Camper band at the ETSU Bluegrass Summer Camp – photo © G Nicholas Hancock
The first ever East Tennessee State University (ETSU) Bluegrass Summer Camp, held July 8-12 on the campus of the university in Johnson City, TN, was deemed a success by ETSU camp officials and student campers alike. The camp was started through the Bluegrass, Old-time, and Roots Music Program at the university.
“We had 60 campers from 15 different states attend the camp,” said Aynsley Porchak, camp director. “Some came from as far away as Oregon, Oklahoma, Indiana, Connecticut, and even Spain,” she said.
The camp offered instruction on banjo, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, and bass fiddle, as well as bluegrass band classes, history of traditional bluegrass music, songwriting, and recording studio experience. An hour was set aside each evening for open jam sessions.
This year’s instructors included Trey Hensley, guitarist with the Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley Duo; Kalia Yeagle, fiddler for Bill and the Belles; Alex Genova, former banjoist with Fireside Collective; Ben Bateson, ETSU recording lab manager; Angelica Branum, vocalist with Justin and Angelica Branum; Jeremy Fritts, guitarist with The Fritts Family Band; Dan Boner, multi-instrumentalist and director of the ETSU Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Roots Music Program; Max Etling, former bassist with Seth Mulder & Midnight Run and bass instructor at ETSU; Troy Boone, mandolinist with the Amanda Cook Band, and sound and recording engineer at ETSU; and Aynsley Porchak, fiddler with the Darren Nicholson Band and fiddle instructor at ETSU.
Ms. Porchak said the camp focused on more than just learning to better play their chosen stringed instrument. “To make a career in music today, you have to know about marketing and promotion, and have a sense of business. We’re trying to give the campers a more complete education about the music business,” she said.
Another valuable and important result of the camp experience is the friendships made between and among the campers of varying ages and musical skills.
When asked how he found out about the camp, Nolan Strupeck, 13, from LaPorte, Indiana said he learned about it from the ETSU booths set up at various bluegrass music festivals, such as DelFest in Cumberland, Maryland. Interviewed on Thursday, Nolan said he was “enjoying the camp so much!”
“They are giving a lot of information that I did not know that is different and unique, and I’m also learning a lot of stuff that I am interested in as well. All in all, everybody is kind, the teaching methods are good, and I would love to come here again,” Nolan said.
Alexander Ferranti, 11, of Raleigh, NC, said he learned about the camp through some of the traditional music organizations he and his parents belong to, such as High Lonesome Strings Bluegrass Music Association and the Piedmont Council of Traditional Music (PineCone).
Alexander said he had been waiting four months for the camp to begin.
“It’s cool,” he said. “Here we have 65 musicians in the same place, the same building, at one time. We get to be taught by some of the best musicians there are, like Trey Hensley and Aynsley Porchak. And we get to meet and play music with people from all over the country! There are people from Oklahoma here!”
Max Etling, who taught bass fiddle and band at the camp, said, “The first year of the East Tennessee State University Bluegrass Camp was one for the books! I am still blown away by the level of talent exhibited by all the kids in attendance. They all were hungry to play and learn about the music as well, which makes for a great learning environment. I feel it is very important to pass on and share what I have learned, just as the people I learned from did for me!”
Instructor Troy Boone told me, “I had the great honor of teaching mandolin, band, and audio classes during the camp, and I think I learned just as much as the students. What an inspiration to us all to see the younger generation so fired up about bluegrass! Makes me want to pick!”
Program Director Dan Boner said, “We wanted to offer a ‘mini-ETSU’ experience that included a range of activities from lessons and band classes to recording, songwriting, shape-note singing, and bluegrass music history. It is good for young bluegrass musicians to see life on a college campus, and it might encourage them to think about their own future pathways for higher education while growing their musical skills and broadening their community of musical friends.”
This year’s bluegrass summer camp was open to students of all skill levels ages 11–19. The cost for students staying on campus for the week was $750; the cost for students staying off campus was $550.
Both fees included breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Ms. Porchak announced at the send-off concert, which featured 11 different bands comprised of campers, on Friday morning that the decision had been made to have the camp again next year on July 7-11, 2025.
For more information on the bluegrass summer camp at ETSU, visit them online.
