Our Story

Board of Directors

JAMinc functions through the hard work and dedication of an all-volunteer board of directors, made up of individuals with diverse musical interests and backgrounds. Our current board roster is as follows:

Jim Bland

Founder and owner of Plan 9 Music, an independent music retailer. Merchandise Manager for the Richmond Folk Festival and member of the Programming Committee.

Andy Garrigue

Business owner and high school teacher with a passion for music, especially blues. Music critic/correspondent since 1991 (Style Weekly, Richmond Times-Dispatch). Avid harmonica player.

Joe Gianfortoni

Retired physician, adventurer, and music aficionado. Voluntary bookkeeper for JAMinc.

Kay Landry

Former promoter, booker and sound tech at Ashland Coffee and Tea and former consultant to the Ashland Theater.

Justin Laughter

Start-up, intellectual property, and entertainment attorney with Threshold Counsel, PC. Leader of Silly Bus, an educational media company, and a performer in the quirky pop-rock group, Flashlight Tag.

Bill Rice

Lifelong resident of RVA, former photojournalist with TV8 and current supporter of the local music scene via the Richmond Folk Festival (artist host), the Old Dominion Barn Dance (stage manager) and Shockoe Sessions Live (camera operator).

Wally Thulin

Founder of Fieldcrest Music and JAMinc, a promoter of bluegrass, jazz & Americana concerts. Also artist manager & label owner.

Tim Timberlake

Veteran emcee/stage manager of Americana events. Programming Committee, Richmond Folk Festival. Now hosting JAMinc’s “Pages Kitchen…the Swamp Sessions” on VPM Music and online radio station, The Breeze.

Samson Trinh

Composer, arranger, orchestrator, producer, and saxophonist. Music educator at Westside Neighborhood School in Los Angeles, CA.

Empty seats at the table…

We would also like to acknowledge significant contribution of two former board members who we lost to cancer: W. Scott Street, a distinguished attorney and past president of the Virginia State Bar, but more importantly a player and lover of the banjo and bluegrass. His pro bono support of musicians all over the country is legendary. For five years, JAMinc and the Richmond Folk Festival presented the Scott Street Five String Finals in his memory, a youth banjo contest with substantial prize money for the winners. Many, like Victor Furtado and Tray Wellington, have gone on to impressive careers.

We also lost Richmond singer/songwriter and musical force Robbin Thompson in the fall of 2015. Besides his long and impressive career making records and as a potent performer, it was Robbin’s idea to start our successful house-style concert series in his home studio back in 2004. And the Virginia guitar Robbin envisioned before his passing, was finally built by renowned luthier Wayne Henderson for the recent Storied Strings exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. See photos »