SPBGMA
Bluegrass’s Annual Ritual of Spring
Photos By David McCarty
Every year on the last weekend of the first month, the bluegrass faithful emerge from their winter burrows like cicadas after hibernation with no outdoor festivals and few indoor events, itching to pick. It may still be late January, but don’t try telling bluegrass that spring doesn’t start with SPBGMA (the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America).
With kitten-soft fingertips from lack of jam time, they come blinking into the Tennessee sunshine, out to enjoy and embrace bluegrass’s annual spring ritual. By the thousands, they turn the Sheraton Music City hotel into a three-day frenzy of around-the-clock-jams, band performances, an awards show with winners voted on by the fans and an expanding vendor area where they can buy everything from strings and capos to vintage bluegrass instruments. And it’s just the tonic we all need at that time of year.
Just ask Kenny Smith, who won the SPBGMA Bluegrass Guitar Player of the Year award for the fourth time earlier this year. “We live in Nashville,” Kenny says of his IBMA and SPBGMA award-winning wife Amanda, “and we get a room (at the Sheraton) every year so we can enjoy the festival.”
The event is important to them from a career perspective, Smith says. “One year we even did the contest. We’ve always loved it, and I think I’ve never missed.” Winning those precious SPBGMA awards also helps him businesswise.
“Anything like that helps—where it’s recognizing what you do. And now I’ve got my teaching website going, so it’s appealing to me as far as getting students for the website,” he says. Smith plans to have a booth at the 2025 event to better promote his online teaching services. Ironically, Kenny wasn’t even at SPBGMA to accept his award this year. He and Amanda were down the street playing a gig at the Station Inn that night.
Kenny, who admits he hasn’t been to IBMA since 2019, says in comparison, SPBGMA plays a bigger role in the Smiths’ bluegrass career. “On some level SPBGMA is similar, but you have a different crowd. IBMA is more of everything. You have the California Bluegrass Association suite and all that. SPBGMA is more regional. We’ve picked up gigs around Ohio and Kentucky from SPBGMA,” he explains.
And if IBMA is mostly business, SPBGMA reminds us that bluegrass is fun. It’s communal. It’s meant to be enjoyed at least as much by the fans as the superstars, if not more. SPBGMA draws the true believers and the hard-core pickers, filling the main lobby with everything from kids buck dancing to non-stop jams for all ages and abilities. Yet for all its history and tradition, the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America remains something of an unknown to many bluegrassers, especially when compared to the bigger, far flashier FanFest, World of Bluegrass, and other events surrounding the annual IBMA convention.
The not-for-profit organization has been incorporated under the laws of the state of Missouri since 1974. When you look up SPBGMA’s corporate charter statement, you find a brief list of its services and mission:
To preserve the traditional spirit and art form of Bluegrass music
To offer a management service for any community desiring to hold a Bluegrass festival
To organize and conduct Bluegrass band competitions
To encourage professionalism in appearance and showmanship by the performers at SPBGMA events
And to encourage the support of various Bluegrass publications and associations
For a deeper dive, Bluegrass Unlimited interviewed SPBGMA spokesperson Stephanie Jones, the daughter of founder Chuck Stearman, who thoughtfully provided answers to our many questions.
BU: How old is SPBGMA? Can you give us some details on its founding, and Chuck Stearman’s role in creating it?
SJ: SPBGMA was founded and incorporated in 1974 in Missouri. He wanted to establish a family-friendly entertainment environment with the primary focus of establishing contests to spotlight the talent, both with our fiddle contests and band contests. He modeled the band contest structure after barbershop quartet contests.
BU: How is the organization structured and financed? Is it driven entirely by memberships? Is it a not-for-profit chartered organization?
SJ: We are a 501c3 not-for-profit that is incorporated in Missouri. We are financed by memberships and advertising in our annual festival guide. Funding for our annual convention comes from ticket sales.
BU: How do you answer when people ask how SPBGMA differs from IBMA?
SJ: SPBGMA is a fan-based organization. We want to promote contests, family-friendly events and jamming.
BU: How are the SPBGMA award recipients selected? Is it member-voter driven like IBMA?
SJ: Nominees are selected from ballots that members provide. The nominees are then voted on at the event, fans-choice style for the winner.
BU: What was attendance at the 2024 event like compared to recent years, any changes? Has it recovered from the pandemic fully?
SJ: We had some rough years prior to COVID and we were making a comeback with attendance. Then the pandemic hit, and we had to cancel 2021. Since then we have gained attendance year over year and feel strongly we are headed in a positive direction.
BU: Any changes in the demographic of participants at SPBGMA? I thought I was seeing a higher percentage of younger players, even kids this year.
SJ: Yes, just as a normal process, I think we are gaining more and more young people and kids. We always try to offer traditional music and contemporary music to try to appeal to the most we can.
BU: Do you expect the event to permanently remain at the Sheraton, or could there be another venue down the road?
SJ: For the foreseeable future, yes. The Sheraton just offers a great set-up with ample public space and a good amount of sleeping rooms. We do keep an eye out for any new spaces that might work for us.
BU: What are the organization’s future plans? Is there anything you want to build on or add to the event for next year and in future editions?
SJ: We are always looking to make the next year better than the year before. We would like to try to bring in sponsors to help build the band contest, bring in more vendors and workshops for patrons to take part in.
BU: What’s the key point you want BU readers to take away from this article?
SJ: We are a fan-based organization and we will always keep fans first.
BU: Thank you, Stephanie!
Best wishes for SPBGMA moving forward.
