Home          Bios          Programs       Calendar           Recordings
Bluff Country Gathering
           Photo Gallery        Lanesboro Barn Dance

 

2010 DATES:  May 20-23

 

The 2009 BLUFF COUNTRY GATHERING, May 14-17, Lanesboro, MN

The Bluff Country Gathering is a four-day event presenting traditional American music, dance and singing styles. Workshops conducted by a staff of nationally acclaimed musicians, singers, dancers and folklorists, are designed to pass along the traditions of old-time music to participants at all levels of experience.

Friday May 15: Open to Public. Concert at Lanesboro Community Center,  8:00 PM
                              Tickets $10.00 at the door.

Saturday May 16: Open to Public. Barn Dance at Lanesboro Community Center,  8:00 PM
                               Tickets $8.00 at the door. 
                               All dances taught.....No partner necessary.
 

REGISTRATION: $200 for all events, full registration only if you plan to take workshops, no refunds after May 1 .
Please fill out the full registration form.

Name___________________________________________________________________
Address_________________________________________________________________
Phone_______________________ Email_____________________________

Make checks payable to Bluff Country Gathering and mail to: 18287 Gap Drive, Spring Grove, MN 55974
Name/address on the roster? (The roster will be available to all students) Yes___ No___
Meals: Veggie___ Meat___ If you have food allergies or special needs, you must notify us before May 1st at 507-498-5452.
Any student age 16 or under must be accompanied by a fully registered parent or guardian.
Interested in volunteering? Most of our registered students help out doing small jobs at the weekend, like setting up tables and chairs for meals and concerts, helping in the kitchen, sitting at the sales table during the public concert or dance, to name a few.
Even the smallest help is greatly appreciated. If you check yes, someone will contact you about matching you to an agreeable task.
Yes, I‘d like to help___ No, not this time___
___________________________________________
_____________________________


Workshop Schedules Workshops run Friday and Saturday both morning and afternoon. Please check this website
sometime in February or March for full schedule.
Fee for the weekend is $200 which includes all activities, Thursday through Sunday, lunches on Friday and Saturday and brunch on Sunday. Only full registrations are accepted if you plan to take workshops. Space is limited and registrations are taken on a first-come/first-served basis.
Housing is not provided by the Gathering. Lanesboro has many B&Bs, boarding houses, motels and campgrounds in town and nearby. For a listing of these go to
www.lanesboro.com
or call the tourist office at 800-944-2670.
Thursday Night Potluck There will be a potluck dinner starting at 6 pm. Bring a dish to share. Plates/cups/napkins/ silverware will be provided. The kitchen is available only to the lunch caterers and will not be available for cooking/ cleaning up/storing leftovers.
Food Back by popular demand, Friday and Saturday lunches and Sunday brunch will again be provided by that dynamic duo from Kansas City, Bob and Diana Suckiel, along with their fabulous crew!
What else to bring Recorders are a must, since most of the workshops will be taught aurally. Warm Clothes.

 

Schedule for Registered Students

Thursday

   Potluck supper, 6 pm

   Staff Introductions and Concert, 8 pm

Friday

   Workshops, 9 am-5 pm

   Concert (open to the public), 8 pm

Saturday

   Workshops, 9 am-5 pm

   Barn Dance (open to the public), 8 pm

Sunday

   Brunch, 9:30 am

 

Staff for 2009

       The New North Carolina Ramblers gain their inspiration from old time songs and music of the North Carolina and Virginia Piedmont. Kinney Rorrer, great nephew of the legendary Charlie Poole and grandson of Poole's fiddler Posey Rorrer, is the author of a biography of Poole and master of Charlie's banjo style. Kirk Sutphin, a fiddler and banjoist of great renown, along with guitar and autoharp player Darren Moore and Jeremy Stephens on fiddle, banjo, guitar and autoharp complete the band. Their playing and singing of the music of Poole, the original Carter Family and others from that region are as close as you can get to stepping right into the recording studio where the classic old time 78 records were produced. Their performances have been called "rousing" and that's an understatement!

The New North Carolina Ramblers (Kinney Rorrer, Kirk Sutphin, Jeremy Stephens, Darren Moore)

 

After years of performing stringband music with such groups as the North Fork Rounders and Boiled Buzzards in his home state of Ohio, Christian Wig has taken a step farther into the past. Focusing on music of the Eastern Frontier in America before 1840 by listening to extant recordings of fiddlers who can trace their tunes and styles of playing back to a time before minstrelsy, before radio, before modern notions of timing, he is like a time machine producing the echoes of a nearly forgotten form of music that is truly American. His lovely and haunting fiddle music and primal gourd banjo playing are a rare treat.

Christian Wig   www.chriswig.com

 

Eric & Suzy Thompson from California are virtuoso roots musicians who specialize in the down-home sounds of the American South. Their musical palette includes Appalachian story-songs and bluegrass breakdowns, classic country blues, Louisiana Cajun dance music, and paso dobles from Puerto Rico. Eric's flatpicking on guitar and mandolin is exceptional for its purity of tone, speed, and soulfulness; Suzy is a powerful singer, an award-winning fiddler and Cajun accordion player who has apprenticed with older generation Louisiana Cajun musicians under an NEA Fellowship.

Eric & Suzy Thompson   http://www.bluegrassintentions.com/ericandsuzy.htm

 


Through his music, Skip Gorman brings back to life the workaday world of the cowboys of the American West. His music is not the music of the Hollywood cowboy, but rather the simple, yet beautifully poignant music that was performed around campfires by cowboys and westward settlers in the 19th century. Gorman brings to the music a scholar's knowledge of the cowboy's Celtic, Spanish and Afro-American roots as well as the personal experience gained by working as a cowboy on a ranch in Wyoming, along with an exquisite touch as a singer and yodeler, guitarist, fiddler and mandolinist. He lives  in New Hampshire.


 

Skip Gorman   http://www.skipgorman.com/ 

 

 

 

One of the most respected guitar players in old time music today, Beverly Smith is also in demand as a singer, fiddler, and dance caller. She has made numerous recordings, backing up fiddlers Bruce Molsky, Rafe Stefanini, Tara Nevins and Brad Leftwich, vocalizing with Irish musicians Mick Moloney and John Doyle,  singing with bluegrass great Laurie Lewis, and for the last few years performing as a duet with Carl Jones. Beverly, now a Georgia resident, has taught and played at many camps and folk festivals and toured across the U.S. and in Europe.

    Beverly Smith      http://www.smithnjones.net/index.html 

                 
 

 

 

 

 

2010 DATES:  May 20-23