Author: Heidi Herzog

Silas Powell

Posted on by Heidi Herzog

Silas is a 5th generation picker from the small town of Salem, WV. While a multi-instrumentalist of fiddle, guitar, and banjo, his passion remains with the mandolin.

Silas first had the mandolin in his hands in his playpen, and his dad and Papaw knew then he was going to follow them in their music talents.  He first started playing the mandolin at age 7 when he picked up the instrument and started ‘chopping’ along to his dad’s band rehearsal!

Silas has performed at Merlefest, Houston-fest, Remington Ryde, Bob Evan’s Festival, and Baygrass Festival in the Florida Keys. He has performed with many top Bluegrass musicians, including Jesse McReynolds, David Grier, Doyle Lawson, Mike Compton, Blue Highway,  Missy Raines, Sierra Hall, Mandolin Orange, Emory Lester, Johnny Staats, Terry Baucom, Joe Mullins , and The Grascals.  Silas has been featured on Woodsong’s Old Time Radio hour as a “Woodsong’s Kid” as well as being a member of “Tomorrow’s Bluegrass Stars”.  In 2017 and 2018 Silas was selected as 1 of 25 kids to participate at the IBMA’s Kids on Bluegrass.

Silas’s lists of competitions wins and awards is impressive for such a young player:

  • 4 time Junior Champion, State of Maryland;
  • 2nd place, Maryland State Adult division (age 12);
  • West Virginia State Championship Adult Division Top 5;
  • 4th place, Monterey Virginia’s Old Time Fiddler’s Convention (at age 10);
  • 2106 State of West Virginia Junior Flatpick Champion
  • 2nd place Appalachian Old time Fiddler’s Championship, West Virginia University (Fiddle);
  • Scholarship Recipient Houstonfest, Galax, VA

In 2019, Silas became the 1st Recipient of the Monroe Mandolin Camp Apprenticeship, which offers students going into music teaching, a teachers hands-on experience and mentoring.

Add on to all of these accomplishments, Silas shares his love of music monthly at a local nursing home, which has earned him “Youth Volunteer of the Year”, State of West Virginia.  You can see Silas Powell and The Powell Family Band at festivals around the country.

Will Kimble

Posted on by Heidi Herzog

Kimble mandolins are custom made tools for acoustic musicians. Each mandolin is carefully crafted by hand based on input regarding tone, feeling, aesthetics. There are no standard models or trim levels. Excellent workmanship is key to great sounding mandolins.  Will started building mandolins in 2000.  Taught by his father, Fred Kimble, they still work side by side building instruments.

Mission Statement

Posted on by Heidi Herzog
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Preserving and Promoting the Music and Cultural Heritage of

Authentic First Generational Bluegrass

Committed to building community from around the world, as well as forging platforms and connections for the next generation of musicians, the MonManCamp presents programs that ensure the continuation of original and powerful American music as created by the “Father of Bluegrass Music”, Bill Monroe.  At MMC, our missions are to:

  • Preserve the music created and recorded by Bill Monroe
  • Use the transformative power of music to foster relationships while building communities worldwide
  • Educate contemporary music enthusiasts about fundamental building blocks, stylistic elements, and techniques that are unique to this music
  • Present a curriculum that forwards an understanding of the players and culture that created Bluegrass music

Additional benefits of our programs include:

  • Cultivating Creativity through collaboration;
  • Cultivating Self-Compassion & a Resilient Spirit by encouraging participants in letting go of perfectionism and taking a journey based upon one note, one tune, or one song at a time;
  • Cultivating Brain Development via self-assessment, critical thinking skills, engagement of non-verbal brain activities for fine motor skills, mathematical reasoning (via chord progressions, rhythm, melodic intervals, etc.);
  • Cultivating folklore, or the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of this bluegrass community passed through the generations by word of mouth;
  • Cultivating Connection via:
    • facilitating cross-generational gatherings and one generation passing it down to the next;
    • laughter and joy through music;
    • continuation and longevity of this music by growing the branches of future players and appreciators;
    • using the stories and roots of bluegrass music with all of its rich history, context, narratives of hardships, triumphs, and musical history to demonstrate our connectedness and shared similarities.

 

Music – the universal language of mankind.

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10 Minute Tune-Ups

Posted on by Heidi Herzog

Come join us on Tuesday nights, 7:00 pm Central Standard Time, as we are led on a mini-tune-up session by one of our world class instructors.

This LIVE broadcast will be on FACEBOOK: MONROE MANDOLIN CAMP page.

Get your instruments tuned up and ready to go.  We’ll have a series of building block sessions to help you on your musical journey into the world of Bill Monroe’s music.  Special guest artists will also be invited.  Each week we will announce what instrument and instructor will be leading, and what specifics will be worked on.  Make sure to “LIKE” this facebook page to receive notifications about each weekly event!  If time allots, questions will be fielded as well.

Mike Compton

Posted on by Heidi Herzog

Befriended and mentored by Bill Monroe, the acknowledged Father of Bluegrass Music, Mike Compton is one of today’s foremost interpreters of Monroe’s genre-creating mandolin style. Compton’s mastery of mandolin is at once effortless and exceptional. A compelling entertainer either alone or with a group, his skills as a singer, arranger, instrumentalist, composer and accompanist also make him in-demand as a band member and ensemble player at festivals, clubs and concert halls, recording sessions, music workshops and as a private instructor.

Compton’s decades of touring and recording with musical luminaries ranging from rockstars Sting, Gregg Allman and Elvis Costello, to straight-fro-the-still acoustic legends like John Hartford, Doc Watson, Peter Rowan, Ralph Stanley and David Grisman, have established him as a true master of the modern American mandolin and a premier interpreter of roots and Americana musical styles. With over 140 CDS in his discography, Compton has helped keep mandolin a cool, relevant sound as the modern musical styles ebb and evolve to reach an every-broadening audience.

A native of Meridian, Mississippi, Compton picked up the mandolin in his teens and absorbed the area’s native blues, old-time country and bluegrass sounds. He soon gravitate to Nashville, where he helped found one of the 20th Century’s most admired and influential bluegrass groups, the iconic Nashville Bluegrass Band. He’s also been a part of the Hubert Davis Band, John Hartford Stringband, 1942, Compton & Newberry, and other seminal groups.

When A-list Americana producer T-Bone Burnett needed experts in authentic rural musical styles to anchor the landmark ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ movie project and subsequent tour, he called upon Compton’s unique knowledge and signature mandolin style to authenticate the Soggy Bottom Boys’ rootsy sound. That Grammy Award Album of the Year-winning album went on to sell seven million copies and sparked a global revival in old-time and bluegrass musical styles.

Connoisseur of hand-painted vintage silk ties, popularizer of the denim overall urban fashion statement, lover of iconic men’s hats and curator of oddball official days (ask him about National Lost Sock Memorial Day or National root Canal Appreciation Day), Mike Compton thrives at the intersection of traditional funk and modern authenticity.

Equally skilled in bluegrass, old-time string band music, country blues, roots Americana styles, and much more, Compton soars beyond easy categorization as n acoustic mandolin player and singer. Gifted at tastefully incorporating rural, roots-based learn and rhythm mandolin styles into modern Americana music, Compton’s unique musical skill set allows him to entertain audiences ranging from racers and urban hipsters to die-hard country, folk and bluegrass fans.

A mandolin master able to channel the Monroe-style playing better than anyone, Compton is a preservationist who continues teaching the music that Bill Monroe innovated, and which set the standard for generations of bluegrass mandolin players to come. For more information about Mike, visit his website at mikecompton.net