May 2010

When Jorma and I are asked what possessed us to build the Ranch in such a remote location, we must always start with the fact that we were drawn here by the land. It’s May and we can recall the last 20 years being just as beautiful as it is today. The dogwood is in bloom just outside my office window and it is such a visibly stunning time to be in the rolling foothills of Appalachia. Everything explodes with color this time of year and everything is already lush. The wildlife wander around like pets….in fact we have been visited by several pheasants in the last week.

Both Jorma and I have lived many places. Of course Jorma spent a large part of his life in San Francisco but he spent his youth abroad in Pakistan and the Philippines. He did not come back to the U.S until his senior year of high school. His home was D.C. I am from New England and love the four seasons. Well…..I could really do without winter but I manage to survive them. I moved to Key West for a spell and I really missed the abundance of grass and clover. Yes Florida has grass but it is different.

There is something about where you come from that never changes when you go back. Ohio is that for both Jorma and I. We had no roots here but this place was so familiar. It had been calling us and we didn’t realize it until we were here. We both moved so much as kids that to be able to call some place home like we call Ohio home is so comforting. We live not far from the Ranch but when you come to the Ranch you might as well be in our home. There are pictures of our families and our students, memorabilia, the smell of great food cooking and best of all……the sound of guitars blowing through the trees. We’ve made a few changes over the years with landscaping and the theatre but it is essentially unchanged from when we opened our doors in 1998. The same magical feeling you experience when you step out of your car and feel the land beneath your feet….is constant.

Beautiful weather and a picturesque setting aside, the Ranch has become a place for students to rekindle their love for guitar in just one weekend or for others to ascend plateaus to new creative heights and styles of playing. It is a very sociable place with lots of sharing, experiences and stories. It makes you part of a larger community. Camaraderie develops with your fellow campers, and it is based largely on this great love of music we all share. Fur Peace is an oasis and we are waiting for you so grab your instrument and get on down here!

Join Jorma in January 2011 for a winter break workshop in wonderful, warm Maui, Hawaii!! This will be a combined level 2/3 workshop held at the Royal Lahaina Resort. Applications will be accepted beginning on June 1, 2010.

Tuition includes all workshop instruction with Jorma Kaukonen (12.5 hours w/one on one assessments with Jorma), All Meals (Monday night, All day Tues, Wed, Thursday and breakfast on Friday), Lodging (see pricing below), Concert with Jorma, and one off-site excursion during stay!

Tuition*: On Site: $2200 Off Site: $1800

* Please note that airfares are not included but Fur Peace Ranch is making arrangements for Preferred Travel to handle special airfare deals.

That's right! You can now get live Hot Tuna (and Jorma) recordings on iTunes.

Check out all the shows! And check back often because more recordings will be uploaded on a regular basis.

Steve James . . .

We are looking forward to June and the return of Steve James to the Fur Peace campus. Steve has been coming to the Ranch for over 10 years now and he has earned a reputation for his dedicated and thorough teaching technique.

Indeed.....Steve is one of those teachers that comes to Fur Peace fully prepared with a syllabus and instructional handouts. Steve got into music and the blues as a young man and has spent the past 40 years honing his skills as a player and teacher. Steve's skills as a teacher and Bluesman are the results of years of international touring and a discography of critically acclaimed recordings including his latest, SHORT BLUES STORIES....the definitive Steve James solo project.

Aside from all of his activities as a Blues performer, Steve has always been very active as a music instructor as well. He is a long-time contributing editor for Acoustic Guitar Magazine, which regularly features a column by Steve. He has had many articles regarding instruction published in various music magazines and he has also released several instructional DVDs.

His book, "Fingerstyle Blues Songbook - Learn to Play Country Blues, Ragtime Blues, Boogie Blues and More" is a great introduction for players interested in Fingerstyle Blues. Steve has taught level 2 and 3 courses on previous assignments to the Fur Peace.

A couple of years ago we asked Steve if he would consider teaching an introductory course on ROOTS BLUES & FINGERSTYLE GUITAR and he accepted and it was a hit in our curriculum. Steve is an experienced teacher whose excitement for the music and teaching come together to offer a student a great introduction in Acoustic Blues guitar instruction. For a blues beginner, discovering his roots and the lure of Fingerstyle Guitar, Steve is a master instructor who will provide you with a strong foundation to build your skills up from. 

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Darrel Scott . . .

Darrell Scott is returning to the Fur Peace to teach his songwriting class - "Songwriting Expressions" - in conjunction with another great singer / songwriter, Mary Gauthier.

Darrell is a Grammy Nominated artist, an award winning songwriter and an in-demand Nashville session musician. He comes from a family with musical roots and as a young man he played in his father's band with his brothers. He left the band to forge his musical journey on his own and his travels brought him to Nashville. His guitar playing opened many doors for him starting in 1992 and he has played on albums with Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Randy Travis, Patty Loveless and many more.

He branched out into songwriting and found his compositions in as much demand as his playing. He has written songs for many of the great Country performers, including Suzy Boggus, Garth Brooks, Faith Hill, Kathy Mattea and Guy Clark. He has also produced two of Guy's CDs. Darrell's newest CD - "A Crooked Road" will be released on May 25th....this will be his 9th recording. Rolling Stone magazine picked his "Theatre of the Unheard" as 2003's critics’ pick for top album of the year.

Over the years Darrell has garnered many well deserved accolades. He has received Songwriter of the Year awards from ASCAP, IBMA and the Nashville Songwriters Association. The Dixie Chicks' Grammy nominated hit from 2003, "Long Time Gone" was one of Darrell's compositions. So......if you're looking to sharpen or develop your skills as a songwriter and want to learn from a proven winner, this is your opportunity.

Sign Up Now!

Darrel will also perform at the Fur Peace Station Concert Hall on Saturday June 19, 2010 along with Mary Gauthier. Tickets Available!

Wow! April was our first full month of workshops for 2010. And it was good.

Our first weekend of workshops in April was our Hot Tuna weekend with the members of Hot Tuna as our instructors along with Marjorie Thompson. The weather started off a bit on the iffy side of things, once the Ranch activities were in full swing - things really turned around.

Jorma had a full house for his level 3 course Movin’ On Down The Road in the Workshop; Jack set up shop in the A-Frame studio with his bass proficiency class. Marjorie taught her country blues guitar course in the Library. Barry took to the Station lobby for his mandolin class. The students came from all across the country and as far away as Germany!

The “Big” show was opened by Collin Rocker who has been a long time student of the Ranch. He has performed on the stage several times before, during our student performances on Sunday afternoons. He was able to transfer that experience and entertain an anxious audience before the electric Hot Tuna set. Collin’s “Soggy Dollar Blues” and “Candlestick Wing” can be viewed on YouTube. His CD has just been released and it’s a great CD both musically and lyrically. Hurl really had it right when he said Collin makes great use of imagery; and the maturity that shows through in his writing, shows a maturity that is beyond his age.

Hot Tuna took to the Fur Peace Station Stage shortly thereafter for an electrifying performance that had the boys straying from their planned set list for much of the night.

And what a show that was! Sometimes, I don’t really get to “enjoy” the shows live as much as I would like as duty calls, and my brain is often being distracted in one way or another. It is so nice to be able to watch some of the performances afterwards in a non-distracting atmosphere. Watching some of the raw video footage later of “Good Shepherd”, and then the three camera mixed version of “99 Year Blues” I realize what a great performance I’ve witnessed, I’m left asking myself . . . where was I for that?

You can listen to the action on Live From the Fur Peace Ranch starting on May 28th.

Sunday’s student performance: We never know what we’re going to get, but we always get some great stuff and witness some wonderful collaborations. This weekend certainly was no exception. Barry’s mandolin orchestra pops into mind for one, we also witnessed the Captain dancing like it was the Carousel Ballroom 1968 all over again, and even Jack danced a little jig!

On Sunday evening Barry invited a special guest, Pete Hart of The Hart Brothers, to give a talk and demonstration on the art of building a mandolin. Some of the topics included types of wood used, shapes of the body and headstocks and the part they all play to make the mandolin’s sound.

Read Hurl's Checkin' The Levels “Another GREAT Time” blog entry for the weekend’s full details.

Two weeks later we had a small camp with Jonathan Edwards and Steve Kaufman teaching a songwriting and flatpicking workshop. The camp may have been small but it had that big Fur Peace feel.

Guests enjoyed meals “family style” in the Beatrice Love Kitchen. Seeing the whole camp, students and instructors alike, at the dining table enjoying a meal and conversing with each other is a wonderful thing!

This was Jonathan’s first time at the Ranch, as an instructor. He has graced the FPR stage several times over the past few years, but never the whole camp. From all reports, and we do me all, it was a fantastic time and immensely educational and inspirational for all of those who took part - even Jonathan. On Sunday night, Jonathan’s class went long into the night, though just peeking in it would be hard to tell whether it was a class or a jam session. Steve’s class joined in after their class had ended. Charlie Rose, Jonathan’s sideman extraordinaire provided the bass lines and banjo licks throughout the night.

It was a pleasure to have Jonathan with us. Jonathan is a legend in the Athens area, and you will still hear his music drifting from Ohio University dorms, local neighborhoods country homes, and many of his songs are performed by others on a regular basis in the area. What a treat it was to hear songs like Emma, Sunshine, UpsyDaisy, Athens County and Shanty performed and the back-stories to the songs from the man himself! We all loved the acapella encore of “This Island Earth” – a bit of a departure from what most performers go for during an encore on the Fur Peace stage.

The student performances were quite wonderful and intimate as we opted for the round robin format. It was great hearing all the students join in on a few songs and adding embellishments to each others songs. It was also nice to see Charlie (Rose), Steve (Kaufman), and Jonathan (Edwards) joining in on the performances too! It is not every weekend that instructors participate in the student performances like that.

The Monday blahs? They don’t exist at FPR, at least not when it starts with a Jorma coffee-break concert. Yep, Campfire Coffee and Jorma in the morning mmmmm. . . More and more people would look forward to Monday morning and the beginning of the “work week” if they could start it off with a Jorma coffeehouse style performance. Wouldn’t they? We can’t think of a better way.

Read Hurl's Checkin' The Levels “Sunshine and Some Fine Pickin’ Too” blog entry for the full details.

Read Vanessa’s April 27th “Happy To Be Me” blog entry to learn what an effect Jonathan’s music had on her life growing up.

To finish off the glorious month of April, the folks from Integral Yoga rented the camp for the spring edition of their biannual yoga retreat. All the music stands, guitar stands, chalk boards etc . . . are all packed away for this weekend of relaxation, meditation and get this . . . . silence! FPR is usually filled with music from one direction or another, but not this weekend . . . unless you sneak into John’s office.

April’s Blog Report

Vanessa - The Labryinth

• April 9 – Music, Childhood,
• April 14 – R.I.P. Charles Picket – FPR neighbor, original property owner
• April 21 – FPR Highway Clean Up – Keepin’ it real, Keepin’ it clean
• April 27 – Happy To Be Me – growing up, music, Jonathan Edwards
• May 7 - Traveling and 10 Things You Don't Know About Jorma

Hurl – Checkin’ The Levels

• Sunshine and Some Fine Pickin’ Too – Jonathan Edwards + Steve Kaufman recap
• Another GREAT time! – Hot Tuna weekend recap
• What I’m Listening To – Hurls’ music rotation of late
• New Old Hot Tuna - Hot Tuna - New Orleans House 9/69 review
• Jazzed Up At The FPR – Larry Coryell, Stefan Grossman recap

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Everyone at the Fur Peace Ranch would like to congratulate some of our instructors on their new ventures:

G.E. Smith has recently informed us that he will be touring with Roger Waters this fall on The Wall tour. Check http://www.roger-waters.com/ for more details

Byron House and Darrell Scott will be joining Robert Plant and the Band of Joy on tour this summer and fall. Check out http://www.robertplant.com/ for more details

Collin Rocker on his debut CD release, Milkbox Love – Jukebox Blood and Other American Favorites. See http://www.myspace.com/collinrocker for more info.

If you haven't already seen the FPR Youtube Channel, be sure to stop by and rate our videos, or become a subscriber.

Several new videos have been added this past week, including Jonathan Edwards and Hot Tuna . Also check Collin Rocker! Great stuff

We are building an audience for all the video material we are filming. We would appreciate your support and opinion. Look for new videos in the future!

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