John Hawkwood first heard bluegrass listening on WWVA in Wheeling W.Va. when he was a kid living in the little coal mining town of Pulaski Pa. When he went to Penn State he fortunately met up with his roommate to be, Stan Jay, and they started playing guitar together doing Kingston Trio covers. Stan went on to found the famous acoustic guitar shop Mandolin Brothers in Staten Island. N.Y.

John got into more traditonal sounds and was influenced by Doc Watson, John Herald and Jack Elliott. After a stint at Johns Hopkins U. he headed West to learn about old Martin guitars at Jon Lundbergs famous shop in Berkeley California. Living in San Francisco, he played with Bruce Nemeroff and Ed Neff in a band called "High Country". While working on his M.A. in English Lit at S.F. State he played lead guitar for Canadian Capitol recording artist Cristofer Kearney and briefly teamed up with Rik Elswitt (soon to join Dr.Hook and the Medicine Show) in a band called "Salt Creek".

John has bought and sold old Martins and collected fine old instruments, mentoring Richard Johnston of Gryphon Stringed Instruments in Palo Alto. Richard did his first inlay on John's 1939 D-18 and did the sunburst finish on his 1968 D-45.

While in San Francisco, John also began playing Bouzouki and working with one of the founders of the American Tribal Belly dance movement Masha Archer. Recieving his M.A., he moved to Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast and taught English and Guitar at Clatsop Community College.

After moving inland to Portland he formed Hawkwood, a folk rock group with his wife Patrice and bass player Kelly Joe Phelps (soon to be well known as a delta blues genius on the slide guitar). John played bouzouki for a year with the Gypsy Caravan, Portland's best known Tribal Belly Dance Group before founding his own world fusion band The Children of Paradise with Jonathan Howitt.

With The Grey Sky Boys , John returns to his love for traditional Appalachain music and bluegrass with some of the hottest musicians in the northwest.

Rich originates from Santa Fe Springs, California. He has been playing music in various forms and on various instruments throughout his life. Originally a saxophone/flute/oboe player and later part of a performing African drumming ensemble, he switched to the bass to satisfy a burning desire to play rock and roll. His eclectic musical taste has pushed him into playing jazz, country, and bluegrass music on electric and upright bass.

Rich can be seen throughout the Pacific Northwest as an electric bassist and vocalist with the Classic Rock band Closed Captioned and on upright bass and vocals as the "other half" of the Rich Horner Duo.