It’s a “guitar camp” founded by Jorma Kaukonen, one of the original members of The Jefferson Airplane, and I first learned about it from LabDad, when he was here for a mini-jam session recently.
I am seriously considering signing up for one of the 2004 “Beginner” camps, and was just wondering if any of the other dopers had been and what you thought of the experience?
Here’s the link, and the 2004 classes won’t be posted until October.
Thanks
Q
Hmm. I opened this thread to tell you that Labdad went a couple of months ago, and find myself without anything else to say about it. Looks like a great place, though, and they have some fantastic instructors coming through.
Ohhh, he’s not attended it, but I’m sure going to show my husband the link to that site. I’m sure he’ll be interested. Thanks!
I think the NYT did an article about that camp a few months back.
I’m not a guitarist, but if there’s something with “fur” and “ranch” in the same sentence, I would except it to contain more than one sweaty, bearded person in a raccoon costume trying to ride a horse. And I have a feeling that wouldn’t be a glorious sight.
"expect". Right, Kantalooppi? 
That’s what I thought at first, too. Made me wanna spit and check the bottoms of my shoes!
Seriously, it looks like beautiful country, and even though they won’t let me drink a beer, I think I might enjoy getting away from it all for a while and concentrating on more than just A, D, G and E on my guitar! 
Q
Actually, that article appeared in the Sunday NYT in February, 2002. Here’s the thumbnail from the NYT website:
"ARTS AND LEISURE DESK | February 3, 2002, Sunday
MUSIC; Picking the Blues In the Ohio Hills
By WOODY HOCHSWENDER (NYT) 2048 words
Late Edition - Final , Section 2 , Page 28 , Column 3
ABSTRACT - Article on Fur Peace Ranch, acoustic blues guitar camp in rural Pomeroy, Ohio, opened by former Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen; photos (M)"
You can purchase the article online for $2.95, or probably find it at your library for free.
I remember the article well, because I had just signed up for my first session at Fur Peace when the article came out!
I have a friend that used to live in McArthur, Ohio. He did a couple of weeks of carpentry work for Jorma at Fur Peace Ranch and got to attend one of the week long sessions in exchange for his labor.
He loved it. Lots of one-on-one time with the guest artists and fun trading techniques with the other attendees. IIRC, they end the camp with each attendee doing a short solo performance in front of everyone, so expect to perform the last night.
As a tutor myself, I’ve only given lessons to a group a couple of times. For absolute beginners, they are of limited use. However, for people who know their way around a fretboard a little one can cover quite a lot of material and not worry that everyone has learned everything since they’ll be helping each other out afterwards. So, if you’re all chipping in for one lesson it will probably work out cheaper than personal tuition and sounds quite a lot of fun.
However, the more you put in beforehand the more you’ll get out of it. I don’t really know your level, but the key simply is practise practise practise things which you find too difficult to do, preferably with a tutor. (Music colleges are good sources since the students really need the money and are a bit cheaper - remember you tell the tutor what you want to learn, not the other way around.)
If you do go, let me know how it was - I’d be very interested to hear your experiences.
Moving this to Cafe Society.
I used to live very near there. The Fur Peace Ranch is always hosting concerts (lots of retro 60’s stuff plus a bunch of acoustic guitar bands I’d never heard of). I never made it out there myself, but most of the people I knew who went said the shows were always great. The area is less like sterotypical Ohio and much more like sterotypical West Vriginia in terms of the country side. Lots of hills and forest.