$10K for Ten Years: Fundraising for the Health of our Community

We’re celebrating our tenth year here at BGS – April being our birthday month – and in honor of this milestone, we’re raising money for Music Health Alliance, a Nashville-based non-profit with the mission to protect, direct, and connect music industry professionals nationwide with healthcare resources. For our 10th birthday, we’re setting the goal of raising $10,000 for the cause – 10K for 10 years!

Every donation helps in bringing vital assistance to songwriters, artists, and musicians at every stage of their career to find affordable healthcare solutions and financial resources during times of medical crisis.

You can visit this link to donate, and if you’d like to help spread the word about the fundraiser, you can record your own 15-30 second “Happy Birthday, BGS” greeting and tag @thebluegrasssituation and #10kforTenYears on Instagram to help spread the word and help us reach the goal faster.

Thank you for helping to share the good word and raising money for a great cause!

BGS10: For Our Birthday Month, Here Are 10 of Our Most Memorable Videos… So Far

As we celebrate a decade of the Bluegrass Situation, we’ve combed through our archive to reminisce and enjoy some of our favorite moments from the world of roots music. In lieu of our usual Artist of the Month feature, we’ve decided to shine the spotlight on our own musical history. Here are 10 picks that capture the road of how far we’ve come over the last decade…

 

Do You Play the Banjo w/ Della Mae @ MerleFest (2013)

Kimber and Celia of Della Mae wandered the grounds of MerleFest to ask the ever-important question: “Do You Play Banjo?” (Don’t miss a true BGS highlight at 2:30)


Back Porch of America series (2013)

Our first series premiere, The Back Porch of America was like stepping back into history as host Matt Kinman visits with Mark Newberry, a fifth generation chair maker on Jennings Creek, near Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee.


Imogene & Willie Listening Room – Langhorne Slim (2013)

See Langhorne Slim and friends Kristin Weber, Shelby Means, and Kai Welch perform “Countryside Shuffle” at the original Imogene & Willie store in Nashville for The Bluegrass Situation during our first ever AmericanaFest.


Soundcheck – Noam Pikelny (2014)

Soundcheck was a series that sat down with artists before they hit the stage.  In this episode, Noam Pikelny, recipient of the Steve Martin Banjo Prize and founding member of Punch Brothers, hung out with BGS ahead of his Nashville show in support of his 2013 release, Noam Pikelny Plays Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe.


Bonnaroo Superjam Finale – Lake Street Dive, Dierks Bentley, The Avett Brothers, Ed Helms, and More (2014)

The Bluegrass Situation held court for five years on That Stage at Bonnaroo, curating and hosting a lineup of our favorite musicians that culminated in an epic annual Superjam. we’ll always have a fondness for this particular night, when BGS co-founder Ed Helms lead the final number “I’ve Had the Time of My Life” (yes, the one from Dirty Dancing) alongside Rachel Price from Lake Street Dive, The Lone Bellow, Dierks Bentley, Sarah Jarosz, The Avett Brothers, and many many more of our favorite folks.


Live at Telluride – Chris Thile & Edgar Meyer (2014)

Check out that view! BGS & Mason Jar Music scoured the town of Telluride, Colorado to find this perfect beautiful spot for Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile to play “Why Only One?” during Telluride Bluegrass 2014, one of several jaw droopingly gorgeous videos from the series.


Live from Old Settlers Music Festival – The Earls of Leicester  (2016)

It doesn’t get much more legit than The Earls of Leicester, the bluegrass supergroup organized by dobro-master Jerry Douglas. Here, the guys gather round some Ear Trumpet Mics to bring their traditional flair to a modern audience.  One thing is for sure: those bow ties have never been cooler.


AmericanaFest UK – Birds of Chicago (feat. Allison Russell) (2019)

Folk duo Birds of Chicago (aka Allison Rusell and JT Nero) perform “Try a Little Harder” for BGS-UK’s first video series. This heartfelt performance was filmed at Paper Moon Vintage in Hackney, London, during AmericanaFest UK’s 2019 conference by Wonderscope Cinema.


Shout & Shine Online – Lizzie No (2020)

Harpist, songwriter, and Basic Folk co-host Lizzie No recorded the first of our Shout & Shine Online series, which comprises short-form, intimate video performances by underrepresented artists in Americana, folk, blues, and bluegrass.


Whiskey Sour Happy Hour – “The Weight” (Superjam, feat. Ed Helms) (2020)

Presented by our co-founder Ed Helms and the Bluegrass Situation, the superjam finale of the Whiskey Sour Happy Hour series features an all-star cast performing in their homes for a great cause. Thanks to the Americana Music Association, TX Whiskey, and Allbirds for their support in helping us raise over $75,000 towards pandemic relief

BGS Top 50 Moments – Lynn Morris: the National Banjo Champion Who Couldn’t Get an Audition

To honor the start of Women’s History Month, we want to refocus your attention to a profile you might have missed the first time around; that of a true bluegrass icon, Lynn Morris. A prolific banjo player and singer whose illustrious career has included multiple International Bluegrass Music Award wins for Best Female Vocalist and Song of the Year, and an induction into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2021 (alongside Alison Krauss and The Stoneman Family). Lynn was also the first female IBMA Board Member, and continues to be a mentor and supporter of the music, even after health issues took her away from center stage.

What sets this profile apart from the thousands of other features we’ve published is that it had some of the highest engagement we’ve ever seen on the site. Even now, nearly twenty years after her retirement, Lynn’s legacy continues to ripple through our community in big ways.

Bluegrass and roots music is as much about learning from and appreciating that which has come before as it is discovering what’s ahead. And BGS will continue to be a place that highlights that history for generations of future musicians and fans.

To read more about Lynn Morris and countless other female leaders in the genre, check out Murphy Hicks Henry’s Pretty Good for a Girl: Women in Bluegrass.


Photo credit: Rounder Records