We’ll have three days of fun, picking, learning and jamming at the Doubletree Hotel
on LBJ near the Midway exit. Plus, the Bluegrass Heritage Festival will be presenting
Po’ Ramblin’ Boys | The Special Consensus | Rick Faris Band | Bobby Giles & Texas Gales
and more.
Acoustic Music Camp 2023 Camp Schedule
Schedule subject to change.
Thursday April 13 2023
3:30pm – Registration / Orientation
5:30pm – Instrument Classes
7:30pm – Instructor Lead Jams
Friday April 14 2023
9:30am – Instrument Classes
Noon- Lunch Break
1:00pm – Instructor Lead Jams
2:30 pm -Instrument Classes
5:00pm – Dinner Break
6:00 – 10pm – Bluegrass Heritage Festival
Saturday April 15 2023
9:30am – Instrument Classes
11:00am – Instructor Lead Jams
Noon – Lunch Break
1:00pm – Student Concert
2:00pm – Camp Ends
2:00pm – 10pm – Bluegrass Heritage Festival
Instructors
Greg Cahill – Banjo
Chicago born and bred, Greg Cahill has been playing bluegrass banjo since the early 1970s. He co-founded The Special Consensus in Chicago in 1975 and has continued to tour nationally and internationally with the band ever since. In 1984, he created the Traditional American Music (TAM) Program to introduce students of all ages to bluegrass music. He has appeared on all 20 of The Special Consensus recordings, on numerous recordings by other artists and on many national television and radio commercial jingles. Greg has also released three recordings: Lone Star (1980, with guests Jethro Burns and Byron Berline); Blue Skies (1992, with Chicago mandolinist Don Stiernberg); and Night Skies (1998, with Don Stiernberg and guests Sam Bush, Glen Duncan and Tom Boyd). He has also recorded and toured European countries with the ChowDogs (Greg and Slavek Hanzlik, Dallas Wayne and Ollie O’Shea). Greg has released four banjo instructional DVDs and three banjo tablature books and he teaches banjo at festival workshops and music camps nationally and internationally. He is a banjo instructor at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago and has been an adjunct faculty member of the music department (teaching banjo) at Columbia College in Chicago. He served on the Nashville-based International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Board of Directors from 1998-2010 (Board Chair/President 2006-2010), became a Kentucky Colonel in 2010 and was awarded the prestigious IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award in 2011. Greg was also appointed to the Board of Directors of the Nashville-based Foundation for Bluegrass Music in 2007, elected President of the organization in 2011 and rotated off that board in 2012. The 2012 Compass Records band recording Scratch Gravel Road was GRAMMY-nominated for Best Bluegrass Album; the 2014 Compass Records band release Country Boy: A Bluegrass Tribute To John Denver received two IBMA awards; the 2016 Compass Records band recording Long I Ride received an IBMA award and the 2018 Compass Records recording Rivers And Roads received two IBMA awards (one for Album of the Year) and a GRAMMY nomination for Best Bluegrass Album. Greg served on the Recording Academy Chicago Chapter Board of Directors 2018-2020 and he was inducted into the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America (SPBGMA) Hall of Greats in Nashville, TN in 2020. Greg appears on the 2020 Special C Compass Records release Chicago Barn Dance, the 20th band recording that received the 2020 IBMA Song of the Year Award.
Dan Eubanks – Bass
Dan Eubanks grew up in Crystal City and St. Louis, Missouri, and his grandparents began taking him to bluegrass festivals at a very young age in the 1970s. He began playing music on drums, then banjo and guitar, and eventually electric bass at age 12. Dan played in country and rock bands throughout high school and attended college on a music scholarship. His study of jazz bass playing eventually led him to the upright bass and a very diverse musical education that included study of nearly all styles of American music and procurement of a Master’s degree in Jazz Studies from Webster University in St. Louis. In 2003, after many years of teaching at several St. Louis-area colleges and universities as an adjunct professor, Dan’s desire to get back to his bluegrass and country roots prompted his move to Nashville. He has been teaching, performing with various bands and working as a studio session musician since his relocation, and he has appeared on the television show “Nashville” several times as a side musician in bands that support main characters. Dan joined Special Consensus in 2013 and made his first band recording appearance on the 2014 Compass Records band recording Country Boy: A Bluegrass Tribute To John Denver that received two International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) awards. He also appeared on the 2016 Compass Records band recording Long I Ride, which also received an IBMA award, and on the 2018 Compass Records band recording Rivers And Roads that received two IBMA awards (one for Album of the Year) and a GRAMMY nomination for Best Bluegrass Album. Dan released a solo recording titled Look What The City’s Done in March 2019 and he appears on the 2020 Special C Compass Records release Chicago Barn Dance,which received the 2020 IBMA Song of the Year Award.
Greg Blake – Guitar
Greg Blake was born and raised in the hills of West Virginia but he has spent most of his life living and working in Kansas City – on both sides of the state line. After graduating from high school in West Virginia, Greg attended bible college in Overland Park, Kansas where he met his wife. They both pursued further education, careers, and raised a family for 25 years in Kansas before moving to Colorado in 2007. While in Kansas, he was a member of the Bluegrass Missourians for nearly 15 years. During that time, the band received multiple awards from the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America (SPBGMA), and he received two nominations for SPBGMA’s Traditional Male Vocalist of the Year and nine nominations for SPBGMA Guitarist of the Year. By the time Greg moved back to Kansas City, KS in 2017, he had received five consecutive SPBGMA Guitarist of the Year awards, a Kansas State Flatpicking championship and a nomination for the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Male Vocalist of the Year Award. A highlight in 2015 was a debut solo album that was named by several sources among the Top Ten albums of the year. Greg has also toured with the Greg Blake Band and, most recently, with Jeff Scroggins and Colorado. In March, 2021 Greg officially became the Special Consensus guitar player and also released a solo recording titled People, Places and Songs on the Nashville-based Turnberry Records label.
Michael Prewitt -Mandolin
Michael Prewitt was born and raised in the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains in rural Whitley County, Kentucky, outside of the town of Williamsburg. It was there he learned to play bluegrass music, first on the fiddle and then on what would quickly become his life’s musical love, the mandolin. Throughout middle school and high school he played in his school district’s after-school bluegrass band, Colonel Strings, and after graduating he played with the Eastern Kentucky bluegrass band Mountain Drive. Michael then took a haitus from playing music to attend college at the University of the Cumberlands. He moved to North Dakota after graduating to begin graduate school and, while there, he began playing mandolin and banjo with the North Dakota-based Flatt Mountain Bluegrass Boys. After a few years of teaching English at the University of North Dakota, he decided to focus his attention on his musical career and he relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota where he co-founded the neo-traditional bluegrass band Back Up & Push. The band released a well-received album with Michael playing guitar, singing lead vocals and contributing multiple original compositions. He joined Special C in September of 2021 and made his onstage debut with the band later that month playing mandolin and singing lead and harmony vocals.
Gerald Jones – Banjo/Guitar/Mandolin/Jamming
Gerald Jones, a native Texan, has been involved with the performance, production, and teaching of music for more than 30 years. He’s played live or recorded with Jerry Douglas, Mark O’Connor, Vince Gill, Sam Bush, Tanya Tucker, Grand Master Fiddle Champion Jim “Texas Shorty” Chancellor, Hank Thompson, Red Steagall, and many others of many genres. Gerald edits Mel Bay’s web magazine Banjo Sessions and frequently contributed to Joe Carr’s web magazine Mandolin Sessions. Gerald is on the board of the Allegro Guitar Society, which presents classical guitar performances in Dallas, Fort Worth and Las Vegas. He also writes and performs many Allegro Guitar Society outreach programs each year. He invented the Acoustic Plus electronic banjo pickup used by Earl Scruggs, Bela Fleck, Alan Munde, Bill Keith, and others. A multi-instrumentalist on banjo, mandolin, guitar, violin and dobro, Gerald has won banjos at the Winfield Banjo Championship. Gerald co-founded the Frisco Bluegrass Festival and Acoustic Music Camp, an instructional institute for acoustic musicians. Plus he teaches at many other camps across the country each year. For more about Gerald, see TheGeraldJones.com.
Camp FAQs
What do I need to bring?
You just need yourself and your instrument. A recorder and/or camera can be helpful.
Lodging?
We have negotiated a special room rate with a complementary breakfast buffet. Hotel lodging is not required to attend camp.
DISCOUNTED ROOM RATES of $115/night for the Acoustic Music Camp and/or the Bluegrass Heritage Festival are available at this link. Your reservation includes breakfast buffet for two people per room!
You may also book by phone by calling (972) 385-9000 and asking for the BLUEGRASS rate.
Doubletree Hotel
4099 Valley View Lane, Dallas, TX, 75244
Are meals provided?
No though if you stay at the hotel there is a complimentary breakfast buffet.
Can I bring my spouse?
Yes, but only registered students may actually attend classes and instructor-led jams.
Is there anything for my family to do in the area?
Bring the family! There’s lots do do within 30 miles of the camp.
May I audio/video record the classes?
Yes, but only with the permission of each individual instructor, and then only in a non-disruptive manner.
Are children allowed?
Yes. Children under 16 must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. The parent or legal guardian is not required to attend class with the student but needs to be present to drop off and pick their child up each day. Children under 12 may be admitted on a case-by-case basis. Children, or any camper for that matter, must be well behaved and not disrupt classes or jams.
I registered for guitar – can I attend other classes?
Yes, but within limits. We want to keep class sizes fairly small so everyone can get personal attention from the instructors. When you register for a class you have a reserved space in that class. If you want to sit in on other classes you may do so if the other class is not too crowded and the instructor doesn’t object.
Is there jamming?
Yes! The hotel is open after hours for jamming. Between campers and Bluegrass Heritage Festival goers there should be lots of jamming. You will see some of the teachers out picking with the students each evening too.
Is there an emergency contact number?
Yes, call my cell phone at 214-236-0783.
When is the camp?
5:00 pm Thursday April 13th, 2023 through 1:00 pm Saturday April 15th, 2023.
What is the tuition for the camp?
Tuition is. $245.
Where is the camp?
Doubletree Hotel
4099 Valley View Lane, Dallas, TX, 75244