The self-proclaimed "Northeast's premier indoor festival" rolled out the main stage lineup for the 24th Joe Val Bluegrass Festival, set to run February 13-15, 2009, at the Sheraton Hotel in Framingham MA. Headed by breakout bluegrass stars Dailey and Vincent, the lineup is packed with blue-chip bluegrass acts, mostly from the genre's mainstream.

Other headline names include Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, Steep Canyou Rangers, Claire Lynch Band, Josh Williams, Dry Branch Fire Squad and a new Kruger Brothers Bluegrass Project with featured members Adam Steffey and Bobby Hicks.

That's a lineup that should be appreciated by the tradition-leaning audience of the Boston Bluegrass Union, which has produced the festival since 1984 as a tribute to a pioneering bluegrass performer from the Boston area. Joe Val won the International Bluegrass Music Association award for Event of the Year in 2006.  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.

The seven-year-old Savannah Music Festival has established a reputation for interesting programming crossing diverse musical boundaries, but their just-announced 2009 program may be the event's most interesting and most diverse yet. With top artists in various genres of jazz, roots, blues, world music, and classical, the upcoming festival, set for March 19 to April 5, 2009, puts a feather in the historic city's cultural cap. 

The event's more than 100 performances are programmed in themes, series and special events. Some of the highlights are as follows:

In roots categories, Long Time Travelin' is a celebration of American folk song traditions featuring Rayna Gellert of Uncle Earl, gospel bluegrasser Doyle Lawson and hosted by Americana singer-songwriter Jim Lauderback, while Roots & Twang is a concert serieis featuring Neko Case and Crooked Fingers, Punch Brothers with Chris Thile, The Infamous Stringdusters, The Lovell Sisters and more.   Read more »

Saturday in Lebanon, NH was cold and raw. The wind whipped through our clothes and our ears turned red as we walked across the street to the AVA gallery. Inside the gallery was warm and cozy as the afternoon’s workshops began. At 1:00 PM four workshops were attended by small, but interested groups. Steve Hennig reprised his successful banjo workshop of last year. Rich Heepe held a session called “A Bit of Festival” and Rich Hamilton attracted a couple of fiddlers to his “Fiddlin’” session. Ford Daley continued last year’s seminar trying to answer the unanswerable question, “What is Bluegrass About Anyway?”  Read more »

The 2nd Annual Upper Valley Bluegrass Festival opened at the Lebanon Opera House on Friday night with performances by Rhonda Vincent & The Rage and The Jerry Douglas Band. The bitter cold did nothing to keep the near sell-out crowd of about 800 people from filling the large, yet intimate, auditorium. Lebanon Opera House is located in City Hall on the pleasant and picturesque town square of Lebanon, NH.

Nearing the end of a long season, Rhonda Vincent & The Rage gave another one of their first rate performances, although seeming a little tired and dispirited, perhaps partly because of the looming exit of longtime mainstay Kenny Ingram and fairly recent addition Darrell Webb, who are leaving the band. According to Ingram, the changes signal new, and as yet unspecified, directions for the band. Aaron McDaris, formerly of the Grascals will be replacing Ingram. Webb will join Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper in January and is being replaced by Ben Helson from Ricky Skaggs’ band Kentucky Thunder.  Read more »

After an auspicious debut last year, the 2nd Annual DelFest is gearing up with an initial lineup announcement and open box office for early bird ticketing, VIP packages and RV permits. Also new this year is the first DelFest Academy, with three days of instrumental instruction taught by members of the McCoury band and others.

The festival runs Memorial Day Weekend, May 22-24, at the Allegany County Fairgrounds in Cumberland MD. The DelFest Academy takes place May 18-21 at the same site.

Besides the host Del McCoury Band, the initial lineup announcment includes Sam Bush, Railroad Earth, Peter Rowan and the Free Mexican Air Force, J.D. Crowe and The New South, Tim O'Brien, The Infamous Stringdusters, The Lee Boys, Dan Paisley & The Southern Grass and more.

For complete information and tickets, visit the DelFest website.  Read more »

For the sixth season, host Brian O'Donovon of the nationally syndicated NPR radio program Celtic Sojourn will produce a Christmas-themed live show of Celtic performances that will play eight dates in Boston, Worcester MA and Providence RI.

This year, the lineup includes Irish super group Solas, Galway singer Sean Keane, rising star Cara Dillon, pianist Sam Lakeman, and returning vocal harmorny group Navan. In addition, dance director Kieran Jordan will present an Irish step-dancing spectacular featuring Keven Doyle and a dance ensemble from the Harney Academy of Irish Dance.

The shows are presented by Boston public radio station WGBH, the home base for O'Donovon's weekly Saturday program Celtic Sojourn. Full information and tickets are available here. The video below includes highlights and interviews from last year's program.

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Ted Lehmann attended 26 music festivals in 2008—mostly bluegrass but some with a broader mission. His thoughts on the state of the market concludes with this observation:

Festivals, in order to succeed, need to reach out to a wider and more diverse audience. Varying the kinds of music, even within the label bluegrass, will help to create a more welcoming and interesting environment. Reaching out to a younger and more culturally diverse audience will increase the size and enthusiasm of audiences. Establishing clear guidelines for audiences in terms of smoking, drinking, dancing, and other behaviors and then ENFORCING them will pay off big time. Much of the festival environment is still attractive and will continue to entertain a wide variety of visitors. Camping, field picking, visiting with old friends, a range of vendors, exciting music, and a festive atmosphere all yield a good time. Thoughtful promoters will find ways to continue the traditional elements making up successful festivals while attracting new audiences through creatively altering their programs and formats.  Read more »

The headliners named for the 2009 Stagecoach festival will give plenty of draw for the SoCal country audience, with genre heartthrobs Brad Paisley making his festival debut and Kenny Chesney returning after topping the bill in 2007. Reba McEntire should delight that same audience with her throwback country style but updated media personality. Kid Rock could add appeal for a crossover audience with his rap rock style.

Miranda Lambert provides some balance to the hunks in the country chick department, where the initial lineup looks to be otherwise somewhat light. This is an initial lineup only, however.

I'll let the country music bloggers and media analyze the bookings from the Nashville perspective. Festival Preview has followed Stagecoach since its 2007 debut more for its side stages, where an impressive array of alt-county, Americana, bluegrass and western artists have been featured.

The 2009 lineup offers some interesting names in these related categories, which combine to give Stagecoach a well rounded character that differentiates it from other pure Big Country blowouts. A few names that jump out at me are:  Read more »

My last festival trip of 2008 was a dandy! The first festival on the itinerary was the Lake Eden Arts Festival (Leaf) in North Carolina and the second stop was in Florida for the Magnoliafest.

[Part one of contributor Dancin' Dave's Fall Festival Journal covers the run up to the LEAF festival. Read the full post at Dancin' Dave's Festival Camping blog.]  Read more »