Workshops and Hosted Jams
Included with the All Access Wristband
(Check this page often for updates!)
Workshops
Banjo, Chords and Sundry other related issues
Julio Boysenberry
Bluegrass Fiddle
Annie Staninec and Dennis Fetchet
Bluegrass Harmony Basics, A Guided Practice
Maureen “Mo” Blumenthal
Career Pickin’: How to grow your business with more income opportunities, and strengthen your music toolbox
Joanne Ledesma
Guitar, The Heartbeat of the Jam
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
Hosted Jams
(More to be announced!)
Friendly Old-time Jam
Geff & Masha Crawford
Gospel Jams
Sandy DeVera
Slow Jams
Julio Boysenberry
Traditional Bluegrass Jams
Tyler Grant
Bluegrass Jam with Pointers Along the Way
Chad Manning
Workshops and Presenters
Banjo – Chords and Sundry other related issues – 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
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!
Dennis has been an icon in the SoCal bluegrass community since the early 1970’s and has played in numerous bands including the Wild Hickory Nuts, Bluegrass Cardinals, Byron Berline’s LA Fiddle Band, Hoyt Axton, and a full-time 25-year stint with Billy Hill & The Hillbillies at Disneyland. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall Of Fame along with the Bluegrass Cardinals in September 2025.
Photo by David K. Cupp
Bluegrass Harmony Basics, A Guided Practice – Maureen “Mo” Blumenthal
Maureen “Mo” Blumenthal fell in love with the hair-raising sound of tightly-stacked 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 actually get into jamming 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 she’ll give you some tips to help find your parts. Be prepared to sing lead on a standard bluegrass song you know by heart. It must have a 3-part chorus that most people would know. We’ll dig into the harmonies from there.
Career Pickin’: How to grow your business with more income opportunities, and strengthen your music toolbox
– Joanne Ledesma
Joanne Ledesma is the author of the newly released book Career Pickin’: Music Business for Bluegrass. Ledesma currently manages several artists including Water Tower, Muddy Mountain West, Willow Osborne and more. In addition she is an advisor to Bluegrass Festivals like Matheson Bluegrass Festival, Long Beach Bluegrass Festival, South State 48 and more. She is also active in licensing music to film and tv.
This workshop offers practical steps for navigating the business side of bluegrass. You’ll learn how to get more gigs, protect your songs through copyrights, get paid for royalties, understand song-splits, negotiate fair deals, and explore strategies for releasing records, touring, building your brand, growing your fanbase, and leveraging social media. We’ll also cover how to build your digital footprint, music placements in film/TV, contracts, distribution platforms, and record deals, giving you the tools you need to grow your career with confidence.
Lead Guitar and Vocals
-Scott Gates
Described as a fun-loving and remarkable musician, Scott Gates is yet another product of the California Bluegrass youth movement. He has been playing mandolin, guitar, and singing hard core bluegrass since before he was ten years old Scott has built a large fan base as part of the Get Down Boys, Jeff Scroggins and the Sccroggdogs and AJ Lee & Blue Summit. In this workshop, he will be sharing some techniques and inspiration on both lead guitar and vocals.
Guitar – The Heartbeat of the Jam – 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
Both Geff & Masha have over 4 decades of experience playing & performing, and have shared stages, tunes, friendship, & laughter with folks like Peggy Seeger, Tom Paley, Byron Berline, Frank George, Walt Koken, Dan Gellert, Rhys Jones, and others. They perform as the duo “Old Soles” and in several different bands, and Masha is a well-known barn dance caller. Join them for some good-time old-time tunes and laughter! All instruments and all levels are welcome.
We’re thrilled to welcome Geff and Masha Crawford back to head up our old-time program. Known for their friendly, welcoming teaching style, they’ll also be on faculty again this summer at the CBA Music Camp in Grass Valley.
~ 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.
Chad Manning – Jam, TBA
Chad Manning is a Bay Area bluegrass, old-time, and swing fiddler who currently plays with Charlie Torch (a band with his kids, Jasper and Jayna Manning, as well as Mike Witcher, Mark Schatz, and Tyler Stegall), the California Bluegrass Reunion, and regularly joins the Sam Grisman Project and Peter Rowan. Chad is an alumni of the David Grisman Sextet, the David Grisman Bluegrass Experience,and Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands, and has performed with many bluegrass greats, including J.D. Crowe, Curly Seckler, Alan Munde, and Tony Trischka, among others.
Chad also finds deep joy in teaching and working with adult fiddle students of all levels. He and his wife, Catherine, along with a dedicated team of exceptional teachers, work with more than 200 students at their studio, Manning Music, in Berkeley, California
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 FOUR 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.