I met Randy Elmore in 1996 at Mark O'Connor's Fiddle Camp in Tennessee.  At that time I'd also met Randy's boys Jody and Jerry, and other friends of theirs, including Jimmy Davis and Mark Neumann.  What fun it was to have a reunion at Randy's camp, held at Cisco Junior College, in Cisco, Texas! 

After many years of hearing about Randy's wife, Debbie, it was also very special to meet her! Debbie is incredibly sweet, and according to Randy, does all the work to get to keep the camp running.

What is Randy Elmore's Fiddle Camp like?  To see the weeks' schedule, click here.  There are a lot of tunes to be learned at this camp, and if you can read music, you're in good shape because a lot of the instructors use sheet music, altho I did a lot of learning by ear.  A real bonus awaits you in Dale Morris' class because of his "philosophizing" about frogs and leaves, and such as that!  The highlight of the classes, for me,  was that moment in Randy's class when he pulled out the sheet music for a tune he wrote for me.  I had not seen it until that point.  I knew he was writing a tune for me, but I didn't know when I'd see it.  I was very moved, and we played it in that class, together, for the very first time.

Impromptu evening jams were also a high point.  One night Buddy Spicher and Joey McKenzie (on guitar) met for the very first time.  The music they made was magic, and in all the years I've seen Buddy play, I never saw him look and play like that!  Wow!  Another night, I had decided to shower and go to bed early.  As soon as I climbed into bed, my roommate, Julie Beavers Sorenson, came into the room saying Dale Morris Jr. was there and wanting to jam.  I had not seen Dale Jr. for several years.  I met him when he was an instructor at Mark O'Connor's Fiddle Camp.  I threw on some clothes and grabbed my fiddle.  It was great to be able to play a few tunes with him!

At the student recital, Randy and I played the waltz he wrote for me, "Rayna's Waltz".  It was the highlight of my week!