Isaac Callender was born in Great Falls, Montana. He began playing violin at the age of three and, at age seven due to sibling rivalry, he switched to fiddling. As a young teenager, Isaac had the opportunity to learn and tour with Dick and Lisa Barrett as a fiddle student and guitarist. During this time, he not only studied music but also studied violin luthiery with the Barretts.
After joining the Army National Guard in 1998, Isaac attended Western Montana College and Eastern Oregon University where he studied music education. His 2002 recording project Here Comes the Rain with fellow student Jesse Jones received national acclaim as runner up for Roots Album of the Year from the Just Plain Folks Awards. While at EOU he met his future wife, Emily Muller, and formed the band Blue Pass. Their undergraduate experience culminated with a performance on Garrison Keilor s A Prairie Home Companion in 2003.
After relocating to Spokane, Washington for Emily to pursue her masters in classical voice Isaac joined the 133rd Army Band as a bass and guitar player. He also had the pleasure of entertaining troops in Asia and the Pacific during a USO/MWR tour with Trace County, a country rock band featuring Jerome McComb. While living in Spokane, Isaac taught extensively at JayDean Ludiker s fiddle school. During this time, he also published three books of fiddle tunes for guitar.
In 2006 Isaac was honorably discharged from the Army and joined Rounder recording artist April Verch on tour. While with the AVB he toured extensively as well as recording on her album Steal the Blue. After leaving the AVB, Isaac and Emily reformed Blue Pass with a new roster of bandmates including Cody Walters, Jon Meeks, and Justin Branum. They recorded Isaac’s second personal project New Phase of the Moon which features Justin Branum s impeccable swing fiddle and guitar playing and Jon Meeks award winning dobro and banjo playing; as well as, original compositions by Jon and by local songwriter and friend John Lowell.
Two-thousand-nine found Isaac and Emily moving once again; this time to Pendleton, Oregon where they currently reside. In addition to continuing to tour with various bands, Isaac currently studies guitar luthiery with Les McMasters, and is part owner and incorporator of the Pendleton Music Company. His schedule includes performances with Imperial Twang (a rock and roll/ Dillon cover band), The Eleventh Street Incident (punk country), Wheattown (Texas country), as well as he and Emily s newest band The Callenders (Bluegrass). Isaac s newest recording is with The Callenders and was recorded in Nashville at Scott Vestal s studio with Barbara Lamp producing. Isaac also continues to teach private and group lessons as well as recording and touring.
Class: Bluegrass Fiddle (Intermediate)
Our class will cover classic intros and outros for bluegrass tunes, playing backup “fills” in all keys and learning some bluegrass fiddle standards and maybe some not so standards. The class will be taught mainly by ear with music being provided as necessary. The goal is to have everyone able to play backup and leads to traditional bluegrass by the end of the week (even if you don’t know the song). A basic knowledge of chord theory (I, IV, V, etc) is helpful but not required.