Elkins, W. VA — Bluegrass Week, billed as “The Original Pickin’ Camp,” runs from July 27 to Aug. 2 at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, W. Va.

Guest artists this year are Tim O’Brien and Stuart Duncan, who complement a lengthy list of faculty members teaching instrumentation and vocal instruction.

Fiddle instructors are Bobby Hicks, Buddy Spicher and Andrew Van Norstrand. Teaching mandolin will be Herschel Sizemore, Sharon Gilchrist and John Rossbach.

Russ Barenberg, David McLaughlin and Leigh Gibson will offer guitar instruction, while Terry Baucom, Eric Bigson and Ira Gitlin will hold court in the banjo corner of the camp.

Dobro and resophonic guitar teachers are Mike Witcher and Jimmy Heffernan. Missy Raines and Mike Bubb will teach bass.

Aspiring bluegrass vocalists will get training from Chris Stuart and Janet Beazley, while Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum teach bluegrass harmony techniques.

Information, including an Augusta Catalog, is available at www.augustaheritage.com/bluegrass.html.

The Augusta Heritage Center hosts several instructional weeks throughout the year, including Old Time Week, Blues/Swing Week, Cajun Week, Guitar Week, Dance Week and several others.

Share This

Pickers in the Northwest might be interested in honing their mandolin and guitar skills in May when Roland White, Diane Bouska and Mike Compton present workshops and a concert at The Humane Society of Redmond Event Center in Redmond, Ore.

White will present a beginning mandolin class and his wife, Bouska, will teach a class on playing bluegrass rhythm guitar. Compton will give mandolin instruction for intermediate to advanced players.

The workshop leaders will present a concert on May 2 and lead the workshops on May 3 and 4.

The workshops will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday. The student fee of $135 does not include lodging, but lunch and dinner will be provided on Saturday.

The workshop is limited to 20 students (confirmation with receipt of check). Early reservations are strongly encouraged. Workshop sponsors Dennis Fehling and Pam Bigoni can be contacted at (541) 504-0838.

Share This

In honor of Ralph Stanley’s 72nd birthday on Feb. 25th, Murphy Method is having a sale on their Ralph Stanley Style DVD. The sale price is only $20.00 plus shipping and the sale price is good from now through February. The DVD teaches the popular “Clinch Mountain Backstep,” the huge hit, “Man of Constant Sorrow” and more.

Casey Henry has been added to the staff at Banjo Camp North, which takes place May 16-18, 2008 near Groton, Mass. Casey, along with Bill Evans, Alan Munde, Janet Davis, Bill Keith, and others will teach classes for all levels and lead jams in the evenings. There is a pre-camp show on Thursday, May 15 in Lexington, Mass.

And finally a clip from Chris Henry’s January 16th, 2008 Station Inn show earlier this month: a triple-mandolin version of “Farewell to Long Hollow.” featuring Chris, Red Henry, and Brian Frazier. The tune appears on Chris’s CD “Monroe Approved.”

Share This

David Grier

Acoustic guitarists from throughout the Midwest are expected to converge on the banks of the Mississippi River March 7-9 for St. Louis Flatpick, a three-day workshop augmented by concerts.Clay Hess and David Grier will lead the workshops and be featured in live performances.

The event will be held at the Crown Plaza Airport Hotel in Bridgeton, Mo., which is in the St. Louis metro area.

Details, including registration information, are available at www.stlflatpick.com. Registration can also be made by sending a check or money order to:

St. Louis Flatpick
P.O. Box 2024
Florissant, MO 63032

Registration prices are $275 for all weekend, $150 for 1 day only (please note which day you want to attend) or $10 for each concert ticket needed. Registrants should take note that two concert tickets are included with each weekend registration, and one ticket included for a single day registration.

Questions can be directed to 314-831-6406.

Clay Hess is recognized as one of the premier flat-pick guitarists in bluegrass music. He was 9 when he first heard live bluegrass at the Lake Snowden Bluegrass Festival in Albany, Ohio. His parents and his older brother played traditional country music, so he originally began learning classic country. Clay credits his older brother as a big influence on his desire to play guitar, though his brother stopped playing around the time Clay started.

His first professional gig came 12years later at Dollywood theme park where he spent the summer performing with the group True Blue. In July of ‘92 Hess left Dollywood to return to Ohio. He was working in construction when Ricky Skaggs called and asked him to fill the guitar slot for Kentucky Thunder.

He spent the next three years performing with Kentucky Thunder. While Hess was part of the band, the International Bluegrass Music Association selected Kentucky Thunder its Instrumental Band of the Year Award for both 1999 and 2000. Hess was also awarded a Grammy for his participation in “Soldier of the Cross” by Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder.

Though hess largely considers himself a bluegrass player, his influences range outside of bluegrass and include players such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Charlie Parker and Leon Rhodes.

A recent milestone in his career has been the creation of the Clay Hess D-18 signature model guitar by CF Martin.

David Grier is one of the most award-winning guitarists in recent memory. For the past several years, he has been voted by the members of the IBMA as Guitar Player of the Year. He has also appeared on two Grammy- winning recordings: “True Life Blues-A Tribute to Bill Monroe” and “The Great Dobro Sessions.” Greer is also included in the book, “1,000 Great Guitarists.” His inspiration to learn guitar came from exposure to Bill Monroe while his father, Lamar Grier, played banjo for the Blue Grass Boys in the middle 1960s.

Grier’s first solo recording “Freewheeling” appeared on Rounder Records, as did his acclaimed 1991 duet project “Climbing the Walls” with mandolinist Mike Compton. His “Lone Soldier” project is listed in Acoustic Guitar Magazine’s “100 Essential Acoustic Guitar Recordings of All Time.” His most recent solo release is “I’ve Got the House to Myself.” His work is also captured on a Homespun video called “Building Powerful Solos.”

In addition to touring solo, Grier also appears as the guitarist for Psychograss, who are currently celebrating a critically acclaimed new album, “Now Hear This”.

Share This

Blue Highway

Blue Highway will perform at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 15 at the Kingsport, Tenn. Renaissance Center.In addition, members of the band will conduct a singer/songwriter workshop beginning at 2 p.m. that day. Workshop size is limited and registration is $20 per person. This performance and workshop by Blue Highway is supported by the Tennessee Arts Commission’ Touring Artist Grant Program.

Tickets for the performance are $18 regular admission and $15 student/senior admission and may be purchased by calling the Renaissance Center Central Box Office 423-392-8417.

Blue Highway is generally regarded as one of the most influential groups in contemporary bluegrass. Members are Jason Burleson (banjo, guitar, mandolin), Rob Ickes (Dobro), Shawn Lane (mandolin, fiddle vocals), Tim Stafford (guitar, vocals) and Wayne Taylor (bass, vocals)

Taylor, Stafford and Lane write many of the band’s tunes and have several songs recorded by others in bluegrass and country music.

The Renaissance Center is a facility for arts and senior citizen’s activities, and is also used for business meetings, parties, receptions, classes and seminars. It includes a 350-seat theater.

Share This