PLEASANT HILL – A special sort of exclusive club?
“It’s like we hit the jackpot finding this underground little town,” Sherry McKenzie said, describing the atmosphere of the West Cascade Fiddle Camp & Workshops that wrapped up on Wednesday, July 23. “We’re carrying on something that people have been doing for decades and decades, and now we’re a part of that – it’s not mainstream, you’re not going to turn on the radio and discover it or see it on TV – but when you find something you love and others love it too, you appreciate it when you see that other people think it’s cool.”
McKenzie was one of 15 teachers at the annual camp at Emerald Christian Academy. McKenzie and her husband Joey live in Burleson, Texas, and spend their summers in McMinnville. They run their own fiddle camps in Montana, and McKenzie said fiddles have opened up doors she never thought would be imaginable.
McKenzie’s best friend, Laura Weber, left Corvallis shortly after high school and moved to Nashville. She wound up marrying John Carter, the only son of Johnny Cash and June Carter.
“Laura and I have played and put on events together,” McKenzie said.
This camp, now in its 16th year, attracted 188 registrants. It was fun watching the interactions between the young kids and the aging adults during Wednesday night’s All Camp Dance with Fiddle Band, with a few 7-year-olds dancing right along with some senior citizens.
“It’s not uncommon for an old man and an 8-year-old to sit down and play music together. Age doesn’t matter to us,” 86-year-old camp director Jerry Parks said. “One of these young kids, they might be sitting there practicing their fiddle, and I’ll grab my guitar and go over and sit with them, and we’ll play tunes for a half an hour. Never discuss politics or anything else, just have fun playing music. They don’t have a problem playing with an old man.”
“City kids, country kids, hipsters, misfits … it doesn’t matter who you are,” McKenzie said. “There’s a place for everybody here.”
The camp offers a variety of fiddle, bass, guitar, and mandolin classes, with workshops teaching students to play by ear, fingerpick, and improvise, just to highlight a few of the skills.
In most cases, Parks said, aspiring musicians give it a try, get hooked, and keep coming back for more.
“It’s like a family reunion every year. Some people you get to see that you haven’t seen in several years,” Parks said. “Unless you experience it, there’s no way to really describe it. It’s just a fun event.”
