The Venue

A Family Affair Photos by Cole Simmons “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”     In 1850, when Elizabeth Barrett Browning opened her Sonnet Number 43 of Sonnets From The Portuguese, she wasn’t thinking of bluegrass music! Bill Monroe was not yet even a gleam in his daddy’s eye. Still though, for…

A Tiktok Roots Revival Photo By Nathaniel Clayton I was born in the year 2000, a member of the first ever group of humans handed social media accounts in middle school. We lab rats were the first to leave our digital footprint on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat at the tender age of twelve, tying…

Building Bluegrass Community  Music camps and workshops provide students with an opportunity to interact with, and learn directly from, professional musicians and music heroes. While at camp, students also have the opportunity to make new friends who share common interests and, of course, there is the jamming. It is learning via the total immersion method….

A mirage to most modern day music fans, the Red Slipper Lounge in Lexington, Kentucky has long been heralded for bluegrass music. Known for being the stomping ground for JD Crowe and The Kentucky Mountain Boys (and later The New South) for six nights per week from 1968 to 1975, the venue had a reputation…

Nearly half a century ago the late Bob (1929-2019) and Jean (1929-2015) Cornett started Festival of the Bluegrass in Lexington, Kentucky.  It has become one of Kentucky’s most heralded bluegrass gatherings and it is championed around the world.  Over the years it has become as much of a bluegrass tradition as the genre itself.  Some…

Joanne Gardner, John Lowell, and the Virtual 2020 IBMA Bluegrass Awards Show The performance centerpiece of the annual IBMA conference is the IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards show, where – selected by the membership – the IBMA showcases and celebrates the best performers of the year. In a year of social distancing and facemasks, Paul Schiminger…