The heart of the Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival is the week-long workshop where participants live and play with the bearers of acoustic blues traditions. Our artist faculty are curated by Artistic Director Daryl Davis, and the focus of the week is YOU. We ask each faculty member to put together multiple workshop sessions covering their area of expertise and/or interest.

As you will see below, there are so many interesting things to learn at the Festival, one of the biggest challenges is deciding when and how to get enough sleep! From the moment you check-in until you leave, you’ll be in community with and learn learn from acoustic blues masters. There will be playing opportunities, listening opportunities, and time for the unexpected…

On the Festival’s workshop page, we’ve posted detailed descriptions of each of the following sessions. So dig in and get ready to have a great time.

• Blues Vocal Technique with Angela Hill
• Gospel Choir with Angela Hill
• Beginning Blues Piano with Arthur Migliazza
• Mississippi Blues Guitar with Billy Flynn
• Blues Around the World with Caitlin Romtvedt and Dean Mueller
• Blues Piano with Chase Garrett and Clay Swafford
• Gig Ettiquette Master Class with Daryl Davis
• Blues Uke with Del Rey
• Banjo and the Blues with Dom Flemons
• Songster Guitar with Dom Flemons
• Into to Alternate Tunings without a Slide with Eleanor Ellis
• Beginning Blues Guitar with Eleanor Ellis
• The Guitar of Dave Van Ronk with Elijah Wald
• Blues History, Music, and Culture with Elijah Wald
• Vocal Performance with Gay Adegbalola
• Advanced Vocal Performance with Gay Adegbalola
• Beginning/Intermediate/Advanced Harmonica with Grant Dermody
• Blues Violin with Jon Parry
• Guitar and Singing with Lauren Sheehan
• Songs for Sinners with Johnnie Ward and Lauren Sheehan
• Piedmont Blues Guitar with Lightnin Wells
• Ukulele with Lightnin Wells
• Vocal Health and Warm-up with Maria Woodford
• Guitar Styles of Rev. Gary Davis with Mary Flower
• Bottleneck Slide with Orville Johnson
• All-levels Harmonica with Phil Wiggins
• Blues Mandolin with Rich DelGrosso
• Blues/Zydeco Accordion with Sunpie Barnes
• Using Blues as a Roadmap to Fretboard Comprehension with Tim Sparks
• Taking the Mystery out of Understanding Chords with Tim Sparks

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