200 Itinerary

Folks, this is my 2008 itinerary at this moment - mid January. There have been some Inquiries already. So if you are interested please contact me. First come first served. Thank you, Dwight

January 31 -February 3: Recording session scheduled at Knave's Run on Brown's Creek 1. To finish up recording new mostly accapella mountain ballad cd with Gail Hatton doing most of the singing 2. Darin Gentry is scheduled to come up from NC. To start on a new banjo/fiddle cd. This time he will be doing much of the playing and I will accompany him on some tracks w/ banjo.

February 15, Friday arrive afternoon - leave before noon Monday 18th nat'l holiday: There will be a 2 hour class Friday evening after supper. Class all day Saturday and Sunday and a short 1 1/2hr class on Monday morn. Federal holiday ie President's day. With all that is packed in including evenings, this will be the equivalent of a full 3 day class. I can do beginner banjo, advanced banjo or low intermediate banjo depending on who contacts me first. $350 tuition, room and board; small class

March 27- March 30: Thursday to Sunday class near Grand Rapids, MI possibly all banjo, but maybe there will be some instruction on fiddle. Email if interested and I will give you Michigan email address.

There will be several classes scheduled from here on the'creek' which are four full days of class. Students arrive Sunday evening, leave first thing Friday morning. They will have 5 nights single room and 4 "full" days of meals and instruction. $485. And you will not be charged extra for sheets and towels. Haha! A place in class will not be held without $150 deposit.

Some of these class dates are not cast in concrete. They can be changed early on. But after any class has started to fill, then I will not change the date. The class teaching levels are not at this time cast in concrete either. If I say a certain class is for advance beginner/low intermediate and a couple beginners want that class, then i will go with that. I plan to have one fiddle class, one vocal class, a few beginner to advanced beginner classes, and a few low intermediate to intermediate classes. But i will need for any folks to be speaking up early on if you want a certain level on a certain date. I will then try to accomodate if possible. But will not make changes later on.

Class size is generally going to be max 4 or as low as 2; I do not want more than 4 students unless they are those who have been here several times. Generally the early October class is filled by those who have been with me for several years.

**Remember: If a student has never been in one of my classes before then no matter how long s/he has been playing/working on the banjo the student will almost always need help with right hand technique and/or keeping the muscles relaxed while playing. All this old music is based on the ability to produce the rhythm needed to play "it".

**However, much less emphasis will placed on proper body moment to get the good rhythm. I can show you myself just how it looks and feels muscles almost totally relaxed, but then student has to work on this extremely import part her/himself. Thus I will be teaching more tunes this year.

April 13 - April 18: Early spring here in the high Allegheny mountains, the leaf buds are breaking, flowering trees in bloom on hillsides. A beginner to advance beginner class is probable in this time slot. The "ramps" [wild leek] in the mountains will have been coming up through the leaves for close to a month.

If any of you past students want to come in for a "ramp feed" now is your chance. I can have them coming out your ears if you want. BTW, they are being cultivated up in the mountains near Richwood WVA and shipped to fancy restaurants up north. And i understand bringing really high prices??

For those of you who have had no "ramp" experience, it is a 'strong' tradition with the mountain folks. Kids in school would eat them so as to be be kicked out of class or school for a week. The anti-dote is just eat 4 or 5 raw and you never notice any problems with perfumed odor. A spring tonic.

Story: a local newspaper editor put ramp juice in his ink back in the '50s. Many of his so called "weakly edition" ended up in an extra warm chicago post office over a "long weekend". The editor was informed by your's and my 'usps' that if he were ever to do that again, no mailings would ever be accepted from his print office. And life went on, but remember, rules is different in wva as tiz said.

May 18- May 23: This class can be advanced beginner to low intermediate banjo. [But it can be changed.] Late spring is still in the air, maybe still some snow in the high ground? Most generally coats will still be needed here on knave's run because of the air rolling down the hollow in the evenings.

May 23-May 25: This is the time for what is called the "Vandelia Gathering" held on the WVa capitol grounds in Charleston. There is no admission fee. Lots of music here and there on the grounds. Concerts on Friday night and Saturday night in the auditorium. Several contests will be going on outside throughout Saturday and Sunday. Lots of good WVa old time and bluegrass musicians. I am scheduled to be in some outside tent for an hour on Sunday.

June 15 - June 20: This class can be beginner's level or low intermediate level on the banjo. But you have to contact me before long so I can make a decision. [Now is your chance, not later]. The temperatures are generally pleasant, but still the cool air is rolling down the hollow but not like it was in May or April. I'll remind you once again, for any of you who like to 'hike', there thousands upon thousands of acres of national forest starting 32 feet from my back door. There are two different hollows that empty out onto my land beside my house.

June 20 - June 22: WVa State Folk Festival held in Glenville, WVa. This festival has been around since the late '40s and there will be, as always, many good West Virginia musicians there. I dont think I can remember any 'bluegrass' ever being played there. Street fair w/ lots of square dancing on main street. This is a festival for locals. But some rooms are available for rent in the college dorms. So outsiders 'in the know' have attended for years.

July 6 - July 11: This class will be old time mountain ballads again. Class size will be 3 or if i have an assistant for vocal, it can be 4 students. This class was also very successful last July. Or is often said in our local paper "a good time was had by all". I guess it is permitted to make that claim.

As for the old mountain ballads and old 19th & 18th century gospel songs, this land, this mountain territory will give you something to resonate with. Help you snag more of what they are about. Cerainly far more than pounding the pavement in the city or on a college campus. Scholarly work goes on there. Not old time music. Scholars shudder if they should have to start trying learn the real stuff.

July 27 - August 1: This class is going to be Diller style of fiddle. It is unlike the fiddling anywhere else in the 'old time music scene'. My style has ended up sounding similar to Sherman and Lee Hammons and Harvey Sampson. Either you dont like it a lot or you do like it a lot. We will work on the solo tunes from my new fiddle release. Different tunings and keys sometimes pitched as much as 1 1/2 steps low. It will definately stretch you. But the plan is to do it in "good" way. The best preparation is to be listening to my new CD "Trouble on Spring Creek"

July 25 - July 27: This is the time that the so called 'Clifftop Festival' is held. It is about 50 miles away near Babcock State park [WVa]. I might attend on Saturday "just to talk to my old students". It is not for WVa musicians.

August 24 - August 29: This class will be available to students who have been in my classes before. Low intermediate to intermediate banjo. What is offered at this class will, depending on the students, give plenty of challenge or should i say, opportunity for stretching as with 2006 & 2007, attend this class, leave early on Friday morn, and then go to the big festival by noon. If you are interested in the class and then festival afterwards, then email me.

August 29 - September 1: Stonewall Jackson Jubilee at Weston WVa. I have been blessed with attending since 1977. Generally there are 125+ WVa musicians in attendance as well as a big arts and crafts fair, quilt shows, Civil War cannons going off, and on and on and on. All crafters must be juried in.

September - I do not have a class planned. If anyone is interested, I could do a long weekend class the 2nd or 3rd weekend. That would mean: arrive on Wednesday evening, class Thursday, Friday, Saturday,and leave Sunday morning. It could be some level of banjo or even Diller fiddle. Two students max. Price $350.

October 5 - October 11: The first full week in October. I am trying to time this so you can catch the leaf color as we have been able to the past few years. ** This class has been generally attended by previous students who understand what is going on. A stranger to my classes will most generally be lost. Also this class will be 5 full days of classes instead of 4 plus 5 days of meals and 6 nights of a single room. Price $575. Diane Jones has been coming for many years.

November: Unless something happens unforeseen, Dave Bing and I will fly to England about Tuesday the 4th and return the 18th.

November 7- November 9L Gainsborough beginner's class

November 14 - November 16th: Gainsborough low intermediate to intermediate

Here is a situation which arose this past year: students who had never been in my class before came to the 2nd weekend class for the intermediates. Though they had spent time with the banjo before coming to class, the intermediate class was too confusing because I work on building tunes only on the strong rhythm which I have stressed in the beginner's classes if a student has not experienced the way I teach and stress rhythm, 97% of the time the wise thing to do is to go with the beginner class. In my experience, better to go with what May seem remedial than be lost.

December 5 - December 7: I have gone to Pittsburgh to teach the first weekend in December for years now. As time moves along, we will see if this still works. Sometimes it is hard for me to get a 5 day visa to get into Penna. But when I tell them that my dad was from York County, brought his carpetbag and traveled south in '34, there is no more problem. So hopefully i will be able to get thru the checkpoint. I will have to give you an email address for contact if you are interested.