We knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. Though we all have fallen in love with bluegrass phenom Billy Strings as he’s taken the roots music world by storm to the point where his popularity has spilled out into the greater music landscape, you knew that sooner or later he would jump the bluegrass tracks…
With the re-formed Hurricane Ian bearing down on the Carolinas Thursday evening, forcing all of the festivities for the biggest gathering in bluegrass each year indoors, the International Bluegrass Music Association, or IBMA held their 33rd annual awards at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts.
The 2022 Americana Music Awards transpired at the Ryman Auditorium Wednesday Night, September 14th, with Billy Strings, Brandi Carlile, Allison Russell, Sierra Ferrell, and The War and Treaty all walking away with big awards. There were also a few surprises.
Though you won’t see any press releases about it, or social media posts about it from their personal accounts, both Tyler Childers and Chris Stapleton have been spotted in the region with their boots on the ground in Kentucky directly helping local residents after the historic flooding.
The International Bluegrass Music Awards, or IBMA’s announced the nominees earlier this week, and it felt anything but perfunctory. In previous years you had the usual suspects up for all the major awards. It feels completely different here in 2022, and for good reason. Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Sierra Hull, and more.
Post Malone continues to flirt with making a country album. And with the collaborations he’s already been a part of, the things he’s said, and the artists he’s touted, it’s hard to not continue to take him seriously, and to think if he does do a country album, it might be pretty good.
If you were planning to head to the madness that is the CMA Fest in Nashville next week, one of the few bright spots when it comes to the big headliners of the event has officially pulled out. Alan Jackson was scheduled to perform on the main stage at Nissan Stadium.
Marty Stuart’s long-awaited Congress of Country Music in his hometown of Philadelphia, Mississippi is finally set to open in 2022. the $30 million project encompassing some 50,000 square feet of total space opened in incremental phases.
According to one metric, the Turnpike Troubadours are one of the hottest tickets in all of country music when considering the prices those tickets are fetching on the secondary market. In the same company as Garth Brooks, George Strait, Morgan Wallen, and Luke Combs…
‘Crooked Tree’ is Molly Tuttle going, “Oh, you want a bluegrass album? We’ll then here you go …” and then melting faces in 13 straight original tracks that embrace many bluegrass traditions, while still offering a uniqueness of perspective, and a personal connection to Molly.
The Grateful Dead’s founding member and guitarist Bob Weir is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of his solo album Ace released in 1972, and he did so by taking the stage at the Radio City Music Hall in New York with his Wolf Brothers band on Saturday night. Tyler Childers joined him.
Unlike country music’s big award shows like the CMAs and ACMs, The Grammys actually take the time to recognize artists in the bluegrass, Americana, folk, and blues realms, along with pulling from a more expanded list of nominees in the country categories.
Willie Nelson’s traveling Outlaw Fest will once again hit the road in 2022 with 19 dates all across the eastern United States, and with an expanded and revolving list of openers that will include some really cool names for amphitheater shows.
We are living in the era of Billy Strings in bluegrass music, and it won’t be long before that is so self-evident it’s trite to say, and his popularity and influence spills over into the popular culture realm at large. Gone already are the days of seeing him in clubs or on side stages .
In yet another sign that Billy Strings is launching into the stratosphere, for the first time he will be headlining the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado, and not just for one date, but for two in what will surely be sought after tickets.
“I always knew I wanted to make a bluegrass record someday,” Molly Tuttle says, and so did the rest of us. Yet strangely, it had never come to pass until now. Already considered a titan of the bluegrass discipline as a two-time winner of the IBMA’s Guitarist of the Year…
Look alive, and get ready for this Friday, because that’s when a slew of new Billy Strings dates go on sale, and it’s not a question of if they will sell out, but how fast. We can confirm this since every single venue Strings played in the Fall/Winter of 2021 sold out.
Out with 2021 and on to 2022, which means getting you ready for the new albums and songs that are about to break out in country music for the new year. What better way than giving the ‘ol Top 25 Current Playlist a refresh with the best stuff to get 2022 started.
Live music in 2021 saw its return after the worst moments of the pandemic, but only in fits and starts, with multiple postponements and cancellations wrecking many plans, yet a few important moments still going off in the windows when they could.
Make no mistake though, if you want to hear the absolute pinnacle of bluegrass in 2021 when it comes to just sheer blazing imagination and artistry, then accept no substitutes. Béla Fleck and ‘My Bluegrass Heart’ are it, period. ‘My Bluegrass Heart’ is a masterwork
I know what some will say: Bluegrass has always been here. And that’s most certainly true. But for these subgenres of country music to sustain, they need fresh blood every few years, both in the form of exciting new performers, and new fans. And in 2021, bluegrass is enjoying both.
Nominees for the 2022 Grammy Awards were announced on Wednesday, November 23rd from the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, with some big names receiving some important nominations, a few obvious omissions, and the “who” being nominated as opposed to the “what.”
All this talk of the superpowers of Billy Strings lately, one can foolishly shoot their gaze over the other superpicker of our generation, who came up trading flatpicking licks with Billy, and competing for the IBMA’s Guitarist of the Year—and honor Molly beat out Billy for twice.
Soon Billy Strings could be selling out arenas across the United States. But for the time being, he’s still content to play mid-sized venues, often booking multiple dates in the same location to fulfill demand. Up until today, all but three of the live dates he had on his calendar were sold out.