Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum will be teaching a harmony-singing workshop on Monday evening, July 21st, following the Gandy Dancer Fest. The workshop will be from 6:30-8:30 pm at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center in Monona (300 Femrite Drive) and will cost $30/person.

Advance registration is strongly recommended. Please email Karen Sonnenblick or call 786-417-9339 to register or with questions. This workshop will be excellent!

Laurie is known in bluegrass not only for her excellent musicianship, but also for her great teaching abilities. She and Tom instruct every year at music camps across the country. In fact, Laurie is the coordinator of the instructional Bluegrass at the Beach camp in Oregon state every year. IBMA executive director Dan Hays says “Laurie is one of the pre-eminent bluegrass and Americana artists of our time. She spreads her talent over several genres - bluegrass, folk, country - and with the recognition she has within all those fields, I would certainly say she’s one of the top five female artists of the last 30 years. And she continues to make great music.”

The third annual Mt. Morris Bluegrass Jam Camp will be held August 22 through 24 at the picturesque Mt. Morris Camp and Conference Center near Wautoma, Wisconsin. This adult-oriented music camp offers three days of instruction for beginner to intermediate pickers on banjo, mandolin, guitar, fiddle, and bass. Class size is limited to ten students per instrument for more individualized attention.

This year’s camp is being hosted by the Tangled Roots Bluegrass Band from Minnesota and joined by fiddle virtuoso, Brian Wicklund. For those of you who braved the storm at the Brooklyn Bluegrass Festival in early June, Tangled Roots created their own version of bluegrass thunder on stage that evening. Students at Mt. Morris are in for a real treat this year, having the opportunity to meet and learn from such talented musicians! Highlight of the weekend at Mt. Morris Jam Camp will be a public performance by Tangled Roots with Brian Wicklund Saturday evening.

There’s also the student band recital on Sunday at the close of camp. During group instruction everyone works on the same songs and learns their respective part. Then the instructors divide up the students into small jam bands. People get creative, coming up with an appropriate name for their band (e.g. “Flew the Coop” performing “I’ll Fly Away”). Like magic everything seems to come together and you’re actually playing in a band! If you ever wondered what it would be like, to get up on stage and perform in front of a live audience, here’s your chance! And you don’t have to worry about Paula, Randy, and Simon. It’s not a “Bluegrass Idol” talent competition. Simply people learning to play bluegrass music together in a friendly, supportive setting.

As a past attendee and bluegrass novice, I found that the Mt. Morris Jam Camp really helped me gain confidence with the whole idea of participating at jam sessions. So whether you’re just learning to play an acoustic instrument or would like help with harmony singing, this is the bluegrass camp you’ve been looking for: one that’s reasonably priced and close to home!

For more information and registration details, please check out the camp’s website

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 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.