Tag: live music

Basic Folk: Matt Smith (Club Passim)

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Matt Smith is a living legend with his unbelievable 30-year run at Club Passim, the historic folk venue nestled in a Harvard Square basement. Currently in the role of Managing Director at Passim, Matt is the most passionate music lover I know. He has used his platform at the club to help establish artists like Lori McKenna, Anaïs Mitchell, Lake Street Dive, and so many more. I met Matt while working as a student at WERS 88.9FM, where he brought fantastic shows to a listening room filled with people who were clamoring for honest music in an intimate space. He’s been a very good friend and mentor to myself and thousands of musicians since he began his tenure at the club in 1995.

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In honor of Matt’s 30th anniversary at Passim, we brought two longtime friends on the pod to talk to him about his role in the Passim community – and beyond. Musicians Edie Carey and Dinty Child join us in conversation with Matt; he shares advice he would give his younger self, we chat about what a vacation without music would look like, and his incredible memory. That memory is tested in our lightning round where he answers Passim trivia (almost 100% correctly). There’s also a discussion about what Matt is most proud of in all his years at the club: the campfire. festival, which takes place every Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends featuring sets in-the-round of mostly unknown new acts. I would imagine if you’re listening to this episode of Basic Folk, you either know Matt or Club Passim. Hello to all our friends and I hope you enjoy this window into one of the best people we’ve ever known: Matt Smith!

Photo Credit: Barry Schneier

ANNOUNCING: Bourbon & Beyond’s 2026 Lineup is Here

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

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 Month the 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.

Watch Sierra Hull Perform
on CBS Saturday Morning

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

On Saturday, December 13, mandolinist and singer-songwriter Sierra Hull brought music from her latest GRAMMY-nominated album, A Tip Toe High Wire, to CBS Saturday Morning for a three-song Saturday Session. With Erik Coveney (bass), Avery Merritt (fiddle), Mark Raudabaguh (drums), and Shaun Richardson (guitar), Hull performed three tunes: “Lord, That’s a Long Way” from A Tip Toe High Wire, which is nominated for Best Instrumental Composition, as well as “Stomping Grounds,” a tune by Béla Fleck and Victor Wooten, and “Movement 3,” a Hull original from an upcoming release. Watch all three numbers right here, on BGS.

Announcing the appearance on social media, Hull pointed out the serendipitous rarity of performing three instrumentals for her Saturday Sessions. “We were originally scheduled to play all three of our GRAMMY-nominated songs – ‘Boom,’ ‘Spitfire,’ & ‘Lord, That’s A Long Way,'” Hull explained on Instagram. “However, by this past Saturday morning, my voice was gone. The worst laryngitis I’ve ever had despite feeling great otherwise! Doctor’s orders was vocal rest and no singing for a few days (which I honestly couldn’t have even had I tried). I was super bummed thinking we’d have to cancel, but my publicist spoke with the show producers and in a very rare exception we are told, they let us come play 3 instrumentals on the show!”

Of course Hull could pull off three engaging and exciting instrumentals. Though of her two prior planned songs, “Boom” is nominated for a GRAMMY for Best Americana Performance and “Spitfire” for Best American Roots Song, the three tunes the group did perform still show the immense depth and breadth of Hull and band’s technical prowess and dynamic range. Plus, each of the selections showcase various creative inputs and outputs for Hull; “Stomping Grounds” isn’t just pulled from the catalog of Hull producer, mentor, and collaborator Fleck, but also from the set lists of her frequent touring colleague Cory Wong. “Movement 3” is a delightful harbinger of musical eras yet to come, a discursive and flowing composition that pulls as much from the Chris Thile school of mandolin as jamgrass, newgrass, and more crunchy roots music climes. “Lord, That’s a Long Way” is one of the tentpoles of the new album, a staple of her live shows over the past year and into the future, surely.

Hull’s appearance on CBS is just the latest in an impressive outlay of accomplishments and accolades in 2025. Not only is she nominated for four awards at the 2026 GRAMMYs – including for Best Bluegrass Album for A Tip Toe High Wire – Hull also appeared with her band on NPR’s Tiny Desk, made our own 2025 Good Country year-end list, announced two of her own signature model Gibson Mandolins, and is currently wrapping up a holiday tour appearing with Béla Fleck & the Flecktones. We’re sure 2026 will hold even more impressive musical moments for Sierra Hull, but in the meantime enjoy these CBS Saturday Morning performances by one of the most talented groups in bluegrass, Americana, and roots music today.

Check out our feature interview on A Tip Toe High Wire from earlier this year here.