Performers and Workshops
BIOGRAPHY:
Tim May has performed at multiple Tenor Guitar Gatherings, and is always a favorite. Tim calls Nashville home, and has played with an impressive list of performers. He was solo guitarist on Charlie Daniels' 2005 recording of "I'll Fly Away," which was nominated for Best Country Instrumental Grammy.
Tim has been a regular on the Grand Ole Opry with Mike Snider for many years. He has performed with Patty Loveless, John Cowan, Eddie Rabbit, and Rodney Dillard of The Darlin's. He was picked by Nashville Scene Reader's Poll as the Best Instrumentalist in 2012. Tim co-authored the eight volume series of "Flatpicking Essentials." In 2017, Tim performed on the stage of the legendary Carnegie Hall in New York City.
We are honored to induct Tim May in to the 2024 Tenor Guitar Hall of Fame!
Tyler Jackson
WORKSHOP: Jazz Improvisation on The Tenor Guitar (Fifths Tuning) Immerse yourself in the world of Jazz Improvisation on the Tenor Guitar with our unique workshop tailored for players exploring the fifths tuning. This workshop is designed to elevate your musical journey by focusing on the distinctive nuances and techniques associated with Jazz improvisation on the tenor guitar, particularly in fifths tuning.
Whether you're a seasoned guitarist or just beginning your musical exploration, this workshop offers a hands-on experience to enhance your improvisational skills, delve into the intricacies of jazz phrasing, and discover the expressive possibilities that the tenor guitar in fifths tuning brings to the world of Jazz. Join us for an enriching session that blends theory with practical application, fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation for Jazz improvisation on the tenor guitar.
BIOGRAPHY:
Tyler has been a favorite for many years at the Tenor Guitar Gathering. Jackson got his professional start playing tenor banjo and ukulele in Branson, MO on the Buck Trent show, Branson Belle Riverboat, and Jim Stafford show.
Tyler went on to study the double bass at the University of North Texas. It was during this time that he was asked to work for Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys. For almost eight years Tyler toured with Price all over the world and played most of the famous venues.
When Ray Price teamed up with Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard to form the highly successful “Last of the Breed” tour --- Jackson was there holding down the bass chair.
Tyler and his family now make their home near Oklahoma City where Tyler is the Curator of the American Banjo Museum. When not working for the ABM he enjoys being a dad and playing gigs around the OKC area. He also enjoys performing at camps and festivals across the country including one of his favorites in Astoria, Oregon --- the Tenor Guitar Gathering!
Alison Helzer
WORKSHOP: The Neuroscience of Practice: What science teaches us about music, learning, and muscle memory.
Alison uses her background in neuroscience to explain science-backed strategies for efficient practice and learning. All tunings welcome, but specific exercises will be provided in G-D-A-E.
BIOGRAPHY:
Alison Helzer is best known as a Celtic tenor banjo player, touring the West Coast with her band Tonn Nua from 2004-2009 and performing in Ireland with County Mayo musician Gerry Carthy in the summer of 2009.
In 2008, Alison fell in love with the versatility of the tenor guitar and enthusiastically incorporated the instrument into her music. She has a special fondness for J.S. Bach and Turlough O'Carolan, as can be heard on her 2010 album Carolan's Welcome.
Alison attained a degree in neuroscience from Dartmouth College and now works as an accountant at the University of Oregon in Eugene. She enjoys playing at venues around Oregon and for her growing fan base on social media (@alisonhelzermusic).
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E.Z. Marc Poschman
WORKSHOP: Using Honky-Tonk / Rockabilly to Sharpen Your Jamming Skills (Fifths Tuning)
Join E.Z. Marc Poschman for an interactive workshop that combines the energetic rhythms of honky-tonk and rockabilly with practical techniques to enhance your jamming abilities. This session is designed to help musicians at all levels refine their improvisation skills, gain confidence in group settings, and expand their musical vocabulary.
Whether you're a seasoned player or just starting out, you'll leave inspired and equipped to add some rockabilly flair to your next jam session.
BIOGRAPHY:
E.Z. Marc is recognized as one of the leading proponents of the tenor guitar worldwide. For decades, he has earned both the admiration and reluctant respect of six-string guitarists while championing this unique instrument. One of his YouTube performances has garnered over 90,000 views, reflecting a growing appreciation for the tenor guitar.
His repertoire spans a diverse range of genres, including crooner classics, honky-tonk, international melodies, and instrumental pieces. He is a strong advocate for the richness of foreign melodies, believing that some of the finest songs are not necessarily written in English.
Alongside his musical collaborators, he also performs on violin, exploring traditional and popular music from various European and Latin American traditions. His performances often include singing in up to six different languages, adding depth and cultural variety to his music.
Grant Flick
WORKSHOP: A Guide to "Back Home in Indiana"
If you are interested in learning more about great melodies, harmonic framing, and compositional structure, this workshop is for you! We'll dive into this classic by learning the melody and chords together.
We'll also explore how Indiana serves as a great framework for learning other standards more efficiently and how knowing this tune will benefit multiple aspects of our music-making.
I'll be tuned in fifths, but all tunings are welcome. As always, student interest can steer our learning in other directions during the session, but we will start here and jump to other tangents as they appear!
BIOGRAPHY:
Grant Flick is a performer, recording artist, composer, and educator currently based in Ann Arbor, MI. He plays many instruments including violin, mandolin, tenor guitar, nyckelharpa, tenor banjo, and viola. Primarily, his interests are new acoustic music, jazz manouche, jazz/swing, bluegrass, and American old-time.
His current original music projects, Westbound Situation, Warren & Flick, and Hannah O’Brien and Grant Flick, explore the fusion of chamber music with the influences listed above. In these groups, he writes pieces influenced from many styles that feature the collective spontaneity and imagination of the fellow improvisatory musicians with whom he collaborates. Examples of his writing can be heard on “Accord” (Westbound Situation), “Tomorrow Worries About Itself” (Grant Flick), “Unmatched Pair” (Hannah O’Brien and Grant Flick), and “Waxwing” (Warren & Flick).
Grant has received numerous music awards, including the 2013 Daniel Pearl Memorial Violin. He was a finalist in the 2015 Walnut Valley Festival Fiddle Competition in Winfield, Kansas, as well as the 2017 Freshgrass Fiddle Competition in North Adams, Massachusetts. Additionally, several competitive collegiate awards and grants for improvisation, acoustic chamber music inventiveness, and music education have been presented to his original groups in the past few years.
Grant has been selected as a two-time participant (2015 and 2016) of the Acoustic Music Seminar held at the Savannah Music Festival in Savannah, Georgia. He has also taught workshops at numerous camps throughout America, including Augusta Bluegrass Week, Charm City Django Fest, the Tenor Guitar Gathering, and River of the West Mandolin Camp.
Grant tours and performs regularly and has played at many music festivals, including Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, ROMP Fest, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and the Savannah Music Festival. He has shared the stage with notable musicians such as Frank Vignola, Mike Marshall, Julian Lage, and Darol Anger.
Grant recently completed a Master’s degree in Improvisation at the University of Michigan.
Pat Mac Swyney
WORKSHOP: DAD Drone Tuning for Tenor Guitar
DAD tuning is at the core of many world string traditions, from Ireland and Greece to Appalachia, West Africa, Central Asia, the Balkans, and American blues, to name a few. This workshop is designed for both novice and experienced tenor guitarists.
DAD tuning is highly intuitive, allowing players to perform simple melodies over even simpler movable drone chord shapes. In this session, we will learn how to quickly and painlessly retune a few strings from standard CGDA and/or GDAE tunings. From there, we will explore basic chords and a few simple traditional folk melodies.
BIOGRAPHY:
Pat Mac Swyney grew up in Chicago and Los Angeles, listening to his mother’s Dubliners and Bing Crosby records. He began playing traditional music in 1982 and currently resides on the windswept steppes of north Los Angeles County.
Pat is an active musician across multiple genres, playing trad jazz with The Swing Riots Quirktette, Balkan and Near Eastern music with Nevenka & Orkestar Pečurka, Irish music with The Dirty Mickeys, and old-time music with Sausage Grinder.
He holds a degree in Anthropology from UC Santa Barbara and has since never worked outside the music and food service industries. Pat met Tenor Guitar Gathering founder Mark Josephs in Los Angeles and was on staff for several early TGG events. It was a regular and very welcome occurrence for Mark to jump on stage and play harmonica at Pat’s trad jazz gigs in Los Angeles.
Paul Gabrielson
WORKSHOP: Navigating the Chord Changes and Bringing More Interest to Your Bass Lines
In this workshop, I will discuss and demonstrate typical bass lines over common chord changes and how to refine them to better support the ensemble or soloist while adding energy and life to a performance.
The tuning will be in fourths (E-A-D-G, low to high), but the concepts will be applicable to all tunings.
BIOGRAPHY:
Paul Gabrielson is a jazz bassist currently living and working in New York City. He has collaborated with esteemed drummers such as Jeff Watts, Jeff Herschfield, Jon Wikan, and Mark Ferber, as well as renowned pianists including Benny Green, Bob Florence, Bill Mays, Geoff Keezer, and Larry Fuller. His work also extends to guitarists Ron Affif, Paul Bollenbach, Corey Christianson, Randy Johnston, and Don Mock, along with great horn players like Ingrid Jensen, Duane Eubanks, Terrell Stafford, and Jon Gordon.
Additionally, Paul has performed with prestigious jazz ensembles and artists such as the Mingus Big Band, Diane Schuur, Ernestine Anderson, Jay Clayton, and Mark Murphy.
A native of Seattle, Washington, Paul has worked with the Seattle Symphony as well as many prominent jazz musicians in the region. He acknowledges the invaluable experience gained from working with Northwest musicians like Jay Thomas, Marc Seales, John Bishop, Dawn Clement, Marc Taylor, Jim Knapp, and Randy Porter.
Paul earned his Bachelor's degree in Music at Central Washington University and a Master of Arts in Music at City College in NYC, where he studied with jazz bassist John Patitucci. He currently teaches undergraduate studies at City College and has studied with jazz greats Ray Brown, Cecil McBee, and John Clayton.
Beyond jazz, Paul is fluent in many musical styles and has worked with the folk group The Kingston Trio, folk songwriter Tom Paxton, and rock icons Steve Miller, The Tubes, and Maria Muldaur.
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Brian Oberlin
WORKSHOP: Workshop: Connecting Chords with Brian Oberlin
Strumming chords on the tenor guitar is fun, but there’s an easy way to advance your accompaniment and musicianship skills—by playing short musical lines between the chords.
This workshop will explore accessible and enjoyable methods to connect chords commonly used in blues, swing, bluegrass, and folk music. These connective lines function as tiny solos and can serve as an introduction to improvisation without the commitment of a full 16- or 32-measure solo.
Additionally, the workshop will improve your listening and music theory skills. Charts will be available in notation, tablature, and chord shapes for GDAE and CGDA tenor guitars. While DGBE tenor players can still benefit, there will not be specific chord shape charts or tablature for this tuning.
BIOGRAPHY:
From Grand Rapids, MI (and a former long-time resident of Portland, OR), Brian Oberlin is an internationally acclaimed mandolin and tenor guitar player and educator.
During his decades-long professional career, Brian has performed swing, bluegrass, and Italian classical music as a solo mandolinist and vocalist. He has collaborated with numerous award-winning bands and ensembles throughout the United States and Europe, including Full Cord, Grasshoppah, GER Mandolin Orchestra (with Mike Marshall), and Twin Mandolin Slingers (with Evan J. Marshall).
Brian is also the founder and director of the River of the West Mandolin Camp, the Great Lakes Mandolin Camp, the Michigan Mandolin Orchestra, and the Oregon Mandolin Orchestra. Among his many accolades, he was part of Full Cord when they won the 2022 Telluride Band Contest and the 2022 IBMA Momentum Band of the Year Award. Additionally, Brian was a featured songwriter at the 2021 IBMA Awards.
When he is not performing, Brian teaches music to children and adults at a variety of venues and events worldwide. His website (MandOberlin.com) serves as a great resource for his appearances and offers free content for budding mandolinists on the Lesson Hub.
TBD
WORKSHOP: TBD - Join us for an exciting session led by a Special Guest performer! Get ready to dive into unique techniques and styles, sure to elevate your tenor guitar skills!
BIOGRAPHY:
TBD - Join us for a workshop with a Special Guest performer! Expect unique techniques and styles to boost your tenor guitar skills!