David Feffer is learning some new lessons about growing pains.
As the founder and board chair of the Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation in Bigfork, Feffer has watched his summer guitar workshop series quickly evolve into an international competition and hot spot for six-string aficionados.
“Going from the size and scale of last year to this year, it’s literally a different thing,” Feffer said in an interview last week. “I thought that we could get to where we are this year in maybe year five or six and this is year two.”
Flathead residents will hear some of the best guitar talent in the world during the Crown of the Continent Guitar Workshop Music Festival, running from Aug. 28 through Sept. 3 in Bigfork.
Last summer, the series brought nationally known guitar talent to the Flathead for six workshop classes for 48 students, Feffer said. While the musicians were busy in their classes, their families were shown some of the best that the valley has to offer, including Glacier National Park and watercolor lessons from Nancy Cawdrey.
This year’s weeklong festival again includes the workshops, but the evening concerts have been kicked up a notch. Headliners will include blues titan Joe Bonamassa, rock guitarist Steve Lukather, Grammy-winning jazz master Lee Ritenour, Grammy-winning classical guitarist Scott Tennant and songwriter David Wilcox.
And on Aug. 31, local residents will have a chance to experience the World Finals of the Lee Ritenour-Yamaha Six String Theory Guitar Competition.
The grand prize winner of the competition, which was held last year in Los Angeles and includes six finalists drawn from a pool of 45 countries worldwide, will be a featured artist in the 2011 National Guitar Workshop Clinic Tour.
The winner also receives a shot at a recording contract with Concord Records, thousands of dollars worth of music equipment, a mentorship with Ritenour and more.
Feffer said Ritenour moved the competition from Los Angeles to Bigfork after attending last summer’s workshops.
“He just fell in love with what we were doing,” Feffer said.
The workshops have also expanded to nine classes with 90 participants. Such growth has the organizers scrambling to keep up with the details. But Feffer noted that it is a good problem to have.
The COCGF began as a late-night idea hatched between Feffer and his friends. Within months, they put together the first summer workshop series, based at the Flathead Lake Lodge.
Feffer and company also wanted to make the musicians feel that they were connecting with nature and the Flathead community while in Bigfork.
“Our view is that everybody who is a part of this is a guest in our home,” he said. “We want everybody to have that experience so it’s not just going to a workshop or a concert. There’s something that’s special.”
Given the new breadth of this year’s festival, Feffer’s strategy worked.
The evening concerts have been modified for larger crowd capacity, increasing last year’s available seating of 175 to a 690-person big top tent located at the Flathead Lake Lodge.
The concerts start on Aug. 28 with the All-Star Kick-off Jam at the Lodge, benefitting the North Valley Music School. It will feature workshop staff and local musicians, including Mike McFarland, Toby Ferguson, Ron Reeves, Tim Torgerson, Andre Floyd, Ethan Thompson, David Griffith, Craig Barton, Christian Johnson and Ed Boggs.
Joe Bonamassa takes the stage on Aug. 29. As a child prodigy, Bonamassa had Stevie Ray Vaughn down by age 7 and was opening for B.B. King at age 12. He’s been on tour with Buddy Guy, Foreigner, Robert Cray, Stephen Stills, Joe Cocker and Gregg Allman. And now in his 30s, Bonamassa is considered master of the blues.
The Aug. 30 concert will feature Steve Lukather and Lee Ritenour. Luthaker is famous for his 31-year career with his band, Toto, and Ritenour has 50 years of experience under his belt.
The Aug. 31 competition will take place in the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts, which has 430 seats, Feffer said, so tickets will be limited.
Scott Tennant and David Wilcox will play solo performances on Sept. 1.
Organizers are expecting a crowd of 1,000 people for the Sept. 3 Guitar Extravaganza on the shore of Flathead Lake, which will include workshop faculty, guest artists and some surprises.
For Feffer, the community support and help from at least 100 volunteers has been the foundation of success for the workshops and the COCGF. The growth has been quick, and he continues looking for ways to keep expanding.
“Everything has just fallen into place really, really nicely,” Feffer said.
Tickets are available at www.cocguitarfoundation.tix.com, at Nancy O’s Interiors and Electric Avenue Gifts in Bigfork or all Montana Coffee Traders in Flathead Valley. For more info call 406-837-2574.