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Door County Bluegrass Camp     2010

More Instruction and Staff

Beginning Guitar:  Chris Irwin
String Instrument Maintenance and Repair:  Larry Frye
Mandolin Building: Luthier Debra Amesqua
Songwriting:    Julia Carter-Moriva,
Harmony and Solo Singing:   Karen Mal, Tommy Burroughs
Yodeling:   Julian Hagen, Linda Swan and Leila Nehlsen
Ocarina, recorder:  Gerhard Bernhard
Square, Circle, Contra Dancing:  Lloyd Michalsen
Music Theory:  Eric Lewis

Tommy Burroughs - Mandolin/Fiddle/Guitar

     Tommy Burroughs has wowed audiences with his amazing fiddle, mandolin and guitar playing. He has won the NARAS Premier String Player award in Memphis a record of 7 times. He is an accomplished songwriter and is one of the most respected multi-instrumentalists in the Memphis area.

 

    Billy Contreras is widely regarded as one of the foremost improvising violinists of his generation. Versed in wide ranging musical styles and at ease on multiple instruments. In the past year Billy has recorded with Hank Williams the Third, Charlie Louvin, and gospel singer Candy Staten.  Most recently he has performed at Bonnaroo and at the Ryman Auditorium with The Black Lillies; he is featured on their debut album Whiskey Angel.  Billy also did tour dates with The Deadly Gentlemen performing on stage with David Grisman.  Additional venues in which Billy has performed include CMT, the Conan O’Brian Show, Farm Aid, France’s Jazz in Tete, the Grand Old Opry, and The Roxy.

Eric Lewis  -   Guitar/ Dobro /Slide

     Eric Lewis is a multi-talented instrumentalist who performs and records with some of the top Memphis artists. He has also toured the country with the first national tour of "Patsy!,"  E-squared artist, Cheri Knight, and Prairie Home Companion favorites, Robin and Linda Williams.

    In 2003 Eric received the Premier Player Award for Strings by the Memphis Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
    "Eric Lewis has proven himself to be one of the city's finer  pickers."- Mark Jorday, The Memphis Flyer
    "...A young fellow with a Collings guitar asked if he could sit in. Sit in?  He took the place apart! I have heard many excellent flat pickers, but he was as good as any I've met. He was Eric Lewis from Memphis, Tennessee.”  Karl Brandenberg, The Independent Register, Madison, WI

You can find Eric at  http://www.myspace.com/ericfuzzyfingerslewis

 

Rich Higdon  has been performing for over 20 years.  He has played with bluegrass groups, orchestras, folk musicians, and an Afro-Haitian dance company. Rich is currently a member of The Water Street Hot Shots, a group which plays a mix of old time string band, blues, and jug band music. Bass and percussion are his specialties though he is sometimes called up to play the jug, washboard, ukulele, kazoo, and even the sink.  Rich lives in West Jacksonport, WI, where he works as a musician and potter.

Rich Higdon -   Bass

     Karen Mal is a full-time musician based in Austin, TX.  Best-known for her effortless and expressive singing, she's also an accomplished muti-instrumentalist on guitar, mandolin and upright bass.  With a degree in music from Long Island University, she brings to the table an  extensive background in theater, Celtic music, bluegrass, and contemporary songwriting. She tours nationally as a solo singer/songwriter, and as a sideman for other performers.
   Karen has won awards for her songwriting from the Kerrville Folk Festival, the Tucson Folk Festival, the Wildflower Music and Arts Festival, the Portland Songwriters Association, and has received national airplay for her three CDs on Waterbug records.  Most recently, she composed music for Door Shakespeare in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin for their current season.  When she's not playing music she spends as much time as possible in the woods and on the river.

Karen Mal - Vocals, Mandolin, Bass

You can find Karen at   http://www.karenmal.com

 

Jody Wood grew up in the mountains of North Carolina and began playing Banjo in 1978 at the age of 10. In his teenage years, Jody was a member of the Dallas Galloway Family Band playing banjo, mandolin, fiddle, and guitar. He is a recurring fill-in for Raymound Fairchild at the Maggie Valley Opry House, while continuing to perform with bluegrass gospel bands.  Jody has mastered all the great bluegrass songs we love to play and hear, and currently performs with the Flat Broke Bluegrass Band.

 

Jody Wood -   Banjo

Special Guest:

Wisconsin based Luthier Debra Amesqua  has a passion for making the carved-top F5 mando, building in the traditional way with spirit varnish finish and meticulous attention to detail and tonal quality.  Amesqua has studied with Luthier Steve Klein, Sonoma Ca., Michael Hornick, at Rockygrass in Bounder Colorado, and with mando guru Steve Gilchrist, at Mandolin Symposium 2008 and 2009.  Debra is a certified guitar-building instructor for Woodcraft, Inc., trained  by Us Guitars in Portland Oregon, and she is a member of Guild of American Luthiers, Southern Wisconsin Bluegrass Music Association, and the Musical Instrument Makers Forum.

Check out her workshop in a great video!

 

 

 

Special Guest:

Julie Moriva is a songwriter who writes for Scott Borchetta's Big Machine Records/Super 98 Publishing Company, home of such artists as Taylor Swift, Trisha Yearwood, Jewel and Justin Moore.  Her most recent project is working with the CMT show "Can You Duet" last season winners, Steel Magnolia's Joshua Scott Jones and Meghan Linsey.  Their co-written no nonsense heartbreaker, "Edge of Goodbye" is currently available on their current EP on itunes. Moriva splits her time between northern Wisconsin and Nashville.