The BBU’s Third Generation
As the 50th anniversary approaches, with Tony Watt assuming the presidency and the support of a very active board, the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival is returning in February 2026. Tony is particularly focused on the role of the BBU in the community and loves how the BBU has been involved in supporting jams through the years.
Tony was born in Boston and grew up going to BBU shows. “Some of my earliest memories — of my entire life – are from the BBU. I remember running around in the back of the church when there were concerts. Specifically, I remember the doughnuts they had there. I remember as a young child going wild for the doughnuts they had.”69 He wasn’t as much into playing until he was about 13. “Ah, it’s just something my dad does.” But when he started playing, he got hooked. There weren’t a lot of his peers around playing music, likely one of the reasons he came to emphasize the beginners’ pickin’ parties and the Kids Academies the BBU runs.
“When I was learning music in the Boston area, from about 13 to 21 or so, I met one other person even vaguely close to my age and they lived in upstate New York. But I knew all these older people who were my dad’s friends, and they treated me incredibly kindly.”
Tony went to Georgia Tech and specialized in metallurgy, where he found a vibrant bluegrass community in the North Georgia mountains. He later went to East Tennessee State University in Johnson City and studied bluegrass there for a little while – just barely overlapping with Jack Tottle, who was still involved at that time. Later, he earned a Master’s in Materials Engineering at Vanderbilt, which he describes as just an excuse to get to live in Nashville.
Tony is primarily a flatpicking guitarist, although he also plays mandolin and bass. He has performed throughout the United States and Europe, on the Grand Ole Opry, and beyond. He has won IBMA and SPBGMA Awards, and in 2024 he received the IBMA Momentum Mentor of the Year award. His performance, jamming, and teaching videos on YouTube have been viewed over 1.5 million times.
For the past few years, Tony has been an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston, teaching bluegrass within the Ensemble Department, as well as Berklee’s Aspire Five-Week Summer Program, and Berklee’s American Roots Music Program. Tony is also the director of The Bluegrass University, which has offered classes for adult beginners at many of the largest bluegrass festivals in the Northeast, and more. Tony now hosts two Flatpicking Camps every year in Hadley, Massachusetts. Tony is also the host of Bluegrass Tuesdays, formerly at The Cantab and Lily P’s, both in Cambridge, which is one of the longest-running and most successful bluegrass nights in the country.
While on the BBU board, Tony often advocated for more get-togethers that fostered participation. The board knew they had a successful annual event in the Joe Val Festival and concerts at the National Heritage Museum.
He remembered fondly some other gatherings. “In the old days there were various jams the BBU would run that did amazing things to bring the community together. They had this thing where we would jam at the museum before the concerts. That was really fun. You didn’t have to go to the concert; you could just come to the jam. There were jams at the Stagecoach Inn in Groton. There were Jam’n Weekends held at the Colonial Inn in Concord. We did about a half a dozen of them.”
The festival obviously takes a great deal of work, but Tony was very excited when BBU board member Jim McDonough proposed a Joe Val-like event without the main stage. Although the Board ultimately decided not to pursue this event, they were supportive of Tony starting it as his own event. The event named JamVember and held the weekend before Thanksgiving at the Sheraton in Framingham, has been successful both before and after the pandemic.
Tony reflected on some of the changes and challenges. “It’s an amazing board. They’re very generous. They’re very kind to me. I’ve heard that sometimes boards are challenging, with infighting and factions, but the BBU Board is very functional. Everybody has their area that they work on. They stay in their own lane and let other people get their work done. We’re really very lucky. And that ultimately comes down to one person: Stan Zdonik and the example he set as Board President for so many years. We’ve had more Board turnover than usual since the pandemic. About half the board has been here for 15 years or more, and half for much less than that. We’re working hard to allow everyone on the Board to contribute in whatever ways they are most comfortable. It’s going well, but it’s still work – getting the knowledge transferred.”
There’s lots of excitement within the BBU Board and the larger bluegrass community with the relaunch of the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival in February 2026. Once again fans and artists will gather to celebrate the legacy of the artist Joe Val. That’s a testament to the past and a look to the future of this great music.
Footnotes –
- Author interview with Tony Watt on December 29, 2025.