6th Annual
Main Hall Chet Atkins Room Merle Travis Room
Sebastopol Guitar Festi val Saturday, January 27 Noon - 10pm
Program of Events Kebtone Productions & Sebastopol Community Cultural Center Production
Featured Concerts by:
Kevin Russell & Some Friends featuring Bobby Black at 7:30pm
Volker Strifler at 8:30pm
The Chet Atkins Room - Concerts & Demos 12:00 - 1:00 The Spin Cats ~ jazz bass & guitar duo
Annex Building Classes & Workshops
Jerry Reed Room Doc Watson Room Eldon Shamblin Room Instrument Check- In
Chris Grampp has played jazz, blues, rock, and traditional music in bands and as a solo guitarist for over 25 years in the Bay Area. He has studied guitar with Tuck Andress, Warren Nunes, and Davis Ramey, and has contributed lessons and articles for Acoustic Guitar magazine. He has taught for many years at the California Coast Music Camp, the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop and various music festival workshops. The Spin Cats, guitarist Chris Grampp and bassist Chuck Ervin, play an assortment of jazz, swing, blues, pop and country tunes, with an emphasis on dynamic interplay, original arrangements, and all-out fun.
1:00 - 1:30 Michael Stadler ~ Mike has been in music since age six. His is a powerful voice well suited to
American roots forms: Country, Bluegrass, Old Time and Folk. A multi-instrumentalist, Mike mainly sticks to mandolin and lead guitar with this group, though fiddle or clawhammer banjo might also put in an appearance. His solo CD North Country features nearly all of the band members. His clawhammer style guitar playing is featured on a Solid Air Records (www.solidairrecords.com) release, Clawhammer Guitar: The Collection, which also features Steve Baughman, Jody Stecher and Alec Stone Sweet.
1:30 - 2:30 Mary Flower ~ Mary Flower’s immense finger picking guitar and lap-slide prowess is soulful and
Classes & Workshops
meter-perfect, a deft blend of the inventive, the dexterous and the mesmerizing. Her supple honey-and-whiskey voice provides the perfect melodic accompaniment to each song’s story.
Mini - Concerts
2:30 - 3:00 Solid Air ~ Solid Air is a music group based north of San Francisco, led by co-founders Alleg-
ra Broughton (vocals, guitar), and Sam Page (vocals, bass, baritone slide guitar), native Californians who have been performing for over twenty-five years at fairs, festivals, clubs, concert stages, wineries, coffeehouses and private events. Solid Air performs as a duo, trio and 4-piece band with high energy vocals, stellar musicianship, top-notch original songs and eclectic covers from jug band to cajun to classic rock ‘n’ roll for both listening and dancing, with references available.
3:00 - 4:00 Jim Nichols ~ Jazz/Fingerstyle guitarist Jim Nichols’ credentials include appearances on television,
radio, concert halls, and clubs including Carnegie Hall and the Tonight Show. He has played and/or recorded with Kenny Rankin, Chet Atkins, Hubert Laws, Eddie Harris, Buddy Montgomery, Van Morrison, Toots Thielemans, Tom Waits, Tommy Emmanuel and many others. Jim has taught clinics in the U.S. and in Europe including Stanford and Jamie Aebersold’s Jazz Workshops.
4:00 - 4:30 Farallons ~ Described as “dream-surf” (The Bay Bridged), vocal harmonies, analog sounds, and dy-
namic arrangements color the voice of Farallons. With Andrew Brennan (guitar, vocals), Aubrey Trinnaman (synthesizer, vocals), Scott Fetzer (guitar, vocals), Blake Henderson (bass), and Justin Wiener (drums), theirs is a live show that is at once intimate and expansive, much like their deput EP, Outer Sun Sets.
4:30 - 6:30 Steel Guitar Summit ~ featuring Dave Zirbel, Jon Mitgaurd, Bobby Lee, Bobby Black with Rick Cutler, Sam Page, Markie Sanders and special guests Jim Nichols & Chris Grampp.
6:30 – 7:30 TBD 7:30 - 8:10 Evening Concert ~ Kevin Russell & Some Friends featuring Bobby Black ~ a collection of
many of the bay area’s finest musician’s. Like Duke Ellington, they believe there’s only two kinds of music: good and bad. And they play the good kind(s). Specifically: western swing, classic country, honky-tonk and country jazz! In other words: Americana! Drawing from a wealth of American favorites like Bob Wills, Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Hank Thompson and more, they always manage to make covers their own and create music that will have you dancing or listening with great enthusiasm! This is music that recalls the unique country music stylings that came out of Bakersfield, the rough and tumble side of Nashville’s glory years and the Texas honky-tonks that merged big band swing with fiddle tunes and cowboy swagger! Their relaxed on-stage style will makes audiences feel right at home and as if the show is happening just for them. Bobby Black is considered to be one of the best steel guitarists in the country, which has made working as a freelancer a fairly lucrative and steady career choice; in fact, most of the self-taught musician’s 60-year career has been spent freelancing. Black’s appeared on more than 130 albums over the years by notables including Asleep at the Wheel, New Riders of the Purple Sage and Elvin Bishop.
8:30 – 10:00pm Evening Concert ~ Volker Strifler Band
Volker Strifler’s creative style of Blues/Roots are innovative explorations into Rock, Jazz, and Latin rhythms, with several stops in New Orleans along the way! This German-born guitarist-singer plays with a perfect blend of fire and restraint along with the clarity of Duane Allman. The pace is fast, often frenetic, but the mixture of styles has the feel of controlled turbulence, drawing you into a whirlwind of tightly meshed crosscurrents. Most of all – the music is FUN!
The Eldon Shamblin Room - Mini-Concerts 12:30 -1:30pm Tony Gagarin (Introduction to Bottleneck Slide Guitar in Open D tuning) Students will learn how to tune to Open D tuning, chords, slide techniques and tricks, glass vs metal slides, vibrato,single string runs and learn two songs Midnight Rider and Amazing Grace. Recording is allowed. 2:00 – 3:15pm Songwriters Panel with Ken Reisling, Jay Gotlieb, Dave Hamilton,Emily Hamilton, Tom Richardson 3:30 – 5:00pm Songwriters panel with Allegra Broughton, Robin Eschner McLaughlin, Hugh Schacklett
& Dennis Hysom, Megan
The Merle Travis Room - Luthiers & Displays
Guitars shown by Bruce Sexauer, John Knutson, Howard Klepper, Richard Prenkert, Bob Groat, John Datlen, Mark Berry, Bill Iberti & others. Also, displays from Tall Toad Music, Peghead Nation, Shubb Capos, Acoustic Guitar.
The Doc Watson Room - Classes & Workshops
12:30 – 1:45pm Megan McLaughlin (Alternate tunings) is a songwriter known for her innovative guitar playing, strong compelling voice, and high-energy stage presence. 2:15 -3:30pm Michael Stadler (Frailed guitar & more) A playing class; bring your tuned instrument. How to avoid duplicated effort in jams. Chord and rhythm-based techniques that add to the music and not just the volume. How to frame, not conceal, the focus of the moment. 4:00 – 5:30pm Mary Flower (Getting the Blues Up the Neck)
The Jerry Reed Room - Classes & Workshops 12:30 - 1:45pm Jim Nichols (finger-style guitar) Jim has an unusual approach; using a thumb pick and fin-
gers to play everything from Chet Atkins style to modern jazz . His impressive credentials include appearances on TV, radio, concert halls, Carnegie Hall and the Tonight Show. He has played and/or recorded with Joe Pass, Kenny Rankin, Buddy Montgomery, Art Pepper, Van Morrison, Chet Atkins, Mark Murphy and Hubert Laws. Jim has taught guitar for many years and has served as master instructor for the Jamey Aebersold Jazz Workshops and Stanford Jazz Workshops.
2:00 - 3:00pm Chris Grampp (head to toe play everything)
We’ll cover rhythm backup techniques for blues, pop, swing, country, rock, folk and related styles. We’ll work on strumming patterns, counting rhythms, syncopation, accents, dynamics, and right (strumming) hand development. All chordal instruments and bass players welcome.
3:30 - 4:45pm Chuck Ervin (bass walk)
The most important element of any good-’n’-greasy blues bass solo is rhythm, and you’ll learn how to easily access your own never-ending supply. Next, we’ll apply these rhythms to a few blues-scale shapes that make it easy to find the good notes on the bass and get your mojo workin’. We’ll also discuss specific ways you need to think differently when you switch from laying down a solid bass line to carrying the melodic “freight” as a soloist.Handouts will be provided. All bass instruments are welcome (and guitarists, too, if you can successfully ignore your top two strings!).www.basschuck.com.