Bluebird Family Fiddle Camp 2025

June 29th - July 6th, 2025
The Tanawha Family Music Camp welcomes FAMILIES and musicians of all ages interested in Traditional Celtic, Old Time, Jazz Improvisation, and MORE! Classes for Fiddle, Cello, Bass, Guitar, Mandolin, Banjo, Penny Whistle, Ukulele, Dance, Environmental Education, and various Children’s Classes and Activities.

The Walkers invite you to share the spirit of our music and our lives by becoming a part of a new tradition of family music and learning at the Tanawha Family Music Camp.

The Tanawha Family Music Camp was inspired by Scott Walker and The Walker Family Band. The band performs traditional Celtic and American folk/roots music across the US, and are deeply invested in passing traditional music on to future generations. This camp was founded to carry the work and vision of the Walker Family forward for many future generations to experience and enjoy.

TFMC promotes and celebrates intergenerational music making and learning. Families attend camp to learn together, and to make the musical and personal connections that are so important to sustaining folk and traditional music. Our faculty are recognized leaders in music education and in folk and traditional music. 

Our focus on participatory folk music traditions is inclusive of musicians and dancers of all levels and abilities. Our faculty works hard to design and facilitate learning experiences appropriate for beginners through advanced levels. Our teachers value each participant’s role at camp as both student and mentor. We thrive when we share our music and dance in a community founded on gratitude for what we can create together. 

Tanawha Family Music Camp is a non-profit organization. Our primary summer camp event is held at the Blowing Rock Conference Center during the first week of July. We are one of only 4 annual events officially sponsored by the BRCC. The Tanawha Family Music Camp of 2024, marks BRCC’s 22nd summer in support of the ‘whole family’ camp experience where kids, parents and grandparents come to learn and play together!

Most Americans have not learned music in a truly traditional way. We did not grow up hearing our grandfather playing his fiddle by the hearth or our mother singing us to sleep with old lullabies. We listen and learn from recordings, radio or TV, electronic devices. We too rarely have that face-to-face transmission from one heart, one soul, to another; that intimate, powerful contact at the very heart of the human experience. We at Tanawha Family Music Camp like to think that we are cultivating something of that experience and feel the reward of sharing music directly with youngsters and their families.

Traditionalists will say you should not teach Irish music in group classroom settings from musical arrangements in books. And surely to write these tunes down, these mysterious, elusive tunes, is to fossilize them in a way, to pretend there is only one way to play them. But most of us do not live in a society with an unbroken living tradition to inspire. Folklorists would call us Revivalists: we receive the material second hand, removed from its original context, and create a shadow of what was there before.

While some think the way most play Irish or Old-time “Traditional” music is anything but traditional or authentic, we are most certainly engaged in the process of building new traditions upon the old ones, honoring them when we can, replacing them if they can’t work for us. A common misconception about folklorists is that they strive to preserve the old, which is undoubtedly an aspect of their work. But much more important is to celebrate and foster the process, which has been the goal of the Walker family throughout their careers.

Scott says that by teaching these tunes, he is cultivating a garden. As much fun as choosing, learning, and playing these tunes, the true joy comes from spending time in the garden - creating a community of gardeners, to engage the power of the experience of human creation in a society that has developed a sad habit of just watching, or just purchasing. Music is the tool we use but not the actual product of our work. We strive to put music in the hands of students to share their spirit with their listeners. As new musicians grow and share knowledge with a new generation of students, we create the joyful process of making and sharing the essence of the human experience.

2023 Summer Fiddle Camp

Our 20th Camp Anniversary Celebration!

The Walker Family Band faculty and staff have learned over the past 19 years to allow plenty of room for fluidity in our week, and this is not a reference to the “Monsoon of 2013,″ although fluidity was indeed more necessary than ever that year! We have simply come to understand that our camp is not OUR camp, but as a different group gathers together each year, it becomes YOUR camp. We like this effect, so over the years, we have often changed the schedule, perhaps added some stuff to enhance and tailor the experience, to make each camp unique rather than replicate camps from year to year.

Limiting enrollment to a relatively small number of families and individual participants makes our camp feel almost more like a big family reunion where everybody can enjoy a week of friendship and relaxation. This intimacy creates an environment that allows us to “get into a rhythm” once we’re on-site and provides the opportunity for us to customize each camp week in a way that values the musical interests and social experience of our group as a whole. Hopefully, you will like this easy-going approach as much as we do! Although our music classes feel relaxed, friendly, and fun, to quote one of our parents, “There is an insane amount of high-level instruction that happens at this camp!”

DATES: July 2-9th, 2023

Our Family Camp includes a wide variety of Advanced and Intermediate classes; classes for players new to traditional music, just getting started, or interested in trying a new instrument; and classes designed to include non-musician family members and friends! Jazz and Improv, Irish, and Old-Time Sessions are a daily highlight.

Try your skills at Song Writing, Jam Band, Banjo and Guitar, Singing, Chamber Ensemble, Dance, Yoga, or an Environmental Education class. Join in camp-wide jam sessions, performances, or games like Capture the Flag! We scheduled plenty of activities for very young children. Collaborate with friends and faculty members for the Showcase Festival! Enjoy a traditional Contra dance night; sing-along on bonfire night; dance into the night at Techno Contra! And join hands in service to our host, BRCC, on our annual outdoor improvement project!

Read more at The Walker Family Band

The Walker Family Band Summer Fiddle Camp faculty are outstanding performers with many years of experience as skilled teachers. Careful preparation and planning, along with our experiences with successes and challenges of previous camps, have enabled us to grow each year and provide what we hope will be a meaningful and memorable music camp experience for everyone who shares this week with us.

We are excited to offer a schedule that features new classes we think you will find challenging and fun this summer. We also pay a lot of attention to grouping musicians to keep class sizes small. Our faculty can plan stimulating music exploration for each class while enjoying the luxury of interacting personally with each person in their class.

Please utilize the suggested guidelines on our website to complete your registration. Appropriate class placement supports our teachers, other camp participants, and families. It provides the best opportunity for each musician to enjoy their best possible camp experience throughout the week.

SEE YOU AT SUMMER CAMP! Check us out on Facebook!​

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