National Guitar Workshop Summer Tour Part Three: Austin, TX

by Jason Shadrick

Keep Austin Weird.

Austin is by far one of my favorite cities to go to.  There is always great food nearby and if live music is your thing (which for me it is), there is plenty of great bands and musicians to check out.

This year our workshop took place at Concordia University in the northwest suburbs of Austin.  It is a great campus that gave the feeling that you were on a nature retreat somewhere in the hill country of Texas.  Everyone there welcomed us back (we were at their old location in 2006 and 2007) and I was really looking forward to seeing the returning students and our faculty.

Our featured guest for our Blues Summit was Jimmie Vaughan.  Jimmie is a legendary Texas Blues musician and is one of a handful of guitarists who we have never had the chance to work with.  For his appearance, Jimmie brought his band with him that included Mike Flanigin on B3 and the legendary blues drummer, Frosty.  The band did a great job of mixing up some performances of Jimmie’s tunes and some Q and A with the audience.   This is a big reason why our students come back year after year, they get the chance not only to see some of their guitar heroes up close, but also get the opportunity to ask them questions.

Another guest we had in Austin was John Jorgenson.  John is largely known for his time in the twang supergroup The Hellecasters with Jerry Donahue and Will Ray.  John’s talent as a musician is endless.  Not only is he a scary good electric country player he is easily one of the foremost Gipsy style guitarists in the world.  Adding his skills on clarinet and he is pretty much one of the most versatile musicians around.

Overall it was a great week for the students and faculty alike.

Here is a video of an especially talented student playing on the student concert:

Source: National Guitar Workshop Summer Tour Part Three: Austin, TX