469 ROCK ‘N’ ROLL CAMP IS FUN TO BEAT THE BAND

Girls Put Their Musical Skills to the Test in Fourth Annual Day Camp

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 9, 2006
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

(MURFREESBORO) –Girls who yearn to rock out with as much power as any band of boys are invited to sign up for the fourth annual Southern Girls Rock & Roll Camp Monday, July 31 through Friday, Aug. 5 at MTSU.
This summer day camp will provide girls ages 10-18 hands-on instruction in guitar, drums, bass, keyboard, vocals and electronic music. In addition, campers will attend workshops on songwriting, recording, music journalism, photography, screen-printing and do-it-yourself arts and crafts. An extra attraction this year will be a workshop on “music herstory” emphasizing the roots of country and jazz.
The culmination of each year’s camp is a showcase in which more than 16 all-female acts formed in an atmosphere of creativity and collaboration put their talents on display. This year’s showcase is slated for Saturday, Aug. 5 at MTSU’s Tucker Theatre. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the show will begin at 8 p.m. The showcase is open to the public. Tickets are $6 at the door or $5 in advance by sending an e-mail to sgrrc05@gmail.com.
This year’s professional performers from whom the girls will be learning include The Clutters (http://www.myspace.com/theclutters), a Nashville-based band described by camp founder Kelley Anderson as providing “really upbeat garage rock. I think that abrasiveness will really impress and inspire.”
Also on the bill is jazz vocalist Rachel Pearl. Camp co-director Anna Fitzgerald says of Pearl, “She’s just got a really smooth voice. She’s been singing for five or six years. She’ll be singing classics like ‘I’ve Got a Crush on You’ and ‘The Girl from Ipanema.’ I’ve never heard her sing a wrong note.”
Pearl’s Web site (http:/www.rachelpearl.com) states that she founded a songwriters association at MTSU, and all of her band members hail from the university. (Her music can be heard at http://www.myspace.com/rachelpearl.)


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Lending a blues-folk tone to the music will be the multi-instrumental duo of Raven Hilton and Shawn Hazelwood, otherwise known as Hi-Tone Hokum (http://myspace.com/hitonehokum). Performing on everything from banjo and mandolin to washboard and kazoo, Hi-Tone Hokum counts as its influences a plethora of artists ranging from Van Morrison to Blind Willie Johnson.
Rounding out the lineup are The Velcro Stars (http://www.velcrostars.com), a five-member Murfreesboro-based band that “make catchy, head-bobbing indie rock that surely would have landed them on the Spongebath label back in the ‘90s … if they had been around back then,” writes the Nashville Rage.
Kayley Kravitz, a veteran of all three years of Southern Girls Rock & Roll Camp thus far, studied guitar, bass and piano. She encourages parents to enroll their daughters in this unique experience.
“Not only will they get to learn the ins and outs of the music business—they will gain a self-confidence that will benefit them for the rest of their lives,” Kravitz said.
Kravitz’s camp experience paid major dividends. In the fall, the 18-year-old graduate of The Webb School in Bell Buckle will attend Boston’s Emerson College, where she will major in journalism with an eye to becoming a music journalist. Simultaneously, Kravitz will minor in music at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, which promotes itself as “the world’s largest independent music college and the premier institution for the study of contemporary music.”
Open registration runs through June 30. The tuition of $250 includes all camp materials, lunch for each day, a guidebook and T-shirt. Scholarships are available. Instruments are provided for those who do not have their own. However, early registration is essential to guaranteeing scholarship availability and instrument selection.
For more information, contact Anna Fitzgerald at 615-294-3216, visit http://www.sgrrc.com or send an e-mail to sgrrc05@gmail.com.