Planet Bluegrass put off its Telluride Bluegrass Festival lineup announcement until after Christmas, but it rolled out an exciting preliminary lineup for RockyGrass 2009, which runs July 24-26 at the Platnet Bluegrass Ranch in Lyons CO.
With about two-thirds of the lineup named, the top headliners so far are Steve Earle & The Bluegrass Dukes, Hot Rize with Red Knuckles & The Trailblazers, Del McCoury Band and Earl Scruggs with Family & Friends. Not at all bad. There are also a bunch of descernable themes running through the program.
Hard-core bluegrass is represented by younger traditional bands like Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper and Danny Paisley & The Southern Grass in addition to Scruggs and McCoury. New grass experimentalism is also well expressed with Mike Marshall, Darol Anger, Three Ring Circle and California.
Claire Lynch, Darrell Scott and Tim O'Brien join Earle in the lineup as distinctive songwriting voices. The Kruger Brothers and Swedish stringband Väsen represent international influences, while Bearfoot, Sarah Jarosz and The High 48s signal that there is a youthful spirit coming up through the ranks. Read more »
With its box office set to open a week later than usual on December 10, Planet Bluegrass dribbled out a few interesting names for its 2009 lineups over Thanksgiving. The headline is an anniversary for Jerry Douglas—his 25th Telluride Bluegrass Festival—and right in time for a strong season by his new band with Luke Bula and Guthrie Trapp. Also named for the 36th TBF: Emmylou Harris, Railroad Earth and The Steeldrivers.
RockyGrass will once more have Del McCoury on the Lyons stage. Two hot traditional bluegrass bands will appear: Danny Paisley & The Southern Grass and Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper. In August, the 19th Folks Festival will feature Brett Dennen and Dougie MacLean.
More lineup announcements for all three festivals will be released before December 10.
Online lotteries for in-demand tickets for Planet Bluegrass 2009 events will open next month, the promoter announced in an email letter. With the online system, patrons can submit requests for the right to purchase passes during a specified period, and then be notified later if they won the lottery.
The system is designed to prevent a mad telephone rush for popular tickets, and assure that everyone gets a fair chance to score the passes. Dates for the lotteries are as follows:
• Town Park camping for Telluride Bluegrass: November 10-18
• RockyGrass Academy: November 10-18.
• Onsite camping for RockyGrass: November 24-December 7.
All other festival tickets go on sale Wednesday, December 10.
While we're posting Telluride news, here are updates from some other Planet Bluegrass events.
Rocky Grass is now completely sold out. Planet Bluegrass will resell a limited number of returned tickets on July 10. Also, keep your eyes peeled on the Festivarian email list, where people will likely be offering their unneeded tickets over the coming weeks. In a News From the Planet email, management also recommends changing you vacation plans and attending Telluride instead. Tickets remain available at the Planet Bluegrass online store for pickup at will call.
Meanwhile, the lineup for PB's August 18-20 Folks Festival continues to take shape, with Guy Clark recently announced to join a strong bill that includes Kris Kristofferson, Jeff Tweedy, Ani DiFranco, The Waifs, and many more.
While Telluride is still in flux (see earlier item), stablemate Rocky Grass today announced its complete lineup, including dates. Adding to big names such as Yonder Mountain and Steve Earle that had been previously announced, there is a bounty of bluegrass and roots music talent for festival-goers to look forward to.
Among the newly announced names are these bona fide bluegrass legends: Earl Scruggs, Sam Bush, Tim O'Brien, Darrell Scott, and Peter Rowan & Tony Rice.
The complete list by date follows:
Friday, July 28: Yonder Mountain String Band; Jerry Douglas, Russ Barenberg, Edgar Meyer; Mountain Heart; The Stringdusters; Tony Trischka Bluegrass Band featuring Roland White; Richard Greene & the Brothers Barton; Bearfoot Bluegrass; Town Mountain
Saturday, July 29: Steve Earle & The Bluegrass Dukes; Jerry Douglas Band; Peter Rowan & Tony Rice; Blue Highway; Uncle Earl; Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings; Crooked Still
Sunday, July 30: Earl Scruggs; Sam Bush Bluegrass Band; The Tim O’Brien Band; The Wilders; Darrell Scott Bluegrass Band; Blue Highway gospel set; Abigail Washburn
