A Festival of Bluegrass & Old-Time Music & Dance
This event took place from February 29-March 2, 2008

Fourth Annual Grass Seeds Kids Academy

MBOTMA is pleased to announce the continuation of the Grass Seeds Kids Academy at the 2008 Winter Bluegrass Weekend. Grass Seeds is a weekend-long winter music camp for serious pickers and singers ages 8 to 18. We will meet on Friday night from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM. There are two sessions on Saturday and again on Sunday. The kids at Grass Seeds Academy have a lot of fun, but they work hard too. We recommended it for advanced beginners and up. No basic instrument instruction is offered.

We are very excited to have Tangled Roots return as the 2008 Grass Seeds faculty band featuring Marty Marrone (guitar), Chuck Millar (mandolin), David Tousley (bass) and Heath Loy (banjo). Joining Tangled Roots will be Mel Bay Publications author Brian Wicklund (fiddle). Brian's highly acclaimed series, American Fiddle Method, has made him a first choice instructor at many instructional camps and festivals throughout the country.

The registration fee for 2008 is $75 per child (sibling discount available) and includes admission to the Winter Bluegrass Weekend as well as the 7:00 PM Saturday Night Headline Concert (with special group seating). The weekend will include both instrumental and vocal sessions. Some of the things you can expect to learn will be jamming etiquette, ensemble playing, how to play back-up and take a lead break on your instrument, plus singing lead and harmony vocals. We will work on four songs, two instrumentals and two with vocals. All music will be available ahead of time. The more familiar you are with the tunes, the more you will get out of the weekend. We will conclude on Sunday afternoon with a public performance of Grass Seeds bands on one of the festival stages.

Space is limited to fifty students (ten per instrument). We expect to fill up quickly, so be sure to register early. For more information about the Grass Seeds Academy, please contact Sandi Pidel at grassseeds@minnesotabluegrass.org or 763-784-5286. For registration only, call MBOTMA at 1-800-635-3037. Please be sure to leave your email address and phone number so we can get the music to you. Registration is not considered final until we receive the signed parental consent form.

This will be the fourth year for Grass Seeds Academy at the Winter Bluegrass Weekend. The young bands that performed on stage the last three years wowed the audience and garnered comments like "That's the best thing I've heard all weekend" and "I wish I could have had something like that when I was a kid" and "These kids are the future of bluegrass."