Hi folks,
I hope that everyone is having a great summer! Things are busy as always here at Native and Fine Music and I want to share news about three particularly exciting things!
Bluegrass Jam Essentials: Play With the Pros, Power Picking Vol. 5 is my new DVD project from AcuTab Publications. This 2 hour 30 minute DVD is co-hosted by fiddler Megan Lynch and also features Adam Steffey on mandolin, Tim Stafford on guitar and David Thomas on bass. This is not only a great play along project, featuring 12 jam favorites played at medium fast to fast speeds, but you'll also get the thrill of playing with a great, contemporary sounding bluegrass rhythm section (I mean, who's better than Adam Steffey and Tim Stafford in this regard?). If you're an intermediate to advanced level player looking for a challenge and new insights into playing in a band or jam, this is the project for you. Check out a more detailed description at the "Store" link at the Bill Evans Native and Fine Music homepage.
For those of you who live in the San Francisco Bay Area, I'd like to invite you to a new six-week intermediate level Bluegrass Ensemble Class: Beyond The Basics that begins at the Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse in Berkeley on Tuesday, August 31 and runs through October 5. This class is designed for those who have moved beyond slow jams but aren't quite ready to give up the day job, buy matching outfits and take off in a tour bus to the next festival! We'll play slightly more challenging material, at slightly faster speeds and try our hands at taking solos on the fly and singing harmony and leads. The emphasis is on fun!
And don't forget that the 10th Annual NashCamp Sonny Osborne Banjo Camp is coming up October 15-17 in Fairview, Tennessee (southwest of Nashville). Our teacher lineup this year is incredible: Tony Trischka, Jens Kruger, Bill Emerson, Kristin Scott Benson (Sunday only), Tom Adams, Ned Luberecki, Frank Neat, me and....Sonny Osborne! And we have the best food of any camp in the world - we guarantee it! And the most friendly students too!! This camp is open to all ability levels as our small group classes are grouped according to ability level. There's also directed and free jams, concerts...and did I mention the food? Learn more at http://www.nashcamp.com. It's going to be a good one this year!
Keep on picking and I hope we get to play some music together real soon!
Sincerely,
Bill Evans
bevans@nativeandfine.com
Download a track from "Bill Evans Plays Banjo" now!
Click on the title to download an MP3 of "Germaine's Dream" (3660 KB), a track from Bill Evans Plays Banjo on Native and Fine Records. The players on this cut are Bill Evans, banjo; Darol Anger: harmony fiddles, second and fourth solos; Greg Spatz: fiddle, first and third solos; John Reischman: mandolin; Rob Ickes: dobro; Jim Nunally: guitar; Missy Raines: bass. Recorded at Jim Nunally's, Crockett, CA, February, 2001. Written by Bill Evans. Published by Fifth Child Music, BMI. All rights reserved.
If you are a bluegrass, folk or Americana DJ and interested in receiving a copy of this project, e-mail me by clicking here.
I hope you enjoy this triple-fiddle romp featuring Darol Anger and Spokane, Washington fiddler Greg Spatz from John Reischman and the Jaybirds. I dreamt this tune on a Saturday night, right down to the individual notes of the banjo break and was lucky to have some time early on the Sunday morning to lay it all out. Enjoy! Bill.