“Killer clawhammer banjo (for real, he can seriously pick)... I’m off to do my homework tomorrow and listen to a lot more from Cameron DeWhitt! You should too.”
“Cameron DeWhitt, at the age of 28 [is] already among the finest clawhammer banjo players alive.”
Cameron DeWhitt is a clawhammer banjoist and Old Time musician living in Portland, Oregon. He hosts the weekly podcast Get Up in the Cool: Old Time Music with Cameron DeWhitt and Friends, which features conversations and musical collaborations with today’s most influential traditional musicians, like Jake Blount, Paul Brown, Erynn Marshall and Carl Jones, Gailanne Amundsen, John Reischman, Ken Perlman, Adam Hurt, and Spencer & Rains. As an interviewer, Cameron balances an effusive curiosity for the potential of traditional music with a dogged respect for its origins. Serving as audience surrogate, Cameron asks illuminating questions to Old Time's best and brightest while telling the larger story of the tradition's modern era. And with over 100 episodes released and no signs of slowing, Get Up in the Cool is quickly becoming one of the largest available archives of new Old Time recordings.
Cameron is the innovator behind pitchfork banjo, a three-finger clawhammer technique that allows the player unprecedented access to melody, harmony, and rhythms typically roped off from clawhammer players. With pitchfork-style, Cameron improvises over tunes in a way that most old time banjoists would only attempt with meticulous arrangement.