Tish McFadden has worn many hats in her life, whether it’s her work as an archaeologist at Rogue River-Siskiyou National Park, her deep experience as a ukulele performer and music educator or her venture into authorship later in life.

McFadden is also the founder and longtime owner of the Rum Tum School of Music, a music education institution offering lessons on guitar, ukulele, piano and flute.

The Ashland resident has been running her monthly ukulele jam and sing-a-long for more than two decades and is set to publish her latest book, “Upriver to Morning: A Journey to Wisdom” in the near future.

“I just love what I do,” McFadden said.

McFadden’s ukulele jam and sing-a-long is held at Pebblestone Cellars, with the next event scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24.

“Many, many years ago, I started this little group and I call it SOUP, and that’s an acronym for Southern Oregon Ukulele Players,” McFadden said. “There’s something about the collective of people coming together around music that you’re instantly a family; you may not ever see them again, but in that moment you’re like family.”

The Pebblestone Cellars is located at 1670 Pioneer Road in Talent, and more information can be found at pebblestonecellars.biz.

McFadden, born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, was introduced to a blend of music and knowledge of the natural world from each parent.

One of her first loves was music, watching her father play the piano frequently in the evenings.

“Our piano was in the basement of our Michigan home and he would go down to play it when he got home from work every night, and I would fly down on his heels right behind him and sit on the piano bench,” McFadden said. “What I saw from my dad was joy from making music; it wasn’t work, it wasn’t a task, it wasn’t a performance, it was joy.”

As McFadden grew up, she became increasingly more interested in the cultures and peoples across the globe, eventually deciding to be an archaeologist and studying at Miami University in Ohio.

While attending college, she was introduced to the work of renowned archaeologist and anthropologist Jesse Jennings through his textbook and decided to change universities to learn directly from him.

“I just came home one day and I said, ‘Mom and Dad, I’m transferring to the University of Utah because of this professor Jesse Jennings. He wrote this book and I want to be his student,’” McFadden said.

After learning from the professor, going to archaeological field school in Utah’s Henry Mountains under Jennings’ direction and graduating, her career led her to the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Monument with the U.S. Forest Service.

“Any ground disturbing activity on public land — be it timber sales or mining or road building or anything that would disturb the ground — had to be surveyed by a professional archaeologist,” she said of her role. “It was a cool and important job in that they were counting on my eyes, experience and training to locate and identify and protect any cultural value on the public lands.”

Following her time in the archaeology world, McFadden started the Rum Tum School of Music as well as the monthly ukulele jam, educating the community similar to the way she learned as a kid in Michigan.

“In my community there were big group guitar classes at a community center, and my mom and dad would drop me off for an hour and a half every Tuesday,” McFadden said.

For her private classes, McFadden’s philosophy is to meet her pupils where they’re at and teach music relevant to what they’re most interested in.

“I ask my students to tell me what they want to learn, so as a result of that, I’m constantly making new song charts. It could be an artist I’ve never heard of but I’ll go and listen to the song and I’ll work out the rhythms and the chords,” she said. “They get to sit down and learn a song that means something to them.”

“If you get to learn what you want to learn, a song you like, you’re going to tend to practice and play it a lot more than a song you don’t have any interest in,” she added.

McFadden’s latest creative focus has been “Upriver to Morning: A Journey to Wisdom,” a collaborative book and education project with the late Agnes Baker Pilgrim.

Pilgrim was a member of the Takelma Tribe and crossed paths with McFadden in the 1980s while doing archaeology work. The two met again after Pilgrim published her book “Grandma Says: Wake Up, World!” in 2016.

“I went to her book signing at Bloomsbury Books and we reconnected like old friends,” she said.

After a conversation, the two decided to collaborate for “Upriver to Morning: A Journey to Wisdom,” with the five-chapter fable teaching about Native wisdom.

“The book follows the journey of five different species of animals, which is representing a metaphor for different cultures coming together,” McFadden said.

The book is education focused with a corresponding education packet and music composed by McFadden’s husband, Don Hariss, to go along with the journey.

“I think there’s a place for it and I have had teachers who have beta tested it and a couple of them said it opened up a whole doorway to teaching about past cultures here and some of the lessons about respecting nature — that we’re all connected, that our actions have impacts,” she said.

To learn more about McFadden and see updates on her upcoming book as well as see past texts she’s written, visit tishmcfadden.com.