The Bluegrass Unlimited
Workshop Weekend
Over the weekend of February 7-8-9, the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky held its first Bluegrass Unlimited Workshop Weekend. Eight instructors traveled to Owensboro to teach a group of 50 eager students how to improve their picking and singing skills. The instructors included Alan Munde (banjo), Maddie Denton (fiddle), Scott Napier (mandolin), Vickie Vaughn (bass), Tim May and Dan Miller (guitar), and Jen Larson and Rick Faris (vocals). The Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Education Director, Randy Lanham, was also on hand all weekend to help students and lead the slow jam every evening. Additionally, the person who was there to direct and coordinate all of the various activities was none other than Lauren Price Napier of The Price Sisters.
This recent February 2025 weekend event was not the first event that Bluegrass Unlimited has hosted during its nearly 60-year history. Some readers may remember that Bluegrass Unlimited ran the influential Indian Springs Bluegrass Festival near Hagerstown, Maryland between 1972 and 1980. Since Bluegrass Unlimited is now published by the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum, which already runs the ROMP Music Festival each year in June, it made sense for Bluegrass Unlimited to not get back into the festival business. As an alternative, the Workshop Weekend was something that myself and Chris Joslin, the former Executive Director of the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum, thought would be a good fit as an event for the magazine to host and promote.
The weekend’s activities kicked off on Friday afternoon with a trip to Rosine, Kentucky to visit Bill Monroe’s homeplace, the Bill Monroe Museum, Bill Monroe’s grave, and the Rosine Music Barn. Rosine is a short 30-minute drive from Owensboro. As we wound through the hills of Ohio County on the way to Rosine, I tried to imagine what it was like when Bill Monroe was traveling these roads as a young boy over 100 years ago. This was my first trip to Rosine and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.
Ohio County’s Tourism Director, Jody Flener, met our group at the Bill Monroe Museum and led the tour through the museum, then to the Rosine Music Barn, then to the grave site, and finally to Bill Monroe’s beautifully restored homeplace. The only historic bluegrass music spot in Rosine that we did not have time to visit was Uncle Pen’s cabin. Jody Flener is very knowledgeable about every aspect of the places that we visited and the Monroe family’s history in Rosine and thus was a wonderful tour guide.
Although I thoroughly enjoyed all of the places that we visited in Rosine, the graveyard was the most fascinating to me. Not only do you see Bill Monroe’s grave, but also the graves of his parents and siblings, including Charlie and Birch. His maternal uncle, Pendleton Vandiver, is also buried there. Most bluegrass fans know that after Monroe’s parents passed away, Monroe went to live with his Uncle Pen, who passed in 1932. To stand there right in front of Bill Monroe’s parents’ graves and see that on his father James’ tombstone it says “We will meet again,” and on his mother, Malissa’s it says “Gone but not forgotten” was haunting if you have ever heard Monroe sing “Memories of Mother and Dad.” In that song, Monroe sings:
Mother left this world of sorrow
Our home was silent and so sad
Dad took sick and had to leave us
I have no home no mother nor dad
There’s a little lonesome grave yard
On these tombstones it did say
On mother’s “Gone but not forgotten”
On dad’s “We’ll meet again someday.”
The dates on the tombstones reveal that Monroe was born in 1911 and his mother passed in 1921 and his father passed in 1928. You then realize how young Monroe was when he lost his parents and thus the lyrics of that song have a lot stronger meaning. After visiting the graveyard, we got to travel to the home where Monroe lived while his parents were alive, which made the line “I have no home no mother nor dad” hit a little harder. For me, it was a wonderful experience. Having seen the High Lonesome—The Story of Bluegrass Music documentary film that shows Monroe walking through the dilapidated home place, I was amazed at the excellent work that was done in restoring Bill Monroe’s childhood home since that footage was filmed.
After spending the afternoon in Rosine, the students participated in a meet-and-greet in the lobby of the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum building prior to Friday evening’s period of instruction. Food was provided and the students had time to check in, meet some of the other students, and get to know the instructors before the first class began. Initially, each class was scheduled to have one instructor. However, after Friday evening’s two-hour class sessions concluded, the decision was made to split the guitar class, which was the largest class with 14 students. Tim May took a group of the more advanced students and I taught the other group for the remainder of the weekend. The museum space is a large three-story facility and classes were held in various locations throughout the building.
Over the course of the weekend, jamming was encouraged and students formed small groups in various locations around the facility. As mentioned before, there was a slow jam held in the lobby every evening led by Randy Lanham, however, you could find folks jamming all over the place. A popular gathering place for jammers was the museum’s picking parlor, which features a wall where a variety of bluegrass instruments hang. These are instruments that have been donated to the museum by various instrument builders over the years. Anyone visiting the museum is encouraged to grab an instrument off of the wall and start picking. Whenever two or more bluegrass people get together, jamming is going to happen and it was no different at this event.
Saturday was the long day with three two-hour class sessions followed by an instructor’s concert on Saturday evening, and more jamming. Both the noon and evening meals were provided to the students as a part of the workshop and the sit-down meals gave another opportunity for the students to get to know one another and their instructors.
The concert Saturday evening was spectacular. Prior to the weekend I had sent out an email to the instructors and asked each of them to send me a few tunes that they would like to feature during the show. Once I collected that list, I shared it with the instructors so that they would have time to become familiar with all of the tunes. During some camp concerts, each instructor comes on stage to perform and then leaves to make room for the next instructor’s performance. We wanted to do it a little differently by asking the instructors to form a full band and all perform together.
On Saturday afternoon, during the lunch break, all of the instructors met in the theater for sound check and we put together a set list for the evening’s show. We had time for each instructor to be featured on two songs and/or tunes with the other instructors providing accompaniment and harmony vocals. These people are pros and so although most of the instructors had never performed together until that night, it sounded as though they had been together for years. It was one of the highlights of the weekend. For the concert finale, all of the students were invited on stage to play and sing “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” with Laure Price Napier singing the verses and leading the way.
The weekend wrapped with one final two-hour session of instruction on Sunday morning. Students were invited to stay Sunday afternoon to participate in the regular Sunday afternoon jam that the museum hosts every week. A tour of the museum was included in the price of admission to the event, so if students had not yet taken the time to enjoy all of the exhibits on Friday or Saturday, they were encouraged to do so on Sunday afternoon.
The price of admission during this three-day weekend event included the tour of all of the historic bluegrass locations in Rosine, free access to all of the exhibits at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum, ten hours of instruction by some of the best musicians in bluegrass, two full meals, and the Saturday evening concert. All of the reports that I received from the attendees were very positive and we plan to do it again in February of 2026. We’d love to have you come join us next year!
