Ryan & Brennish Thomson

SAMW music camp

by Ryan Thomson

The camp took place in 1997 at a beautiful lake side location at Geneva Point Center in scenic New Hampshire. 

On the stage are the "SAMW Allstars," a country dance band made up of student musicians from the music week attendees. I'm wearing a dark shirt at the foot of the stage with a large white name tag on the front. I'm calling a large circle dance and a portion of the circle is visible showing dancers doing a “circle right.” I called the evening dances throughout the week and coached the enthusiastic student dance band in daily rehearsals. We had a great hardwood dance floor . Thanks to Cece Borjeson for sending me the photos!

Ryan calling the Friday night dance

Ryan leading a student band on stage

I also taught the beginning guitar class throughout the week, and at the last night, my class gave a little concert to show off their hard work and progress during the week! Other fine instructors on staff included: Bob Franke, Robert Jones, Jody Stecher, Kate Brislin, David Surette, Linda Waterfall, Guy Davis, Feyda Epstein, Bennett Hammond, Lorraine Lee Hammond, and John Gotthardt. A strong point of SAMW camp is the opportunity for expert coaching in the craft of on-stage performance of folk music.