Camp Bluegrass will be held at South Plains College on July 12-17. The camp features classes and workshops for those involved, and the public is welcome to come to one or more of their daily concerts.
The camp was started by Alan Munde and Joe Carr, who were SPC instructors at the time. It has grown since then, and this is their 39th year at SPC.
“They had a facility that wasn’t being used much during the summer, and it’s a smart thing to find a place that can serve you decent food, has classrooms and has a place for people to sleep,” camp director Gerald Jones said. “So that was the perfect thing other than it’s in Levelland, and that’s a little hard to get to if you’re flying in. They’re good folks over there.”
Classes are offered at all levels for bass, banjo dobro, fiddle, guitar, vocals, mandolin, jamming, improvisation, instrument setup and songwriting. Jones described a typical day as “breakfast, go to class, jam, another class, have lunch, then jam, another class, then dinner, faculty concert that night and more jamming,” “We try to give them what they want plus what they need because you don’t always need what you want,” Jones said. “We teach them how to jam, how to play with others, how to make up their own solos, all the basics of scales and chords and the basic tricks of making people think you are better than you really are.”
This year there are 16 instructors. Many are wellknown bluegrass musicians who have taught camps and performed all over the world including Robert Bowlin, Jim Hurst, Tim May and Elliott Rogers on guitar; Bill Evans, Gerald Jones, Beth Mead and Alan Munde on banjo; Jimmy Heffernan on dobro; Nate Lee on fiddle; Anne Luna and Wil Maring on bass; Scott Napier and Steve Smith on mandolin; Dave Polston on slow jam; and Chris Sanders on vocals.
“Most of these people I have either played with or taught camps with or taught this camp with us,” Jones said. “That’s mainly how we found people just from knowing everybody and trying to find people who are good players, who also can teach, who’s not a jerk.”
Those interested can attend any or all faculty concerts. Concerts will be at the Tom T. Hall Production Studio from 7:15 to 8 p.m. Monday-Thursday. There will also be a student concert and graduation on Friday at 9:15 a.m.
“People are welcome just to show up, and a lot of the local folks do show up most years,” Jones said. “Come out to any of them you feel like.”
More information about Camp Bluegrass can be found at campbluegrass.com.