From the Archives: Bits and Pieces

This is one in our continuing occasional series of excerpts from Murphy's Banjo Newsletter articles. This is from the August 1990 issue, and appears on page 169 of Murphy's book ...And There You Have It! I think this is one of the funniest incidents she recounted about me. I remember doing this. The keys didn't…

A Meeting of Mandolins

Folks, I just ran across a photo and wanted to share it with you. A few years ago, a member of the "Co-Mando" mandolin email list held a gathering at his house in Maryland, a couple of hours' drive from here. Our friend David McLaughlin rode over to the gathering with me, and we joined…

Back to the Grind

After a mere day and a half to recover from Kaufman Kamp, it's back to work at the dentist's office for me. (I only work there one day a week, yet often that feels like too much.) I enjoyed a wonderful dinner last night at Kelley and Ned Luberecki's house, in the company of Sally,…

Earned the License! (Flying and Picking #12)

Folks, I'm going to break away from those excellent postings from Kaufman Kamp to tell you about something else good that happened this week. As many of you know I've been learning to fly, and on Wednesday I got my license! It's been a huge 7-month-long project, studying and flying all I could, but it…

Kaufman Kamp

Greetings from Kaufman Kamp! I am sitting here in the kitchen of the suite Casey and I are sharing at Maryville College watching Casey pour her morning orange juice. And as you can see, I’m still in my pajamas! Today will be the fourth teaching day at camp and I am happy to report that…

Kaufman Kamp Week 2 Photos

We're in the middle of Week 2 here at Kaufman Kamp and I'm really feeling why they call it "hump day." Three more days of instruction to go and all of us here are just about at the point where our brains fill up and you can't stuff any more new information in! So, once…

Picking with Dale Crider at White Springs

Folks, I just thought you'd like to see this photo of Red & Chris and Their All-Star Band performing with Dale Crider at the Florida Folk Festival a couple of weekends ago: (Pickers: Jenny Leigh, Chris Henry, Barb Johnson, Dale Crider, Red Henry, John Hedgedcoth.) As you can see, we have a good time playing…

Kaufman Kamp Week 1 Photo

Because our posts tend to be very text heavy, I decided to give you a break and just post a picture today. This is the instructor photo from last week's camp session. (Click to enlarge.) Front Row Left to Right: Jeff Jenkins, Keith Yoder, Casey Henry, Joe Collins, Mary Flower Second Row: Adam Masters, Jim…

A Couple of Reviews

I was browsing around the Bluegrass Unlimited site today and ran across a couple of reviews they did of our DVDs. (BU is the premier bluegrass magazine. If you don't subscribe already, you should.) I'll post the links as well as the complete text, just in case the link stops working at some point in…

Mark Panfil Dobro Lesson

I just found this while I was searching around on YouTube. Mark Panfil is our is the instructor on our Beginning Dobro DVD. He posted this lesson on YouTube back in January for one of our signature Murphy Method songs: "Banjo in the Hollow." As you know it's the first tune we teach on the…