21st Annual Bluegrass Masters Weekend: November 4-6, 2011

Reserve your rooms now for your bluegrass weekend at Lutsen Resort on Lake Superior!

Each year the North Shore Music Association sponsors a great weekend for bluegrass musicians and fans. Friday is check-in, registration and jamming, Saturday is workshops, more jamming and an evening concert by our featured group, and Sunday is... more jamming before check-out. It's a pickin' weekend in a relaxed setting, and a wonderful opportunity to connect with your bluegrass friends. There's no cap on workshop participants, so relax and register when you arrive.

Featured Artists, Tim Stafford & Steve Gulley:

A native of Kingsport, Tennessee, Tim Stafford began playing guitar seriously at the age of 18. He played with various groups as a teenager, including Mountain Memories, Boys in the Band, and Dusty Miller, which was named SPBGMA International Bluegrass Band champions in 1990. A few months later he joined Alison Krauss and Union Station, along with Adam Steffey and Barry Bales. He left Krauss's band in May 1992 in order to spend more time with his newborn son.
Tim won a Grammy in January 1993 for his work on “Every Time You Say Goodbye” (Rounder, 1992). In 1994, he organized the group Blue Highway, whose first project, “It’s a Long, Long Road,” spent six months at the top of the Bluegrass Unlimited charts and went on to win IBMA’s Album of the Year Award (1996). The band has also been awarded Emerging Artist of the Year (1996) and Gospel Recording of the Year (1997). 

In January 2001, Tim was voted the guitar performer of the year in bluegrass music at the 27th Annual Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America Awards Show in Nashville.

Tim has taught guitar and banjo at ETSU’s famed Bluegrass and Country Music Program. He’s taught guitar and bluegrass at Augusta Heritage in Elkins, WV; Rockygrass Academy of Lyons, CO; CBA Music Camp at Grass Valley, CA.; Camp Bluegrass in Levelland, TX; Steve Kaufman’s Flatpicking Camp in Maryville, TN; Bluegrass at the Beach at Nehalem, OR; Sore Fingers UK; Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend in Roanoke, VA; Wintergrass in Tacoma, WA, and Nashcamp in Nashville, TN, plus numerous festival and event workshops across the country.

Steve Gulley is a founding member of the bluegrass group Mountain Heart, with whom he recorded five highly acclaimed CDs as lead singer. He has been tapped as a harmony and featured singer on projects such as the widely-praised Keith Whitley album Sad Songs and Waltzes, as wells as projects by Ronnie Bowman, Dan Tyminski, Tim Stafford, David Parmley, Dale Ann Bradley, Jeff Parker and Grasstowne's Phil Leadbetter, just to name a few.

Steve has earned multiple Male Vocalist of the Year nominations from the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America. His first solo project, Sounds Like Home, has just been released on the Lonesome Day Records label.
In December 2006, Steve joined fellow musicians Alan Bibey and Phil Leadbetter to form Grasstowne, a bluegrass/acoustic band. The new group, which includes newcomers Jamey Booher and Jason Davis, began touring in February 2007.

Schedule: 

Saturday 11/5 - Workshops

Featured Instrument: Guitar          
Instructor: Tim Stafford, Master Guitarist
Cost: $7/each or $30/full day, register and pay at event (no cap on participant #)

9:00 am - 12:00  REVISITING THE FUNDAMENTALS, The "Ts": Tone, Timing, Tuning, Taste, Technique

12:00 pm - 1:30  LUNCH BREAK

1:30 - 2:30  BLUEGRASS RHYTHM GUITAR TECHNIQUES: RHYTHM PATTERNS, RUNS AND CHORDS

2:30 - 3:15  LEAD GUITAR TECHNIQUE AND TUNES

3:30 - 5:00  SONGWRITING WITH TIM STAFFORD AND STEVE GULLEY

Saturday 11/5 - 8 pm Performance

Featuring: Tim Stafford and Steve Gulley
Tickets: $18 adults, $8 ages 12 and under, for sale at event

For more information, call 218-387-1272 or e-mail music@boreal.org.

Lodging: 

Lutsen Resort 1-800-258-8736 Lutsen, MN.
(18 miles south of Grand Marais on Hwy. 61) lutsenresort.com
When making your reservation, be sure to mention you're there for the Bluegrass Master's Weekend, for a special package deal!

Remember, no matter what the featured instrument, given the ensemble nature of bluegrass, it's a great time for all. It's also a wonderful opportunity for families and friends to get together and get away to Lutsen Resort and the north shore of Lake Superior, stunning at any time of year. See you in November!