Danny Wimmer Presents has announced the full lineup for the 2026 edition of Bourbon & Beyond, the world’s largest music and bourbon festival. Held September 24-27 at the Kentucky Expo Center in Louisville, Kentucky, the hugely popular event – which attracted more than 200,000 attendees in 2025 and boasted more than $40 million in local economic impact that year alone – will include headline performances by Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Mumford & Sons, Kacey Musgraves, Chris Stapleton, the Red Clay Strays, Dave Matthews Band, and Hootie & the Blowfish. Passes are on sale now; view the full lineup poster below.
For our eighth consecutive year, BGS will return to Bourbon & Beyond to curate and present the Bluegrass Situation Stage inside the mouthwatering Kroger Big Bourbon Bar tent. Over four days, Thursday to Sunday, the BGS Stage will include performances by some of the most exciting and buzzworthy bands in bluegrass, Americana, jamgrass, and folk. Headlining acts on our stage will include mandolinist and GRAMMY nominee Sierra Hull, psychedelic jamgrassers Kitchen Dwellers, our current February Artist of the Monththe Infamous Stringdusters, and the expansive sonic universe of Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country. Other performers on the BGS Stage include Wood Box Heroes, Magoo, Shelby Means, Rainbow Girls, Meels, Caleb & Reeb, and many more. See our full BGS Stage lineup below.
Though we tend to stay close to our own stage during Bourbon & Beyond – we’re partial, what can we say! – each year the DWP team does an excellent job of spreading roots music, country, bluegrass, and Americana across the event’s five stages. This year, we’re excited to catch performances by so many of the artists and musicians included on the lineup, from Charley Crockett, the Red Clay Strays, Mumford & Sons, and Kacey Musgraves to Langhorne Slim, Maoli, Paula Cole, Kaitlin Butts, Clover County, S.G. Goodman, the Devil Makes Three, Palmyra, Amos Lee, Max McNown, and many more. Plus, we’ll be sure to catch Kentuckian viral sensations the Creekers while on-site.
Music isn’t the only draw, of course, as bourbon, food, and fellowship are equally tempting alongside the superlative roster of bands and artists. Hundreds of bourbon labels from dozens of distilleries will be on sale or available for tastings as well as impeccable food by local chefs and celebrity culinary personalities. Catch cooking and beverage demonstrations at the Fork & Flask stage curated by Kroger or enjoy bourbon panels and workshops at the Bourbon Experience. Our team, partial to tiki vibes and tiki drinks, will be sure to stop by the Jim Beam Black Tiki Barrel Bar over the course of the weekend, as well.
BGS has been proud to partner with Bourbon & Beyond and Danny Wimmer Presents ever since the festival’s very first iteration more than eight years ago. We are so excited to return to Louisville to celebrate bluegrass, roots music, bourbon – and beyond! – with you all in 2026. Buy your passes now and check out our full BGS Stage lineup below. We’ll see you at the Big Bourbon Bar in September.
The 2026 Bourbon & Beyond Bluegrass Situation Stage Lineup
Thursday, September 24
Wood Box Heroes Mason Via Magoo Sierra Hull
Friday, September 25
Fireside Collective Rainbow Girls Shelby Means Kitchen Dwellers
Saturday, September 26
The Fretliners Meels The Infamous Stringdusters
Sunday, September 27
Vickie Vaughn Band Caleb & Reeb The Steel Wheels Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country
All artwork courtesy of Bourbon & Beyond and Danny Wimmer Presents.
Since their inception in 2021, Clay Street Unit has quickly risen into the national spotlight. The rollicking Americana string band is garnering the frequent tag of “must-see” by their rapidly growing fanbase.
Formed in Denver, Colorado, the sextet is unique in sight and in sound. With a foundation soaked in bluegrass, the ensemble also includes a drummer and a pedal steel player – which often kicks the act into the realms of indie folk and honky-tonk. Ultimately, this lends them to a wildin’ out scene when placed in a packed room of fans and the curious alike, something that has become commonplace as of late.
It’s at this exact juncture – of deeply held dreams and aspirations coming to fruition – that Clay Street Unit will finally release their debut album, Sin & Squalor (out February 13 via Leo33). The 11-song LP is a perfect introduction to this band of melodic pirates as they currently navigate the high seas of the music industry. The record not only captures the essence of the outfit, it’s also impressive in nature, showcasing the vibrant energy of the group’s live show via the studio.
Produced by the Infamous Stringdusters’ Chris Pandolfi, Sin & Squalor is a sonic roadmap to the here and now of where jamgrass stands in the modern era. With members of Clay Street Unit hailing from a variety of places in the U.S. (Alabama, Virginia, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois), their multilayered influences lead to traditional acoustic aspects mirrored by modern sounds. Each texture a product of the unique environments from which these musicians proudly emerged.
Catching up with mandolinist Scottie Bolin and guitarist Sam Walker, the duo spoke at length with BGS about the group’s origin, how their sound came to be, and what’s in store for Clay Street Unit. The road seems to be wide open as this troupe has created quite a buzz, coast to coast, coming into 2026.
I was kind of curious about how 2025 wrapped up for y’all.
Sam Walker: I think 2025 was probably the most important year we’ve had yet. It was a huge year for us, as far as crossing off a bunch of big local goals and national goals. We got to play Red Rocks with some of our heroes and buddies, Leftover Salmon and Kitchen Dwellers. We got to play [our] biggest hometown show in Denver at the Ogden Theatre, and had the privilege of selling that place out and playing with our good buddies, Andy Hall and Chris Pandolfi from the Stringdusters. And then, we signed our record deal [with Leo33] and got to plan the rollout for this record and finally get it released.
I would surmise last year will really be setting the pace for 2026, justifying all the blood, sweat, and tears going into this.
Scottie Bolin: Yeah, absolutely. A ton of work went into making the album and getting the songs where you wanted them to be. And finally getting to tour a bunch last year has been really rewarding, getting to play these songs to live crowds and really hitting the road hard.
You guys have had a pretty fast trajectory for five years together. And I was wondering about the background of how the band formed and the timeline of how it all came together.
SW: Our former banjo player, Jack Klein, and I met one night at a brewery in Denver, a couple blocks from Clay Street and the house I was living in at the time. I played some guitar, picked tunes all night at my house, and ended up booking a gig over at that same brewery. It all happened really organically. We weren’t really trying to start a band. It just felt like the right people, right place, right time to try to get something going. We ended up meeting our former drummer and bass player, and then everything kind of picked up steam a little bit quicker than we thought.
We were playing The Patio [at Sloan’s], then [Cervantes’] Other Side, then the [Cervantes Masterpiece] Ballroom. People kept buying tickets, listening, and supporting the music. As things grew, some people weren’t really dedicated to being lifelong musicians in the band. I ended up going on tour and playing with Colorado [jamgrass] band Morsel that our bass player [Jack Kotarba] and Scottie had started. We all became really close buddies over that tour. And things kind of naturally shifted in a different direction for some members. We all kind of crossed paths at the right time.
SB: At the end of the day, we were all just kind of playing music with various groups and side projects in Denver, playing a lot of bluegrass. And things just clicked. Everyone got along really well. The band, at its core, is a group of good friends. And it just snowballed and grew from there.
SW: I moved out here to Colorado eight or nine years ago. And we had this big 4,000-square-foot party house. There were four or five guys living in it at any given time. It was just where everyone would kind of come through and hang, and we would play music all night. It felt like a revolving door of people in there. That house was kind of where everything started.
We got the band going and rehearsed. It felt like the origin of the band. We were listening to a ton of Tony Rice at the time. I kind of came into bluegrass the long way. I didn’t grow up being a huge disciple or anything like that. But, obviously, moving out to Colorado, I got a class in bluegrass culture pretty quick. We were just obsessed with that Tony Rice record, Manzanita.
Was playing in a band something you each wanted to do or is it just the way everything unfolded?
SB: I’m from Charlottesville, Virginia. I started [playing] in college [at the University of Colorado Boulder with] Morsel. We tried to make a go of it. We did a couple tours. [But], the touring lifestyle is hard and takes full dedication from the whole group. Some of the guys [in Morsel] didn’t wanna do that. So, I stepped away from that. Luckily, right around that time, I met Sam and all the Clay Street guys.
SW: I grew up down south in Montgomery, Alabama. I kind of came into it the opposite way. I played in a Widespread Panic/Grateful Dead cover band in college and just sang. Then, I moved out to Colorado and picked up the guitar. I’d always sang and written a few songs and loved live music. But, I really kind of fell into it. It wasn’t something necessarily in my early twenties I expected to be doing for a living.
All the dominoes fell in the right places and I was around the right people that gave me a lot of confidence to push the boundaries of what I was comfortable with. Playing in some side bluegrass bands around town really helped me feel more comfortable about being a part of the Denver music scene. Everything happened step by step. I wasn’t really trying to make it a career, but a few years later, it felt like something that made sense – to take the leap and try to push it as far as we can.
Your band is a huge melting pot of sound. Is that by design or just how it all just came together?
SW: I feel like it’s a little bit of both. We definitely didn’t set out or want to be a traditional bluegrass band. Obviously, when we added the drums and pedal steel and electric bass that decision was kind of made for us. It’s kind of a melting pot of everything we listen to and the music we like.
When Scottie and I go to write a song, we don’t think, “This is a bluegrass tune,” “This is a folk tune,” “This has an indie feel.” We let the music and everybody’s kind of flavor and influence on how the song’s going to sound. We don’t really try to have those guardrails of how it needs to sound or what vibe it needs to be.
When I was listening to the album, I kept thinking how I really want to see you guys live. And I think that’s a real testament to the band, to have that kind of sound radiating out of an album that encourages you to go to the live show, which I think is probably the endgame for you.
SW: Absolutely. At the core of our band, we’re a live band. It’s where we really shine through, and you can just feel the energy up there. We always try to say, “There are only so many Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights,” and we want to elevate that and bring the energy and the emotion and let [the audience] loose – life’s too short to not go out and enjoy live music. We want to make sure at every show we’re bringing that to the table, our full attention to the energy and making sure that everyone’s having as good a time as they can.
Is there any kind of ethos behind the title of the album?
SW: It’s our origin story. [When we started], we didn’t know how to do it or if we were doing it right, and we weren’t doing it with much, just trying to put it together piece by piece. It sounds a little heavy, but it’s more about the beauty of humanity, the nature of [life] we have all been through, and it’s a commonality of everybody. It’s the nature of our music and string instrument music – music that has a little more “down in the holler” feel. It all felt aligned with what we were trying to get out for the first record.
Why was Chris Pandolfi the guy you wanted to produce this?
SB: I had the opportunity to work with Chris before with Morsel, which was a little bit more of an electric rock jam with some bluegrass elements in there. He produced a few albums for [Morsel]. So, I knew what it was like to work with him. I knew that he was just a musical genius and the right guy for setting the vibe and making sure we were comfortable in the studio.
[Chris was] coming in with great arrangement ideas for our band, specifically, and being a great mentor all-around. [Clay Street Unit] actually had the pleasure of being his wedding band this last summer, which was awesome. I feel like the Infamous Stringdusters, Greensky Bluegrass, a lot of those Colorado bands, Leftover Salmon, have really kind of set the tone of what is “allowed” in that genre and for pushing the boundaries of what people want to hear. With the Stringdusters, I’ve seen them live for 10-15 years and they’ve really made a mark on the bluegrass scene, the Colorado music scene, and definitely a big impact on us.
You’re currently hitting the five-year mark together. What does that milestone mean to you right now?
SW: The last five years have been so much of a learning curve and going through so many different stages of figuring out who we are and how we want to operate. I feel like now we’re really starting to get a grasp of what we want to do and who we want to be as musicians, as a band, and as people. The last five years were such a blessing and such a great learning experience, but I think we’re just so excited for the next five years of just pushing this thing to the limit and, and trying to, to make the best music we can and, and really just enjoy every step of it together.
SB: It just takes a long time to get a group of people on a mission aligned and I think we’re finally there. Everyone’s on the same wavelength of what we want to get done and what we want to accomplish. We’ve got a really busy year ahead of us, and it’s kind of the culmination of the last five years of hard work that’s been coming to fruition – we’re pretty excited.
Photo Credit: Lead image by Robert Chavers. Alternate image by Tobin Voggesser.
Artist:Kitchen Dwellers Hometown: Bozeman, Montana Song: “Come on in My Kitchen”
In Their Words: “We were lucky to do a one-off show with Lindsay Lou at the Mission Ballroom for the two-night Denver Comes Alive concerts. Lindsay is the kind of artist you can plug into any kind of situation and something beautiful will emerge. It just so happens that we were hanging out before the show and wanted to shoot a quick video in our van that will be taking us all over the West Coast the next couple of weeks. ‘Come on in My Kitchen’ seemed like an appropriate choice and happened on the spot. We both have an affinity for the traditional, and the not so traditional, which has made every collaboration up until this point super spontaneous and fun. That kind of thing just happens when Lindsay is in the mix. If Denver was any indication, our tour together is sure to have lots of surprises and great moments.” — Max Davies, Kitchen Dwellers
Back when cowboys were king, ranchers used to have to make regular pilgrimages across long, winding trails to sell their cattle at stockyards and make their living. One such trail, known as the “Goodnight-Loving Trail,” extended all the way from central Texas to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and has been immortalized many times over in movies and songs. The journey involved with moving these cattle countless miles on horseback was known as a cattle drive. This fall we’ll be hitting the road on the Kitchen Dwellers and Daniel Donato tour, and we’d like to think of it as a bit of our own “Cosmic Cattle Drive.” We hope you enjoy and hope to see you out on the road this fall.
Selections 1-6: Torrin Daniels, Kitchen Dwellers Selections 7-12: Daniel Donato
Colter Wall – “Cowpoke”
One of the oldest and most famous cowboy songs to date, this one tells the story of the life of a ‘cowpoke.’ Colter Wall did a damn fine version here, with each country-western instrument beautifully represented — but what really sells it is the ‘cattle call’ in the chorus.
Daniel Donato – “Justice”
This tune was my introduction to Daniel’s music, way back in the spring of 2020. Nothing screams western psychedelia quite like that opening guitar riff, and right off the bat it shows that these boys are masters of their realm in a place of no space and time. Plus the chorus got that Gangstarr reference.
Gram Parsons – “Return of the Grievous Angel”
Gram Parsons is the father of country-rock and maybe the first person to coin the term “cosmic country.” With references to “truckers, kickers, and cowboy angels” and “lighting out for some desert town” — as far as road songs go, this one’s got it all.
King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard – “Billabong Valley”
“Outlaws on the run, faster than a stolen gun.” KGLW are gurus of many things across the musical spectrum, but above all, they have mastered the dark art of “evil guitar.” That same style of gained up, tremolo-drenched guitar which can be heard across the soundtracks of countless western movies.
Billy Strings – “Heartbeat of America”
As a musician on any road trip, it’s an inevitable fact that you’re eventually gonna start listening to your buddies’ music. Billy and the boys really knocked it outta the park with this one, with instrumental sections that are both bluegrass-laden and psychedelic in nature. We can only hope that once we embark on our journey, we may begin to hear the heartbeat of America out there on the road.
Chris LeDoux – “Horses and Cattle”
Chris Ledoux was sort of a family friend of ours growing up. I was going to his shows long before I was old enough to realize the legend that he was. I honestly don’t know of any other country musicians that can hold both a Grammy nomination AND a Pro-Rodeo Bareback World Championship as accolades. The guy was as western as it gets, and so is his music.
Kitchen Dwellers – “Guilty”
This song is a prime example of how music can be a harmony of light and dark, hard and soft, and reflective and joyful. Emotional content not considered, the arrangement and musicianship The Dwellers play with is inspiring and transcendent.
Jimmy Wakely – “Moon Over Montana”
This song is a transportation device into a Tarantino movie taking place in a spacious and vast unknown Big Sky prairie where the search for the light through the darkness of troubles and sorrow every hero finds on their journey is about to begin.
Waylon Jennings – “T For Texas”
There was a time when country was astonishing in its danger and sensibility of pocket and edge. This live track should satiate any live music experience fix of that special vibe that a listener should have, but in a musical context that is Honky Tonk and Twangy.
Marty Robbins – “Big Iron”
The story is the framework for dark and light, love and sorrow, and life and death. The story that creates the experience that is within this song is pungent and captivating. Also note the fantastic Grady Martin picking the nylon string guitar throughout the song and story.
Khruangbin – “So We Won’t Forget”
There are few things more magnetic than music being made live by a band that understands listening and arrangement, in a format that is easy to access and feel. This song captures a myriad of emotions that feel like nostalgia, joy, and vulnerability.
Little Feat – “New Delhi Freight Train”
Lowell George was a genius in capturing a feeling, and communicating it through his sensibility of arrangement, orchestration, and singing, with these lyrics written by Terry Allen. This song feels like an adventure, like something new is on the horizon, and for all of us, this is the case in this very moment.
Artist:Kitchen Dwellers Hometown: Bozeman, Montana Song: “Wise River” Album:Wise River Release Date: April 29, 2022 Label: Kitchen Dwellers in association with No Coincidence Records
In Their Words: “‘Wise River’ came to me after my friend Brad and I took a summer camping trip over to the Pioneer Mountains in Montana. The juxtaposition of the melancholy of a dried-up mining town wrought with economic hardship that discovered a resurgence due to the boom of the fly fishing and beef industries along the Big Hole River stuck with me. The song came out, ultimately, as an observational piece based upon my interpretation of the fact that the rising Phoenix archetype exists in the form of the histories of many small mountain communities of the American West.” — Shawn Swain, Kitchen Dwellers
Barbaro’s first full-length studio album, Dressed in Roses, stands as a true testament to their musical identity and the sound that has launched one of the Midwest’s most in-demand acoustic acts. In a phone interview with Kyle Shelstad, the Minnesota group’s guitarist and lead singer, BGS discussed the arranging process behind these songs, how the band has grown, and the current state of the Midwest bluegrass scene.
BGS: You’ve released singles and an EP in the past, but tell me a little about this album. What was the impetus for making Dressed in Roses?
Kyle Shelstad: In general, I feel like the album is a good testament to our sound right now, and also to where we’re hoping to go. We recorded this with the unit being together for about a year. Some of the songs Isaac [Sammis, on banjo] and I had for a couple years prior, before Rachel [Calvert, on fiddle and vocals] and Jason [Wells, on bass] joined the band. After they joined the band these songs kind of had a new life and developed their own sounds.
You re-recorded the songs “Barbaro” and “Loathe.” Did that experience shine a light on how you’ve developed as a band in the past few years?
Exactly. While the arrangement was pretty similar, I think the way we play it as a group has definitely changed. So I think our goal in doing that was to pay homage to the sound we have now and the work we’ve been doing on it.
I think this is your most consistent album yet. When the band first came together did you have an idea of what you wanted the sound to be like, or has that organically grown over the years?
It’s definitely organically grown, but I’ve also always had an idea of what I wanted to do. Isaac and I started playing together as just a guitar and banjo duo, and we had to find ways to make that… well, not super annoying. So we tried to focus on texture and arrangements.
I’m glad to hear that you think it has a consistent sound because part of it, for me, I was concerned. It has a lot of different thoughts and ideas thrown at it. In that sense I think this album is a lot about us trying to figure out our sound. Developing it that way.
Some of your songs seamlessly turn from folk ballads to sections of straight-up funk. How much discussion was there in arranging these songs that are so texturally complex?
I think it’s twofold on that. A lot of these songs I come into with an idea of how I want them to progress and where I hear the song going. But adding Jason on the bass throws some of these ideas on their heads, because he had literally never listened to bluegrass before we got him to play with us. He’s done a lot of studying and research on his own to figure out how that sound works, but at the same time that’s not necessarily what he wants to play. There will be times where I’ll say, “Hey dude, maybe you should just play the root note four-on-the-floor,” and he’ll say, “I don’t know, man, I don’t really like that.”
He really brings a different flavor. When I think the song is going one way he’ll take it a completely different direction. I’ll come in with the ideas and the direction of the tune. That main idea and where I want it to go. But sometimes how we get to that point changes because of the players we have, with Rachel and Jason having such a classical background. These songs moving in all these different directions is part of us trying to figure out our sound and how to cohesively bring these ideas that we enjoy together.
Also, I listen to a lot of jazz trios, and while there’s form there, it’s not like it’s verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-out. I guess part of me feels like I can’t write that kind of stuff very well. Or when I do it sounds too corny to me or something. I enjoy that certain jazz music goes somewhere. There’s always a little thing thrown in there to catch your ear or catch you off-guard.
One thing I’ve noticed when seeing you live is that, while you do have these very cerebral arrangements, you have no problems engaging the audience and taking them with you through these songs.
Yeah, that’s our goal and what we’ve always been trying to figure out. How to write a set list that can put forward what we’re trying to accomplish with these songs but also keep people engaged. I think that took us a little while to figure out. Unfortunately we can’t play songs that we want to play all the time. It depends on the crowd and we need to figure out how we’re going to best get these songs across to this crowd or that crowd.
Did you have any epiphanies or learning experiences in the course of making this album?
As far as epiphanies go, I used to play with Kitchen Dwellers, which is a completely different type of music from what I’m playing now, but a lot of it was based on improvisation and free-flowing. So when you bring in people like Jason and Rachel who are very classically-focused — that’s sometimes an uncomfortable place for them to be. That’s something where we’ve figured out how to work together. We can still have some solid structure, but then find opportunities where we can open up and allow the music to flow in whatever direction that might be.
Speaking of different types of music, what was it like working with your producer Adam Gruel? Horseshoes & Hand Grenades [Gruel’s band] is such a different sound from what you play. How did he influence you as a producer?
I’ve known Adam and the Horseshoes guys for a while. I first met them when we were in the Telluride band competition years back, so he’s always been a buddy of mine. He heard that we were recording an album and reached out to let us know that he had done some producing work and would be super interested in working with us.
That was kind of my first thought, too: “The kind of music you do is completely different from what we’re doing.” But I thought about who Adam is as a person and I thought having that type of energy in the studio would really help us out. Sometimes we’ll sit in rehearsal and spend four or five hours on one section of a song and just beat it to death. To the point where we hate each other and we hate the song.
So bringing Adam in there was a good idea because he knows when to move forward and he has this incredible energy and positivity that allowed us to not fall into that dark hole. After two takes he’d be like, “All right, we got it, let’s move on.” I think that really helped us accomplish what we needed to accomplish in the amount of time that we had.
The Midwest is a hidden gem for bluegrass music with bands like yours, Barbaro and Horseshoes & Hand Grenades. What do you wish people knew about the bluegrass scene in the Midwest?
I think there’s a lot of different bands and a lot of people who are passionate about the music. I moved out here because of the scene. I moved to Minneapolis because of Pert Near Sandstone and what they’d done here. I think that knowing there’s a lot of really great music up here and a lot of big music fans.
There are amazing local bands that play really good tunes and bring people out and keep it full at the bar until the end of the night. It’s a lively scene and it’s only growing. One of our goals is to bring more diversity to the scene and open people up to the idea that this music spreads really wide. There’s lots of different ways that this music can be interpreted. We’re just trying to grow and build this scene even more.
In Their Words: “I wrote ‘Driftwood’ after living out of a kayak in Alaska one summer. The trip changed my life in many ways, but one was just appreciating what you have at any given moment in time. Life isn’t perfect and comfortable and sometimes curveballs get thrown your way, but ultimately how you come out the other end is based on your perspective and resilience. We were so fortunate to have Jason Carter add a fiddle track and he did some amazing work. Once we heard it we knew it had to be the last song on the album.” — Max Davies, guitar/vocals
Photo credit: Silky Shots
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