Bluegrass Week

Click on the “See More” for the lineup of teachers at Bluegrass Week 2015!

For 2015, Augusta brings together another spectacular lineup! The staff of well-known bluegrass figures will share their talents with students in classes, workshops, demonstrations, special presentations, concerts and sessions throughout the week. Informal picking sessions at all levels go on ’til the wee hours all over campus as students get together with old friends and make new ones. Evening concerts feature exciting combinations of master bluegrass artists with special guests. While classes are geared for adults, young folks able to maintain an adult level of participation are welcome. All classes (except Vocals) are intended for those who can already play their instrument to some extent and are ready to start learning bluegrass style, technique and repertoire.

Tuition is $450 plus room & board. Registration is now open! To register, specify Bluegrass Week and the class that you would like to attend.

Missy Raines
(Bass, All Levels)
Seven-time IBMA Bass Player of the Year, Missy Raines is one of the most respected figures within the bluegrass community. Her bluegrass roots include work with first-generation legends such as Eddie Adcock, Mac Wiseman, Jesse McReynolds, Josh Graves and Kenny Baker. She is a former member of the Claire Lynch Band, the Brother Boys, and the duo Jim Hurst and Missy Raines. Currently Missy leads Missy Raines and The New Hip, a jazz-tinged ensemble. She is also a member of the bluegrass supergroup Helen Highwater Stringband and she heads up the ArtistWorks Academy of Bluegrass School of Bass, an online music school.

Casey Henry
(Banjo, Beg.)
grew up playing bluegrass in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia with her family band, Red and Murphy and Their Excellent Children. After college she spent a decade in Nashville playing with artists such as Uncle Earl, The Dixie Bee-Liners, June Carter Cash, and Michael Martin Murphey. She now teaches banjo, in person and online, in Winchester, Virginia. She is a regular contributor to Banjo NewsLetter.

Ned Luberecki
(Banjo, Int.)
Noted for his dazzling technique, originality, and sense of humor, Ned Luberecki has served for over a decade with Chris Jones and The Night Drivers. He’s taught banjo at camps in the US, Canada and Europe; he also gives private lessons in Nashville and online. Ned is a broadcaster on SiriusXM’s Bluegrass Junction, where he hosts the newgrass show, “Derailed,” and the popular “Sunday Banjo Lesson.” He has toured with Larry Cordle and Lonesome Standard Time and with Tony Trischka. Ned’s recordings include a solo project, Nedski, and Nothing More with Stephen Mougin.

Tom Adams
(Banjo, Adv.)
First touring nationally in the 1980s with first-generation Bluegrass Hall of Fame artist Jimmy Martin, Tom Adams is a three-time recipient of the IBMA Banjo Player of the Year award. Tom writes the “High Five” column for Banjo Newsletter, gives private lessons at home and online, and performs with the Virginia-based band Springfield Exit. You can hear Tom’s work on recordings with the Johnson Mountain Boys, Lynn Morris, Blue Highway, Rhonda Vincent and many others. His recording of “Foggy Mountain Rock” received the IBMA’s award for Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year in 2013.

Sally Van Meter
(Dobro, All Levels)
Since 1977, Sally Van Meter’s slide guitar work has garnered respect for her commitment to playing music with heart and soul. Sally’s work as a featured performer on The Great Dobro Sessions helped earn the 1994 Grammy for Best Bluegrass Recording. From 1977 to 1996, Sally played with the San Francisco-based Good Ol’ Persons. In 1996 she won two IBMA awards, Best Instrumental Recording and Recorded Event of the Year. Sally’s film, television and radio credits include Gather at the River, Northern Exposure, Texas Connection, A Prairie Home Companion, and E-Town.

Patrick McAvinue
(Fiddle, Beg.)
Patrick McAvinue is regarded as one of the most innovative fiddlers in the industry, able to translate the traditions of bluegrass into a fresh, eclectic, forward-thinking language of his own. He has performed and recorded with bluegrass music icons Bobby Osborne, Del McCoury, Marty Stuart, Paul Williams and J.D. Crowe, to name a few, and has toured throughout the United States, Europe and South America. Currently Patrick performs with Audie Blaylock & Redline.

Byron Berline
(Fiddle, Int.)
A three-time National Fiddle Champion who began playing the fiddle at age 5, Byron Berline introduced the ornate Texas fiddling style into bluegrass. In 1967 he performed and recorded with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Later settling in Los Angeles, Byron played with a succession of high-profile bands, including Country Gazette and California. He currently performs with the Byron Berline Band. Byron’s career as an L.A. studio musician reads like a Who’s Who of popular music. His recording credits include rock, pop, country, and bluegrass, along with movie and commercial sound track work.

Darol Anger
(Fiddle, Adv.)
Fiddler, composer, producer, and educator Darol Anger has helped drive the evolution of the contemporary string band through his involvement with numerous trailblazing ensembles, including his Republic of Strings, the Turtle Island String Quartet and the David Grisman Quintet. He has performed with musicians such as Dr. Billy Taylor, Béla Fleck, the Detroit Symphony, Tony Rice and Stephane Grappelli. Darol teaches at the Berklee College of Music and recently began an online fiddle school at ArtistWorks.com. He can be heard every week on NPR’s Car Talk theme. He was also the violinist on the phenomenally popular SimCity computer games.

Carl Jackson
(Guitar, Beg.)
As a teenager Carl Jackson performed with Jim and Jesse McReynolds on banjo and with the Sullivan Family as a guitarist. He later joined up with Glen Campbell, playing banjo with him for twelve years and honing his abilities as a singer and songwriter. A multiple Grammy winner, Carl has sung, played, written songs and produced recordings for a staggering list of bluegrass and country artists. His song “Little Mountain Church House” was voted the 1990 IBMA Song of the Year. A Bluegrass Unlimited poll found Carl to have written eight of the top 200 bluegrass songs of all time.

Tyler Grant
(Guitar, Int.)
National Flatpicking Champion Tyler Grant is an internationally recognized guitar virtuoso with an impressive résumé as a session musician, bandleader, and sideman. He has shared the stage with Tony Rice, Sam Bush, Tim O’Brien, Jerry Douglas, Chris Thile and many others. He performs regularly with his band Grant Farm. Tyler has won flatpicking contests across the US and has taught at camps and workshops here, in Canada and in England. This is his ninth year as an instructor at Augusta’s Bluegrass Week.

Jack Lawrence
(Guitar, Adv.)
is probably best known as Doc Watson’s musical partner for over 25 years. Bluegrass Unlimited magazine called Jack a “flat picking powerhouse.” He refers to himself as a “journeyman guitarist.” Jack’s musical odyssey began at age 16 when he started playing with bluegrass gospel great Carl Story. He soon found himself in the middle of the “newgrass” movement, working with the New Deal String Band and the Bluegrass Alliance. Jack has recorded and performed with such luminaries as Joan Baez, Sam Bush, Vassar Clements, Duane Eddy, David Grisman and Del McCoury.

Sharon Gilchrist
(Mandolin, Beg.)
a singer, mandolinist and upright bass player, Sharon Gilchrist has performed with Darol Anger, Peter Rowan and Tony Rice, Laurie Lewis, Scott Nygaard, Kathy Kallick and Uncle Earl. She earned a degree in Mandolin Performance from Belmont University in Nashville and has taught mandolin for nearly 15 years. From 2004 to 2012 she served on staff at the College of Santa Fe teaching mandolin. Sharon currently resides in the Bay Area of northern California.

Joe Walsh
(Mandolin, Int.)
Hailed as “one of the best mandolinists of his generation,” Joe K. Walsh is known for his exceptional tone and taste, his collaborations with important acoustic musicians and his tenure with the Gibson Brothers. Joe currently performs with Grant Gordy, Darol Anger and Ethan Jodziewicz in Mr. Sun and in a trio with Brittany Haas and Owen Marshall. He teaches at the Berklee College of Music and at music camps throughout North America and beyond. Joe is co-director of the Berklee American Roots Weekend camp in Boston and the Ossipee Valley String Camp.

Herschel Sizemore
(Mandolin, Adv.)
An important transitional figure who helped forge the modern style of bluegrass mandolin playing, Herschel Sizemore got his start playing with the Dixie Gentlemen in 1956. His career has seen him working with the Boys From Shiloh, Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys, the Shenandoah Cut Ups, the Country Grass, Del McCoury and the Dixie Pals and the Bluegrass Cardinals. His most famous composition is the instrumental “Rebecca,” which has become a bluegrass standard. The AcuTab company has published a book of transcriptions of Herschel’s tunes and mandolin solos.

Ben Surratt
(Recording & Live Sound Reinforcement, All Levels)
Ben Surratt, a 20-year veteran in the Nashville recording scene, has earned Grammy nominations and won IBMA and Dove awards. Ben has recorded the Gibson Brothers, Claire Lynch, the Larry Stephenson Band, Missy Raines and the New Hip, the Roland White Band, the Steel Wheels and the Helen Highwater Stringband. He has been a live sound engineer since he was a teenager and now owns the Rec Room Studio in Nashville. He has toured with the Eddie Adcock Band, Blue Highway, the Lynn Morris Band, the Claire Lynch Band and Missy Raines and The New Hip.

Mark Simos
(Songwriting, All Levels)
writes songs that cast contemporary themes in traditional forms and styles, with intricately crafted lyrics, memorable melodies and intriguing progressions. Mark’s songs and tunes have been recorded by Alison Krauss, Ricky Skaggs, Del McCoury, Doyle Lawson, the Infamous Stringdusters, Laurie Lewis and many more. Since 2006 Mark has taught songwriting at the Berklee College of Music. His approach to songwriting is detailed in his book, Songwriting Strategies: A 360º Approach. He has taught songwriting, guitar and old-time fiddle at many workshops and camps and has released five albums of original and traditional songs and tunes.

Chris Jones
(Vocals, All Levels)
Chris Jones is a quadruple threat as a singer, a songwriter, a guitarist and—thanks to his role hosting SiriusXM’s Bluegrass Junction—as the most widely heard broadcasting voice in bluegrass. Following apprenticeships with bluegrass legend Dave Evans and Chicago’s durable Special Consensus, Chris moved to Nashville at the end of the 1980s. He has been the front man for Chris Jones and the Night Drivers since the mid-1990s and his original songs also been recorded by many other artists. In 2007 Chris earned an IBMA Song of the Year award and also that organization’s Broadcaster Of The Year trophy.

Dede Wyland
(Vocals, All Levels)
Best known for her work in the 1980s with the groundbreaking progressive bluegrass group Tony Trischka and Skyline, Dede Wyland is known as “a singer’s singer” and a role model for a generation of female bluegrass musicians who followed her. Since moving to the Washington-Baltimore area in 1990, Dede has continued to perform while concentrating on her work as a vocal coach. Her CD Keep the Light On was released in 2009 and she is the subject of a chapter in Murphy Henry’s 2013 book Pretty Good for a Girl: Women in Bluegrass.

Fred Bartenstein
(History of Bluegrass)
has known and worked with virtually all of bluegrass music’s first generation. The editor of Muleskinner News from 1969 to 1974, he has also been a bluegrass broadcaster, musician, festival MC, talent director and scholar. Named a Distinguished Achievement Award recipient by the IBMA in 2006, he is the editor of Bluegrass Bluesman: a Memoir by Josh Graves (University of Illinois Press, 2012) and co-author of The Bluegrass Hall of Fame: Inductee Biographies 1991-2014 (Holland Brown Books, 2014). A resident of Yellow Springs, Ohio, Bartenstein has been a manager, CEO and consultant for nonprofits, government and business.

Neel Brown
(Coordinator & Staff Musician)
An accomplished singer and multi-instrumentalist, Neel Brown has played the Bluebird Café in Nashville, the Olympics in Atlanta and countless places in the Washington, DC, area. He now enjoys picking and singing in living rooms and the occasional local bluegrass gig with the band Only Lonesome. Neel makes his home in Arlington, Virginia, where he runs an advocacy communications company. He is a board member of the Capital Area Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Association (CABOMA).

Mary Burdette
(Coordinator & Staff Musician)
is a bass player from Hammondsport, NY. She has performed at festivals from Grass Valley to Gettysburg, IBMA, European World of Bluegrass and major cowboy poetry gatherings with Skip Gorman, Tom Sauber and Ruthie Dornfeld. She can be heard on Rounder and Music of the Old West recordings as well as on the original soundtrack of Ken Burns’ PBS documentary Lewis and Clark: Journey of the Corps of Discovery. By day, she is Assistant Director of the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival and a passionate owner of two lively Berger Picards.

Ira Gitlin
(Coordinator & Staff Musician)
is widely known and respected in Washington-Baltimore music circles as a versatile multi-instrumentalist, teacher and writer. A former National Bluegrass Banjo Champion, he has backed up such nationally known performers as Bill Harrell, the Johnson Mountain Boys, Laurie Lewis, Peter Rowan and Peter “P.D.Q. Bach” Schickele. Ira has taught at numerous music camps and festivals. A frequent contributor to Bluegrass Unlimited and Banjo NewsLetter, he has lectured on bluegrass for the Smithsonian Associates and delivered a paper at the 2005 Bluegrass Music Symposium. In 1993 Ira was a one-day winner on Jeopardy.

Mark Panfil
(Staff Musician)
Born and raised in Lackawanna, NY, Mark Panfil began playing five-string banjo at age 15 and took up dobro while in college. After graduating, he began teaching music in public schools and playing in the Buffalo-based bluegrass band Creek Bend. Mark has shared the stage and classroom with bluegrass heroes including Vassar Clements, Jerry Douglas, Bobby Hicks, Rob Ickes, Phil Leadbetter, Bryan Sutton, Chubby Wise, Mac Wiseman and Sally Van Meter. Mark’s instructional book A Dobro Player’s Guide to Jamming is available from Mel Bay publishing and he and has recorded a highly successful Murphy Method instructional DVD.

John Seebach
(Staff Musician)
John Seebach was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky. He lives in the Washington, DC, area. An accomplished tenor and lead vocalist, John also performs on mandolin and guitar with the Rickie Simpkins Quartet, Only Lonesome and Big Chimney. Along with fellow staff musicians, John will assist in classes, give short ad hoc lessons, and participate in slow jams.