The one-story structure off Old Dixie on 18th Street has been many things to many people: family home, machine shop, ice cream parlor. But walking through it now, you would never think it had ever been anything but a music studio.
Bruce Threlkeld, musician, teacher and owner of Bandwagon Music Studio, turned the old building into a thriving music school a little over a year ago. With students of all ages – including an 80-year-old who’s learning to play the banjo, Threlkeld has enjoyed hearing from those who knew these rooms in their previous states. They have recounted memories of playing with the neighbor’s kid in the front room, of bunk beds stacked where the guitars now hang, and of their favorite flavor at Snowballs Ice Cream Shop.
Like his studio, Threlkeld himself has had many incarnations, but playing and teaching music has been a life-long passion and pursuit.
Born in Kentucky and raised in Texas, Threlkeld was exposed to music at a young age through his musically talented father. He moved to Florida after high school to attend Rollins College, pursuing a combined major of business and German.
Upon graduating, however, he knew what he really wanted was to be a musician. He moved home and began teaching music and running his dad’s music store, known as Mr. T’s Picking Parlor.
A few years later he attended The Musician’s Institute in Hollywood, CA, then settled down in Atlanta, reconnecting with his musician friend from Rollins, Rick Taylor.
Taylor had a rock band named Right as Rain, and Threlkeld became the band’s drummer. For five years, the band played in and around Atlanta, vying for gigs and notoriety alongside such groups as The Indigo Girls, Counting Crows, and R.E.M.
“I tell my younger students how we used to blanket towns with promotional flyers on a daily basis, stapling posters on telephone poles to get the word out,” he says, laughing. “Kids today have it easy: they just have to upload a song and hit ‘send’.”
Like many musicians, Threlkeld held different jobs as he pursued his dream of playing music full-time. His occupational hats include personal trainer at a fitness center, scuba-diving instructor, and wilderness guide and music instructor at a summer camp in North Carolina.
His 20 years of teaching music at Camp Highlander in Asheville have proved to be invaluable, both in establishing his teaching techniques, formulating life-long friendships, and introducing him to his wife, Lucy, a registered nurse.
One of his colleagues from Camp Highlander, musician Matt Manning, invited Threlkeld to play regularly at Twigs in Blowing Rock, which slowly allowed him to detach himself from the indie rock scene in Georgia, and put down the drumsticks just long enough to pick up his guitar once again.
Threlkeld’s deep interest in wilderness education and ecology inspired him to apply to graduate programs, and when he was accepted into the well-respected environmental studies graduate program at the University of Montana, he and his wife moved their family west.
While completing his masters, Threlkeld quickly fell into the music scene in Missoula, playing drums for musician Cory Haydon and his own solo guitar gigs. But it wasn’t long until the snowy Montana winters, the demands of family back home, and the calls of friends on the East Coast drew them to plant their roots in Vero Beach.
Upon their move to Vero, his wife quickly found work in her field of nursing and Threlkeld became a substitute teacher at the Imagine School. He also immediately began playing with old camp friend Matt Manning, and Matt’s band The Revelers.
The Revelers have since disbanded but the two friends continue to play as Matt & Bruce, or “Mountain Spruce,” a variation they often call themselves ever since an older audience member misunderstood the band’s name.
Matt & Bruce appear regularly at Waldo’s, Orchid Island Brewery, and Blue Star, and showcase their serious bluegrass skills every Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 14 Bones on U.S. 1.
Manning is the music teacher at The Imagine School, and Threlkeld initiated the after-school music program there.
“It’s non-traditional because I’m not teaching strings and horns,” Threlkeld points out.
The successful program has quickly grown from seven to 40 students and offers small-group instruction in guitar, drums, and ukulele.
Lessons offered at Bandwagon Studio include guitar, drums and ukulele but also banjo, bass, mandolin, and Gold Tone resophonic guitar, a guitar distributed in nearby Titusville.
Students who study at the Bandwagon Studio are exposed to Threlkeld’s impressive arsenal of instruments which include a five-string Deering banjo, a Gold-Tone dobro or “Hawaiian” guitar played with multiple picks and a slide, hand drums like the djembe and conga, and classic Fender Telecaster guitars.
The age range of his students at the studio is wide. Threlkeld’s youngest student is 6 and his oldest is a banjo student who just celebrated his 80th birthday.
“You’re never too old to learn a new instrument or improve your skills,” Threlkeld insists. “I have elderly students who say that they were intimidated and nervous to start taking lessons or to return to playing, claiming that they thought they were too old to get started or wouldn’t be able to play like they used to but have discovered that’s just not true.
“And learning music and playing an instrument is such a great outlet. It’s a natural stress-reliever.”
Threlkeld believes in initially providing his students with a strong basic knowledge in rhythm and slowly progressing into finger-picking, technique, and style. He offers a weekly play-along every Wednesday night and claims that students of all levels enjoy sitting in and exchanging music and playing songs with one another.
The night has become so popular that he worries the small studio won’t be able to hold the ever-expanding group. “My students are always pleasantly surprised how quickly they pick things up,” Threlkeld says. “Before they know it they are playing the songs they know and love. They realize it’s not scary; it’s very enjoyable and just a heck of a lot of fun. And, for me, that’s really what music is all about.”
