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The King James Boys (left to right) Curtis Lewis, Cole Spencer, Will Hart, Randy Spencer. // Photo by Cherry Rose Photography

Minister with Music

The King James Boys’ latest music has been heating up a lot of excitement like an old-time gospel tent revival. Their 13th studio album, Get a Transfer, on Pinecastle Records has only eight songs on the entire CD, but the six singles that have been released so far have earned solid radio play and chart…

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Joe Val. Photo Courtesy of Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

The Return of the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival

Twenty years after the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival won the award for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA) Event of the Year in 2006, the festival is returning to the Boston area in 2026 after having been on hiatus since the COVID pandemic. This year, the Boston Bluegrass Union’s (BBU) flagship event is not only…

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Bill Monroe in Linebaugh’s in 1973, nearly 30 years after being photographed there in 1944. Courtesy of Carl Fleischhauer.

Notes & Queries – January 2026

In the Mail: Bill Monroe Photo Revisited The 1944 photo of Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys, George D. Hay, and Uncle Dave Macon (as featured in the November 2025 “Notes & Queries”) elicited several responses. Eddie Page from Florida State University wrote that he had “just received my current issue of Bluegrass Unlimited…

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Founder of the festival Ken Seaman

Colorado’s Midwinter Bluegrass Festival Celebrates 40 Years

In most of the Bluegrass world, the beginning of festival season generally happens sometime around Memorial Day. In northern Colorado, however, everyone knows that it begins over President’s Day weekend. That’s when the Midwinter Bluegrass Festival takes place. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, once again the Midwinter Bluegrass Festival takes over a hotel in…

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Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival with its Epic Glamping Village in the lower left corner. The tents that look like yurts from the air. Photo by Alan R. Hamilton

Festival Innovation & Evolution

Written by Dale and Darcy Cahill Over the past thirty years of attending bluegrass festivals, Dale and I have witnessed festivals evolving beyond rough camping and one-stage events. Some of the innovations grew out of attendees’ suggestions and others from promoters trying new ways to attract larger audiences and add even a small amount of…

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Photo by Tim McGuire

Blue Ox Music Festival

Finds Success and Fills a Niche By all measures, the Blue Ox Music Festival is a young musical gathering. Now going into its 12th year, the festival will return once again on June 25-27, at the Pines Music Park in beautiful Eau Claire, Wisconsin, located between Chippewa Falls and Osseo. The gathering is more proof…

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