JACK HATFIELD
Jack Hatfield is from Knoxville, Tennessee where he taught banjo full time for seventeen years before moving to nearby Pigeon Forge to perform at venues such as Dollywood theme park and the Dixie Stampede dinner theater. For over thirty years his band True Blue has performed at special events festivals, and conventions in East Tennessee.
Jack started writing for Banjo Newsletter magazine in 1976, authoring the Scruggs Corner, Beginner's Corner and most recently the Concepts and Systems columns. He was a finalist in the National Banjo Championship at Winfield, Kansas in 1989. Jack has also appeared in two feature length films and performed on syndicated television shows on the Country Music Television Network.
However, Jack claims banjo instruction as his forte. He has authored several instruction books published by Mel Bay Publications, Inc. He also publishes books through his own company Hatfield Music, an e-commerce business that specializes in banjo instructional materials and accessories. Jack has invented or designed several accessories and practice aides that are available from Hatfield Music.
Jack was on the faculty of the first major banjo camp, the Tennessee Banjo Institute in 1988. Since then he has conducted banjo workshops all over the USA and in four other countries. He presided as Bluegrass Director for Banjo Newsletter's Maryland Banjo Academy banjo camps. In 2004 he founded the Smoky Mountain Banjo Academy banjo camp. He has been director of the annual banjo workshop at the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America convention in Nashville for fifteen years. Jack's workshops and camps have featured the world's most respected banjo authors, teachers, luthiers, and performers. From them he has gained insights and has garnered a variety of teaching techniques and philosophies.