Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Kamps have been in operation for 12 years now, teaching first only guitarists, but now also banjo and mandolin players in week long workshops in Maryville, TN. The “kamps” have grown from year to year, and have thrice been selected for the Best Workshops, Seminars and Camps award from the readers of Acoustic Guitar Magazine.

If you have wanted to attend but have been prevented by the costs, you should consider applying for the Dreadnaughts Unlimited Scholarship program before the deadline for 2007 falls on Thursday, May 17.

The DU official website describes their efforts this way:

Dreadnoughts Unlimited is a non-profit entity that has been established to provide scholarships to needy and eager musicians who will benefit from a week at Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Kamp. We have awarded several scholarships over the last six years. The scholarships are funded mainly by individual donations.

A Gallagher Doc Watson guitar will be given away during this year’s Kamp, and everyone who makes a donation to the Scholarship Fund will be entered in the drawing.

You will find the application and further details on their website.

The Lewis Family have a new compilation project due for release this month on Daywind Records.

The CD is entitled Handpicked, and includes their very favorite tracks from previous releases, fourteen in all. The CD booklet also features comments about each song, and why it was selected for this compilation.

The tracks include: A Rose In A Bible, You Can’t Stop Time, He Still Looks Over Me, Walking And Talking, Angels Gathering Flowers, When Our Lord Shall Come Again, Above And Beyond, If We Ever Needed The Lord Before (We Sho Do Need Him Now).

There is no release date shown on the Daywind site, but the CD is available for ordering now from The Lewis Family site.

This post is another from our all-the-more regular contributor, Richard Thompson. He writes from England, where he is also a longstanding contributor to British Bluegrass News, a quarterly print publication where he also briefly served as editor.

The latest edition of guitarist Steve Kaufman’s Flatpicking Hotline publication announces details of Kaufman’s schedule for March and April as well providing a registration form for his Kamp 2007.

Kaufman is a National Flatpicking Champion in 1978 at 21 years of age and winner twice more since. After conducting private teaching lessons for about 20 years he produced the first of a wide range of instructional material in 1989.

Steve began touring the world conducting seminars, workshops, clinics and concerts in 1990 and after 5 years he began Steve Kaufman’s Flatpicking Camp. They have grown into the largest Camps of their kind in the world with students traveling from around the world to Maryville, Tennessee. In 2002 and 2004, Steve Kaufman received the Gold Award from a reader’s poll in Acoustic Guitar Magazine for running the “Best Workshops, Seminars and Camps.”

Kaufman has several studio recordings to his credit, the latest of which is the CD Mystique which comprises 17 tracks performed with the assistance of special guests Bobby Hicks, Emory Lester, Gary Davis and Casey Henry among others. He has just released the seventh in the CD series Best Of Kamp Concerts.

Kamp 2007 comprises two separate weeks of tuition on all bluegrass instruments - see the official Kamp web site for the schedules for each week. The first week’s lessons commence on June 10 and are followed immediately by the second week of sessions from June 17 through to June 24.

Details of Steve Kaufman’s commitments for 2007 can be found on his web site.