Folk School of Chattanooga » Mountain Music Folk School

Our New Home

admin — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:08:55 +0000

This is where all of our lessons and classes take place now! 250 Forest Ave., Chattanooga TN. We love it! Wouldn’t you like to come here once a week for music lessons? Or perhaps for a film next Friday?

Busking Contest Winners!

admin — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:01:08 +0000

Congratulations to Third Lobby, our 1st place winners in yesterday’s busking competition on Main Street. They put on a very energetic show in front of the Taco Rico. Congrats also to Chris Armstrong, the bagpiper, for his 2nd place win, and to Ken Harrison in 3rd place with his musical saw act. Thanks to all of the performers who came out to compete. Your talents and energies brought a lot of life to the MainX24 event! Thanks also to our sponsors, the Church on Main Street, Chattarati, and Flying Fingers Productions!

This band, Third Lobby, took 1st place in the MainX24 Busking Competition, Dec. 5, 2009. Photo by Colleen Mikelson.

Busking Competition

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:51:44 +0000

Our next big event is the MainX24 Busking Competition on December 5th. Come to perform, or come to vote for the best street performers! Click here for more details.

And check out the whole schedule of events for Main Street’s 24-hour festival, including a fabulous pancake breakfast with live music from friends, students, and teachers of the Mountain Music Folk School! www.mainx24.com

Fletcher Bright Fiddle Workshop

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:38:29 +0000

We had a wonderful time at GreenSpaces last Saturday with Fletcher Bright in his bowing techniques workshop. Here’s a short video clip of Fletcher teaching some of the tricks involved with playing “Orange Blossom Special,” a handy thing for every fiddler to keep in his or her back pocket!

Chattanooga Market This Sunday!

admin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:31:57 +0000

The Mountain Music Folk School will be performing from 1pm to 2pm at the Chattanooga Market this Sunday, November 1. Come by and talk to us at our table, where we’ll be letting people try our instruments and spreading the word about Chattanooga’s new folk school.

****Reminder!! Fletcher Bright and Lou Wamp will both be teaching 3-hour workshops this Saturday, Oct. 31. Click on the “classes” link above to sign up. Workshop fee: $45. Location: Green|Spaces on Main St.

Fall ‘09 Classes

admin — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:07:53 +0000

Only a few days left to register for fall classes! Classes start the week of September 28th. We have 17 different 8-week classes on offer, as well as 6 one-day workshops. Click here to download a .pdf of the Fall 2009 Schedule of Classes.

Enrollment is limited! Sign up now!

Click Here.

Mountain Music Open House, August 8, 2009

admin — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 12:50:01 +0000

We had a wonderful time at the Mountain Music open house party! Thanks, everyone, for coming out to play with us, and big thanks to Robby Hilliard who posted all these great photos of the day.

Alabama Gals

Christie Burns — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 23:41:31 +0000

…or Buffalo Gals, if you prefer. This tune will be our big group grand finale number at our opening set on September 26th at the Riverfront Nights concert, so students, study up! We’re calling for all students and teachers of the Mountain Music Folk School to join us on stage for this one.

Here’s Matt playing it on fiddle:

And Christie playing it on mountain dulcimer:

A visit from Colleen Heine

Christie Burns — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:03:32 +0000

We had the extraordinary pleasure of hosting Colleen Heine, director of the Folk School of St. Louis, in Chattanooga for a few days in the middle of June. She came to share with us all the details of what makes a successful urban-based folk music school, and we certainly made the most of her visit! We had extensive meetings every morning/afternoon, and then tunes every night. Here’s Fletcher Bright, Bobby Burns, Matt Evans, Joseph Decosimo, Colleen Heine, and Doc Cullis playing a really fun version of “Black-Eyed Susie” on June 16, 2009. Colleen is doing wonderful things with the Folk School of St. Louis, and gave us so many ideas for what we can do with a folk school in Chattanooga. Plus, she’s a great fiddler! Bonus!

Appalachian Music at CSLA

Matt Evans — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:57:18 +0000

I’d like to thank Cindy Gaston, Mary Foster, Wes Castle, Mary Benno, and everyone else at the Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts for hosting Bryant Haynes and me this past Monday. Mary and Wes’s second grade class studied Appalachian history and culture this semester, and as part of that unit, they invited Bryant and me to come present some Appalachian music to the students. We brought the usual suspects: banjo, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, and voices (this was, in fact, my very first attempt at singing in public). We also brought the bones, Jew’s harps, a minstrel banjo (the kids loved/were shocked to hear that the strings were made out of animal guts), and much to the delight of the crowd, one of Pete Wotowiec’s fantastic limberjacks, who now permanently resides at CSLA (the Limberjack, not Pete). The kids were great; I was really impressed by the curiosity and interest reflected by their attention, comments, and questions. I hope to have the chance to do it again soon!