Spring Sing 2024 Schedule
April 18-21 2024
Can’t wait for summer to get your Augusta vocal fix? Need a little something to look forward to at the end of winter? Welcome to the Spring Sing! Join Ginny Hawker, Val Mindel, Dudley Connell, Sally Love and Emily Miller for an unforgettable singing experience. With Blackwater Falls State Park as the backdrop, there couldn’t be a more picturesque landscape to accompany beautiful harmonies. Study with masters of old-time, bluegrass, and classic country in an intimate and personal setting. Events begin at 7 pm on Thursday, April 18, and culminate at noon on Sunday, April 21.
THURSDAY
3 – 5 pm: Check-in at Blackwater Falls State Park Lodge
5 – 6:30 pm: Dinner
6:30 – 7:45 pm: Orientation
8 pm: Welcome Jam
FRIDAY
8 – 9 am: Breakfast
9:15 – 9:30: Warm Ups
9:30 – 10:45 am: Period 1 (Beginning Harmony with Val; Country Duets with Ginny & Emily)
10:45 – 11:15 am: Tea Break
11:15 am – 12:30 pm: Period 2 (Songs About Mother with Val & Emily; Great Duet Repertoire with Dudley and Sally)
12:30 – 2:00 pm: Lunch Break
2 – 3 pm: Cultural Session From the memory vaults: Our earliest singing experiences with all staff
3:00 – 3:30 pm: Tea Break
3:30 – 5 pm: Afternoon Student-led Jam
5 – 6:30 pm: Dinner Break
6:30 – 7:45 pm: Staff Concert with all staff
8 – 9 pm: Evening Jam (Carter Family Songs with all staff)
9 pm – ???: Open Jams
SATURDAY
8 – 9 am: Breakfast
9:15 – 9:30: Warm Ups
9:30 – 10:45 am: Period 1 (Trios with Ginny, Emily and Val)
10:45 – 11:15 am: Tea Break
11:15 am – 12:30 pm: Period 2 (Harmony Techniques with Dudley and Sally; Songs my Daddy Taught Me with Ginny)
12:30 – 2:00 pm: Lunch Break
2 – 3 pm: Cultural Session Approaches to Harmony with all staff
3:00 – 3:30 pm: Tea Break
3:30 – 5 pm: Bluegrass & Country Songs Jam with all staff
5 – 6:30 pm: Dinner Break
6:30 – 7:45 pm: Student song share (Bring a song to share. 15 slots available, so team up with a friend!)
8 – 9 pm: Evening Jam (Open Jam; A Cappella Jam with Emily)
9 pm – ???: Open Jams
SUNDAY
8 – 9 am: Breakfast
9:15 – 9:30: Warm Ups
9:30 – 10:45 am: Period 1 (Lead Country Singing with Emily; Great Duet Repertoire with Dudley and Sally)
10:45 – 11:15 am: Tea Break
11:15 am – 12:30 pm: Period 2 (Gospel Sing with all staff)
12:30 pm: Goodbyes!
Spring Sing 2024
Dudley Connell
From the 1970s through to the present, Dudley Connell has remained an important figure in bluegrass music, first as the founder and mainstay of the Johnson Mountain Boys and later as a member of the Seldom Scene. In 2020, Connell was inducted into the International Bluegrass Hall of Fame with the Johnson Mountain Boys.
Ginny Hawker
Ginny Hawker was born to do Country music growing up in southern Virginia in a large musical family. Starting with the soul-stirring unaccompanied singing of her father’s church that came to this country from Scotland, lyrics are important and you hear that when Ginny sings. Ginny learned harmony through Bluegrass and southern Gospel, where the blend of voices singing together pulled her ear and made her a gifted teacher at music camps in US, Canada, and the British Isles for over 25 years. Any class Ginny teaches will be informative and challenging without being overwhelming. Emmylou Harris is quoted in “O” magazine describing Ginny as “real as dirt” when reviewing her first solo recording, Letters From My Father.
Sally Love
Sally Love Connell sings lead/harmony vocals and plays guitar. A WAMMIE award winner for best bluegrass vocalist, Sally has performed with various acoustic and bluegrass groups in the Washington DC area, including, with husband Dudley Connell, their own group, Seneca Rocks!
Emily Miller
Emily, Augusta’s Artistic Director, was born in Kansas and raised in Hong Kong, where her family band performed American old-time and country music on television shows and in shopping malls throughout the city. After performing with many groups in her teenage years, including Village and Northern Harmony, Emily formed the honky-tonk country band The Sweetback Sisters in 2006 with fellow singer Zara Bode. They have recorded four full-length records and have performed their renegade retro style of country music in barrooms and concert halls around the world. Emily has been featured several times on national radio programs, including A Prairie Home Companion and WV’s own Mountain Stage. When she’s home in West Virginia, she performs old-time music as a duo with her husband, Jesse Milnes, and makes awesome stuff happen at Augusta year round.
Val Mindel
Val Mindel is a longtime musician, teacher and workshop leader, known for helping singers achieve that close, buzzy harmony that is a pillar of American old-time and early-country harmony. She also addresses such indefinables as tone (that high lonesome sound), ornamentation, blend and more. She is a veteran staff member at the Augusta Heritage Center’s various weeks and in addition has taught at numerous music camps across the U.S. and abroad, including: the Ashokan Center (Southern Week and the Old-Time Rollick), Centrum (Voice Works and Fiddle Tunes), Allegheny Echoes and, in the U.K., Sore Fingers. She is a founding member of the California-based Any Old Time string band (check out the band’s compilation album, I Bid You Goodnight on Smithsonian Folkways), and has two CDs with daughter and old-time country musician Emily Miller (In the Valley and Close to Home). Val is also the author of So You Want to Sing Folk Music, part of the “So You Want to Sing” series for Rowman & Littlefield and the National Association of Teachers of Singing. She lives in Elkins, West Virginia.