The 36th annual International Bluegrass Music Association Awards show felt a little different this go-round. Sure, the annual gathering of the genre overtook Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the first time this past week. But the bigger story was Billy Strings, who was in attendance to receive Entertainer of the Year honors. …
Read More »Steve Martin and Alison Brown Will Host the 2025 Bluegrass Music Awards
Steve Martin isn’t just an IBMA nominee — he’s also the host. The comedian and banjo player will co-host the 2025 International Bluegrass Music Association Awards with fellow picker Alison Brown. “I’m thrilled to be hosting with Alison Brown, and connecting with all my bluegrass friends as opposed to my …
Read More »Alison Krauss Says Billy Strings and Sierra Ferrell Are Keeping 'Those Old Songs Alive'
When Alison Krauss was kicking around ideas on what to name her latest album with Union Station, the eureka moment came while on the phone with a friend, who just happened to be on their way to play a church gig in a tiny Louisiana town called Arcadia. “I’m like, …
Read More »Watch Billy Strings, Gillian Welch Celebrate a Legendary Bluegrass Band in Nashville
On Thursday evening, backstage in a dressing room at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Peter Rowan is plucking his guitar and quietly humming to himself. With less than an hour before showtime, the singer-songwriter will soon celebrate a band he created more than a half-century ago, one whose influence continues to loom …
Read More »Molly Tuttle, Del McCoury, and More Triumph at 2024 Bluegrass Music Awards
Jerry Douglas took the stage and stood proudly while being inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame during the 35th annual International Bluegrass Music Association awards show Thursday night in Raleigh. “You don’t get here alone,” the 68-year-old Dobro legend told the audience at the Martin Marietta Center for …
Read More »Jerry Garcia: What It Was Like to Play Bluegrass with the Grateful Dead Guitarist
In 1973, Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia fulfilled a longtime dream when he formed the bluegrass supergroup known as Old & In the Way. For the rock & roller, circling back to his acoustic roots was more than just scratching a creative itch — it was a spiritual calling. “It …
Read More »Lindsay Lou Is Poised to Be the Next Bluegrass Queen
It’s one of the first cold fall nights in the mountains of East Tennessee and Lindsay Lou is tightening her winter coat as she prepares to take the outdoor stage at CaveFest, an Americana and bluegrass gathering held southeast of Nashville at the Caverns, an underground venue with an aboveground …
Read More »Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings Win Big at Bluegrass Awards As the IBMAs Look for New Home
The biggest story of this year’s International Bluegrass Music Association award show wasn’t that Billy Strings won his third consecutive Entertainer of the Year honor. Nor was it that Sierra Hull took home her sixth Mandolin Player of the Year trophy. And it wasn’t even that Molly Tuttle pulled off …
Read More »Earl Scruggs Shaped Bluegrass — and Jam-Grass Too. A New Festival Aims to Revive His Legacy
When he was three years old, Jerry Douglas heard the groundbreaking banjo licks of Earl Scruggs on the turntable each morning during breakfast at his childhood home in northeastern Ohio. “And we’d hear the Flatt & Scruggs [Grand Ole Opry] radio show on WSM if there was clear weather between …
Read More »Bluegrass Lost Two Pioneers in Mere Days: Why Bobby Osborne and Jesse McReynolds Matter
In the span of less than a week, the bluegrass community was rocked to its core: Jesse McReynolds and Bobby Osborne, two pioneering voices and musicians of the “high, lonesome sound,” died within mere days of each other. McReynolds died June 23 at 93, while four days later, Osborne died …
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