Portland, Oregon
Janie's Jumpstart
Friday-Sunday Nov 8-10, 2019
Janie Rothfield
Int/Adv Fiddle
Cameron DeWhitt
Int/Advanced Clawhammer Banjo
Charmaine Slaven
Int Old Time Guitar and Songs
Shona Carr
Nov/Int Clawhammer Banjo
Janie Rothfield is an award winning clawhammer banjo player and fiddler who has been playing old-time music “forever.” She has toured professionally for over 35 years, during which she has also been a composer, recording artist, band leader, teacher, and camp organizer, with fans around the world. Her fiddling is characterized by great power, drive and in-the-pocket rhythm with a repertoire with deep traditional roots and featuring her own tunes and songs.
Janie uses her own teaching method that combines easy to learn strategies for learning to play by ear quickly with a focus on musicality and rhythm! This means you will not only learn some great tunes but really how to play all of your tunes better! Janie performs around the world with numerous bands and musical collaborations including Coracree, Hen's Teeth, Jane Rothfield and Allan Carr,The Janie Rothfield Old Time Trio and with daughter Shona Carr as Little Missy. Her latest solo CD, “Out of Thin Air,” features 15 of her own compositions and she is about to release a follow up recording to her 2008 recording, iFiddle, theyBanjo! Her tunes, Too Late for The Bacon and Red Hen won the Best Non-Traditional Tune at Clifftop Appalachian Stringband Festival!
Janie has taught fiddle (and clawhammer banjo) for over 35 years, privately and at camps and festivals such as Banjo Camp North, Midwest Banjo Camp, Old Songs Summer Camps, Janie's Jumpstart, Portland Old Time Music Gathering, Bellingham Folk Festival, Zigzag, Heart of the Alleghanies Festival, Philadelphia Folk Festival, Folk College and the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, FOATMAD Weekend (Wales) in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, and Australia!
"Janie came highly recommended so I had high expectations. They were met and exceeded. I've been playing fiddle for years, trying to learn from books and the internet. After Janie showed me the proper way to hold the fiddle and bow, and proper bowing technique, all those tunes I know became so much easier to play. Then she showed me the most important thing about playing any instrument; the difference between playing notes and making music. And the whole time I never feel like I'm taking lessons. I feel like I'm just hanging out playing music and learning new things. Most importantly, I'm excited about learning because it has become fun again." Jamie McCracken- Janie's Fiddle student
"I have been to many workshops; most have not been especially helpful. I would leave the workshop with a few new tunes, but without new fiddling insights. They would be a pretty good social experience, but frankly not such a great learning experience. Ever the optimist, I enrolled in Janie’s Jumpstart workshop in Seattle last year. And I’m way glad I did! I had Jane in a small class, with copious personal attention (she would see and correct playing problems right away). And she would teach tunes with an emphasis on technique and how to really “fiddle” them (not just follow after a teacher). I am already a much better fiddler, after just a couple of months. And I practice her lessons every day; it will take me at least a year to learn all the things she taught me in one weekend. This is a great workshop and a breakthrough experience. I will definitely attend again when I can." Jeff Bialer-fiddle (Seattle WA Jumpstart)
https://hensteethduo.bandcamp.com/releases Listen to Janie with Hen's Teeth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZW6NbBw1kI Janie playing Buck Mountain
https://youtu.be/QXTVv-R_QKw Janie and Cameron play Seneca Square Dance
www.janerothfield.com
Charmaine Slaven is originally from Western Montana and is a professional musician, flatfoot dancer, dance caller & instructor, specializing in traditional American roots music and square dances. She takes great joy in sharing her love of music with people of all-ages & abilities, and has been teaching at music camps for over a decade. Charmaine has gained a great reputation for her fun and engaging method of getting folks dancing and playing music together. She’s a has a natural knack for teaching and organizing, and has become an anchor in the Pacific NW old time music and dance communities.
Charmaine has performed & taught music, dance, and calling workshops at events including the Portland Old Time Gathering, Olympia Old Time Festival, NW Folklife Festival, Alaska Folk Festival, Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Los Angeles Old Time Social, Hermit Music Festival, Dare to be Square West, Nimblefingers, Victoria Old Time Tidal Wave, Vancouver Old Time Social, Missoula Old Time Social, Willamette Old Time Social, Tacoma Revels, and A Prairie Home Companion.
Charmaine performs with her husband, Charlie Beck, as Squirrel Butter,The Tallboys, The Lucky Shots, and with Kate Lichtenstein as The Piney Gals. She serves as Tutor Coordinator & on the Advisory Board for the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, is a Community Coordinator with the NW Folklife Festival, organizes the Tractor Tavern Square Dances, and assists with the Seattle Subversive Square Dance Society & Dare the be Square West. At home, her baby girl, Hazel, and two dogs keep her busy hiking, gardening, and creating art.
Video Links of Charmaine:
https://youtu.be/j0iDDqHIKPs?t=48
More at charmaineslaven.com
Cameron DeWhitt is a clawhammer banjoist and Old Time musician living in Portland, Oregon. He hosts the weekly podcast Get Up in the Cool: Old Time Music with Cameron DeWhitt and Friends, which features conversations and musical collaborations with today’s most influential traditional musicians, like Jake Blount, Paul Brown, Erynn Marshall and Carl Jones, Gailanne Amundsen, John Reischman, Ken Perlman, Adam Hurt, and Spencer & Rains. As an interviewer, Cameron balances an effusive curiosity for the potential of traditional music with a dogged respect for its origins. Serving as audience surrogate, Cameron asks illuminating questions to Old Time's best and brightest while telling the larger story of the tradition's modern era. And with over 100 episodes released and no signs of slowing, Get Up in the Cool is quickly becoming one of the largest available archives of new Old Time recordings.
Cameron is the innovator behind pitchfork banjo, a three-finger clawhammer technique that allows the player unprecedented access to melody, harmony, and rhythms typically roped off from clawhammer players. With pitchfork-style, Cameron improvises over tunes in a way that most old time banjoists would only attempt with meticulous arrangement. Cameron has taught pitchfork banjo at festivals like East Vancouver Old Time Social, Black Creek Fiddlers' Reunion, Old Time on the Onion, Nimbin Roots Festival, Dorrigo Folk and Bluegrass Festival, and Mountaingrass Festival.
Testimonials:
Here's what people are saying about Cameron's teaching:
“Cameron is not only a great teacher with an amazing technique, he is also very sensitive to the student needs.
Extremely attentive, Cameron adapts each lesson to each student. But the most important quality for me is that Cameron not only teaches me how to play banjo he also motivates me to get out of my comfort zone and challenge myself to learn and get better.”
"Cameron has so many techniques at his disposal, and a way of explaining things that makes them very clear. Right I after I started working with him, concepts I hadn't quite been able to grasp began to click."
"My learning style tends towards the tangential; Cameron has accommodated that even as he gently and knowledgeably nudges our lessons towards my goals. He’s enabled me to be comfortable in jam settings and immeasurably improved my banjo playing technique. All while having a blast (and via Skype). I can’t recommend him highly enough."
LOOK AND LISTEN TO CAMERON!!
Shona Carr is an award winning singer, fiddler, guitarist, clawhammer banjo player and song writer who was born into a musical family rich in traditional Old Time and Celtic Music. She grew up surrounded by fiddle and banjo music from her mother Janie Rothfield, and Scottish traditional singing and Celtic music from her father, Allan Carr who is from Aberdeen, Scotland. Shona’s music and singing reflects the fusion of these musical styles and she is known for her unique voice, song and tune writing. Shona plays fiddle, banjo, tenor guitar and guitar and performs with her band THE BUCK STOPS HERE, LOST INDIAN and with Jane Rothfield as LITTLE MISSY. Shona’s original tune “Fly Bird” won the 2014 Best Original Tune at the Clifftop Appalachian Stringband Festival and her band, The Buck Stops Here took home 2nd place for Neo-Traditional band. In 2015, Shona’s band, Buffalo Gap won FIRST PLACE TRADITIONAL BAND at Clifftop Appalachian Stringband Festival! She has performed throughout the East Coast of the U.S. in concerts and festivals such as the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Old Songs Festival, the Music Fest at Sugar N’ Grove, Merle Fest, New Bedford Folk Festival and the Portsoy Traditional Music Festival in Portsoy, Scotland. Shona teaches out of her home in Staunton VA and has taught numerous times at Janie’s Jumpstart Old Time Weekends in Oxford, PA. www.thebuckstopshereband.com
Look and Listen to Shona
