Workshops and Hosted Jams
Included with the All Access Wristband
Workshops
Bluegrass banjo, standard instrumental and sundry enhancements – Julio Boysenberry
Walking Bass – 4 beats to the bar on some simple jazz, country and swing tunes
Lisa Burns
Bluegrass Fiddle
Annie Staninec and Dennis Fetchet
3-Part Bluegrass Harmony – A Guided Practice
Maureen “Mo” Blumenthal
Guitar – Intro to Flatpicking Guitar in Five Steps
Tyler Grant
Learn an Old-time Fiddle Tune
Geff and Masha Crawford
Mandolin, An Introduction to Bill Monroe Style
Ken Smith
Welcome to Bluegrass Gospel
Sandy DeVera
New This year: Barn Dance/ Square Dance, added to the Friday Night Program
Hosted Jams
Friendly Old-time Jam
Geff & Masha Crawford
Gospel Jams
Sandy DeVera
Slow Jam
Julio Boysenberry
Traditional Bluegrass Jam
Tyler Grant
Band Scramble
The Band Scramble is Back!
We had so much fun last year, we’re bringing it back. Put your name in the bucket corresponding to your instrument and be matched up at random with other musicians. After a few hours’ practice, you’ll perform on the ballroom stage to open the Friday night concert program.
Workshops and Presenters
Bluegrass banjo – standard instrumental and sundry enhancements – Julio Boysenberry
Julio Boysenberry is a treasured mainstay of the Bakersfield Great 48. A credentialed teacher, Julio teaches Scruggs, Reno, Adcock, Stanley, & Bill Keith styles. He has led slow jam sessions and done numerous banjo workshops at the Parkfield Bluegrass Festival as well as at the Great 48.
Bluegrass Fiddle Workshop – Annie Staninec and Dennis Fetchet
Come join us for some bluegrass fiddle fun! We’ll explore solo construction, backup licks (ie ‘fills’), and twin fiddling. This is a hands on workshop so bring your fiddles, or feel free to just sit in and listen! All levels are welcome – we’ll be touching on several topics and levels with the hope everyone will walk away with a useful new trick or concept. We’ll be doing some learning and practicing along with some breaks so we can share and play some fun twin tunes for y’all.
Annie makes her living performing, teaching, and recording bluegrass fiddle. She has taught at many camps around the country including CBA Music Camp, Kaufman Kamp, Sore Fingers, and Rockygrass Academy. She is a full-time member of the Kathy Kallick Band and Whiskey Deaf, and has toured with numerous other bands including John Reischman & the Jaybirds and Molly Tuttle. And yes, she has toured throughout the US and Europe with Rock Star Rod Stewart!
Photo by David K. Cupp
3-Part Bluegrass Harmony, A Guided Practice – Maureen “Mo” Blumenthal
Maureen “Mo” Blumenthal fell in love with the hair-raising sound of tightly-stacked 3-part bluegrass harmonies in the 1970s from records and listening to bands play at Paul’s Saloon in San Francisco. A bit of a wallflower, she was much too shy to play with others until the Obama Administration. As a late-blooming, modestly talented instrumentalist, she has found that her superpowers are remembering the choruses of MANY bluegrass standards and easily finding tenor and baritone parts on the fly.
If you’d like to hone your harmony skills, come to this guided practice and Mo will give you some tips to help find your parts. She’ll start with a simple song with simple harmonies, but if there’s time we’ll do a few other songs of your choice, as long as they are bluegrass standards you know by heart and have a 3-part chorus most people would know. We’ll dig into the harmonies from there.
Walking Bass – 4 beats to the bar on some simple jazz, country and swing tunes
Lisa Burns
Walking Bass – 4 beats to the bar on some simple jazz, country and swing tunes. I can’t wait to start dancing!
Lisa Burns has been playing and singing for as long as she can remember. She took up the guitar at age 12 but when she started studying upright bass in 1994 she found her true calling. Lisa has studied bass with Jim Edwards, Cindy Browne, Seward McCain, Dan Robbins and Jim Kerwin.
Lisa performs with Sidesaddle & Co, The Goat Hill Girls and The Tiki Tones
Guitar – Intro to Flatpicking Guitar in Five Steps – Tyler Grant
Tyler Grant, National Flatpicking Champion, renowned guitarist, singer, educator, and songwriter. Many Great 48 jammers know Tyler from his YouTube and Facebook livestreams “Tyler Grant’s Playalong Bluegrass Jams” with over 230 archived videos of slow, mid-tempo, and fast jams for practice at home.
Tyler’s thirty-year music career started when he toured with Abigail Washburn, Adrian Young & Little Sadie, and April Verch. He then joined the Drew Emmitt Band, which evolved into the Emmitt/Nershi Band. After seven years in Nashville, TN, he moved to Colorado to found the Cosmic Americana band Grant Farm® in 2010. After five albums, and hundreds of concerts and festivals, the band sought new directions during the “Great Pause” of 2020.
Those new directions included Tyler becoming a river rafting guide and hosting musical raft adventures which have inspired his upcoming solo release, The Flatpicker. When not on the road, the stage, or the river, Tyler keeps up with students on ArtistWorks and TrueFire. Tyler spends most of his time in Colorado and California, searching for that perfect combination of song and story.
Photo by Jessie Bell Photography
Learn an Old-time Fiddle Tune – Geff and Masha Crawford
Learn an Old-time Fiddle Tune
Friendly Old-time Jam
Join Geff & Masha Crawford to play some familiar old-time Appalachian-style fiddle & banjo tunes at a friendly pace. We’ll all play together, no solos, everyone welcome.
~ facebook.com/oldsoles
Mandolin, An Introduction to Bill Monroe Style – Ken Smith
Ken first got a taste of bluegrass through the country rock sounds of Northern California bands like New Riders of the Purple Sage and The Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo. While attending college at Ozark Bible College in Joplin, Missouri, he picked up the mandolin alongside guitar and fiddle, eventually forming a bluegrass band of his own. After college, Ken returned to the Bay Area and became involved in the local bluegrass scene enjoying the sounds of High Country and Good Old Persons. In the early 1990s, he played mandolin with the Avocado Brothers, one of many bands that was part of the region’s growing bluegrass movement. Today, he continues to perform with bluegrass and Western swing groups across the San Francisco Bay Area.
In this workshop, Ken will introduce players to the mandolin style of Bill Monroe, exploring techniques, phrasing, and rhythm patterns that define Monroe’s influential sound. Participants will learn how to bring these classic bluegrass elements into their own playing—no matter their experience level.
Welcome to Bluegrass Gospel Workshop & Jams
– Sandy DeVera
Bakersfield resident, Sandy DeVera invites you to come make a joyful noise at the Great 48 Gospel Jam. All instrument levels, all faiths, all ages may play, sing, or just enjoy music that focuses on “good news” in a weary world. Whether it is a Welcome to Bluegrass Gospel workshop, or the Sunday morning Great 48 Gospel Jam, Sandy and friends will teach you some classic bluegrass Gospel songs, a few fun facts about the history of Gospel music, and how to find (or start) a Gospel jam where you Live.
Wernick Method Bluegrass Jamming class
ONE, three-hour Wernick Method Jam Class will be offered THREE times.
$60 per session (not included with the all-access wristband)
Take any of the sessions and in three hours you will learn basic jam etiquette. how to join a bluegrass jam, how to take solos in a jam and how to sing with a jam. You will have plenty of practice time with personalized coaching to get you “making music with friends, and friends with music.”
Multiple jamming opportunities exist throughout the Bakersfield Great 48 so you can go from class directly to jamming!
Each class is limited in size to provide personalized coaching. Register early! Class fee per person is $60.
Spaces limited so register early!
For more info, contact Mike Thomas 703-727-8491, Banjoworx@gmail.com.