I am going to reveal a deeply personal fact about my musical tastes. Yes, the first album that I bought was not a Flatt and Scruggs album, or Carter Family Album, or Louvin Brothers, or even the Dillards (even though I might be distantly related through one of my uncles)…in fact Bluegrass was not even on my musical radar in the late 60s and early 70s. Nope, I was maybe 13, walked into this record store, browsed through the sale bin, and came across this album cover that piqued my interest…the cover art looked like a local newspaper and it was pretty obviously a parody of a newspaper at that. Since one of my major reading sources happened to be Mad Magazine, I thought this was pretty cool and who in the world would write all that sarcastic text and name the album “Thick as a Brick”? And what did thick as a brick have to do with the music? Bluegrass it wasn’t! But I went home, popped it on the turntable and pretty much got rocked out. One thing about Jethro Tull’s music is that it was unconventional and the lyrics…well if they weren’t sarcastic, sometimes they just didn’t make a lot of sense. Who sings about aqualungs and ducks spitting out pieces of their broken lungs? (Actually the lyric is spitting out pieces of his broken luck…and not the duck’s luck, but it sure does sound like lung.) But the music grabbed me. And even though a lot of bluegrass grabs me as well, for the life of me I can’t really think of any bluegrass lyrics that are off-the-ranch as much as the lyrics in Tull’s music. Kind of makes me want to try and grass up Aqualung. Well come to think it, some of Kris Kristofferson’s lyrics are out there a bit, but that’s not bluegrass.
We have a smashing lineup at music camp this year. I think Peter and Janet have outdone themselves. The ever awesome Bill Evans will be teaching Bluegrass Band 2/3 this year but check out who our banjo teachers are: Dan Levenson Old-Time Band 2/3, Patrick Sauber Bluegrass Banjo 1/2, Ned Luberecki Bluegrass Banjo 2/3, and Allison deGroot Old-Time Banjo 1/2. Cary Black (Bass 1/2) and Chuck Ervin (Bass 2/3) are teaching bass whereas the slide brothers Greg Booth (Dobro 1/2) and Mike Witcher (Dobro 2/3) will be enlightening us about the mysteries of the resophonic guitar. I don’t know why but we always seem to recruit some stellar fiddlers and this year John Mailander will be teaching Bluegrass Fiddle 1/2, Annie Staninec is returning to teach Bluegrass Fiddle 2/3, (but I really want to hear some Rod Stewart stories), and Bruce Molsky will teach Old-Time Fiddle 2/3. Guitar is always one of our most popular instruments and we have Molly Tuttle (Guitar w/Singing 1/2), Stash Wyslouch (Old-Time Guitar 1/2), Steve Pottier (Bluegrass Rhythm Guitar 1/2), and I think this has been my first music camp with Scott Nygaard (Guitar Solos 2/3) teaching. Tom Rozum (Mandolin 1), Jack Tuttle (Mandolin 2), and Tom Bekeny (Mandolin 3) are our stout mandolin corps. Vocals are always some of our most popular offerings and no wonder with Mary Gibbons (Singing Style(s) 2/3), Laurie Lewis (Vocal Harmony 1/2), and Keith Little (Vocal Harmony 2/3). Kathy Kallick will be teaching Songwriting 1/2…jeez I wish I could take that and Kathleen Rushing will be teaching Fungrass.
So start the countdown, mark your calendars, set your alarms because registration for the 2017 CBA Music Camp opened on February 7. The music camp website http://cbamusiccamp.com will contain any breaking information.
And we would like to remind you that you can give CBA Music Camp as a gift for Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Graduation, Birthdays Valentine’s Day, and even April Fool’s Day. Check it out at our web site.
Keep the batteries fresh in your tuners, keep your strings clean and polished, and keep your picks close at hand because we’re agonna be kicking up some sand come June.
