• Instructions For New Members and Guests


    This is our new Middle Georgia Bluegrass Association Blog. It is for the members use. So please register. You will find complete step by step instructions at the end of this post. But please read the entire post so you will know what this is all about. Our mission is to promote Bluegrass music throughout central Georgia by bringing together those who enjoy playing, singing, or just listening to bluegrass music. So please use this blog to further our mission. You can write about anything related to Bluegrass music. We would like to hear your ideas. Let us know what you would like to see our association do. You can ask questions. You can make suggestions. You can advertise an instrument for sale or an instrument you would like to buy. Another very useful thing about blogs is they are interactive. You can write and publish a post and then others can comment on your post. Please do this as it gets a two way conversation going on a subject and makes it more interesting for everyone. All we ask is that you be nice and treat others as you would like to be treated. I don't really think that is an issue with our group, but it has been on some blogs. This blog will be moderated, so if there is something you don't understand or need help with, please get in touch with myself (Herschel Lawhorn - hblawhorn@yahoo.com - 478-654-6309) or Ebin Shepard (EbinShepard@cox.net - 478-935-3952). We appreciate your support and encourage your use of this blog.

    Now the instructions.

    1. Register - you will fine the register link at the bottom of the left column under "Meta" .
    2. Pick a good user name. This can be what ever you like, but can not be changed.
    3. Use a good email address that you check often as your "password" will be mailed to this email address.
    4. Check your email for your password.
    5. Login using the user name you chose and the password that was emailed to you.
    6. Once you are logged in to the back office or what is called the "Dashboard" you will see a link at the top right labeled "Profile". Please fill in your first and last name and any other information that you would like.
    7. Under the "Display name publicly as" please choose your "first and last" name so others will know who made the post.
    8. I would suggest that you change your password to something you can remember but others can't guess. That is all that is necessary at this time.
    9. When you get ready to add something to the blog. You will login and click on "Write Post". A new box will open for you to give your post a "Title" and in the second box you will write whatever it is you want to say. That is all that is necessay, but you can assign your post to a certain catogory and you can attach "tags" which are nothing but keywords that tell search engines like Google what your post is about. Tags need to be separated by commas.
    10. When you are ready you can view your post or if you are sure it is like you want it then you need to click on the "Publish" button. Your post is not entered on the blog until you "publish" it.
    11. That is all it is to it. you have made your first "post" and hopefully you will make many more.
    12. Have Fun Blogging!

    Now for the Posts


Just a reminder about the meeting at Porterfield Baptist Church this Thursday, June 10.  I hope to see deveryone there.

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Just a quick note to remind everyone about our monthly meeting this Thursday, 13 May, 7:oo p.m., at the Porterfield Baptist Church in Macon.  I hope to see everyone there.

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The ones who missed sundays jam missed a good time.  Glen and Vivian were gracious hosts and the Park facilities were nice. We had some good pickin and the park residents were there to listen and seemed to really enjoy the music. If they do it again, be sure to come. A good time was had by all.

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We had a pretty slim turnout for the meeting Thursday, but I do appreciate everyone that attended. I understand that sometimes things come up and we can’t make it to all the meetings.
We did get approval to have our festival in Juliette on April 17, so I’ll press on with getting the groups lined up and make a schedule. Let’s all invite folks to come out and support our efforts to make this a successful venture. There will be no tickets to sell! This will be a free event. Also, I understand there are a couple of restaurants in town for people to eat at.
The folks from the Powersville Opry have asked that we do a Saturday festival at their facility sometime in the near future. I will more information from them as this idea was just presented to me. Please be thinking about this idea and give me your thoughts.
Finally, Mr. Charlie Lewis has announced his resignation as the MGBA vice president, so if anyone is interested in filling this position please let us know. We will plan to elect someone at the next meeting.
Upcoming Events:
March 14 – Jam session at Fair Harbor R.V. Park in Perry, off of Exit 135. Starts at 2:00 p.m. until……..
April 2, 3 – Piney Woods Bluegrass Festival
April 10 – Bluegrass and Bar-B-Que Festival in Dublin
April 17 – MGBA Bluegrass Festival in Juliette
May 13 – 15 May – Hillside Bluegrass Festival in Cochran

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I am new to Macon and have been playing banjo

, a little mandolin, guitar, and harmonica. Been

at the banjo for about 35 years. Interested in

jamming or forming a group. email: bobinsaigon

@gmail.com. See Bob Delzell on facebook

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Fellow Banjoists and Banjo Enthusiasts

Come study 5-string banjo at the Suwannee Banjo Camp with some of today’s best players and teachers. Our program features hands-on classes, demonstrations, and a big faculty concert, and still leaves lots of time for jamming with your fellow banjo enthusiasts. The dates are March 19-21, 2010, and the place is the same as it has been the last few years: beautiful O’Leno State Park in High Springs, Florida.

SBC features instruction in both bluegrass and “old-time” banjo (that is, clawhammer and old-time fingerpicking). We also offer instruction in old-time fiddle and ekonting (an African ancestor of the banjo).

Our bluegrass banjo staff consists of Scott Anderson, Janet Davis, James McKinney, Bill Keith, and Tony Trischka

Our old-time banjo staff features Cathy Barton Para, Mac Benford, Paul Brown, Adam Hurt, Brad Leftwich, Chuck Levy and Ken Perlman.

Will also are repeating our African Roots program with master ekonting player, Sana Ndiaye, of Senegal.

In addition, we have a fiddle track with instructors Paul Brown, Brad Leftwich, Adam Hurt, and Chuck Levy

To sign up for the 2010 camp, to check faculty bios, or obtain other information about us, go to our website http://www.suwanneebanjocamp.com.

Discount for Early Sign-Ups: We offer a discount for registering early. The cut off date is Dec. 15.

Look forward to seeing you next March!

Yours,
Chuck Levy and Ken Perlman
Directors

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I know a lots of the members but this is my first posting on the bluegrass board.   Just a line to say hello and to get regestered on the board.

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The 5th Annual Suwannee Banjo Camp will take place at beautiful O’Leno State Park, in High Springs, Florida, from March 20-22nd. This year’s camp will build on the success of last four years, with an expanded bluegrass program as well as additional old-time instructors.

On the bluegrass side of the coin, Janet Davis and Bill Keith will be returning, joined by Bill Evans and Scott Anderson.

Janet has written numerous best selling books for the 5-string banjo as well as dobro. Mel Bay has several of her books listed as “Best Sellers.” Janet also teaches and plays ALL bluegrass instruments and several others. She has been a columnist with Banjo Newsletter for 30 years.

Bill Keith largely invented the three-finger picking style known as “melodic” banjo. He first came to international attention in the early 60s when he played and recorded with Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys. He co-authored the original Earl Scruggs banjo instruction book and record, and has also written several other banjo instruction books, including the first ones ever published in French and Italian. He has recorded several albums for Rounder, Green Linnet, and Hexagon, and has toured widely throughout North America, Western Europe, Japan, and Australia. He devised and, through the Beacon Banjo Company, still markets the famous tuning pegs that bear his name.

Bill Evans is well-known within the bluegrass banjo world as a player and teacher. A former member of Dry Branch Fire Squad, Bill currently tours nationally with Peter Rowan, John Reischman, Tony Trischka, and with his solo historical concert The Banjo in America. In addition, he writes a monthly instructional column for Banjo Newsletter and has produced instructional books and videos with Sonny Osborne and J.D. Crowe for AcuTab Publications and Homespun Tapes.

Native Floridian Scott Anderson has been performing in professional bluegrass bands since the late 1980s, beginning with The Bluegrass Parlor Band. In 1993, he co-founded Endless Highway, touring the Southeast and recording one critically-acclaimed CD. From 2004-2006, he toured in the US and abroad as a member of The Jim Hurst Band. He has also performed or recorded with Claire Lynch, Vassar Clements, Larry Rice, Byron Berline, Chubby Wise, Allen Shadd, the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra and many others. He currently fronts The Scott Anderson Band and plays as a duo with his daughter Amanda.

Most of the favorites will be back for the old-time track. Bob Carlin, Ken Perlman, Mark Johnson, Brad Leftwich, and Chuck Levy, have formed the core faculty for the last couple of years. Laura Boosinger, who made a big splash last year, will also return. SBC welcomes two additional outstanding players, Paul Brown and Adam Hurt. Paul, one of today’s most sought after banjoists, is also fine fiddler and singer. He is steeped in the tradition, having spent years learning music from some of the last fiddle, banjo, and guitar players to emerge before the age of radio and recordings in Virginia and North Carolina. Among his influences are Wade and Fields Ward, Tommy Jarrell, Gilmer Woodruff, Benton Flippen, Fred Cockerham and Kyle Creed. Adam Hurt, Deemed a “banjo virtuoso” by the Washington Post, draws on diverse musical influences from the North Carolina piedmont, the mountains of central West Virginia, the Ohio River Valley and beyond to create his own elegantly innovative clawhammer banjo playing. At age 24, Adam has already placed in or won most of the major old-time banjo competitions including Clifftop, Mount Airy, and Galax, and won the state banjo championships of Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, and Alabama.

We are offering a fiddle track with Brad Leftwich, Paul Brown, Adam Hurt, and Chuck Levy as instructors.

We are delighted to be bringing the African Roots Program back to Suwannee Banjo Camp for 2009, with instructor Sana Ndiaye, assisted by Chuck, Paul Sedgwick, and Greg C. Adams. The program offers instruction in the akonting (ekonting) an instrument that shares much with the American banjo in terms of sound and design, and whose manner of play (known as “o’teck) is very close to clawhammer.

In case some of you might not know Sana, he is a very interesting fellow. He grew up in the Casamance region of Senegal, where he learned to play the akonting from his grandfather (Sana says that an instrument with a small gourd is an akonting, and a large goaurd is an ekonting). Later he moved to Dakar where he and friends formed the hip hop group, Gohk Bi System. Sana plays the ekonting in this band. Currently he and the band live in the US, near Boston.

In response to the musical demands entailed in being a professional musician, Sana has altered the traditional instrument, adding an additional tone to the traditional pentatonic scale, and changing traditional technique to allow stopping of the second string. He also commissioned a wood topped instrument with geared tuners.

Joining Sana are Paul Sedgwick and Greg Adams, noted musicians and banjo scholars.

This year we feature an entire eight class track of African Roots offerings. Students are free to take just a single class to see what it’s all about, or engage in a full weekend of study.

Akontings will be loaned to participants at no charge, and also available for purchase.
See our full announcement of the program and bios on the website, http://www.suwanneebanjocamp.com.

Yours,
Chuck Levy
Co-Director

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