Tag: Billy Strings

ANNOUNCING: The BGS Midnight Jam at MerleFest 2016

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The BGS is very, very pleased to announce that we will, once again, host the Midnight Jam at MerleFest this year. Our popular Saturday after-hours hootenanny gathers many performers from the festival for impromptu artistic collaborations and one-of-a-kind superstar jams that have become legendary in the festival’s history. Artists confirmed to play the BGS Midnight Jam include Donna the Buffalo as the house band, along with Tommy Emmanuel, Peter Rowan, Mipso, Jeff Scroggins & Colorado, Wood & Wire, Billy Strings, Becky Buller, South Carolina Broadcasters, Jim Lauderdale, Lindsay Lou and the Flatbellys, and Joe Smothers. Additional artists may also be added.

“Many years ago, Tony Rice and a few others started the Midnight Jam,” remembers Steve Johnson, Artist Relations Manager at MerleFest. “From there, the Midnight Jam has become a highlight of the MerleFest weekend, bringing together unique configurations and surprising ensembles of musicians gathered at the festival. You never know who may walk out from behind the curtain to take the stage on Saturday night in the Walker Center! And, for 2016, we are extremely excited to have MerleFest fan favorite Donna the Buffalo serving as the host band along with the Bluegrass Situation.”

Here's a little taste of Midnight Jams past:

The BGS Midnight Jam takes place at the Walker Center; a separate ticket is required and available for purchase by four-day ticket holders and Saturday-only ticket holders.  

LIVE AT LUCKY BARN: Billy Strings & Don Julin, ‘Meet Me at the Creek’

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We've teamed up with the good people at Pickathon to present a season's worth of archival — and incredible — videos from the Pacific Northwest festival's Lucky Barn Series. Tune in every fourth Tuesday of the month to catch a new clip.

For the second installment of Live at Lucky Barn from Pickathon 2015, Billy Strings and Don Julin team up to play the hell out of "Meet Me at the Creek." The two spend a good chunk of the eight-minute performance trading licks. After the tune, Strings talks about how he started out playing bluegrass as a kid, but then he got an electric guitar when he was 11 or 12. "I had played bluegrass all my life and I really wanted to play with people my age, so I started playing with friends and people from my school," Strings says, adding, "and they were playing heavy metal and really heavy stuff." Eventually, though he dug back into his roots.

Pickathon comes back to the Pendarvis Farm in Happy Valley, Oregon from August 5-7, 2016. Click here for more, and stay tuned for an exciting season of Lucky Barn videos.

Photo credit: Dylan WanWeelden