Guitar

Robert Bowlin – Guitar / Fiddle

Robert Bowlin Guitar / Fiddle

Bowlin started playing ukulele when he was one, and by the time he was five years old he had picked up the guitar.[1]In 1978, Bowlin won second place in the National Guitar Flat Pick Championship at the Walnut Valley Festival, in Winfield, Kansas. The next year, in 1979, he won first place in the festival’s Finger Style Guitar Championship. In the 1980s, Bowlin was a sideman to artists like Maura O’Connell and Kathy Mattea, the latter whom he appeared with on the popular television program, “Austin City Limits“. In 1993, Bowlin was chosen to fill the fiddle spot in Bill Monroe‘s Bluegrass Boys. This job would last until 1996. The band played the Grand Ole Opry, and a few months later, Monroe died.Following Monroe’s passing, Bowlin turned to recording sessions with Tom T. Hall, the Osborne BrothersBoxcar Willie, and Hank Thompson, among others. In addition, Bowlin has toured with artists such as Ray PriceBobby BareFaron Young, and Ricky Van Shelton.At one point, he was a member of the swing band The Time Jumpers, a band that often plays The Station Inn and currently features Vince Gill.

In 2007, FGM Records, the recording arm of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, released his debut CD, “Six String Soliloquy”, which features sixteen instrumentals played on acoustic guitar with a flatpick.From 2004 through present, Bowlin left the road with the major country and bluegrass stars and chose to perform with singer-songwriter Wil Maring [1]. In this duo formation, he is able to feature his own original songs and guitar instrumentals.In 2008, Bowlin won first place in the Fiddle, Flatpicking Guitar and Mandolin categories at the Uncle Dave Macon Days Festival in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

He is an accomplished instructor, teaching a semester in the bluegrass program at East Tennessee State University, and he has held workshops at music camps and stores across the United States.

Tim May – Guitar

Tim May - Guitar

Camp Bluegrass favorite, Flatpicker Tim May, has been working in the Nashville area for over 20 years as a sideman, session player, band member and performer. Higher profile projects have included touring with Patty loveless and John Cowan, and working as a regular on the Grand Ole Opry with Mike Snider. Tim was the solo guitarist on Charlie Daniels’ recording of I’ll Fly Away, which was nominated for the Best country Instrumental Performance Grammy in 2005, the same year he was session leader on the critically acclaimed Moody Bluegrass album (he later played on Moody Bluegrass II as well). The Nashville Scene selected Tim the Best Instrumentalist category in their 2012 Reader’s Choice Poll. Tim is co-author of the eight volume course ‘Flatpicking Essentials’, The Guitar Player’s Practical Guide to Scales and Arpeggios, The Flatpicker’s Guide to Old Time Music, and The Flatpicker’s Guide to Irish Music. He has taught regularly at Camp Bluegrass, Kaufman Kamp, Colorado Roots Music Camp, Nashcamp, and the Swannanoa Gathering. He and his wife Gretchen are owners of the Musical Heritage Center of Middle Tennessee.

Tim’s skills and topics covered in his flatpicking class. 

In the flatpicking guitar class we will focus on the tools you need to be a complete guitar player from rhythm to soloing. We will look at bass runs, alternating bass ideas, and how to effectively use dynamics to create a variety of moods for any song from breakdowns to waltzes. We will explore the mysterious world of improvisation and how to implement a simple approach to playing any song by looking at the chords and playing the chord itself (arpeggios) and a major scale (seven notes). Blues found its way into bluegrass, and we’ll look at how to incorporate major and minor blues, with examples from our heroes like Tony Rice and Doc Watson. In an attempt to be successful like banjo players, we will look at how crosspicking (mimicking a three-note banjo roll) can enhance a song and will dive into how players like George Shuffler, Norman Blake and Clarence White approached it. We’ll also introduce techniques for creating and enhancing solos for any song/tune we might encounter: tremolo, harmonized scales, ‘neighbor notes’, folded scales and more: lots of fun to be had, lots of playing time!

 

Elliott Rogers

Elliott Rogers has been teaching and writing songs for decades and honed his skills in Austin Texas in the 80s with Blaze Foley, Townes Van Zandt, Robert Earl Keen and others of note. He has a wide variety of styles ranging from cowboy songs, country, blues and most definitely Bluegrass. His tunes have been recorded by Alan Munde, Jim Hurst, Bill Evans,Steve Spurgin, the Bluegrass Patriots, and Bill Hearne. From the popular humorous tunes Emu Meat and She’s Your Problem Now to serious and moving songs like Heaven and Lay my Shovel Down, Rogers elicits images and characters as vivid as any film