Upcoming Bluegrass Related Events

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Jam in Boarding House Park

Boardinghouse Park 40 French St., Lowell, MA

To get folks ready for the Lowell Banjo and Fiddle Contest (Sept 7th), we are going to meet in Boarding House Park in Lowell on August 17th for jamming.  We will play from 10AM until 2PM or so.  We will break up into separate jams for different styles if there is interest in doing so.  Bring instruments, a chair, and your own water and food.  There won't be any vendors around but there will be open restrooms in some of the park buildings.  Backup rain date is August 18th.

Free

TD Bank Spire Irish Festival featuring the John Doyle Trio

Spire Center for Performing Arts 25 1/2 Court St, Plymouth, MA

With Mick & Oisin McAuley. The Lindsays open the show. Name many of the most notable recordings and/or performers in Irish music and it's a fair bet that John Doyle had something to do with them. Liz Carroll; Eileen Ivers; Karan Casey; Solas; Michael Black; Mary Black; the trio of McCusker, McGoldrick and Doyle; The Teetotalers (Martin Hayes, Kevin Crawford, John Doyle); and now Usher's Island (Andy Irvine, Donal Lunny, Mike McGoldrick, Paddy Glackin and John Doyle) - a veritable who's who of the greatest names in Irish music. These are just a very few of the stellar artists for whom John Doyle's signature guitar sound, singing or songwriting is essential.From a musical family in Dublin, John’s influences include well known English folk singers Nic Jones, Martin Carthy, Richard Thompson, and The Watersons; Scottish singers Dick Gaughan and John Martin; and fellow Irishmen Paul Brady and Al O’Donnell as well as his father, Sean Doyle - probably the biggest influence of all. John went on the road as a pro at 16 with the group Chanting House which he formed with Susan McKeown and which eventually included such great players as Seamus Egan, Eileen Ivers, & Donogh Hennessy.  John went on to form the highly acclaimed super group, Solas, with Seamus Egan, John Williams, Karan Casey and Winifred Horan which took the folk and Celtic music worlds by storm, in no small part due to John’s powerhouse rhythmic guitar style and innovative arrangements. As a member of Solas, John performed to sold out audiences nationally and internationally as well as appearing on many national TV and radio programs: NBC’s The Today Show, various programs for National Public Radio and Public Radio International, A Prairie Home … Read More »

$30

The 5th Annual Oldtone Roots Music Festival

Cool Whisper Farm 1011 Co. Rd 21, Hillsdale, NY

The 5th Annual Oldtone Roots Music Festival: Preserving American Music Musicians and Festival Attendees Dedicated to Preservation through Participation September 5-8, 2019 1011 Co. Rd 21, Hillsdale, NY 12529 [email protected]    www.oldtonemusicfestival.com HILLSDALE, NY. The Oldtone Roots Music Festival features three stages with traditional music performances, dances, workshops, contests, and children’s activities. The founders’ goal is to preserve American roots music and dance with an intimate and interactive festival that includes opportunities to engage with main stage artists in workshop settings. Jamming in the campground late into the night is encouraged. In the evenings festival goers and artists dance under a tent that perches over a spectacular view of the rolling upstate NY farm valley of Matt and Lisa Schober’s Cool Whisper Farm. It is not unusual to find main stage performers dancing in the dance tent or jamming late into the night in the camping areas. Caleb Klauder of the Foghorn String Band has this to say about Oldtone 19: “I’m going to the Oldtone Roots Music festival because their hearts are in the music and the music there has soul.” The festival is unique amongst Roots music festivals for its popularity with the artists themselves as well as the attendees, who can often be heard talking about the “Oldtone vibe”.  Well known cajun Artist Jesse Lege (Bayou Brew) stated; “If I had to pick one best festival, and I have traveled to many, near and far....Oldtone is the biggest, most relaxed, friendliest little festival you’ll ever spend a weekend at... like having it in your own backyard.” The festival has a core of returning popular Oldtone veteran artists: the Foghorn String Band, Tuba Skinny, the Down Hill Strugglers, Jesse Lege & the Bayou Brew, Run Mountain, Tamar Korn, Travis Stuart, and theRusset … Read More »

Lowell Banjo and Fiddle Contest

Boardinghouse Park 40 French St., Lowell, MA

The 39th Annual Lowell Banjo and Fiddle Contest (Platinum sponsored by the BBU) will be held on September 7th, 2019 in Boarding House Park, in Lowell Massachusetts with workshops at 10AM, organized jams at 11AM and the contest beginning at noon.  Informal jams happen all day long.  For more details visit: http://lowellsummermusic.org/page.php?wpage=root/eventdetail.htm&Event=LSMS-E67225  

Free

Forever Young: A Tribute to the Music of Neil Young

Spire Center for Performing Arts 25 1/2 Court St, Plymouth, MA

Now in their twelfth year, the Forever Young Band was originally conceived after Mark Cutler, John Fuzek and Dan Lilley performed the Neil Young classic “Powderfinger” as a group set closer for a show at Stone Soup Coffeehouse in Pawtucket, RI (March 2006). Forever Young is a group of performers that pay tribute to the SONGS of Neil Young. No one in the band tries to imitate Neil Young.

$35

Forever Young: A Tribute to the Music of Neil Young

Spire Center for Performing Arts 25 1/2 Court St, Plymouth, MA

Now in their twelfth year, the Forever Young Band was originally conceived after Mark Cutler, John Fuzek and Dan Lilley performed the Neil Young classic “Powderfinger” as a group set closer for a show at Stone Soup Coffeehouse in Pawtucket, RI (March 2006). Forever Young is a group of performers that pay tribute to the SONGS of Neil Young. No one in the band tries to imitate Neil Young.

$35

FreshGrass Festival

MASS MoCA 1040 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA, MA

FreshGrass is a wonderland of traditional and cutting edge bluegrass and roots music, tucked appropriately into a 19th-century factory turned 21st-century museum in the Berkshire mountains of northwestern Massachusetts. An opportunity for enthusiasts to both appreciate and participate, FreshGrass is family-friendly and brimming with the brightest talent not just on our four stages, but also in our galleries, brick-lined courtyards, and grassy fields. MASS MoCA is one of the world’s premier centers for making and showing the best art of our time. The museum’s vast galleries and multiplicity of stages — both inside and out — offer artists unprecedented opportunities to make and present large-scale sculpture, inventive theater, roots music writers, ‌and big new musical ideas that will confound expectations…and delight you.

$3 – $350

Steve Forbert

Spire Center for Performing Arts 25 1/2 Court St, Plymouth, MA

More than four decades have passed since Steve Forbert made his way to New York City from his Meridian, Mississippi birthplace in quest of a career in music. It was the most unlikely time and place for a folk singer to leap into the fray in a burgeoning scene where new wave and punk were emerging while he took the stage as a the archetypal folkie, armed with just an acoustic guitar and sheaf of very personal songs.

$28

Steve Forbert

Spire Center for Performing Arts 25 1/2 Court St, Plymouth, MA

More than four decades have passed since Steve Forbert made his way to New York City from his Meridian, Mississippi birthplace in quest of a career in music. It was the most unlikely time and place for a folk singer to leap into the fray in a burgeoning scene where new wave and punk were emerging while he took the stage as a the archetypal folkie, armed with just an acoustic guitar and sheaf of very personal songs.

$28

Parsonsfield

Spire Center for Performing Arts 25 1/2 Court St, Plymouth, MA

Parsonsfield, praised for making “the most jubilant and danceable indie roots music this side of the Carolinas” (NPR), is a folk-rock outfit known for their rich harmonies, vibrant songwriting and energetic live performances. Catch them onstage any night and the band’s joy is palpable. They trade instruments, share microphones, and shoot each other big grins. They sing in tight multi-part harmonies, their voices blending like they've been doing this together all their lives. That’s because Parsonsfield is a family band, not by birth but by choice.

$25