Cameron Dewhitt

About Cameron

Cameron DeWhitt is a clawhammer banjoist and Old Time musician living in Portland, Oregon. They play banjo and sing with Morgan Harris and George Jackson as Tall Poppy String Band, whom Country Queer dubbed “an old-timey, queer supergroup.” They also appear in drag as Doreen Ditties, banjoist for Tradwife Stringband. Cameron is the innovator behind pitchfork banjo, a three-finger clawhammer technique that allows them a unique, improvisatory approach to old time banjo music. They are also the host of Get Up in the Cool, a weekly old time music and interview podcast, featuring conversations and musical collaborations with today’s most influential traditional musicians, such as Jake Blount, Laurel Premo, Tatiana Hargreaves, Bruce Molsky, Adam Hurt, and Dirk Powell.

When they’re not performing or podcasting, Cameron teaches private lessons and group workshops online and in-person in their home. As a teacher, they practice Freirean dialogical pedagogy, tailoring their lessons to the specific needs and desires of their students (including financial needs, whenever possible) while encouraging new liberatory methods of learning, with the end goal of self-subverting authority (in other words, Cameron wants you to graduate). Old time music sits at the intersection of colonizer, colonized, indigenous, and diasporic cultures, so Cameron uses some “Western Music Theory” in their teaching, but never prescriptively, only pragmatically. Lessons are generally light on written material and tend to focus on building muscle memory, ear training, and folk music comprehension. Students typically receive private YouTube videos of lesson recaps at the end of each session, which they can watch in a private Discord channel.

Inquire about Free reparative lessons for Black students, Cameron’s queer discount, and general financial assistance.