Bluegrass and banjo camp set for June 5 to 8

Area musicians of all ages and skill levels from beginners to advanced will want to take advantage of this summer’s Idaho Bluegrass and Banjo Camp. The June 5 to 8 camp is set once again at the center of Weiser’s historic Intermountain Institute campus in Slocum Hall, the headquarters of the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest.

 Registration information is available at the Idaho Bluegrass and Banjo Camp website idahobluegrasscamp.org.

 Campers will take in hours and hours of workshops and jamming, with Saturday afternoon and evening culminating in a band scramble performance, and what has become a popular instructors concert that is free for campers and open to the public. A don’t-miss event.

 The list of this year’s camp instructors starts with the 2025 band in residence, The Becky Buller Band. The band as a whole will bring a mountain of inspiration, plus each member will lead workshops in their own specialties, Buller (fiddle), Ned Luberecki (banjo), Jacob Groopman (guitar), Thomas Cassell (mandolin), and Max Etling (bass).

 Buller is the owner of 10 International Bluegrass Music Association awards, including the 2016 fiddler and female vocalist of the year, as well as the 2020 collaborative recording of the year for “The Barber’s Fiddle,” and the 2020 song of the year for co-writing and fiddling on Special Consensus’ “Chicago Barn Dance.” 

 Joining Buller in instructing the camp’s fiddle workshops is Patrick M’Gonigle, whose Lonely Heartstring Band owns their own share of IBMA awards. A graduate of the Berklee College of Music, M’Gonigle went on to earn a Masters degree and graduated Summa Cum Laude from the New England Conservatory.

 Four banjo instructors lined up for the camp include Buller’s banjo player Ned Luberecki (three-finger), Jason Homey (three-finger), Frank Evans, (three-finger and clawhammer), and Allison de Groot (clawhammer).

 Luberecki is well-known as a host of More Banjo Sunday and Derailed on SiriusXM Satellite Radio’s Bluegrass Junction, and has individual IBMA awards, including the 2018 banjo player of the year, and the Association’s 2023 broadcaster of the year. He’s the author of the Complete Banjo Method series for Alfred Music.

 A founder of the Weiser Banjo camp, Homey is a member of the Bluegrass/Celtic/rock-band, the Clumsy Lovers. In addition to performing, recording and teaching one-on-one banjo, guitar, and mandolin lessons, he has for many years hosted beginner and intermediate Bluegrass jams in Boise, vitalizing a strong bluegrass community.

 Evans tours extensively year around throughout the world and has taught at Rockygrass Academy, Nimble Fingers Bluegrass Camp, and has recorded and taught alongside Old Crow Medicine Show, Natalie MacMaster, Tony Trischka, Peter Rowan, John Reischman, and Ken Whiteley.

 De Groot’s banjo style is distinctly her own, described as grounded, joyfully playful and interactive. Her latest album “Hurricane Clarice” with Tatiana Hargreaves (a former NOTFC competitor) received a JUNO nomination and won both traditional album and instrumental group of the year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards.

 Along with Buller’s guitarist Groopman, a popular 2024 camp instructor, Hayes Griffin will be back in town. Griffin teaches  through his weekly YouTube lessons, private instruction, and his online video platform, Guitar Club. Groopman is best known in the bluegrass music world for his work with his wife, Melody Walker, in their band, Front Country, one of only three groups in history to win both the prestigious RockyGrass and Telluride band competitions.

 Thomas Cassell and Lauren Napier will be leading the camp mandolin workshops. Cassell is among the highest rank of modern bluegrass musicians, and Napier has worked as an artist-in-residence with the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum and in June of 2019, was featured for an interview on Mandolin Cafe.

 Cassell was named the 2021 National Mandolin Champion, and was also named IBMA’s 2020 Momentum Instrumentalist of the Year, the 2021 FreshGrass Mandolin Champion, the 2016 Rockygrass Mandolin Champion, and is a two-time alum of the prestigious Acoustic Music Seminar in Savannah Georgia. Napier has taught classes at Bean Blossom Bluegrass Bootcamp, the Bobby Osborne Mandolin Roundup, and at various festivals where she and her sister’s band, The Price Sisters have performed. 

 Rounding out the 2025 instructors’ list is Etling, Buller’s bass player, who was also a band member with Seth Mulder and Midnight Run and the former guitar player of Barton’s Hollow, a 6-piece traditional bluegrass, contemporary bluegrass, gospel, and acoustic band based in his home state of Minnesota. He teaches at East Tennessee State University.