The Jade Green Farm Workshop and Concert Series

If you’re looking for opportunities to develop, hone and expand your music making skills in a group setting on a lovely 10-acre farmstead, Dan Miller, editor of Bluegrass Unlimited, is offering jam sessions, concerts, and multi-day workshops at Jade Green Farm, a newish venue in Harrisburg, Missouri, that he has been working on creating since 2017.   

Miller, who has left an indelible mark on the worlds of bluegrass and acoustic music, is perhaps best known for his groundbreaking publication, Flatpicking Guitar Magazine. Published for twenty years (1996-2016) the magazine became a beacon for flatpicking guitar enthusiasts, spanning genres like bluegrass, folk, old-time, gypsy jazz, Americana and western swing.  

While he was editing and publishing Flatpicking Guitar, Miller was also producing instructional guitar and mandolin books and DVDs and traveling extensively to perform and to host workshops with his close friends and musical partners Brad Davis and Tim May. Miller estimates that during his busiest years on the road—between 2011-2013—he taught roughly 80 music workshops per year, traveling to 43 states.  The workshops were primarily taught at various music stores around the country.

Miller said, “Between 2011 and 2013 I was living full-time in an RV.  I would travel to a bluegrass or folk music festival nearly every weekend and set up a vendor booth to sell subscriptions to Flatpicking Guitar Magazine and to sell the books and DVDs that I had produced with Brad Davis and Tim May.  During the week, while on the road traveling between festivals, I would stop at music stores along the way and teach workshops.  Sometimes I taught by myself.  Other times either Tim May or Brad Davis would come along with me.  Sometimes the three of us taught together.”

Miller stopped publishing Flatpicking Guitar in October 2016 after 20-years as its chief cook and bottlewasher, and about six months later he purchased 10 acres in rural mid-Missouri and got to work transforming the place. He and his partner Jane Accurso created a huge garden, renovated the home already on the property and have since added two additional buildings, the most recent an indoor/outdoor performance and workshop space that includes accommodations for multi-day workshop participants.  He said, “I spent a lot of years traveling the road to teach and perform and was ready to stay put in one place for a while.  But, I still loved teaching and I still wanted to teach with my friends Brad and Tim.  So, I built a retreat center where people could come to us instead of us traveling to them.”

Before the COVID pandemic, from April through November, Miller and his musical partners May and Davis hosted roughly one three-day workshop per month at Jade Green Farm. Each workshop focused on a particular musical instrument and/or style, currently including flatpicking guitar, mandolin, banjo, swing and jazz guitar, and songwriting.  There are plans to add other workshops—such as fiddle and singing—in the future. 

Post-pandemic Miller started up where he’d left off in 2020. From a partial schedule in 2023 he’s moving back towards a full schedule in 2024, offering workshops with his longtime collaborators Davis and May, and now adding a couple of new teachers. Among the workshops Miller has scheduled for this year are:  two three-day flatpicking guitar workshops (one in May with Tim May, the other in October with Brad Davis), a songwriting workshop with Brad Davis in June, three days of mandolin instruction with Tim May and Steve Smith (in July), and three days of banjo instruction with Tim May and the renowned banjoist and teacher Alan Munde in August. Munde is a winner of the Steve Martin Banjo Prize and a member of the American Banjo Museum Hall of Fame.  To finish out the year, Tim May will teach a swing guitar workshop in November.

As a banjo student of Miller’s and someone who is interested in making music in group settings, I was lucky enough to attend a banjo workshop at Jade Green Farm in 2018, the venue’s inaugural year, and again in 2019. This past fall I also attended the kickoff performance at the outdoor stage that Miller constructed, a brilliant and moving solo show by flatpicking wizard Beppe Gambetta, who created a transportive musical experience with his warm presence, storytelling, and the clarity and artistry of his guitar playing. 

For me the 2018 and 2019 workshops checked many of the boxes I look for in a group learning situation—well organized, a relaxed vibe, easygoing discussion, socializing, humor, plenty of constructive feedback, new material and extensive opportunities to play. In 2018 I got to spend hours talking with and learning from Tim May, a fantastic banjo player and teacher, who helped me with my attempts to improvise around the old jazz chestnut “Autumn Leaves.” The sessions were rich, and May tailored his instruction to my interests. After teaching sessions, there was time to hang out, share a delicious meal (prepared by a Columbia, Missouri-area chef with fresh ingredients from Miller’s garden), and socialize with teachers and other players at the workshop. 

More information on Jade Green Farm’s currently planned workshops is available on the Flatpicking Guitar website, at: www.flatpick.com/category_s/1882.htm 

Dan and Jane also host a great jam for both beginners and intermediate and advanced players the first Sunday of each month, and future concerts are in the planning stages. Currently Anya Hinkle and Billy Cardine will be performing in June, Tim May will be performing with Steve Smith in July, and Tim May will be performing with Alan Munde in August.  

Workshop attendees can stay at the farm or in a local Airbnb or hotel. There are also full RV hookups and camp sites on the property.  For more information on workshops, concerts, and jamming opportunities at Jade Green Farm contact Dan Miller at [email protected].