JamVember Archives - Bluegrass Today

Well-known Boston-area guitarists and educator, Tony Watt, has announced a fun new non-festival for this summer though his Bluegrass University. Billed as JamVember in July, this pickin’ weekend will be held July 19-21 in Greenfield, MA at Camp Kee-wanee.

The JamVember concept started several years ago as a chance for pickers to get together and jam at the end of the season in November, first hosted in Framingham, near Boston. People enjoyed it so well they pestered Tony to offer an outdoor version during the summer. So we now have JamVember in July!

Tony has been involved in bluegrass most of his life on multiple levels. Until fairly recently, he was the guitarist with Alan Bibey & Grasstowne, and he offers private lessons and classes on guitar, mandolin, and banjo in the greater Boston area. Tony is also on the faculty at the Berklee College of Music where he teaches bluegrass instruments and coaches ensembles. Plus he coordinates the Bluegrass Tuesdays concerts at Lily P’s in Cambridge each week.

He offered this brief description of this new event, located close to the New Hampshire border in central Mass, to be convenient for pickers all over New England.

“We are so excited to announce a brand new event, our first in over four and a half years: JamVember in July! JamVember in July is a weekend-long bluegrass non-festival held on the 19th-21st of July at Camp Kee-wanee in Greenfield, MA, just 10 minutes from the intersection of Rt. 2 and I-91. Some of you may recognize this as the same location as the Harry Smith Frolic, an old-time campout weekend.

Camp Kee-wanee is an active summer day camp for kids that operates during the week, but they were kind enough to let us take over for the weekend. The camp is a bit more rustic than your average bluegrass festival campground, but the Harry Smith Frolic has been going strong there since 2003. Please check out the FAQs section on our website to learn more about the camp.”

In addition to offering an open space for jamming, JamVember in July will also include workshops, classes, and teacher-led jams on site. Players at all levels of skill and experience are welcome to attend, as are listeners and dancers.

Because of local ordinances, tickets can’t be sold, so suggested donations of $50 are being requested. And since the camp has plenty of space, there’s no real worry of selling out. Only rough camping is available, and the camp has no store, so you’ll need to bring everything you need with you when you come in.

JamVember in July is also seeking a few volunteers to help out over the weekend. Folks willing to give a few hours of free labor can get their weekend pass for free. Those interested should contact Tony by email.

Full details, including how to make donations (buy tickets) in advance, can be found online.

Last year we shared news about a new event on the New England bluegrass calendar, a “non-festival” to be held this fall at the Framingham, MA hoteltonywatt where the annual Joe Val Memorial Bluegrass Festival is hosted each year. It was given the name JamVember, as the concept was to provide a spot and an opportunity for non-stop jamming, but without a stage show in competition.

Organizer Tony Watt tells us that the first event, just concluded yesterday, went better than any of them had hoped

JamVember featured 100 workshops and teacher-led jams hosted by over 50 musicians and teachers. And this was just a fraction of the amazing music happening at the Sheraton all weekend long because, even with all the scheduled sessions, this event was much more like a festival than a camp.

People came from all over the northeastern states (MA, NH, VT, ME, RI, CT, NY, NJ, and PA), as well as MD, VA, TN, FL, and TX. There were nearly 350 attendees, which greatly exceeded my expectations for the first year of the event. But it wasn’t a complete surprise given the fact that JamVember was held in the same location (the Sheraton in Framingham, MA) as the 2006 IBMA Event of the Year, the Joe Val Memorial Bluegrass Festival (a.k.a. Joe Val).

A couple of the folks who traveled the furthest were Alan Tompkins, event promoter and IBMA Board Member, and Gerald Jones, of Texas’ Acoustic Music Camps. Gerald helped out by teaching workshops and hosting jams, and Alan was there to jam as much as possible in 48 hours. Alan sent along this note after getting home:

“We traveled quite a distance, from Dallas to Boston, but JamVember was worth the trip! The experience was a ton of fun, with jams going in dozens of rooms (and most every hallway) and great folks who welcomed you right in. When Tony described his new event as ‘a non-festival full of jamming without the distraction of a stage show,’ I knew he had a winner – and he delivered!”

Everything went so well this year that we already planning next year’s event, which will be held the weekend before Thanksgiving, November 22-24, 2019.

Well done, Tony, and all the folks who helped put on this five event. Get more information on JamVember online.

Here are some photos from the weekend, taken by Eric Levenson, long-time bassist in Joe Val’s band, the New England Bluegrass Boys