Dede Wyland, a native Wisconsinite, will be teaching vocal workshops in Wisconsin the first weekend of April. For folks in Milwaukee, she will teach one workshop at 1pm on Saturday, April 5th at the Brass Bell Music Store in Bayshore. For Madison folks, she will teach at noon on Sunday, April 6th, at the Skaalen Village in McFarland.

Dede Wyland’s pure and compelling voice has enchanted audiences around the globe, and her driving rhythm guitar has powered the sound of many a bluegrass band including the popular Tony Trischka & Skyline and ’Grass, Food & Lodging. As a teacher, she uses her profound knowledge of the human voice and her inspiring and supportive manner to help amateurs and professionals alike realize their vocal potential. Bluegrass Unlimited, in a January 2001 feature article, said that Dede’s “gifts of vocal virtuosity, musical expression, and sheer positive force of personality have made her a valued presence in modern acoustic music.” Read her full bio here.

In this workshop you will:

• get to the heart of good vocal technique (breath support, tone quality, projection etc)
• touch upon the basic principals of bluegrass harmony singing
• do plenty of singing and have fun!
• Towards the end of the workshop Dede will coach 3 volunteers through a bluegrass song of their choice.

Both volunteers and attendees alike will benefit from what can be learned during this fun exercise. If you are interested in volunteering, please send Dede an email at: dwyland@ix.netcom.com.

The cost is $65. Pre-registration is strongly recommended. To register for the Madison workshop, contact Karen at karensonn@gmail.com or 608-224-1124. To register for the Milwaukee workshop, contact Linda at lsandersen@wi.rr.com

The International Bluegrass Music Museum has now opened registration to its 2008 Monroe-Style Mandolin Camp. This popular, internationally attended camp coincides with the anniversary of Bill Monroe’s birth (he would have been 97 on September 13). Dates for this year’s camp are September 12-14.

Most of the full weekend of events will take place within the Museum, located at 117 Daviess Street, on the banks of the Ohio River in downtown Owensboro, Kentucky. Campers will find themselves learning the performance style of this legendary musician, while being in a welcoming yet rarified environment surrounded by the history, artifacts, and collections of bluegrass music from around the world.

The Monroe-Style Camps have been designed for Monroe enthusiasts with a desire to immerse themselves in–and to assimilate–the highly acclaimed and unique performance style of the “Father of Bluegrass Music.” The 2008 Faculty includes these world-famous mandolinists: Richie Brown, Mike Compton, Bobby Osborne, Frank Wakefield and Butch Waller.

With a curriculum that focus on Monroe’s tone, historical influences, nuances, rhythm chop, implied melodies, right & left hand technique, utilization of blues music, translation of traditional fiddle tunes to mandolin, and the art of the waltz, this specialized camp is heaven to any mandolinist or budding mandolinist with an interest in Bill Monroe.

The camp also features an All-Star Faculty Concert wherein all five instructors will be accompanied by singer/guitarist, Tom Ewing. Ewing played with Monroe as one of his “Blue Grass Boys” from 1986 until 1996.

New to the camp this year is a field trip to the historic music barn in Monroe’s birthplace; Rosine, KY. Campers will enjoy a fish fry at the General Store next door to the barn, pose for a souvenir group photo, then join in a giant jam session with scores of musicians who attend the Barn jams on Friday nights.

More information as well as 2008 Monroe-Style Mandolin Camp Registration Forms are available at Bluegrassmuseum.org or by calling 888 MY BANJO.

The Midwest Banjo Camp offers banjoists the opportunity to study old-time or bluegrass banjo with some of today’s best players and teachers in both styles. Their program features hands-on classes, demonstrations and two faculty concerts, and still leaves lots of time for jamming with your fellow banjo enthusiasts. With four levels in both bluegrass and old-time — Novice, lower intermediate, upper intermediate, and advanced — it should be relatively easy to find the level that’s right for you.

There are now six class options per session for bluegrass and six more for old-time, one each in the novice and lower intermediate tracks, and two each in the upper intermediate and advanced tracks. In addition there is a special events track (fiddle lessons, guitar lessons, etc.) and a jamming track (see below). With a total of 14 classes per period, this represents more choice at MBC than ever before.

The Jamming Track. On Saturday and Sunday, will offer a jamming option during some class-sessions. These jams will be run by the accompanists. Jams led by the banjo faculty take place after the concerts on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Instructors this year are as follows:
Old-time: Bob Carlin, Cathy Fink, Adam Hurt, Brad Leftwich, Reed Martin, Joe Newberry, Michael Miles and Ken Perlman. Chris Coole heads up our old-time Novice program.

Bluegrass: Janet Beazley, Greg Cahill, Pat Cloud, Bill Evans, Bill Keith, Jens Kruger, James McKinney, and Alan Munde. Mike Sumner heads up our old-time Novice program.

Accompanists: Peter Knupfer (bluegrass fiddle), Ron McKeever (bluegrass guitar) Chirps” Smith (old-time fiddle) and Mark Sahlgren (old-time guitar).

Another Item of Note: This year we have a Pre-Camp Program on Thursday Evening and Friday Morning (at no Extra Charge for Registrants). We’re planning to run a few events on Thursday evening and Friday morning prior to the official start of camp for the benefit of students who want to jump start their weekend of banjo immersion. On Thursday evening, we figure to have a social “mixer” followed by a few faculty-led jam sessions. Among the ideas we’re tossing around for Friday morning are round-robin demonstrations, clinics on banjo technique and set-up, teachers offering advice on class-choices, and an Introduction to the Banjo sessions for total beginners.

• Dates: June 6-8, 2008
• Place: Olivet College, Olivet, Michigan (about 30 miles southwest of Lansing)
• Times: Registration opens 12 noon on Friday; Camp ends 3:30PM on Sunday

Email the camp or see www.midwestbanjocamp.com for more information.

This weekend, some friends and I headed south for Trad Fest at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. Trad Fest is an annual event with old time string band music from all over the country. We were too late for the potluck on Friday night so we decided to stuff our faces with world-renowned Chicago pizza! We did arrive just in time to square dance off a little bit of our food-induced lethargy to the Portland-based Foghorn String Band. Once the dancing was over, old time jams began all over the school, and I had the wonderful opportunity to play fiddle tunes with “Chirps” Smith, one of the Midwest’s finest fiddlers.

The next day, I took a Ballads singing workshop with Rhiannon Giddens from the Carolina Chocolate Drops. This was the most powerful workshop I have ever taken. Although Rhiannon is a classically trained musician (she has performed in several operas), her greatest strength as a singer is not necessarily her singing technique (which is excellent), but instead the rhythm and emotion that she brings into her songs. This was apparent in her body and in her voice. She brought in the syncopated rhythm of the chain gang while she sang; she poured her heart out as she sang about a woman whose man had gone missing or about the death of Poor Lazarus. The insight that she shared with us about how to sing was as powerful as sitting next to her as she sang, which sent chills up my spine.

Saturday evening there was a concert with Garry Harrison and the New Mules, the Chocolate Drops, and Foghorn String Band. Each band performed a different flavor of old time music, and it was great to have the variety of great fiddle tunes and great singing numbers.

This summer, top tourist destination Door County, Wisconsin (known nationally as “the Cape Cod of the Midwest”) will host the inaugural sessions of the Door County Bluegrass Camp, a first-of-its-kind instructional camp taught by renowned bluegrass musicians.

Students may choose between two sessions, one from June 29-July 4 and one from August 3-8. The camp will work to improve playing at all skill levels, with morning and afternoon instrumental lessons and a variety of workshops, including classes about bluegrass history; songwriting; music theory; harmony singing; chart reading and writing; tab; instrument repair and maintenance; folk, round, square, and contra dance; yodeling, storytelling with music; and, of course, jam sessions. Each camp session will also afford ample opportunity for playing with fellow students and instructors, and will finish with a concert for the public.

Lessons will be taught by a musically astonishing team of instructors, all of whom are nationally respected in the world of bluegrass. The faculty includes two winners of the Memphis Premier String Player Award, and musicians who have performed with a variety of bluegrass greats, including Bill Monroe, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Vassar Clements and Robin and Linda Williams. The camp will also feature a songwriting workshop taught by published songwriter Julie Carter-Moriva.

Camp participants will also have the chance to experience the beauty of Door County, a locale renowned for its natural and cultural richness. Thousands of people visit Door County each year from all over the world, taking advantage of the swimming, fishing, biking, hiking, culinary, theatrical, and musical opportunities the county provides.

More information on Door County Bluegrass Camp is available online at www.doorcountybluegrass.com or at (920) 839-2777. Because space is limited, early reservations are strongly recommended.

Peter Ostroushko will present an in-home Mandolin workshop on Sunday, January 27, 2008 at 1 pm in Fond du Lac, WI. This rare opportunity to spend an afternoon with Peter follows his Saturday evening concert at the Windhover Center at 7:30pm. Details of both the workshop and the January 26th concert can be found at www.fondyacoustic.org.

The workshop cost is $20 and places are limited so sign up soon! The workshop and concert are sponsored by the Fondy Acoustic Music Alliance, Inc. FAMA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing listening and playing opportunities for fans of acoustic music.

Peter Ostroushko plays fiddle and mandolin and writes and performs various genres of music from bluegrass to jazz to musicals. He has played with many great artists including Norman Blake, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, and John Hartford, just to name a few.

If you like old time music, the Dear Old Illinois - Traditional Music of Downstate Illinois book and CD set by Garry Harrison and Jo Burgess is a must. This collection of over 750 songs gives notes, chords and lyrics to many of Midwestern fiddle tunes that define the unique sound of old time music found in our region. Granted, we’re not in Illinois, but you get the idea.

Garry Harrison is a spectacular Midwestern fiddler who played with the Indian Creek Delta Boys in the 1970’s. He will be leading the Illinois Fiddle Tune Repertoire Workshop in Chicago on October 20th and 21st. Even if you can’t make it down to the workshop, the Dear Old Illinois book and CD’s are highly recommended. They are a wonderful collection of music that offer insight into the vast musical heritage of old time music in the Midwest.

Jim and Nancy Nikora will be hosting two fantastic mandolin workshops at their home in November. They are still working out the final details for the Carlo Aonzo workshop which will be on Sunday, November 4th. So check back or contact Nancy for more information.

The Mike Marshall workshop will be on Saturday, November 17th from 10am-1pm. The cost is $50. You can RSVP via email or phone call, but reservations are not confirmed until payment is delivered to Jim and Nancy. Reservations confirmations are on a first-paid basis so get your checks in! They plan to comfortably accommodate 12 participants and will provide coffee and juice before the workshop. Folks can arrive as early as 9:30 to settle in and mingle before getting down to business with Mike.

Reservations (and checks) to:
Nancy or Jim Nikora
41 Rough Lee Court, Madison, WI 53705
Phone: 608-233-0150
Email Nancy or Jim

The Folk School of St. Louis is offering a Midwest Fiddle Tunes Workshop on Saturday, September 22nd. The workshop will be taught by Lynn “Chirps” Smith and Paul Tyler, who are two of today’s finest old-time fiddlers and have a wealth of knowledge about regional fiddle tunes and their heritage. The workshop is open to all stringband instruments and is certain to be fun and informative.

Don’t miss a weekend of great traditional music at the Sugar Maple Fest right here in Madison! The festivities start Friay at 4pm and run through Saturday evening, featuring everything from bluegrass and old-time to cajun and celtic performances.

If you can skip out of work early enought to catch the New Bad Habits, they are guaranteed to get you groovin’ with their oldtime fiddling tunes. And the Mark Newton Band is sure to impress with their excellent harmony vocals and excellent musicianship on Friday as well. Jazz mandolinist Don Steinberg will be pairing with folk/country/bluegrass guitar and vocalist Robbie Fulks on Saturday afternoon. Bluegrass and country musician Jim Lauderdale will be headlining Saturday night, and he’ll likely be performing many of the songs off of his new album that will be released next month (and it’s real good!).

While you’re at it, swing by the SWBMAI table to meet the SWBMAI board members, get info on upcoming bluegrass events, and check out our new t-shirts (they’re hot so get your size before they’re gone!) And don’t forget to visit the workshop tent, where SWBMAI will be hosting a question and answer session with bass player Beth Lawrence at 6:30pm Friday. See you there!