeff is one of the five vocalists in The Fogburners.  He plays banjo, guitars, pedal steel, resonator, occasional keys and harmonica with the Fogs.  He also plays bass, mandolin, drums, keyboards, clarinet, and saxophones, and dabbles in flute, trumpet, fiddle, penny whistle, recorder, wood flute, didgeridoo, and accordion.  He's been playing since his mum enrolled him in recorder classes in kindergarten.  He enjoys playing bluegrass, Cajun, Irish, country, rockabilly, folk and rock.  He loves vocal harmonies.  He's played with the Driving Wheel Blues Band, Back Seat Boogie, the Juneau Light Opera, St. Paul Singers, the Chugach Mountain Ramblers, Electric Blanket, The Egrets, Left on Lonely, Purvis and the Stray Dogs and Singers Marin. A favorite gig was playing bass for Merle Travis in Juneau. 

He's also a songwriter, writing some of the Fogs' tunes and others for the Fogs' fraternal twin group The Egrets.  Jeff holds Bachelors and Master’s degrees in Songwriting from the Berklee College of Music. He's attended songwriting retreats with Rodney Crowell, Beth Neilson Chapman, and Andrea Stolpe.  He previously studied at the Blair School of Music, Family Light Music School, Crossroads Music Community, the Freight and Salvage, and  and Bill Evans' banjo camp.  He's studied Dobro with Mike Witcher, Rob Ickes, and Ivan Rosenberg., and pedal steel with Joe Goldmark.  

He and Mary have five children and eleven grandchildren.  Their son Noah plays hand drums on some of The Egrets' CDs.  One grandkid plays guitar, and one plays keys,.   

Lou Ponticas  

Lou sings and plays mandolin and guitar in The Fogburners.  He started playing the guitar in earnest about 18 years ago while overseas on a military deployment and bought his first mandolin a couple years after that.  Lou enjoys bluegrass, country, and country rock, favoring acoustic instruments and hearing voices in harmony.    

Lou first played with our sister band The Egrets in 2007 or so.  He's also played with Jeff and Mary in the Crossroads Music Community and Take The Stage at the Freight and Salvage.  He's enjoying the whole experience.  Lou lives in Berkeley where he's close to the Freight & Salvage, and able to take advantage of the music and music classes available there. 

Eileen Scholl

Eileen is the newest member of the Fog Burners and plays fiddle.  She is from a musical family and grew up listening to family members playing their Steinway baby grand piano.   Eileen herself learned to play classical piano in grade school. She started playing violin in the 6th grade. She learned to play by ear, as well as reading music

In the sixties through the eighties, Eileen became a fan of folk music, folk rock, rock & roll and rhythm & blues. She saw many live performances of John Prine, Steve Goodman, Bonnie Raitt, Pete Seeger, Bob Gibson, Tom Paxton, and others who often played around the Chicago area

Eileen took up the fiddle again in the ‘90s, focusing on Irish and Old Timey music in jam sessions.  She enjoys going to music festivals and music camps to learn more fiddle chops.