Category Archives: 2019 Banjo Camp

Eli Gilbert

2019 Banjo Camp

Eli Gilbert is a native of North Yarmouth, Maine. After seeing J.D. Crowe and the New South at a local Bluegrass festival Eli decided to pick up the banjo and eventually moved to Johnson City, Tennessee to study Bluegrass at East Tennessee State University. There he had the chance to perform as a member of Jeff Brown and Still Lonesome and the ETSU Bluegrass Pride Band. Eli currently lives in Maine and performs regionally with Laura Orshaw and the New Velvet Band, Tony Watt and Southeast Expressway, and Dreamcatcher.

Joe Newberry

2019 Banjo Camp

Known around the world for his clawhammer banjo playing, Joe Newberry is also a powerful guitarist, singer and songwriter. His song “Singing As We Rise,” won the 2012 IBMA “Gospel Recorded Performance” Award, and with Eric Gibson, he shared the 2013 IBMA “Song of the Year” Award for “They Called It Music.” A long-time and frequent guest on A Prairie Home Companion, he was a featured singer on the Transatlantic Sessions 2016 tour of the U.K., and at the Transatlantic Session’s debut at Merlefest in 2017. He was for many years the coordinator of Old-Time Week at the Augusta Heritage Center, and teaches at camps at home and abroad. Newberry has the distinction of having captured each banjo prize at the Appalachian String Band Music Festival in Clifftop, WV, over the years – from Fifth to First Place – and was just as happy with each place!

Michael Miles

2019 Banjo Camp

Michael J. Miles is a master banjoist, guitarist, orchestral composer, author of numerous theatrical works combining music and history, and acclaimed music educator. Alone in concert or with his signature stage production, “From Senegal To Seeger,” he has had standing ovations on four continents.
But give him a string quartet, a jazz band, an orchestra, a choir and Michael has created new music bringing critical rave and professional respect from musical legends.
“”This is enough to make me want to learn the banjo all over again.””   – Pete Seeger
In a world poisoned by international heartache Michael has reached across borders with music as the powerful and wordless weapon of respect. For his work in Morocco, Lebanon, and Turkey, Michael has been heralded by the US State Dept on three occasions for his powerful and enduring musical diplomacy.
“I commend you for your hard work as an educator, and send my best
wishes.” — President Bill Clinton

Tim Rowell

2019 Banjo Camp

Tim Rowell is an avid clawhammer banjoist, tune collector and educator. He was heavily influenced as a kid by Pete Seeger and a whole bunch of wonderful musicians from the Hudson River Valley. An award winning player and teacher, Tim has taught and performed at regional schools, stages and music camps from Los Angeles to Boston. Author of several books of clawhammer tablature and producer of Old-Time music CD’s, Tim has a deep interest and affection for Southern Appalachian music and culture. Tim is excited to be back at Banjo Camp North!

Gabe Hirshfeld

2019 Banjo Camp

Gabe Hirshfeld grew up in Newton, Massachusetts. At the age of 15, he heard the great banjo player Earl Scruggs in the theme song of NPR’s Car Talk. The sound of the banjo spoke to him in a way that no other sound ever had and it changed his life. After playing and obsessing over the banjo for several years, Gabe attended Berklee College of Music where he cofounded the Lonely Heartstring Band.. He now lives in Brighton, Massachusetts, in a house with an intense number of fiddle players.

Mike Rivers

2018 Banjo Camp, 2018 Guitar & Mandolin Camp, 2019 Banjo Camp, 2019 Mandolin Camp

As a recording engineer and producer, Mike Rivers has recorded albums of various artists for Folkways, Folk Legacy, Rounder, Troubador, Flying Fish, among others. In addition to “doing the sound” at Music Camps North since 2003, he has run concert sound for the Smithsonian, National, and Lowell Folklife Festivals. Mike has played old time music
since 1960. He performed with the Greasy Run Toad Trompers, one of the first of the 1970s eclectic string bands, playing a mixed bag of Southern, Northern, Western, swing, ragtime, and Celtic music on string band instruments. At Camp, Mike teaches classes in sound production and recording.

Bennett Hammond

2018 Guitar & Mandolin Camp, 2019 Banjo Camp, 2019 Mandolin Camp

Bennett Hammond started playing guitar in 1957 and began teaching in 1960, debuted as a virtuoso soloist in 1980 on the In-Bound platform, Harvard Square Station, and has played above ground, at home and abroad ever since. Bennett picked up banjo at BCN ten years ago. Early influences include an EP side of folk and cowboy songs with guitar accompaniment his sister Lucy made in 1951, recordings of Etta Baker, Mike Seeger and Duane Eddy, and of course the Three B’s – Bach, Bluegrass, and Bo Diddly.

Bruce Stockwell

2018 Banjo Camp, 2018 Guitar & Mandolin Camp, 2019 Banjo Camp, 2019 Mandolin Camp

Bruce Stockwell has been playing bluegrass banjo since 1968 and teaching since the 70’s. By age 16 he had won banjo contests, recorded his first album, and opened for Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, John Hartford, and many others. In the late 70’s he worked with Phil Rosenthal and Mike Auldridge as Old Dog producing two albums on Flying Fish. Since the 1980’s, Bruce has performed with his two brothers (and now wife Kelly) in various acoustic/electric formats. In 2005 he won the Merlefest Banjo Contest, and in 2008 a NH Arts Grant led to the formation of Hot Mustard, a double-banjo bluegrass band.

Lincoln Meyers

2018 Guitar & Mandolin Camp, 2019 Banjo Camp, 2019 Mandolin Camp

Lincoln Meyers is an award winning guitarist who has been on the New England music scene for the past eighteen years and has been playing professionally for thirty. Lincoln, who was featured on the cover of Flatpicking Guitar magazine’s November/December issue 2010, has toured the world and performed with bands including Erica Brown & The Bluegrass Connection, The New England Bluegrass Band, Tony Trischka, April Verch, and most recently Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen. Lincoln is a veteran instructor, teaching private lessons as well as being involved with and conducting guitar workshops and seminars around the country. Lincoln is currently an instructor at “317 Main St.”, a community music school in Yarmouth, Maine.

Glenn Nelson

2018 Banjo Camp, 2018 Guitar & Mandolin Camp, 2019 Banjo Camp, 2019 Mandolin Camp

Glenn Nelson, resident instrument specialist, has been building, restoring and repairing instruments for 20 years. Glenn and his wife Barbara own Mockingbird Music in Berlin, Massachusetts, where they build custom stringed instruments and specialize in the repair and restoration of vintage instruments. Glenn teaches five string banjo and performs with Wide Open Spaces and Acoustic Planet, encompassing world music, folk, jazz and bluegrass. At our Camps, he will be available to do minor setups and repairs on site and to accept instruments for more extensive work.