IBMA 2019: How to Survive and Thrive - Sept. 24 - 28 - Preview

Sir Walter Raleigh Welcomes IBMA

IBMA’s World of Bluegrass, the Award Show and Wide Open Bluegrass present a feast for anyone interested in bluegrass music. The week is filled with music, learning, meeting, greeting, picking, buying, selling...and more music. It justly earns its nickname, I’ve Been Mostly Awake. Getting through the week to the end, should you decide to attend all three of the events, is both a marathon and a sprint. Setting goals and making a plan will determine your ability to enjoy your week while reaching your goals to increase your bluegrass income and enjoyment of the scene. The correct question to ask about attending IBMA is not "What has IBMA ever done for me?" but always "What have I done to make IBMA the best experience I can have to maximize my professional life in music or enjoy the week the best I can?" This blog is written to help you achieve your goals for the IBMA experience.

How to Get Around and Resources for You: Your foremost resource for planning your time effectively and preparing for the IBMA Trade Show is IBMA's Web Site. It's a large and complex document, but includes sections on every part of the event plus order forms for getting your tickets to World of Bluegrass and Wide Open Bluegrass. This preview simply acts as a shortcut to specific resources you can use, as well as providing insights to how to manage it. 

While the Marriott Hotel and The Sheraton Raleigh are most convenient to all the action, numerous alternatives are available for those attending. For years we stayed at the campground located on the  State Fairgrounds, about six miles from downtown, where over 100 full service sites are set aside for IBMA. A free shuttle service to the Convention Center is provided. This year, we've found an Airbnb near the capitol, a short Uber ride from the Convention Center, but there are over 300 places listed in Raleigh. Many other accomodations are available. Consult the visitors bureau. 

For most people attending The World of Bluegrass, the interactive map below shows the part of downtown Raleigh where World of Bluegrass takes place. Familiarize yourself with the area from the Duke Energy Center to the Sate Capitol Building. Fayetteville Street is the major street.  The embedded Google Map below is an active map which can be contracted and expanded to use for all sites around Raleigh:

A crucial resource for those attending World of Bluegrass is the desk of the Greater Raleigh Visitors and Convention Bureau, located in the lobby of the Marriott Center City Hotel, where you can get maps of the downtown area as well as good advice on how to see Raleigh. You can download the IBMA Schedule to both your computer and your phone. Schedule events and send your personal schedule to your phone to plan each day. Another important resource which will save you time and lots of walking is the R Bus, a free shuttle serving up a special route during the event to various venues where showcase bands featured in the the Bluegrass Ramble are held. Your ticket to the Business Conference includes admission to all these venues, while you can also buy Ramble tickets or pay at the door. Our favorite ramble venue is the Vintage Church on Moore Park, a short ride on the R Bus. Another prime showcase location is within the Convention Center itself.  

The R Bus In Front of the Convention Center

Bluegrass Ramble Site

The Business Conference: It’s never too early to start deciding how you’re going to use your valuable time at the IBMA Business Conference. Comprising three days and lasting from 9:00 AM until 2:00 AM, you’ll find that you still don’t have enough time nor energy to accomplish all you wish to do. It’s too easy to become distracted, to forget where you wanted to be, who you wanted to hear, what you wanted to learn, because you’ve been captured by the moment: a friend, a tune you hear, a booth you have to visit right now, a call you must take, etc. Your best friend is the Schedule, which you can download to your computer, link to your phone, and use as a planning guide. Use the schedule linked above! Before I started this paragraph, I already had a conflict between two business sessions I want to attend. 

Workshop or Seminar Meeting with the Experts

I’ve heard musicians mutter complaints with something like “What has IBMA ever done for me?” I take that to mean that they simply haven’t been offered the gigs they thought would materialize from showcasing or performing at one or more events. Meanwhile they wander around hallways with a briefcase handing out copies of their latest recording to any person they perceive to have influence or who might be able to help them find more work. Such short range thinking rarely results in very much new work coming their way. 

Gig Fair - Meet the Promoters

and Follow Up

Instead, they should plan their attendance at IBMA as if it were a military campaign, employing their resources and links found throughout this preview to garner the greatest amount of event coverage by deploying members of their band to cover specific events, seminars, meet & greets, and other events. Every member of the band, including non-performing components, should view themselves as members of a team devoted to finding a maximum amount of work and finding out about new, advanced, or untried approaches that might be useful for the team. Meeting people, making contacts, and following up is crucial to success. Hanging out with your friends can mean wasting your valuable time. 

The Exhibit Hall

A Good Place to Meet Friends & Do Business

Each day your team should meetfd to share insights they had, new ideas they heard about, ways they could employ the ideas or adapt them to the band’s specific needs.  After the conference is over, the band should meet with their leader to consider ways to follow up, assign responsibilities to each person, and proceed to follow up with each person they contacted during the week. They should work to broaden their own comfort areas to expand their repertoire of new ideas to use in building the business. Each person should keep a small note-book to record names of people for later contact. Making contacts for later development is the name of the game. 

At the end of IBMA week, the team should plan a day-long retreat to do an analysis of what they learned and how it can be applied to their business. It’s worth remembering that band leadership and membership consist of more than getting to a gig and performing your sets. Like any work week at any job, there are highs, in the case of music, performing, and their are necessary chores and low points along the trail, but most time should be allocated for working to help the band succeed.

Every meeting with a person the band members think could help the band achieve its goals should be followed up soon after the conference, and the relationships developed at IBMA should be cultivated and grown over the succeeding year, or years. Time in the van or the bus can be well spent in this effort. Both conferring and following up by phone can be accomplished on the road. Assignments should be discussed, reports can be made, plans for further discussions with influencers like radio dj’s, writers, promoters, publications, and more. Using the Business Conference and following up on what you learned is essential. Don't wait to stroll in on your day to perform. Involve yourself in your own career rather than waiting for it to happen to you. 

Photo: Bluegrass Today

Awards Shows: There are actually two awards shows at IBMA, both held on Thursday, as the Business Conference winds down and transitions into Wide Open Bluegrass, the musical extravaganza mixed with infotainment, for want of a better term, that runs on Friday and Saturday. More about that later. The Awards consists of two events, a luncheon and awards presentation, along with several bands playing, where industry awards are presented, and the Thursday evening Awards Show in the large theater at the Duke Energy Center, a short walk from the Marriott Hotel. 

I’m told by two very reliable sources that when IBMA was founded, Pete Kuykendahl, founder and editor of BluegrassUnlimited magazine, sought to avoid having an awards show, thinking that the hullabaloo of such an event would overshadow the importance of the Business Conference. Despite the fact that he was probably correct regarding where the emphasis should be, the evening of major awards is well-attended. Held at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, the show gives bluegrass glitterati a chance to dress up and celebrate what the membership has voted to be the “best” in a number of categories. If only honorees could observe the rules about how to accept awards, the show would even finish within the three hour time limit it seeks to meet. Nevertheless, the Awards Show is lots of fun, while representing a great opportunity to transition into the final two days of celebration and music called Wide Open Bluegrass.

Probably of more interest to the active membership of IBMA is the luncheon held earlier in the day in a large meeting hall in the Raleigh Convention Center. The Industry Awards celebrate the nuts and bolts of bluegrass, while also highlighting the Distinguished Achievements of important movers and shakers within the industry. The industry awards luncheon is one of the scheduled events of your IBMA Business Conference registration. It also includes performances by featured bluegrass artists. It’s an engaging celebration

of the often lesser recognized but essential roles, while also highlighing emerging people through the Momentum Awards. 

Wide Open Bluegrass: Claims by the City of Raleigh of overall attendance exceeding 250,00 over the five days of World of Bluegrass and Wide Open bluegrass should not allow you to believe that you can’t have a great time during the Wide Open Bluegrass portion, held in three large venues: The Red Hat Amphitheater, The Raleigh Convention Center, and TheStreet Fair running down Fayetteville Street for five blocks from Lenoir Street to Morgan Street, in front of the State Capitol Building.  The city estimates are an agregate number of tourist and business days for the entire week, but, while the streets are crowded, it is not a mob. Rather, a large, family crowd strolls up and down the street, enjoying music at six different stages located on side streets. They can also stroll between the stages enjoying art, clothing, and, especially, North Carolina food specialities along with free samples. There are also food vendors selling a wide range of edibles as well as several beer trucks along the way. In our five years of attending Wide Open Bluegrass, I've never encountered a drunk on the streets.

A Show at the City Plaza Stage

In addition to the open air Street Fair running down Fayetteville Street and including sound stages on several different side streets, all closed to traffic for this Friday and Saturday event, you will find performances, free seminars, and Exhibit Hall to be available in the Raleigh Convention Center. Behind the Convention Center and across the street lies the Red Hat Amphitheater, where live music from some Bluegrass Music's biggest stars is held. This year, a large portion of the Red Hat been opened free to the public. while ticketed premium seats are still available. The huge JumboTron makes viewing possible from a distance, and the sound is superb.

The Red Hat Amphitheater

For fans, Wide Open Bluegrass, filling the final two days of IBMA, is a musical and cultural feast celebrating the music and the regional culture of North Carolina. For musicians, bands chosen for the various stages are now paid for their performances. By the time the last show closes on Saturday night with a fireworks display, those attending will be both exhausted and happily fulfilled.

The entire World of Bluegrass and Wide Open Bluegrass is simply too large to encompass in a single blog. Your willingness to do some serious planning, attend the conference with discipline, and spend some serious time processing the event after its over, making sure you follow up with the contacts you meet there, will assure that you don't need to ask "What has IBMA ever done for me." Rather, it will allow you to learn new strategies, make new contacts, and improve your competitiveness in the difficult world of making bluegrass music work to help you meet your goals. It's all up to you!

Meeting of IBMA Local Organizing Commitee in Raleigh

Yesterday we were honored to be asked to attend a meeting of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) for World of Bluegrass and Wide Open Bluegrass held in the conference room of  Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitor's Bureau in the Bank of America building in downtown Raleigh. As you might imagine, the staffs of the Raleigh Convention Center and the RCVB have been shaken by the legislature's passing of the discriminatory HB2 and its effect upon the business climate in North Carolina generally and the City of Raleigh specifically. 

Local Organizing Committee Chairs

When we travel, we make it a point to listen to local radio (mostly NPR affiliates) and to watch television news. We like to try to gain more than a superficial understanding of the places we visit. On our way north from Florida, we had listened to Governor Nathan Deal's courageous veto speech of similar legislation in Georgia, citing its effect on the growing business community in his state as well as mentioning the progress made in the state in terms of broad non-discrimination. 

When we arrived in North Carolina, we heard a great deal about HB2, its effect on the climate and reputation of the state as well as varying reactions to it. Television news leads almost every evening with the story. Several states have refused to allow people traveling on state funds to come to North Carolina while HB2 stands. Performers like Bruce Springsteen, Ryan Adams, and Ringo Starr have cancelled performances in the State. This questionably promulgated legislation has had a real impact on North Carolina. 

The Shimmer Wall Overlooking the Red Hat Amphitheater

Statement Issued by the Raleigh Convention Center Concerning HB2:

"The Raleigh Convention Center will continue to support all customers and visitors with respect and care regardless of race, color, religion, age, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. This position is in alignment with our city’s policy of nondiscrimination. House Bill 2, recently passed by the North Carolina General Assembly, does not reflect the values of our facility. We are privileged to serve a diverse public who contribute immensely to the strength and vitality of our area. It is of the utmost importance that all attendees feel comfortable in our facility; and our staff will make every reasonable accommodation to ensure our guests feel welcome. Our mission is to provide an outstanding customer experience that assures that the needs of all customers are met."

Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane

The Mayor of Raleigh, Mary McFarlane, a strong supporter of IBMA and bluegrass music, issued the following statement on the City of Raleigh's web site:

“Raleigh is a welcoming, diverse city that draws its strength from many areas. We have always been a place where people respect each other’s differences and understand that those differences make us stronger. We still have many questions as to the effect of HB2 on our City processes. Our legal staff is conducting a careful review and we hope to have more insight as to the bill's impacts in the coming days. And while HB2 may affect some of our legal language, it does not change our hearts.
Raleigh will always be open to everyone. Everyone. We will continue to support all of our businesses, citizens and visitors with the utmost respect, regardless of race, color, religion, age, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

Raleigh is great because our people are great. Together, we have created a place like no other. And nothing about that has changed. We will continue to work together, cherish each other and move forward with dignity and respect."

Laurie Okun - Raleigh Convention Center

William Lewis - Pinecone Executive Director

Meanwhile, we were amazed at the energy, thoughtfulness, hard work, and consideration of the sometimes competing needs of IBMA and the City of Raleigh as they work to prepare for this major event coming up in five months. Laurie Okun, of the Raleigh Convention Center , Loren Gold representing the Greater Raleigh Visitor's Bureau and Convention Bureau (GRCVB), and William Lewis, Executive Director of Pine Cone, a regional arts council, function in lead positions with the support of a dozen committees working to support World of Bluegrass and Wide Open Bluegrass, a partnership between the City and IBMA, run during the last week of September. When you arrive in late September, it will all seem to work in concert, but getting it to that state of affairs requires more work than any attendee can imagine. There are heads of a dozen committees meeting to coordinate activities: Streetfest, Community Activation, Arts Activation, Sponsorship, Finance, Marketing/Branding, Media, Volunteers, Business Development, VIP Care, Technology, and The Bluegrass Ramble. Each of the individuals have oversight of a committee charged with the developing that aspect of the effort. Many of the people in the room were chairs of one or more committees, while serving on several others, too. Liaison between the various elements in Raleigh and IBMA is ongoing and constant.  

Loren Gold - GRCVB

It was clear, throughout the meeting, that those participating were capable, willing, and eager-working to balance the interests of Raleigh with those of IBMA. It should go without saying, that good partners recognize that they are most effective when they work for the mutual benefit of all people involved in the enterprise. Examples of this spirit of cooperation ran deeply through the morning's discussions. For instance, the question of coordinating and strengthening the role of IBMA affiliates at the state and local association level was emphasized several times, in terms of recruiting volunteers and helping to boost IBMA membership. Another example was emphasizing the importance of supporting and fortifying the concerts at the Red Hat Amphitheater, which have replaced IBMA's Fan Fest as the major external fund raiser for the organization.

Wide Open Minds - Produced by The Raleigh Convention Center - Video

Cherryholmes (Reunion Band) at Lorraine's Coffeehouse & Music

Cherryholmes (Reunion Band)

On Friday evening we drove over to Garner, NC to see the reunion show of Cherryholmes, at Lorraine's Coffeehouse & Music, a pleasant, comfortable venue serving up music most nights as well as coffee and light snacks. We arrived at the former pharmacy building that's been well re-purposed to discover that I had left my camera battery in its charger back at the trailer fifteen miles away. All the band pictures in the blog entry, except for the ones I found on Google and the coffee house website, were taken on my Samsung Galaxy G4, so please excuse them.

Lorraine's CoffeeHouse

 
Lorraine Jordan at Her CoffeeHouse

Sellout Crowd on Saturday Night

Jere Cherryholmes & Cia

Cherryholmes story is uniquely bluegrass. Originally from California, the family lost a daughter, Sally Anna, in 1999. Looking for a way to heal and strengthen the shattered family, parents Sandy and Jere, after attending a bluegrass festival with the family, decided that making music together, having a jam, might bring the family closer together. They started playing instruments as part of their home-schooling effort. Within a year they had their first festival date in 2000 the band turned professional and started touring. They soon had attracted enough business to buy a small travel trailer, quickly replaced with a tour bus and finally relocating to Nashville, where they attracted the attention of Ricky Skaggs, who signed them to his label. In 2005, Cherryholmes was the first band to be nominated to be IBMA Emerging Artist and Entertainer in the first year, winning the top award. 

Cia & Skip Cherryholmes

Cherryholmes was nominated for Grammy awards five times, and toured hard until 2011, performing all over the United States as well as in Asia and Europe with their high energy, eclectic performances and well crafted family show. During a chat I had with Sandy Cherryholmes at IBMA's Fan Fest in, probably, 2010 or 2011, she emphasized the family goal of using music, discipline, and love to first heal the family and then mold the youngsters into independent, fully-functioning adults. The culmination of this effort led to a family conference, after which Jere and Sandy retired, as the rest of the children (no longer children) followed their own directions. This has led Cia to Colorado, where she married Stetson Adkisson, with whom she performs as well as touring with fiddle guru Mark O'Connor's band. B.J. Cherryholmes plays fiddle with Dailey & Vincent. Molly, the youngest, after a period in Nashville where she followed her own alternative musical path, has recently joined Mountain Heart. Skip, who lives in Raleigh with his wife Stephanie Dilling Cherryholmes, has become a member of Sideline, a rising band led by former IIIrd Tyme Out emcee and banjo player Steve Dilling. It looks like the Cherryholmes plan is working out just fine. 

Cherryholmes (Reunion Band) - The Harder I Fall - Video

Cherryholmes has been planning for over a year to perform at last weekend's Outer Banks Bluegrass Festival in Manteo, NC, which sadly was cancelled due to a tropical storm forcing the evacuation of Maneo Island. While B.J. and Molly both had Sunday obligations with their bands, the reunion event was moved to Lorraine's Coffeehouse in Garner with young Nathan Aldridge brilliantly filling in on fiddle. A sellout crowd assembled for this fine evening of Cherryholmes music together with a couple of songs by Stetson and Cia. 

Stetson & Cia - Diamonds & Gasoline - Video

Sandy, Cia & Skip Cherryholmes

While Cherryholmes was only active on the blugrass scene for a brief ten years, their record of achievement and influence has been significant. Their music quickly evolved from traditional bluegrass focusing on classic covers to developing a lively style of song drawn from numerous sources, including their own writing, strongly influenced by a Celtic sound. Jere Cherryholmes tough-guy demeanor augmented by his singing both a stunning murder ballad and a humorous song about aging, contrasted sharply with the four active kids moving quickly and performing with virtuoso skill and intense, rapid picking. Cia remains a top banjo player and singer, accomplishing what few much more seasoned players can, picking and singing simultaneously. Their overall show demonstrated to the bluegrass community the importance of liveliness, movement and showmanship as a part of bluegrass. It was truly a delight to be reminded of this fine band's contributions and to look forward to the possibility of future reunion shows. 

Cherryholmes - The Heat of the Morning - Video

Raleigh Saturday - Country and Town

Parking in the Meadow

Race Start

Saturday morning promised a sunny, warm, wonderful day. Ron Raxter, a member of the Local Organizing Committee for IBMA's World of Bluegrass and Treasurer of Pine Cone, The Piedmont Council of Traditional Music, inc., promoter of traditional and roots music in the region and a partner of IBMA in presenting World of Bluegrass, had told us about two events on Saturday, both of which we might enjoy and find interesting. He was right! The Umstead Coalition is a non-profit that supports the Umstead State Park nearby, a park developed on land once too degraded by overuse to support any worthwhile enterprise, and now restored. The Coalition supports a number of activities to raise funds and offer opportunities to maintain and develop the State Park. We went to the 21st Annual Walk-Run-Bike event where The Southern String Band, an old-time string band Ron belongs to, would be providing music. We drove into the nearly filled meadow parking lot just as the bikes were leaving and the runners were lining up to start. Meanwhile, there were displays and activities provided for the spouses and kids not participating.

Face Painting

Raptor Rescue - Horned Owl

Screech Owl

Ready to Feed the Participants

Ron Raxter Arrives

The Southern String

The Southern String Band is a group of nine friends, many professionals in other fields, who have come together to continue the tradition of string band music, an Appalachian offshoot of British dance music which took its own form in the hills and hollers of the mountains in western Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and further south. Popular at dances and on back porches for, perhaps, hundreds of years, the music is dominated by fiddles. String band music stands as one of the important precursers of bluegrass, where it is known as Old-Time.

Southern String Band

The Band 

Wade, Annie, Vickie, Mike

John & Kurt

Charlie & Bob

Ron

We had a good time in a rural setting (with very comfortable, large houses across the street) only a few miles from our campground at the N.C. State Fairgrounds, and perhaps still within the boundaries of the City of Raleigh. From there, with a brief stop at our trailer, we headed down to The Pit, just two blocks away from the Red Hat Amphitheater and a block more from the Raleigh Convention Center and the two IBMA headquarters hotels, the Marriot & the Sheraton.

The North Carolina Cuegrass Festival

at The Pit

 The Pit

We've enjoyed dinner at The Pit a couple of times since we started coming to Raleigh for World of Bluegrass three years ago.It's the restaurant that has proven to us that gourmet and southern cooking are not an oxymoron. Take a look at the menu. For Saturday afternoon The Pit had closed a couple of blocks on Davie Street in front of the restaurant, put out vendor trucks with their own barbecue as well as beer and merchandise, and placed a stage at the foot of the area. We were sad to miss the first band, Hank Sinatra, for its name alone, let alone the music, and arrived just as the second band, the Moore Brothers, a young band who we have been watching for the past four or five years.

The Moore Brothers

We first saw the Moore Brothers in Nashville, participating in Kids on Bluegrass, the youth program associated with IBMA's World of Bluegrass national meeting, now moved to Raleigh. They were young, oh so young, and pretty much unformed, musically. Now, with Jacob, age 17, ready to start participating in the online portions of the Berklee College of Music, and younger brother Isaac (age 12), growing by leaps and bounds as a musician. The third member of the band is their friend, bassman Daniel Perry. They are a fully plugged in Americana band with deep roots in bluegrass. Like so many young bands, it's impossible to predict where they or their music might be heading. Suffice it to say that it's blazing fast, largely tasteful, and varied. Their voices are still in the becoming stage, so it's difficult to tell where that will go, but their musicianship is superb, belying any of that "for their age" stuff. While their parents, Patty and Jeff (both registered dietitians) are very much present, they are so unobtrusive that no-one who didn't know them would know they were attached to what's going on onstage. The kids are busy discovering what their own thing is and making exciting music while they're at it.

Jacob Moore

Isaac Moore

Daniel Perry

 ]

Kids Activities

Painting Piggy Banks

...and Faces

 The Hillbenders

The Hillbenders have been honing their bluegrass chops and extending their understanding of the genre to include songs they themselves have been writing for the past four or five years.Their latest album, is a bluegrass interpretation of the rock opera by the Who, Tommy. Formed in 2008, we first saw them (we think) as a showcase band, and later at both Strawberry Park and Gettysburg bluegrass festivals. We've been impressed since the very beginning by their fine singing, close harmonies, and dazzling instrumental work. The band is based in Springfield, Missouri, and several members studied under Alan Mundy at South Plains College in Texas. Their music is sharp, song-oriented, and cohesive. Their sound...always surprising and energetic. They've worked to find their uniqueness, and succeeded, but always seem to remain within the template of a bluegrass band. This band should be high on the list for Emerging Band of the Year at the IBMA Awards Show this year. 

Nolan Lawrence

Jimmy Rea

Mark Cassidy

Chad Graves

Gary Rea

The beer was flowing, the heat rising, and we were getting tired as the crowd grew increasingly large throughout the afternoon. We decided to head home. Meanwhile, people were having a wonderful time in downtown Raleigh, a town that has taken to bluegrass and its variations with real enthusiasm and gusto. If you haven't sampled the excitement generated here yet, it's time to join IBMA and register for the Business Conference, the Bluegrass Ramble, and Wide Open Bluegrass, coming in September. Hope to see you there. Keep and eye on the IBMA web site and this blog for further information.

Downtown Raleigh

The Sheraton, the Marriott. the Convention Center

and the Red Hat Amphitheater