I’m very excited for the chance to teach at Augusta again! I’ll be teaching Intermediate/Advanced banjo with an emphasis on the styling of J.D. Crowe, who we lost on December 24th, 2021. J.D. has been one of the biggest influences in modern banjo and a huge influence on me personally. He created a style all his own that was deeply rooted in Earl Scruggs, but also being different in many ways. I look forward to the opportunity to share some of the things I’ve personally learned from J.D. in the time we spent working together. We will go over breaks such as “The Old Homeplace,” “Blueridge Cabin Home,” and “You Can Have Her,” along with some slower songs such as “You Can Share My Blanket” and others that have his signature stamp on them. And of course we’ll be looking at J.D.’s world-class backup playing.
Feel free to bring a way of recording our classes, as I recommend it!
***IMPORTANT INFO: We’re doing something a little different with our Banjo, Guitar, and Mandolin classes this year. Because of the stature of several of our instructors, we decided to play to their strengths by offering two classes for each of those instruments that will each cover both the Intermediate and Advanced levels.
Ron Stewart is a master banjo player, but he also played fiddle for six years with the late legend J.D. Crowe. His experiences have made him the perfect person to take a deep dive into the fine points of Crowe’s influential banjo playing. For Intermediate/Advanced students who want a more wide-ranging look at modern and traditional banjo styles, Gabe Hirshfeld will be teaching the other Intermediate/Advanced Banjo class.
Dudley Connell, one of the great rhythm guitar players in bluegrass history, will focus his class on the rich variety of sounds and grooves that rhythm players can bring to a bluegrass band or jam. There is so much more to rhythm guitar than ‘boom-chick”! Students who want more emphasis on lead playing will get that in Chris Luquette’s class.
Mike Compton—no stranger to Bluegrass Week—is the leading living exponent of Bill Monroe’s mandolin style. Students who are looking for a full understanding of the classic roots of bluegrass mandolin will find that in Mike’s class, while Matt Flinner’s Intermediate/Advanced class will branch out into more modern approaches to the instrument.
Because the line between Intermediate and Advanced is seldom well defined, we believe grouping the levels together like this is the best way to enable all students who wish to take advantage of Ron’s, Dudley’s, and Mike’s unique perspectives to do so. Of course there will be Beginner-level classes for those instruments, too, so novice students can get the intensive attention they need to progress. (As in past years, the Fiddle classes will be divided into the usual Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced sections.)***
Instructor Bio
Ron Stewart is well on the road to becoming a legend in contemporary bluegrass music. Along with having worked with the “Who’s Who” of bluegrass music, he is already one of the most sought after multi-instrumental session players in the genre’s history, and is in high demand as a teacher, engineer, and producer.
Ron grew up in rural southern Indiana, an hour and a half from the famous Bill Monroe’s Bean Blossom bluegrass festival, surrounded by a family that played bluegrass and old-time country music, in a community rich with musicians. In his more than four decades years of playing banjo, fiddle, guitar, bass, and mandolin, Ron has gone from fronting his family band for over ten years to working with a the elite of bluegrass, including Lynn Morris, Curly Seckler, and Lester Flatt (a guest appearance at age nine on a live album), the Dan Tyminski Band, and the Boxcars. Ron served a six-year stint as fiddler for J.D. Crowe and the New South and is now a full time member of the Seldom Scene.
As a freelancer, Ron has been seen filling in with the Tony Rice Unit, Lonesome River Band, Rhonda Vincent, the bluegrass supergroup Longview (of which he is now a member), Alan Bibey and Grasstowne, the Grascals, Don Rigsby, the Bluegrass Album Band, Kenny and Amanda Smith, Blue Ridge, and many more, including the recently formed all-star group No Joke Jimmy’s. Chances are, if you have a bluegrass CD in your collection from the last twenty-five years, Ron is probably on it. Ron was voted the IBMA’s Fiddle Player of the Year in 2000 and Banjo Player of the Year in 2011.
Ron is currently working on a new solo CD as a follow up to his 2001 Rounder release “Time Stands Still,” which featured several Ron Stewart original songs and instrumentals. To quote his old boss, IBMA Hall of Fame member Lynn Morris, “Ron Stewart has Flatt and Scruggs in his deepest roots, the feel of a Mississippi blues man in his soul, and the power of a lightning bolt in his touch.”