Upcoming Bluegrass Related Events

There is only one consensus pick of peers and predecessors, of the traditionalists, the rebels, and the next gen devotees, for bluegrass music’s ultimate inside outsider (or is it outside insider?). There is only one Sam Bush. The mandolin/fiddle/guitar-playing icon has taken the genre to new heights over a 50+ year career having worked with such legends as Leon Russell, Emmylou Harris, Béla Fleck & The Flecktones, and Lyle Lovett. In 2009, the Americana Music Association awarded Bush the Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist. Punch Brothers, Steep Canyon Rangers, and Greensky Bluegrass are just a few present-day bluegrass vanguards among so many musicians he’s influenced. His performances are annual highlights of the festival circuit, with Bush’s joyous perennial appearances at the town’s famed bluegrass fest earning him the title, “King of Telluride.” “With this band I have now I am free to try anything. Looking back at the last 50 years of playing newgrass, with the elements of jazz improvisation and rock-&-roll, jamming, playing with New Grass Revival, Leon, and Emmylou; it’s a culmination of all of that,” says Bush. “I can unapologetically stand onstage and feel I’m representing those songs well.” Experience the legendary instrumentalist in live performance with his band in Worcester, MA on Friday, June 9, 2023.

Hard driving traditional bluegrass by 3-time IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year. Outdoor concert, bring chair, refreshments and sun hat.

Shawn Camp (guitar, lead vocals) – Charlie Cushman (banjo, guitars) – Jerry Douglas (Dobro, vocals) – Johnny Warren (fiddle, bass vocals) – Jeff White (mandolin, vocals) When the Earls of Leicester formed in 2013, their mission was ambitious but exact: to preserve and promote the legacy of bluegrass legends Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, in hopes of reviving the duo’s music for longtime admirers and introducing a new generation to their genre-defining sound. Within a year of releasing their self-titled debut, the Nashville-based six-piece far surpassed their own expectations, winning a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album and earning six awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association. Now, with their first live album, Earls of Leicester offer up a selection of songs that fully capture the pure joy and supreme musicianship that propel their every performance. Recorded over two nights at Nashville’s CMA Theater, The Earls of Leicester Live at The CMA Theater in The Country Music Hall of Fame bears a boundless vitality that makes songs from over a half-century ago feel irresistibly fresh. Despite the band’s painstaking precision in recreating the catalog of Flatt and Scruggs’s Foggy Mountain Boys, the album unfolds with an easy warmth that honors the essence of traditional bluegrass, which Douglas describes as “music that was meant to be played on back porches.” Earls of Leicester Live is also accompanied by a DVD that shows the complete splendor of their live set: the throwback attire, the off-the-cuff but illuminating between-song banter, the relentless hotfooting required of their stage setup. “Our goal is to go out and reacquaint everybody with the music of Flatt and Scruggs just the way they did it, which means fewer microphones and a good amount … Read More »

The well-known fiddlers, Ellen Carlson, Melissa Caron and Kathy Sommer, will perform a concert at The Old White Church in Center Tuftonboro, on Sunday, August 6 at 7:00 pm.  The Church is located at 149 Middle Road (Route 109A), across from the Tuftonboro General Store & Post Office.  Admission is $20 for adults and $10 for children under 12.  Pay at the door, cash or check. Fiddlers Three, accompanied by Shana Aisenberg on guitar and Brendan Dowd on bass. feature spectacular high energy and sweet-sounding fiddles along with resonant heartfelt vocals. The trio has been fiddling together for years with a fun approach to many styles of music and to hear them perform is a joy. The historic Old White Church of Center Tuftonboro located on Route 109A, just across from the Tuftonboro General Store & Post Office, is an intimate, cozy setting that regularly hosts weekly Country & Bluegrass jam sessions and other music concerts. The doors will open at 6:00 pm, and the concert begins at 7:00 pm.  Seating is limited to 100, so be sure to come early to avoid disappointment.  For more information about this concert or to reserve tickets, call Joe Ewing at 603-569-3861.

11-time IBMA bluegrass bass player of the year Missy Raines is touring with her new bluegrass band, Missy Raines & Allegheny. This band is a significant nod, and return, to her deep bluegrass roots. The music is traditional and hard-driving at its core, but energized with Raines’ well-known penchant for originality and innovation.   Missy Raines & Allegheny features some of the brightest young stars in bluegrass today with Tristan Scroggins on mandolin, Ellie Hakanson on fiddle, Ben Garnett on guitar, and Eli Gilbert on banjo. Their new album, Highlander, produced by Alison Brown, is scheduled for release on Compass Records in 2023.  

Join us for a joyous morning of Bluegrass Gospel.  All are welcome!

Grammy-winning banjo phenom with her band “Like James Taylor’s voice or B.B. King’s guitar, Alison Brown’s banjo is an instrument possessed of a unique sonic signature and an inescapable beauty…. an artist who never ceases to delight.” — Billboard Magazine One of the most multi-faceted minds in roots music, Alison Brown is a Grammy-winning musician, Grammy-nominated producer, former investment banker (with an A.B. from Harvard and an M.B.A. from UCLA), and co-founder of The Compass Records Group which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2023. Alison and her band have toured extensively throughout the U.S. and abroad with stops at some of music’s most prestigious venues, including Newport Folk Festival, The Kennedy Center, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Philadelphia Folk Festival, The Cambridge Folk Festival (England), Celtic Connections (Scotland), Dublin National Concert Hall (Ireland), Galway Arts Festival (Ireland) and Verbier Music Festival (Switzerland).  Although Alison began her musical career as a teenager in the Southern California bluegrass scene, she has built a reputation as one of today’s most forward thinking and innovative banjo players. She is known for taking the instrument far beyond its Appalachian roots by blending bluegrass and jazz influences into a sonic tapestry that has earned praise and recognition from a variety of national tastemakers including The Wall Street Journal, CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, and USA Today. On her new release, aptly titled On Banjo, Alison continues her musical explorations on a set of original compositions that explore the range of the banjo.  The album features an eclectic cast of collaborators including Steve Martin, Kronos Quartet, Sharon Isbin, Anat Cohen, Sierra Hull, Stuart Duncan and members of the Alison Brown Quintet.  Alison is the recipient of the USA Artists Fellowship in Music and the Distinguished Achievement Award … Read More »