Heidi Muller & Bob Webb

Heidi Muller and Bob Webb cross the musical boundaries between original songs and traditional tunes, blending each other’s influences from the Pacific Northwest to the Appalachian Mountains. Their songs feature Heidi’s crystalline vocals backed by Appalachian dulcimers, guitars, mandolin, and electric cello. They have recorded four albums together, in addition to Heidi’s five previous solo CDs. 

Described as “arguably Seattle’s most beloved folk singer/songwriter” in the 1990’s by Heritage Music Review, Heidi performed in the Northwest folk scene for two decades. Her song “Good Road” was the theme song of the Inland Folk show heard on Northwest Public Radio for 30 years. Two of her songs were published in Rise Again, the sequel to the legendary songbook, Rise Up Singing. She toured nationally, performing at venues from coffeehouses to the Kerrville Folk Festival before she moved back East, where she became a popular mountain dulcimer instructor and performer. Heidi headlined events like Kentucky Music Week, Dulcimer Chautauqua on the Wabash, Vermont Dulcimer Daze, and the Great American Dulcimer Convention. During the pandemic, she has taught for virtual festivals including QuaranTune, North Georgia Foothills, and the Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering. Heidi has also published eight dulcimer songbooks and one of original songs. Her songs have been recorded by other artists, included in compilation albums, and her original waltz, “Leaving the Methow,” was featured on the Masters of the Mountain Dulcimer, Volume Two recording.

In 2003, Heidi formed a duo with Bob Webb in Charleston, West Virginia. Bob is a multi-instrumentalist who has played cello and guitar since childhood, and mandolin and mountain dulcimer for over 40 years. He performed with the bluegrass group Swamp Grass, based in New Orleans, in the last USO tour of Vietnam in December, 1972. He has worked since the 1970’s as an accompanist, from his nine years in the band Stark Raven to going on the road with WV artists Kate Long and Dave Haas. Stark Raven became the house band for NPR’s Mountain Stage live performance radio show, where he accompanied artists such as Odetta, Tom Paxton, Shawn Colvin, Bill Staines, Peggy Seeger and Arlo Guthrie.

Upon leaving the band, Bob became a school music teacher in Charleston and directed children’s arts and science camps. He taught over 700 children and adults to make and play his own design of cardboard box dulcimer. He once taught dulcimer to all of the students, teachers and office staff of Hamlin Middle School in southern WV. Bob became a recording engineer and opened his own studio in 2001, where he recorded dozens of projects for West Virginia musicians, oral history programs, and radio broadcasts. He engineered, produced, and co-produced public radio documentaries including the award-winning In Their Own Country and Passing It On: The Rebirth of Old-Time Music in Pocahontas County, WV.

From 2005-2012, he and Heidi directed the Music Mentors after-school program that taught music to at-risk children in Charleston, and he taught for schools and after-schools in the southern coalfields. Besides producing CDs of their own music, Heidi and Bob created original and traditional film music for the Legacy of the Land documentary produced in West Virginia that recently aired on PBS. Bob has also published instruction books for dulcimer, guitar, and mandolin, and taught for festivals including Kentucky Music Week, Ohio Valley Gathering, Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering, and the Wallowa Fiddle Tunes Camp.

Heidi and Bob now live in Joseph, OR at the foot of the Wallowa Mountains. Since the start of the pandemic, they have livestreamed performances, provided music videos, and taught online. Bob’s Mountain View Recording studio now records northeast Oregon musicians and provides a wide range of audio and video services. Heidi and Bob also host an annual adult music camp, Dulcimer Week in the Wallowas, which will go into its tenth year in 2022. For more information, please visit www.heidimuller.com.