We left early this year for our Fall trip to attend our friend Bob Cook's eightieth birthday party in Wilmington, NC, a glorious affair in a city park with a bluegrass band and friends from all the elements of his life. Then we headed west to attend The Mountain Song Festival in Brevard, NC for the first time in several years.
Mountain Song Festival
Mountain Song Festival, hosted by the Steep Canyon Rangers and held on the campus of the Brevard Music Center, is a total delight. The performance shed is spacious, comfortable, and has fine acoustics. The grounds are landscaped around the modern design of the shed. Vendors offer everything from barbecue to wine and cheese. It's always been a good time for us.
Nicky Sanders - Steep Canyon Rangers
Mike Guggino - Steep Canyon Rangers
Tim & Molly O'Brien
Rhiannon Giddens - Carolina Chocolate Drops
Emcee Dennis Jones (WNCW-FM) and Marc Pruett (Balsam Range)
Tim Surrett - Balsam Range
Steve Martin & Marc Pruett
Larry Attaminuik & Mike Bub (Shawn Camp Band)
Shawn Camp
Bѐla
Fleck & Abagail Washburn
Bѐla
Fleck, Steve Martin & Abigail Washburn
Dumplin Valley - Kodak, TN
Home Sweet Home
Dumplin Valley is located in a simple and comfortable commercial campground just off I-40 at the Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg exit just west of the Smokey Mountains. Hosts Joe & Mitzi Soward provide an almost ideal environment for jammers, campers, bluegrass music lovers, and friends to gather for a week in early September each year. It's one of the highlights in our year.
Donna Ulisse
Mitzi Soward & Granddaughter
Matt Leabetter & Jimbo Whaley
Jerry Salley
The Spinney Brothers - Rick & Alan
Little Roy Lewis & Lizzy Long
Josh Williams - Rhonda Vincent & the Rage
Rhonda Vincent & Fletcher Bright
Buddy Melton (Balsam Range)
The Great & Fun Rivalry
Rhonda Vincent & Lizzy Long
The Crowe Brothers - Wayne & Josh
Brandon Rickman - Lonesome River Band
IBMA - World of Bluegrass
Raleigh, NC
Sir Walter Raleigh Welcomes IBMA
2013 Banjo Player of the Year - Mike Munford
at WAMU's Bluegrass Country Studio
in the Convention Center
WAMU's Bluegrass Country.org hosted four days of showcases in a series of live broadcasts (also streamed worldwide) from the Convention Center to which they brought an entire studio to spread the word about IBMA and its World of Bluegrass. Irene served as "official" photographer for this event, providing some wonderful shots.
Katty Kallick
Katy Daley hosts
Dustin Bencon & Greg Cahill - Special Consensus
The Steel Wheels at the Lincoln Theater
Claire Lynch
Doyle Lawson, Lee Michael Demsey, & Katy Daley
at NC Public Radio having a Whale of a Good Time
Lily Pavlak & Al Hawkes with Sir Walter Raleigh
Kitsy Kuykendall - the Queen of Bluegrass
Eric Gibson - Songwriter of the Year
Eric Gibson & Katy Daley
Jacob, Shelley & Jason Burleson
Jerry Douglas at the Awards Show
The Gibson Brothers - 2013 Entertainers of the Year
Tony Rice Inducted Into Hall of Fame
Marty Raybon - 2013 Male Vocalist of the Year
Joe Dean watching Jens Kruger
Mark Newton & Steve Thomas
at the Street Stage
The Crowds Came
to
Free Outdoor Performances
Patrick McAvinue - Audie Blaylock & Redline
The IBMA Fan Fest has been reconfigured as Wide Open Bluegrass, held for the last two days of the World of Bluegrass and including massive concerts in the Red Hat Amphitheater, shows in the Convention Center Ballroom, open access to the Exhibit Hall, a huge street fair (including a statewide whole hog cookoff), workshops, and showcases at six remote local music hot spots within walking distance of the headquarters hotels. It was a remarkable event, providing a capstone for a hugely successful week in Raleigh.
Tony Rice at the Red Hat Amphitheater
Pete & Joan Wernick Workshop on Jammings
Phil Leadbetter - Welcome Back
Eric Gibson in Front of the JumboTron
Jenni Lynn Gardner - Della Mae
2013 Emerging Artist
Peter Rowan
Kids on Bluegrass - The Future
Bѐla
Fleck
Danny Paisley
Ronnie Simpkins - Seldom Scene
Chris Pandolfi - The Infamous Stringdusters
Travis Book - The Infamous Stringdusters
Charles Humphrey IV - Steep Canyon Rangers
Steve Martin
With Judith Burnett in WMRF Studio
At Wayne Henderson's Workshop
Rockahock Bluegrass Festival - Lenaxa, VA
Promoters Brenda Lawson & Him (Calvin)
Lorraine Jordan
Dave Adkins
Larry Stephenson
The Malpass Brothers
Mickey Harris - Rhonda Vincent & the Rag
Russell Johnson - Grass Cats
Randy Barnes - Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers
Aaron McDaris - Rhonda Vincent & the Rage
On the Martha White Express
w/Rhonda Vincent & the Rage
Newell Lodge - Folkston, GA
Katie Elizabeth Wilson - Wilson Family
The Bankesters - Alysha, Emily & Melissa Triplett
Cody Farrar - Breaking Grass
Ryan Paisley - the Third Generation
Jr Davis - The Bridge
We finished our bluegrass year with a three day banquet of Gibson Brothers' concerts in three different locations near their homes in northern New York. Rochester, NH, Plattsburgh, NY and Saratoga Springs, NY represented three different kinds of venues, but the same enthusiastic responses to this finest bluegrass band ever to come out of the northeast.
The Gibson Brothers Onstage at SUNY Plattsburgh
Clayton Campbell
Jesse Brock
Mike Barber
Eric Gibson
Leigh Gibson
Eric & Leigh Gibson
The Gibson Brothers
2013 may have been the busiest and most fulfilling year we've had on our Bluegrass Adventure. We leave for the South two weeks from today. Bluegrass is growing, and even the down time between Thanksgiving and Christmas seems to be filled with bluegrass opportunities. We look forward to the coming year, and invite you to join us and introduce others to us online. We also look forward to meeting you face-to-face on the Bluegrass Trail.
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