Should you pick up the August ‘08 issue of Reader’s Digest – as millions of us do each month – you’ll find an article by David Hochman that tells a story that will be familiar to many of our readers.

Hochman is among the many adults who have taken up a musical instrument in mid-life, after musing for years about the lost opportunities of youth. Bluegrass music had caught his ear, and the tiny instrument that Bill Monroe used to launch his new sound was what drew David in.

The mandolin looks harmless enough. About the size of a tennis racket, it’s easy to get a clear, golden sound just by brushing your pick across its four sets of double strings. That doesn’t mean I didn’t feel slightly panicky when my wife surprised me with one when I hit the big 4-0. “We support you, sweetie,” Ruth said, speaking for the family. By day seven, she and our four-year-old would quietly slip into another room whenever I took a crack at “Turkey in the Straw.”

Sound like anyone you know?

His piece goes on to discuss his private mandolin lessons and attempts to play with other musicians, finally ending up with a positive experience at Dr. Banjo’s Bluegrass Jam Camp.

Dr. Banjo is Pete Wernick, who’s been running camps around the country for bluegrass greenhorns since the early 1980s. His PhD is in sociology, and he clearly knows something about the wisdom of crowds. Before we even had our instruments out at the camp in Boulder, Colorado, he asked, “Who’s the worst player here?” All 28 of us shot up our hands.

Wernick’s philosophy is that private music instruction often fails, which is why most instruments in America haven’t seen daylight for decades. “The only way to learn to play and keep playing is by playing with other people,” he tells us.

Read the full piece (with a happy ending) on the Reader’s Digest web site.

Here’s another new entry in the bluegrass blogging community – The Australian Bluegrass Blog.

The site is managed by Greg McGrath, a serious Aussie bluegrass enthusiast who I met last spring when he was visiting in the US. Greg also maintains Gippsland Bluegrass, a blog for pickers and bluegrass fans in his part of Victoria.

During a recent discussion, Greg shared the story of how he came to be involved in blogging, and it demonstrates the sort of missionary zeal that has kept bluegrass music active and growing for so many years – and especially how it manages to extend its reach so far from where it was born sixty years ago.

“I was inspired to do something after my big trip to the USA last year. I wanted a medium to show my pictures and tell the stories of the many wonderful people I had met in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky. I was also taken by the work that Pete Wernick was doing through his Jam Camps; I was invited to attend the one in North Carolina last year and spent four days there in awe of what Pete and Joan were achieving with otherwise ‘closet pickers.’

I got home and explored some web site options, but did not have the immediate technology to take advantage of them. I tried building websites, but as a frustrated perfectionist I was not happy with the results and I could not afford software to build them or the cost to host them. After a several months of frustration I virtually gave up trying to get what I thought were some great stories up on the web.

One of the folks I met during my time in the USA was Ted Lehmann who spends his days traveling to festivals and reporting on them on his blogsite. I did not readily understand what a blog was then, but it was always there in the back of my mind.

More months passed and I happened across Ted’s blogsite once again and spent some time there, trying to understand the mechanics of how he made it work and what might be involved for me. (more…)

Niall Toner will be on Ireland’s RT?â Radio 1 this week with the first two installments of his Nashville Sessions series, recorded while he was in attendance at the IBMA World Of Bluegrass convention earlier this fall.

These shows will air at 1:00 p.m. (EST – 6:00 p.m. local UK time) on December 27 and 28 and feature interviews with several performers, songwriters and instrument builders Niall caught up with in Nashville. Guests include Greg Cahill, Pete Wernick, Barry and Holly Tashian, Steve Huber, Goldheart, Broken Wire, Steve Kaufmann, Keith Sewell and a number of others.

Additional shows to be broadcast in 2008 will be announced shortly after the new year.

RT?â Radio 1 broadcasts over the air at 88-89 FM, and listeners worldwide can tune in online via live audio streaming.

Niall is also hard at work finishing up his latest CD, We Believe In Clean Endings. He says it will feature 13 of his new songs, and a release date for next year should be announced by February.

Pete Wernick tells us that he has one scholarship yet to be awarded for his Advanced Banjo Camp in Colorado January 21-26, 2008.

The scholarship is intended for players who might otherwise not have the resources to attend Pete’s camps, and covers the cost of tuition only. Four have been awarded already, with three going to teen pickers from Utah, Kentucky, and Massachusetts.

Pete hosts a number of banjo camps every year, each oriented towards the needs of players at specific skill levels. The Advanced Camp is geared to motivated players in performing bands, and focuses on execution, performance, and creative approaches within the bluegrass format. Pete says that it’s the only banjo camp of its kind, and class size is limited to 15.

To apply for the sole remaining scholarship spot, contact Pete by email. Accommodations and airport shuttle, if needed, are approximately $400.