Jam Camp InstructorS

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Keith Yoder is a musician and instructor with an unconventional approach to

music education. With over 40 years of experience playing and performing on all the bluegrass instruments, Keith enjoys sharing his love of music through lessons and camps. He has taught bluegrass music full time since 1994 on guitar, banjo, mandolin, bass, dobro, and fiddle. He teaches private and group lessons in Maryville, TN and online. Additionally, Keith has been teaching at music camps across the United States and Canada since 2007. His extensive knowledge of bluegrass, hands-on approach, and ability to provide individualized instruction for all skill levels contribute to his excellence as a teacher. As a student noted, a camp with Keith provided “the most comprehensive study of acoustic music” they’ve experienced. Keith shares the theory and techniques of how and what to play in any music setting. Since their move to the foothills of east Tennessee, Keith and his wife Sarah have also hosted private acoustic music camps. In his spare time he enjoys playing music with friends, grandkids, and frisbee golf.

Bob has bluegrass roots going straight back to Bill Monroe, The Father of Bluegrass Music. Bob toured and recorded with Monroe during the 70’s, learning much about songwriting and performing.

Bob Black has also played with  Kenny Baker, Ricky Skaggs, Emmylou Harris, Marty Stuart, John Hartford, Ralph Stanley, Ronda Vincent, The Whites, Frank Wakefield, and many others. He is a singer-songwriter and instrumentalist of international acclaim.  He has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry many times.

Bob has written a book about his experiences working with Bill Monroe entitled “Come Hither to Go Yonder” and  recently published another book, "Mandolin Man: The Bluegrass Life of Roland White". 

Scott Amos began his entertainment career in 1st grade as a class clown, sacrificing honor, dignity, and respect for the entertainment of others. A 35-year veteran of the performing arts and a banjo player, Scott offers instruction on nearly every bluegrass instrument, guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, dobro, and bass, as well as vocal training to interested beginners. As a promoter of Bluegrass and Acoustic Music he actively provides consulting services to acoustic music promoters/music events across Southeast, Iowa.

Scott currently shares his skill as a banjoist and consultant for The Bluegrass Blondies, also known as the Amos Family Band (2008 – current). The Bluegrass Blondies were named 2019 SPBGMA Gospel group of the year. 

 Award-winning guitarist Bill Cagley is a talented and versatile musician.  He has been a full-time professional musician since 1987, performing  across the United States. Bill has recorded and released several outstanding albums. Bill currently resides in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area where he can be found entertaining  at  historic sites, bluegrass festivals, weddings, farmers’ markets, coffee houses, and family outings, and music camps. As Bill likes to say, it's music of all ages for all ages.

Paul Roberts has been playing bluegrass music since 1978.  He plays banjo, bass, and guitar and is a singer-songwriter.  He has done a great deal of performing with two of Eastern Iowa's theatrical groups, Iowa Theatre Artists Company and The Old Creamery Theatre.   His unusual sense of humor shines through in many of his songs and onstage comments.  He has been teaching students to play banjo, guitar, bass guitar, and the big bass fiddle for more than 20 years and enjoys teaching at Strawberry Jam Camp and IceJam.  Paul plays banjo  in the Great Bluegrass Herons (with his wife), the McPunk Brothers, and Burlington Street Bluegrass Band.  He also plays bass in the Banjoy Band and electric guitar in his church band Sharon Praise.  He likes to pick!

Daryl has worked for the City of Camanche, Iowa for more than 30 years. While growing up, music was always a part of family gatherings and church functions. He enjoys music of all kinds and has been playing stand-up bass on the church praise team. Daryl has been playing upright bass for several years and has been playing with the McPunk Brothers for over 25 years. He enjoys teaching and jammin'. Daryl enjoys making new friends as we all grow and learn together on our musical journeys. 

Evan visited his first bluegrass festival in 2010 and his love for bluegrass music was born. He began playing guitar when he was 12 years old and later attended Strawberry Jam Camp for the first time in 2015. He has helped as a junior instructor since 2022 and has been a part of his family's bluegrass band,  the Anderegg Family, since 2016. His family competed in the Youth in Bluegrass competition in 2021 and 2022, and placed 2nd in 2022.

Graham first started playing banjo when he was around 13, and has been playing in his family's bluegrass band, the Anderegg Family, since 2016. He has attended Strawberry Jam Camp since 2015 and has helped as a junior instructor since 2022. His family competed in the Youth in Bluegrass competition in 2021 and 2022, and placed 2nd in 2022.

Nathan has been playing upright bass for around 4 years, but started out on mandolin when he was 11. He has played both mandolin and bass in his family's bluegrass band,  the Anderegg Family, since 2016. Nate first attended Strawberry Jam Camp in 2015, and has been a junior instructor since 2023. Nate's first year on bass at Strawberry Jam Camp was when he broke his arm and couldn't play mandolin. His family competed in the Youth in Bluegrass competition in 2021 and 2022, and placed 2nd in 2022.

After seeing Scott Amos' daughter Hallie playing fiddle in The Bluegrass Blondies, Ashlyn was inspired to play. She has been playing fiddle since she was 5. She is classically trained, and first attended Strawberry Jam Camp in 2013. Ashlyn started helping as a junior instructor in 2022, and has played in her family's bluegrass band, the Briggs Family Band, since 2013. Ashlyn won the 12 and under Iowa State Fair fiddle contest in 2016.

Kaitlyn has been playing mandolin since she was 9.  She first attended Strawberry Jam Camp in 2013, and has been helping as a junior instructor since 2022. She has played mandolin for her family's bluegrass band, the Briggs Family Band, since 2013, and loves to jam. She also plays guitar, piano, and bass. Kaitlyn won the Iowa State Fair mandolin contest in 2019 and 2024.

Andre is a guitarist, luthier, and teacher and has been playing bluegrass for almost a decade and musical theatre pit orchestras at Timberlake Playhouse. He first attended Strawberry Jam Camp in 2014, and has been a junior instructor since 2023. As a teacher, he works with students of all levels, offering a patient, hands-on approach to help them grow as musicians.

 Donna Ulisse, a Hampton, Virginia native, moved to Nashville Tennessee in 1984 and never looked back, always knowing her life would be musical. Finding her footing on Nashville’s famous Music Row, she started singing demoes and learning her way around a good song and a studio, which would carve the path towards her major record deal with Atlantic Records in the early 1990’s. She performed on major shows of the times; Hee Haw, Hot Country Nights, Ralph Emory and Crook and Chase’s Nashville Now show. The releases of her singles and music videos garnered attention from fans all over the world. With life under her belt, she explored the songwriter waiting quietly inside her soul. It took the Clinch Mountains and the solitude of her father-in-law’s lovely mountain cabin to hone the writer she is today and through her songs, Donna was led into the beautiful world of Bluegrass, where banjoes, fiddles and mandolins help create the sound she now calls home.

Rick is a singer/songwriter born into a mountain music, gospel music bluegrass family. Rick's father, Richard Stanley, was a cousin of Carter and Ralph Stanley and was a fiddler. The Stanley Brother's style of music was just part of him growing up. Rick wrote his first song at the age of 15, and what a song it was, Home In The Mountains. About that same time he wrote a second song, Kentucky Tears, which was later changed to Fallen Tears. Both songs have been recorded by Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, with the band's lead singer at the time, Keith Whitley. The song was part of the Stanley Tradition Album that was nominated for a Grammy. Since then, both songs have been covered by several other noted artists. Today (he's not 15 anymore) he writes with his wife Donna Ulisse. They host songwriting workshops at their Wee Farm, fostering talent and creativity in the bluegrass community. 

 Referred to by Billboard Magazine as "One of Music Row's greatest veteran tunesmiths," Jerry Salley has had an incredibly successful, multi award-winning songwriting career. Nominated in 2019 for the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Salley is the 2018 and 2019 IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) Songwriter of the Year and was named the 2003 SESAC Country Music Songwriter of the Year. In 2022, Salley won his second prestigious DOVE Award (with Dolly Parton), and in 2020 he was nominated for a Grammy in the Gospel Roots category for producing the multi-artist project, Gonna Sing, Gonna Shout. Salley has had over 550 different songs recorded and his songs have sold in excess of 19 million records worldwide. Writing and singing in Nashville since 1982, he has written multiple hits in country, bluegrass, and gospel music and may well be the most successful songwriter to have earned equal recognition from all three genres of music.