2012 Targhee Music Camp Instructors

Darrell Scott – Singing/Songwriting

Much of the commentary about Darrell Scott's career has focused on the songs he's written that have been recorded by famous names and voices – those known in music industry parlance as "artists." But then there's the actual word artist, whose definition has nothing to do with radio hits and red carpets. We refer of course to those who create artifacts of aesthetic and intellectual contemplation and wonder, built from experience, skill, reflection and emotional intent. That's an artist. And that, at the end of the day, is Darrell Scott. We are excited to welcome Darrell Scott back to Targhee Music Camp, where he has been a great presence in the past.

Carol Elizabeth Jones- Singing

Carol Elizabeth Jones sings, writes songs, plays guitar and has many albums to her credit including two with Jones and Leva on the Rounder Label, two albums of country and bluegrass duets with Laurel Bliss, and most recently, her solo project called Cataloochee. Rounder Records has featured Carol Elizabeth on several anthologies including the bestselling "O Sister Women In Bluegrass" collection. Carol Elizabeth was a regular on a Prairie Home Companion during 2006-07 as a member of the Hopeful Gospel Quartet with Garrison Keillor. She has toured Africa and Southeast Asia as cultural ambassador for the U.S. Information agency and has performed and taught at festivals throughout North America. Dave Higgs of Bluegrass Breakdown says "…Carol Elizabeth has one of the most haunting and honest voices in acoustic music." Carol Elizabeth has been a part of many memorable old-time bands over the years and is an excellent vocal teacher.

Chris Pandolfi - Banjo

Chris is quickly becoming recognized as one of the premier young banjo players on today's acoustic music scene. After being exposed to the music of Béla Fleck, he bought his first banjo while attending high school in New York. Chris later studied with legends Tony Trischka and Bill Evans, working on everything from traditional bluegrass to progressive instrumental music. With the help of Matt Glaser, he was admitted as the first ever banjo principal at the Berklee College of Music, studying jazz performance and composition. In the summer of 2002 Chris was awarded the prestigious Bill Vernon Memorial Scholarship at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival. After relocating to Nashville in 2004, Chris toured with Grammy-nominated artist Bering Strait and the Drew Emmitt Band, before joining forces with some of the best young musicians around to form The Infamous Stringdusters. In addition to playing full-time with the Stringdusters, Chris is also a film editor/producer and a prolific writer. His teaching experience includes a number of prestigious camps as well as years of private instruction, helping students connect with both the foundations of bluegrass banjo and also a more modern sense of how the instrument can make music. (photo by Tom Daly)

Roy Andrade - Old-time Banjo

Roy Andrade is an old-time musician from Asheville, NC who specializes in Southern banjo styles. A former member of the influential old-time band Reeltime Travelers, Roy now heads-up old-time music at East Tennessee State University and keeps a busy performing schedule. He thinks of the old-time banjo as being perhaps the most versatile stringed instrument, and likes looking for new musical ways of saying old-things.

Travis Book - Bass

Travis Book's love affair with bass instruments started with the Trombone, traveled through the bass guitar and settled on the upright bass. In 2005 he moved to Nashville, TN to pursue music and bass full time and as a member of the Infamous Stringdusters. Travis also adores all things in the mountains particularly biking, hiking, and singing and playing within them. (photo by Tom Daly)

Andy Hall - Dobro

Andy Hall plays and sings with excitement, passion, precision and a dynamic that is quickly establishing him as one of the top players in acoustic music today. Based in Nashville, he plays resophonic guitar, guitar and sings lead, tenor and baritone vocal harmony parts. A graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA with a degree in Music Production and Engineering, Andy's credentials include a long list of live performances and recordings with various artists. He has recently been featured on projects by Dolly Parton, Ronnie Bowman, Charlie Daniels, Moody Bluegrass, Dale Ann Bradley, Matt Flinner and others. Andy has 3 solo releases, the second of which, "The Sound Of the Slide Guitar", won IBMA's instrumental album of the year. Andy has his own Dobro instructional website at www.andyhalldobro.com. Instrumentally, look to Andy for driving instrumental breaks, tasteful instrumental backup, and sensitivity to the groove. Vocally, Andy provides a blend that enhances the harmony structure of the artist and song with equal finesse. (photo by Milo Farineau)

Betse Ellis - Old-time Fiddle

Betse Ellis is a founding member of The Wilders… she is also a powerful solo performer. Usually performing with just a pair of fiddles and a voice, she plays old time and new time (original) fiddle tunes, sings traditional songs, original songs, and occasionally puts a new twist on a classic rock song. In 2009, Betse released a solo album, "Don't You Want to Go" (Free Dirt). The album was a finalist for Best Americana Album in the Independent Music Awards, and received critical acclaim both in the States and the United Kingdom. Betse presents fiddle workshops with a different approach from many old time teachers. Her specialty, "Help for Frustrated Fiddlers", uses traditional fiddle tunes as a vehicle to provide technique help to students of the instrument. The Targhee Music Camp is excited to have her as an instructor for the 2012 camp.

Jeremy Garrett - Fiddle

Jeremy began playing and singing when he was on his way out of the womb! In reality he started learning the Suzuki classical violin method at age three and with the additional instruction from his musician father, Glen, learned fiddle. Later, he played in the high school orchestra while sitting in with his Dad's bluegrass band on the weekends. Jeremy attended South Plains College in Texas, to study commercial music and went on to free lance with many other musicians and singers. After moving to Nashville, Jeremy met the other members of what is now, The Infamous Stringdusters. (photo by Tom Daly)

Andy Falco - Guitar

Andy Falco started playing guitar at a young age and began his career in music playing electric guitar in roots and rock based bands. He eventually put down the electric and started playing bluegrass while still maintaining his blues and rock influences, and joined The Infamous Stringdusters in 2007. (photo by Tom Daly)

Courtney Hartman - Guitar

Guitarist and singer, Courtney Hartman, is at the forefront of a new generation of acoustic musicians. A Colorado native, she grew up playing bluegrass with her siblings. Courtney has performed throughout Europe and the US, won numerous guitar flatpicking championships, and is currently living in Boston and studying on scholarship at Berklee College of Music. She is the first recipient of the American Roots Music Scholarship at the College and was also awarded the prestigious Bill Vernon Memorial Scholarship at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival in 2010. She spent the last year touring with multiple groups including Della Mae, The Bee Eaters, and Scottish music collaboration project Atlantic Seaway. Fiddle legend, Matt Glaser, called Courtney "an extraordinary bluegrass guitarist and a fluid, inventive improviser… one of the finest musicians I have ever had the privilege of working with."

Ben Winship - Mandolin

Ben Winship is a self-made musician who has carved out a niche for himself behind the potato curtain and under the radar of commercial music. His routine is a constantly shifting mix of performing, recording, engineering and teaching. Mandolin is Ben's primary ax, but he is also a well respected songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist. Winship's version of string band music is an exploration of crossroads; where raw meets refined, original meets traditional, weird meets familiar, organized meets free ranging. The Boston Globe called his sound "A further leap from traditional hill country music." While Tim O'Brien refers to him as "One of the acoustic music scene's best writers."

Ben co-founded the Targhee Music Camp with Tom Garnsey in 2005, and we are delighted to have the former camp coordinator teaching mandolin this year. (photo by Glenn Oakley)

Sharon Gilchrist - Mandolin

Sharon Gilchrist originally hails from Southlake, Texas. She has performed with a long list of artists - the Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Quartet, Uncle Earl, The Santa Fe All-Stars, the Bill Hearne Trio and Mary & Mars, to name a few. She is currently based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico where she teaches private mandolin lessons at Santa Fe String Studios and is on staff as a mandolin teacher at the College of Santa Fe. Sharon received a Bachelor's Degree in Mandolin Performance from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. While in Nashville, she spent time playing upright bass with several singer-songwriters in the indie-rock scene such as Josh Rouse, Rebecca Stout and Jennifer Niceley. She also served as musical director and composer for the modern art collective, DddD. Sharon is currently spending time at home in the wide open spaces of New Mexico.

The Infamous Stringdusters – Band in Residence

The Infamous Stringdusters are at the forefront of a new movement in bluegrass music. Their unmatched virtuosity has enabled them to take acoustic music to a completely new level. They wield an expansive repertoire touching on masters from Jimmy Martin to John Hartford, but their strength lies in their original compositions. Dedication to arrangements sets them apart and extended improvisation makes every performance completely unique. The live Stringdusters experience is anti-formulaic, groove friendly, and mind-expanding - not your granddaddy's bluegrass. Unless your granddaddy was Jerry Garcia. We are excited to welcome the 'Dusters back to the camp after a great camp in 2011. (photo by Tom Daly)

Chris Pandolfi - Banjo
Jeremy Garrett - Fiddle
Travis Book - Bass
Andy Falco - Guitar
Andy Hall - Dobro

Drew Becker - Live Sound

Stemming from a love of all music and a passion for live shows, Drew Becker began his work as a live sound engineer while studying Recording Arts and Music Business at Full Sail University in Central Florida. As his education progressed, Becker continued gaining experience working for a variety of acts in many different genres. It wasn't until he moved to Nashville, TN in the summer of 2007 that he found The Infamous Stringdusters progressively taking the sounds of bluegrass to new places. Since 2008, the band and Becker have continued to explore many techniques and systems for amplifying high energy bluegrass and acoustic music to accomplish the common goal of bringing the energy of music to the people.

Course Overview
This camp (elective or class) is designed for audio recording hobbyists and the self-engineering musician. Participants will get an in depth look at professional sound as well as learning the technical side of being a musician. Live sound recording techniques and associated equipment will also be discussed. Students will also have the rare opportunity to get a behind the scenes look at everything it takes to put on festival music. There will also be several opportunities for students to practice what they've learned and to perform with a new knowledge of live sound.

Tom Murphy - Assistant Camp Coordinator - Mandolin and Guitar

Tom Murphy picked up the guitar at age eleven and didn't put it down until he received a mandolin for high school graduation. Shortly thereafter, he heard the David Grisman Quintet's first album, and the mandolin quickly took center stage in his life. Heavily influenced by the playing of Grisman, Sam Bush, Tony Rice, and Mike Marshall, Tom developed his unique style. His inventive mandolin solos, driving rhythm, and tight harmony vocals add color to a variety of bands in his current hometown of Bozeman, Montana. When not performing or doing session work, Tom teaches mandolin and guitar. We welcome him back as the Assistant Coordinator at the Targhee Music Camp where he will coordinate jam sessions, instructional music workshops, and will be teaching mandolin and guitar this year.

Thomas Sneed – Camp Coordinator

A mandolinist and musical historian, Thomas has performed at numerous musical festivals and venues including the Grand Old Opry, the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Merlefest, the Kennedy Center and the "Down From the Mountain Tour," which featured music from the movie "Oh Brother Where Art Thou." His mandolin playing was featured in the motion picture "Cold Mountain." He has worked with the Center for Appalachian Studies in Tennessee collecting oral histories with musicians. Thomas has been the Camp Coordinator since 2011, and his vision has been a positive and inspiring asset to the Targhee Music Camp.