Tim May-Flatpicking Essentials
Breedlove and DHR Music present,
Tim May and Dillon Hodges
This is a one hour FREE clinic
Sunday April 18th – 1:00-2:00pm
Seminole Paradise Seminar Room -
location is on show map at the festival entrance.
Flatpicking Essentials
This clinic will deal with the essentials of Flatpicking
with Breedlove Guitar’s top clinician Tim May.
About the clinician:
Tim May, Breedlove Guitars and
Benedetto Guitars Endorser
Flatpicker Tim May has been working in the Nashville area for over 20 years as a sideman, session player, band member and performer. Higher profile projects have included touring with Patty Loveless and John Cowan, and working as a regular on the Grand Ole Opry with Mike Snider. Tim was the solo guitarist on Charlie Daniels’ recording of I’ll Fly Away, which was nominated for the Best Country Instrumental Performance Grammy in 2005, the same year he was session leader on the critically acclaimed Moody Bluegrass album (Moody Bluegrass II is currently in the works as well). Elixir Strings, Benedetto Guitars and Breedlove Guitars all have presented professional endorsements to Tim, a serious nod to his talents.
For fifteen years Tim was a member of Crucial Smith, a powerful bluegrass act that put out two CDs (produced by Newgrass Revival’s original flatpicker Pat Flynn) before disbanding in 2003. Flynn has a Tim May tune (King of Babylon) on his latest album plus Father Time, a tune Flynn co-wrote with Tim. Today Tim keeps his chops up playing “AmeriCeltic” – a delightful mix of Irish, Scottish, Old Time and Bluegrass tunes – with his band Plaidgrass. The group released their first CD in January 2008. He’s also on the roster of Radiola and performs in a hot-picking ensemble on tour with Brad Davis and Dan Miller. As good a singer as he is a flatpicker, Tim’s vocals can be heard on his first solo album, Find My Way Back and on A Bluegrass Tribute to Neil Young, a CD Tim’s produced for CMH Records, released in January 2008.
Though he owns and plays an unusually broad variety of instruments, Tim’s a true connoisseur of the acoustic plectrum sound. He’s been long enchanted by early Gibson pieces and owns the full red sunburst line used in Gibson Mandolin Orchestras that were popular in the early 1900s, including the somewhat elusive Mandobass. Tim also owns several guitars from that period, his 1919 “O” model Guitar perhaps the most exotic. You can hear him play the “O” — and Sweet Hour of Prayer on his beautiful 1917 Harp Guitar — in the video series VINTAGE GIBSON: A Closer Look at Instruments Used in Mandolin Orchestras in the Early 20th Century.
Dillon Hodges, DHR Music Endorser
and Left Handed SpokesmanSince the time that Dillon Hodges first played a guitar at age 11, his musical journey has been on a fast track. Having already won two flat-picking national championships and released his debut CD by age 17, Dillon signed a five-year deal in 2009 to exclusively represent DHR Music. Although currently a student at the University of Alabama in Florence, Alabama, Dillon is an integral part in promoting DHR Music’s mission, as our endorser and left handed spokesman.
Dillon represents DHR Music exclusively by performing at DHR sponsored events such as guitar clinics, concerts, and various performances at a number of venues throughout the country. He exclusively represents and promotes Benedetto, Breedlove, Collings, and Hamer Guitars, as well as the other boutique manufacturers that we represent.
Dillon’s Background:
Less than two years after he first picked up a guitar, Dillon won a national championship as the best flat picking guitar player in the country for ages 12-and-under. In September of 2007, just one month past his 17th birthday, Dillon won the Flat Picking National Championship at the 36th Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, besting a field of 40 of the nation’s top pickers. With the win he became the first guitar player ever to win the title of National Champion Country Music Beginner in Flat Top Guitar and the Flat Picking National Championship.
In winning the Walnut Valley Festival, Dillon became the first left-handed player in the 36 years of the event to win. He is also the first winner from the state of Alabama and is the second youngest winner ever – second only to Mark O’Connor.
The summer and fall of 2007 was a memorable time for Dillon. He released his debut CD, “Stormy Weather,” in July of 2007. He was a featured artist in the September/October issue of Flat Picking Guitar Magazine. He won first place in the Indiana State Championships in Guitar and teamed with friends Solly Burton and Olivia Smiley in the band Ol Dill to win both the Kentucky State and Indiana State Bluegrass Band championships.
Dillon, as a student at the University of North Alabama, sings and writes songs and performs regularly as a solo artist and with various bands. He has performed with Missy Raines and the New Hip, Ag’inst the Grain, the Smokin Strings Quartet and The Ray Brothers.
Missy Raines and the New Hip released its debut CD “Inside Out” in February of 2009 with Compass Records, which includes two of Dillon’s original songs – “The Duke of Paducah” and “In Over My Head.”