AcuTab is delighted to announce their second Banjo Seminar, to be held in Roanoke VA over the 1999 Memorial Day Weekend (May 29-31). The event will be held at the Roanoke Airport Marriott Hotel in their large, comfortable Conference Theater.

They are especially pleased to announce the faculty  will be: Sonny Osborne and J.D. Crowe!

The seminar weekend will not only feature more than 20 hours of intensive lecture, instruction and demonstration but also a concert Sunday night with The Osborne Brothers and J.D. Crowe & The New South. In addition to Sonny and J.D., guest instructors will include John Lawless of AcuTab, banjoist/historian Bill Evans and banjoist and instrument craftsman Steve Huber.

The registration fee is $300 and includes admission to all seminar sessions, the concert Sunday evening and a catered lunch each day the seminar is in session. The Seminar is sponsored in part by Acoustic Musician Magazine and iBluegrass.com.

The Osborne Brothers/New South show will be held at William Byrd High School in nearby Vinton, VA at 8:00 p.m. on May 30 and is open to the public. Tickets are $18 ($20 at the door) and are available from AcuTab or any Ticketmaster location. The concert is co-sponsored by WSLC 610-AM and The Roanoke Fiddle & Banjo Club with a portion of the proceeds going to the club.

If you have any questions about either the seminar or the concert or if you would like to arrange press access, please feel free to contact John at:

John Lawless, AcuTab Publications
P.O. Box 21061 Roanoke, VA 24018-0108. Tel:  540-776-6822. Fax: 540-776-6827

Chat with the Chief!

John Lawless reports that AcuTab and ibluegrass.com are delighted to announce that Sonny Osborne will be participating in a weekly live chat starting next week. The chat is being launched to help publicize the AcuTab Banjo Seminar but may continue indefinitely if there is sufficient interest.

Sonny will be at the Seminar for two days over Memorial Day weekend and ibluegrass.com is a partial sponsor of the event (which also features J.D. Crowe, Steve Huber, Bill Evans and hopefully Bill Stokes). This will be a moderated chat. You can post questions/follow ups which we will forward to Sonny in real time. A "bar room" style chat would simply too unwieldy with the number of folks who are likely to participate.

Initially, the topics will be unlimited but we plan to eventually focus in on one or two areas of interest each week. This is a great opportunity to pick the brain of one of the all-time great pickers!

Updated 14 March 1999