Tag: music

2024 BGS Holiday Guide

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! As we count down the days to holiday and family gatherings, our to-do lists stack up, getting longer and longer.

Not sure what to get the musicians, roots artists, and music lovers in your life this year? Never fear! Together with our BGS team, our partners, and our friends and neighbors, we’ve compiled a holiday gift guide that will hopefully put a sizable dent in your shopping list.

Below, check out essential festivals, tried-and-tested gear, superlative instruments, exciting and engaging books and albums, and perfectly on-theme trinkets for all the music obsessed giftees in your life! Maybe your loved one needs a music museum membership? Or perhaps they’re starting up a brand new musical hobby. Know someone who can’t get enough of music and the outdoors? We’ve got ideas for them, too.

The holiday season is the perfect time of year for the love and joy of roots music and we hope, with our 2024 Holiday Guide, you’ll be able to have a cheerful and dreamy December and a delightful new year – with a bumpin’ bluegrass, country, and Americana soundtrack.

For Getting Into the Holiday Spirit

Dust the Halls: An Acoustic Christmas Holiday
(Signed, only 25 available) – $35.99

The Infamous Stringdusters have announced a new color variant for Dust the Halls: An Acoustic Christmas Holiday, releasing on vinyl via Americana Vibes. This is the eighth studio album from the GRAMMY-winning band, who put their signature acoustic bluegrass twist on timeless holiday classics. Recorded remotely during the 2020 pandemic, the record showcases the Stringdusters’ unmatched ability to collaborate from afar, weaving together intricate arrangements and harmonies that make each track sparkle with warmth and cheer.

PURCHASE HERE | STREAM HERE

Musical Instrument Museum Holiday Ornaments – $12 & up

Our friends at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, have the most adorable and festive collection of instrument and music-themed holiday ornaments available at their museum gift shop and online. Choose from treble clefs, banjos, violins, bongos, bagpipes, acoustic guitars – with and without cutaways! – and so much more. Maybe throw in a MIM membership as well, to receive 20% off most purchases. Anddd because this is a museum with a mission worth supporting, as they highlight all musical genres and traditions, from classical to bluegrass, folk, Americana, and beyond.

PURCHASE HERE

For Starting Up a Brand New Hobby

Deering Goodtime Deco Banjo – $579 & up

Unwrap the gift of music this holiday season: Save 10% on Deering Goodtime Deco Banjos! Looking for the perfect present for the aspiring musician on your list? Look no further than Deering Goodtime Deco Banjos. Our Goodtime banjos are the #1 choice of banjo teachers for beginners! Use this special BGS discount code below to save 10%.

More than just a beginner’s instrument, the Goodtime banjo is crafted with high-quality materials and American-made construction, ensuring it will last for years to come. Plus, its light weight makes it ideal for travel, jam sessions, and impromptu gatherings – perfect for creating lasting musical memories together.

Use this discount code to save 10% on Goodtime Deco banjos! BGS24HOLIDAYBANJO10 (Offer valid 11/29/24 to 12/31/24)

PURCHASE HERE

Peghead Nation Lessons

Peghead Nation is celebrating its 10th Anniversary of teaching the world to play bluegrass, old-time, swing, Irish music, and other roots music styles – and we’re just getting started! With 75 streaming video courses and live workshops taught by the best instructors and players in the acoustic music community, you can learn guitar, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, Dobro, ukulele, bass, and voice, no matter where you are in your musical journey.

Join us in any course now and get your first month free with the promo code BGS10. Or, save on gift subscriptions for your musical friends and family members. We can’t wait to hear the music you’ll make!

PURCHASE HERE

On Banjo: Recollections, Licks, and Solos
by Ben Eldridge with Randy Barnett – $39.95

Just getting started on banjo? You picked the correct new hobby. Now you can select the perfect instruction book to get you up to speed. The late Ben Eldridge, a legendary five-string banjo innovator, combines memoir, instruction, tablature, and more in his excellent book, On Banjo – written with Randy Barnett and featuring a forward by Béla Fleck. It’s a perfect compendium for beginners and veterans alike, filled with stories, memories, and plenty of Eldridge’s idiosyncratic and mind-bending licks and solos. Build your banjo picking on a solid foundation with this book!

PURCHASE HERE

For Professional Touring Musicians

D’Addario Cradle Capo – $72.99

With its stainless steel, self-centering design, D’Addario’s Cradle Capo ensures even tension across the fretboard. Its adjustable micrometer lets you dial in the perfect pressure, while allowing the freedom for quick transitions and the ability to stay on the guitar, even when not in use.

Order one for yourself or surprise a friend this holiday season with the perfect gift for every bluegrass guitarist!

PURCHASE HERE

Preston Thompson Guitars Brazilian Dreadnought 

Noted for their power and immediate, responsive voice, Preston Thompson Guitars pay tribute to the best American-made instruments from the 1930s. Master guitar luthier Preston Thompson started with a small team of highly skilled craftsman to produce custom acoustic guitars that have the look, playing feel, and above all, the sound of the best instruments from that original golden era of guitar making.

Thompson Guitars are built strong and light with time-tested designs and construction methods, providing a lifetime of enjoyment. Our instruments are handmade every step of the way, from the finest woods available.

Check on their website for possible ready to ship models available – a rarity for this custom shop! BGS readers can receive an exclusive 10% discount on all custom orders placed before January 31, 2025 using the code THOMPSON10.

PURCHASE HERE

Audigo Wireless Mic – $219 & up

Audigo’s wireless, social media- and content capture-ready mics are seemingly everywhere these days. And for good reason! With their easy-to-use app, you can record multi-track audio and video at the highest qualities, recording from multiple Audigo mics simultaneously to one iPhone.

Audigo makes the kind of rapid content creation necessary for all levels of artists and bands at this point in time infinitely easier and strikingly seamless. Ready to make the plunge into vertical video content? Ready to shoot your own music videos? With Audigo, you can. And you won’t have to sacrifice quality.

PURCHASE HERE

Loop Earplugs – $19.96 & up

Acoustic and roots musicians know that your hearing is worth protecting! Keep your own ears – or those of your professional touring loved one – cared for over the long haul with a pair of Loop Earplugs. Stylish and functional with a futuristic look, Loop Earplugs have received glowing reviews from consumer outlets like NYT‘s Wirecutter and offer a range of options, features, and styles. Whether you’re a casual concert goer or you spend each night on stage camped out in front of a drum kit, Loop has earplugs for you.

Take care of your ears now, so you never miss a single pluck or twang of your jam sessions down the line.

PURCHASE HERE

Yamaha Guitars FS9 M – $3,999.99

Handcrafted in Japan, the FS9 M concert-style acoustic guitar offers extraordinary projection and produces an open, clean sound with mid-focused warm tones at any volume — ideal for singer-songwriters who play subtle arpeggios or fingerstyle.

The FS9 M features an Adirondack spruce top, “modified V” bolt-on neck, scalloped Adirondack X bracing pattern, 25-inch scale, African mahogany back/sides, and a beautiful, gloss nitrocellulose finish. Traditional Japanese details include a washi paper label, rope purfling and inlay on the rosette, and Kumiki woodworking-inspired fret markers.

PURCHASE HERE

Calton Cases

Calton Cases set the standard for professional, flight-ready, peace-of-mind instrument cases – for all kinds of players, genres, and styles. We love the wide range of colors – especially the glitter options! – and options, and that you can secure your precious axes no matter what you play or travel with. From gear and electric guitars to mandocellos and bouzoukis, professional touring musicians can rest easy whether there’s space in the overhead bins or not.

If you have a professional touring musician in your life, ease their travel anxiety this holiday season with a superlative Calton Case.

PURCHASE HERE

For the Music Lover Who Has Everything

Oxford Pennant

Officially licensed handmade flags by Oxford Pennant in Buffalo, New York! John Prine, Willie Nelson, Jason Isbell, Turnpike Troubadours and many more artist collaborations available here.

We’ve loved every time we’ve gotten to collaborate with Oxford Pennant over the years and we can’t recommend their fine work highly enough. From the stages of Newport Folk Festival to our own closets, mantelpieces, and walls, Oxford Pennant fits just about everywhere – especially wrapped up with ribbons and bows for the music lover in your life who already has everything!

PURCHASE HERE

Earl Scruggs Music Festival – $150 & up

We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: No one is producing bluegrass festivals like the Earl Scruggs Music Festival in Mill Spring, North Carolina. We’ve partnered with the event each year since its debut in 2022 and they continue to raise the bar for roots music festivals year over year. Held at the luxurious grounds of the Tryon International Equestrian Center in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, ESMF is just minutes away from where Scruggs himself grew up and established his unique playing style. Scruggs’ surviving family members play a big role in the festival, too, which is a partnership between the Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby, NC, the Equestrian Center, and WNCW.

We can’t wait to return to ESMF in 2025 for another weekend of bluegrass, country, Americana, and more – with amazing food, beautiful views, and gorgeous, well-maintained grounds. From tent camping to tiny-cabin glamping, from food truck barbeque to gourmet, wood-fired Italian food, from Twisted Pine to Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives, Earl Scruggs Music Festival has something for everyone.

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Taylor Rushing x BGS Mercantile Graphic Tee Collab – $32

We are so excited to launch a brand new merch collab on the BGS Mercantile featuring art and design by the one and only Taylor Rushing of NOT BAD Illustration. We’ve gotta say, these designs are not bad!

Our two brand new, exclusive additions to the BGS Mercantile feature bespoke designs by Rushing that celebrate the launch of our new vertical and email newsletter, Good Country. Wear your love for good country music of all varieties on your sleeve– er, or on your chest. We love these timeless, simple illustrations printed on cozy, comfortable tees. Pre-order now for holiday delivery and be one of the very first BGS fans to own the new, limited edition designs. All while testifying your commitment to Good Country and NOT BAD country.

PURCHASE HERE

Music Museum Memberships – $60 & up

Okay, so you have a music lover in your life that already has everything? Why not gift them a membership to two first-class music museums in Nashville, Tennessee? The next time they visit Music City, they’ll have the inside access of a true local.

We can’t recommend the National Museum of African American Music ($60 for an annual individual membership) and the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum ($65 for an annual individual membership) highly enough! These two incredible institutions – who often collaborate and co-produce programming and events – tell detailed, thoughtful, and nuanced stories central to Nashville, and to country, pop, and African American musics. Between the two, you can gain an incredibly holistic viewpoint of American popular music and the many threads woven throughout its traditions.

With a gift of a museum membership, you’re giving something that will keep on giving. Knowledge, expertise, insight, culture, community, and so much more come hand-in-hand with a membership to each of these fine institutions.

Plus, the Country Music Hall of Fame is currently running a special membership discount! Between November 4 and January 2, the museum is offering new members will get $5 off Troubadour Individual and individual-level memberships and $10 off Troubadour Dual and family-level memberships! Now’s your chance to save a bit of money and support the museum’s mission, too.

PURCHASE NMAAM MEMBERSHIP HERE | PURCHASE CMHOF MEMBERSHIP HERE

White Limozeen by Steacy Easton – $10.46

New this year from BGS contributor, freelance writer, and author Steacy Easton, White Limozeen is part of the essential and exhaustive 33 1/3 series from Bloomsbury. Easton is the perfect thinker to take on Dolly Parton’s White Limozeen, an album that joined her catalog at a critical juncture in her career. The book is certainly well-timed, releasing at a time when Parton’s current career continues to raise the ceiling time and time again for her own success, while reaching points of ubiquity and mainstream recognition she may have never considered possible – certainly not at the time of White Limozeen‘s making.

The book is an easy (while dense and informed) read that examines canon, mythos, the construction of image and self, and so much more. Pick it up now for a perfect holiday gift for the Parton acolyte or new initiate on your list.

PURCHASE HERE

Keep your eye out for our full 2024 music books guide coming to BGS soon, too!

For the Outdoor Festival Enthusiast

WinterWonderGrass – $249 & up

WinterWonderGrass enters its 12th year in Colorado, remaining true to the deep community it has built while celebrating the music and connections that bring us all together. In a world where many small, independent festivals have disappeared, this festival is committed to honoring bluegrass legends while embracing fresh new talent and filling their community’s cup.

WinterWonderGrass is part music festival, part beer festival, and part family reunion. The event boasts four stages, three of which are under huge heated tents, a robust kid’s zone, local food trucks, a VIP area, and a coffee bar. Plus, two hours of free beer, wine, spirits, and non-alcoholic tastings from 2:00 – 4:00 pm daily.

Join the festival in Steamboat Springs from February 28 to March 2, 2025! This year’s lineup features an incredible array of artists, including Trampled by Turtles, The California Honeydrops, Kitchen Dwellers, Leftover Salmon, Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country, Sam Bush Band, Yonder Mountain String Band, The Brothers Comatose, Lindsay Lou, Mountain Grass Unit, and more

Enter the WinterWonderGrass holiday giveaway for a chance to win WWG VIP tickets, ski passes, Mountain Top Dinner passes, tickets to all late nights, and more! Enter to win here.

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Camp Snap Screen-Free Digital Camera – $59.99 & up

An essential accessory we bring along to nearly every music festival, conference, and event we attend, Camp Snap’s screen-free film-style digital cameras bring back joy and mystique to point-and-shooting. Don’t take our word for it, either, you can check out our Camp Snap shots from our cruise with Cayamo earlier this year.

If you’re stumped brainstorming gift ideas for the music lover who already has each and every thing you can imagine, why not get them a Camp Snap? The photos are charming, high quality, with plenty of personality. And they bring back some intention and deliberation to the usual social media grind. It’s like a disposable camera, but not! Like shooting Polaroids, but with an exciting period of suspense and anticipation. With sync capabilities via USB-C or SD card, it’s a breeze to use. Bring Camp Snap to your next festival or show!

PURCHASE HERE

Kelty Packs – $19.95 & up

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Kelty (@keltyusa)

When you go to as many festivals, concerts, and music events as we do – or as the average outdoor festival enthusiast – you daydream a lot about the perfect pack. We happen to love Kelty, and their fabulous array of fanny packs, belt bags, backpacks, and beyond. From arduous and involved backpacking trips to quick jaunts to the farmers’ market, Kelty has something for every application.

We know our Kelty Packs would be right at home at WinterWonderGrass or Earl Scruggs Music Festival, both. They’re perfect for a carry-on bag, too! Plus, don’t miss their selection of tents, sleeping bags, camp chairs, and more to finish outfitting your festival campsite.

PURCHASE HERE

This content brought to you in partnership with BGS sponsors Americana Vibes, Yamaha Guitars, Deering Banjos, Thompson Guitars, D’Addario, WinterWonderGrass, Earl Scruggs Music Festival, Peghead Nation, and Oxford Pennant.

Reba’s Best On-Screen Moments

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

With her signature red hair and easy smile, Reba McEntire has maintained her gilded perch in the hearts of music fans for decades. In fact, 2024 marks the 50-year anniversary of her launch into stardom. The multi-hyphenate talent grew up singing in three-part harmony with her siblings as the local treasures of their small Oklahoma town. When Reba enrolled at Southeastern Oklahoma State University to pursue becoming a schoolteacher, she continued to perform locally on occasion. Serendipitously, her delivery of “The Star Spangled Banner” at the 1974 National Finals Rodeo caught the attention of country artist Red Steagall, who shepherded her through the kindlings of her musical career in Nashville.

(L-R) Rex Linn as Emmett, Reba McEntire as Bobbie on Happy’s Place, “Fish Fry Monday,” Episode 104. Photo by Casey Durkin/NBC.

After over a decade of soaring success in country music, Reba took her first strut across the silver screen in 1990. The monster movie Tremors was just the first of the star’s rolling list of Hollywood credits. Immediately, Reba ignited a second love and poured herself into building up an acting career.

From her famous self-titled sitcom to serving as a recurring judge on The Voice, Reba’s icon status endures the test of time. For decades, she has masterfully committed to the balancing act of maintaining both her singing and acting endeavors.

Her most recent feat saw her return to the sitcom stage with the launch of her new show Happy’s Place (NBC / Peacock) in October. To honor this beloved country diva’s ever-thriving legacy, we’ve compiled a short list of our favorite on-screen Reba moments.

Tremors (1990)

A canon event for ’90s media, Reba started out strong with Tremors as her inaugural film role. This monster-studded Western cult classic is lauded for its apt casting and ’50s-esque creature feature vibes. Alongside Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, and Michael Gross, Reba stars as “Heather Gummer,” a woman living in the small desert town of Perfection, Nevada. When Heather and her neighbors find themselves under attack by formidable, underground, carnivorous creatures known as “Graboids,” they must strategically wield their wit and weapons in order to survive.

While many struggle to transition between creative mediums, Reba’s first film appearance earned her the adoration of many. Her charisma and comedic timing accentuate the film’s charm, cementing her status as a versatile star capable of straddling the worlds of both music and acting alike.

Reba (2001 to 2007)

Few have the charisma and mass appeal to headline a sitcom titled in their own name. Even fewer have the charisma and mass appeal to do so for six successful seasons! Reba, the eponymous American sitcom, was a pillar of 2000s TV, running from 2001-2007. For five of its seasons, the feel-good show aired on Friday nights ranked 4th in its time slot, often with over 4 million viewers per episode.

The show follows “Reba Harte,” a middle-aged Houstonian woman whose life is torn asunder by discovery of her husband’s affair with his consequently pregnant dental hygienist mistress. Simultaneously, Reba’s own 17-year-old daughter becomes pregnant, and Reba must flex and pivot with all of her might in order to support her children.

Though the final episode of Reba aired well over a decade ago, the 2020s witnessed a resurgence of the show’s iconic theme song through a viral trend on TikTok. “I’m a Survivor,” performed by Reba and written by Shelby Kennedy and Phillip White, became an ironic anthem perfect for dramatizing even the most mundane of inconveniences.

Happy’s Place (2024)

The Queen of Country returned to her sitcom throne again this fall when the first episode of Happy’s Place aired on October 18, 2024. Similarly to her self-titled show, Happy’s Place centers around a woman whose life has been jostled by the discovery of previously unknown, kept-secret family members. In the case of Happy’s Place, Reba portrays Bobbie, a spunky Tennesseean who has been running her late father’s bar – the titular Happy’s Place – since his death several years earlier.

Much to her chagrin, Bobbie is dumbfounded by the news that she must share ownership of the bar with her newly-acquainted half-sister Isabella, the child of her father’s illicit affair. While reckoning with her father’s infidelity and forming a relationship with a sister decades her junior, Reba delivers a performance both comedic and heartwarming. The first season will be six episodes in total and it can be streamed on NBC (Fridays at 8PM ET) or on Peacock the day after airing.

Doing Push-Ups on The Voice (2024)

@reba Push-ups and inspirational quotes…we’re working more than just our vocal cords at #TheVoice ♬ original sound – Reba McEntire

Having made her debut on The Voice during its premiere season as a “Battle Advisor” to Blake Shelton’s team, Reba’s presence has been peppered throughout the show across its entire duration. During Season 24, Reba replaced Shelton as a coach, a position she maintains to this day.

Currently in the midst of its 26th season, Reba has dazzled viewers countless times, but this moment is our favorite. Just a few weeks ago, Gwen Stefani blocked Reba (a tactic judges use to prevent another coach from adding a singer to their own team during blind auditions). In a coy ploy at diverting attention from her made-for-TV snakery, Stefani drapes her body over the “BLOCKED” graphic and begins to do push-ups. As if the moment wasn’t iconic enough, Reba pushes the scene into absurdity when she follows suit, launching into a push-up routine in perfect form, putting Stefani to shame. Reba’s feat begs the question–should she pursue a third career in athletics?

Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021)

This uncommon comedy follows the journey of two oddly antiquated 30-somethings Star and Barb (played by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo) as they leave their Nevada home for the first time to venture out on a Florida vacation. The two ultimately must disentangle themselves from an evil woman’s plot to wreak havoc in the fictional Florida town.

The offbeat film’s charm is only augmented by a cameo from Reba, who graces the set as “Trish,” the embodiment of Star and Barb’s playful ideations and daydreams. Trish emerges as a water spirit to guide the two lifelong friends with her wisdom and encouragement – a role Reba, with her natural charm and benevolence, portrays with ease.

Malibu Country (2012)

With “don’t reinvent the wheel” seemingly as their ethos, the visionaries behind Malibu Country did not stray far off the beaten path. In this project, Reba returned to the world of sitcoms in 2012 to depict the role of Reba MacKenzie. Reba’s country star husband has been caught (yep, you guessed it) cheating on her and she must upheave her life. She and her two children move to her ex-husband’s property in Malibu where they start life anew and Reba decides to recommit to the music career she had abandoned in order to start her family. The show only ran for one 18-episode season in 2012/2013, but it did garner a fairly hefty viewership during its short life.

Young Sheldon (2019 to 2022)

In this Big Bang Theory spinoff, Reba guest stars as a hair stylist named June, appearing in a total of six episodes throughout seasons 3-5. June is the eccentric ex-wife of Coach Dale, the new boyfriend of Meemaw, Sheldon’s grandmother. As ever, Reba delights the show with her comedic timing and warm approach; her presence doubly adored given that Young Sheldon brought her and Annie Potts, both beloved Southern talents, onto the same screen.

She even pulled off the gaffe of a career in one scene where she sings karaoke… poorly. In addition to stealing the audience’s heart, Reba also met her current partner, Rex Linn, while filming.

Reba has proven time and time again her status as national treasure. Though just a snapshot of the legend’s perpetually blossoming career, this list demonstrates just how impactful Reba’s life as an actress has been – astonishingly while also maintaining her official title as Queen of Country, recording and releasing albums, co-headlining a residency in Las Vegas, and much more.

At 69 years old and still yet to peak, we look forward to all the Reba roles, songs, and iconicity to come.

Photo Credit: Both photos by Casey Durkin/NBC.
Lead Image: (L-R) Belissa Escobedo as Isabella, Reba McEntire as Bobbie on Happy’s Place, “Ladies Night,” Episode 107.

Photographer Mario Alcauter’s Beautiful Portraits From Park City Song Summit

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

In August earlier this year, BGS was on hand for the latest edition of Park City Song Summit in Park City, Utah. An intentional and unique event focusing on songwriting, songcraft, singer-songwriters, and more – like mental health, community, wellness, and thought leadership from a musical and artistic perspective – PCSS is a premier event. It’s certainly one-of-a-kind, and in so many ways.

This year, the lineup included artists like Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Mavis Staples, Larkin Poe, Tank and the Bangas, Steve Poltz, Duane Betts, and many more, as well as programming like song summits, sound baths, and panels, conversations, and dialogues.

Beautiful Park City is the perfect home for such a festival, with stunning natural surroundings, an excellent art scene, incredible food and restaurants, but a relatively cozy and small-town feel.

This year at PCSS, photographer Mario Alcauter shot a series of gorgeous portraits of many artists on the PCSS lineup. For BGS, Alcauter collects a handful of his favorite shots and subjects, sharing his thoughts on each.

Check out the photographs below – featuring artists and songwriters Cimafunk, Primera Linea, Sean Marshall, and Jobi Riccio – and make plans to join us in Utah for Park City Song Summit next year, August 14 to 16, 2025.

Cimafunk

Mario Alcauter: “Channeling Cimafunk’s vibe – bold, soulful, and effortlessly cool, just like those iconic shades. This is something I wanted to capture with the short time I had with him. His music isn’t just sound; it’s a whole aesthetic.”

Primera Linea




Mario Alcauter: “Photographing Primera Linea, I wanted to capture their raw, collective energy – young, grounded, and proud of their AfroCuban roots, fused with New Orleans funk. Each member brings their own style, yet together they stand as a united ‘First Line’ from Havana, ready to share their vibrant sound with the world. This shot shows their casual confidence and the pride they carry as they redefine tradition.”

Sean Marshall

Mario Alcauter: “Shot Sean Marshall by an ice machine – low-key and real, just like his blend of folk, indie, and country. His music is as honest and I wanted to capture that in this environment.”

Jobi Riccio

Mario Alcauter: “Capturing Jobi Riccio – authentic, grounded, and a bit rebellious, just like her music. Her songs weave together folk and Americana with a fresh, honest voice, and this outfit – bold stripes, red boots, and all – perfectly reflects that. I wanted this shot to feel like her sound: down-to-earth yet striking, with a personality all its own.”

Mario Alcauter is a Mexican photographer based in Utah who focuses on combining fashion and documentary-style images.

All photos: Mario Alcauter

BGS Returns to Louisville for Sixth Consecutive Bourbon & Beyond

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

BGS is excited to announce the full lineup and schedule for our Bluegrass Situation Stage at Louisville, Kentucky’s Bourbon & Beyond – for our sixth year in a row! Since 2017, BGS has curated a bluegrass-forward roster for the premier bourbon, food, and music festival’s only music stage outside of their main stages, Oak and Barrel. The 2023 edition of Bourbon & Beyond will be held September 14 through 17 at the Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Expo Center. Tickets are still available.

Each evening of the event, the BGS Stage will culminate with performances by Kelsey Waldon (Thursday), The Lil’ Smokies (Friday), Town Mountain (Saturday) and Dan Tyminski (Sunday). The full schedule includes performances by Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, Lindsay Lou, The Arcadian Wild, Della Mae, Sunny War, Twisted Pine and more. See daily BGS Stage schedules below.

This year, as in the past, there are acts and bands all across the Bourbon & Beyond schedule that feel like they were pulled directly from the pages and stories of BGS. On the Oak and Barrel stage roots music fans can hear artists like Jon Batiste, Billy Strings, Midland, Brandi Carlile, Brittany Howard, Joy Oladokun, Darrell Scott Band, Fantastic Negrito, Hailey Whitters, Brandy Clark, Mavis Staples, the Avett Brothers, Old Crow Medicine Show, and so many more.

But that’s not all! For the foodies and bourbon hounds alike, there will be wall-to-wall culinary demonstrations, bourbon experiences, and more featuring celebrity chefs such as Edward Lee, Amanda Freitag, Chris Santos, Sara Bradley, bourbon expert Fred Minnick, and many others. If you’re curious which Kentucky straight bourbon whiskeys will be available for sipping and guzzling at the Big Bourbon Bar, it’s pretty much every distiller you could ever crave: Angel’s Envy, Bardstown, Brother’s Bond, Bulleit, Doc Swinson’s Whiskey Collection, Elijah Craig, Four Roses, George Dickel, Green River, Heaven’s Door, Jack Daniel’s, Jefferson’s, Kentucky Peerless, Larceny, Legent, Maker’s 46, Michter’s, Middle West Spirits, Monk’s Road, Old Forester, Rabbit Hole, Resilient Bottled in Bond, Starlight Distillery, Wilderness Trail and Willett Distillery.

Bourbon and bluegrass and beyond – what more do you need? We hope you will make plans to join us in Louisville for the 2023 edition of Bourbon & Beyond!

 

The Bluegrass Situation Stage – Daily Schedule

Thursday, September 14

5:45 p.m. – Kelsey Waldon
4:15 p.m. – Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper
3 p.m. – Two Runner
1:45 p.m. – Clay Street Unit
12:30 p.m. – Myron Elkins

Friday, September 15

5:45 p.m. – The Lil’ Smokies
4:15 p.m. – The Cleverlys
3 p.m. – Twisted Pine
1:45 p.m. – Lola Kirke
12:30 p.m. – Armchair Boogie

Saturday, September 16

5:45 p.m. – Town Mountain
4:15 p.m. – Della Mae
3 p.m. – Lindsay Lou
1:45 p.m. – Sunny War
12:30 p.m. – Armchair Boogie

Sunday, September 17

5:45 p.m. – Dan Tyminski
4:15 p.m. – Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen
3 p.m. – The Arcadian Wild
1:45 p.m.- Lindsay Lou
12:30 p.m. – Pixie & The Partygrass Boys

 

Photos L-R: Dan Tyminski by Scott Simontacchi; Kelsey Waldon courtesy of the artist; Michael Cleveland by Amy Richmond

BGS 5+5: Shadwick Wilde

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Shadwick Wilde
Hometown: This is a tricky one–

I was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and I was raised primarily in San Francisco, but we lived in Havana and Amsterdam before settling in Kentucky, ancestral homeland of my maternal grandfather. My family on my grandmother’s side were Roma and Jewish, my grandfather’s, Scotch Kentuckian. My mother took after hers, and we moved around a lot while she made documentaries and wrote poetry.

Latest Album: Forever Home (out September 22, 2023)

Personal nicknames (or rejected band names):
Sadwick, Dadwick, Sandwich, Shadooby, sometimes I am Henry, and so on. We have many names and take many forms.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

If I’m doing my job well, I don’t really retain memories of being onstage… The “I” disappears into the music. Of course, if something goes badly, I will remember it for the rest of my life. But my dearest onstage memory is from recently at a festival in Wisconsin – a tattooed dad and his two punk-rocker daughters were all singing along to every word of our songs. That felt really special… I may have cried about it. I definitely cried about it.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I remember being five years old, dancing in the mirror with my plastic guitar and ripped jeans to my mother’s Bruce Springsteen records. She likes to remind me of that memory. I guess I have always known. Even though there are many career paths that I would like to explore in other lives – baker, teacher, postman, monk – this one is for songs, and I am rich with them. Laden, even.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

Sing from the heart. Don’t take it too seriously. Remember to have fun, and to be kind. That’s pretty much it! We have a tendency to overcomplicate things, when the simplest answers are often the truest.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I love to watch trees. We are rich with trees in Kentucky, and out where we live on the farm (just outside Louisville). The last few years I have been trying to learn all of their names, their leaf shapes, their bark textures. A favorite hobby of mine is foraging – black walnut, mulberry, gingko. Mushrooms, too. This year we got lucky with the morels. Last year I missed morels, but was lousy with the butteriest chanterelles, from a hillside near Greenbo Lake in Eastern Kentucky.

I have always felt connection in nature, in a spiritual sense. Nurturing that connection is essential for my mental health, and, I believe, also for our survival as a species. Our dominant culture would have us believe that humankind is separate from nature, but of course we know that’s not the case. We are wholly of the Earth, our larger body. It is this imaginary separation that allows us to objectify and exploit her, which of course has brought about this very real existential threat that is the climate crisis.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

This is such an interesting dance, as a writer – the one between subject and object. Every time we perform, we are creating a character for the purpose of communicating this particular story. When I was a younger songwriter, I would tend to write about things that had really happened to me – heartbreaks, epiphanies, tribulations and such. Nowadays, I don’t find my autobiography to be quite so interesting. And although there are many such personal narratives on Forever Home, the “I” and the “you” are ultimately “us,” and the perspectives of “writer” and “listener” can be interchangeable in that same way: telling the stories of the human heart and mind, that are universal in more ways than they are disparate. So yes, very often, because in the end, there is only us; only One consciousness experiencing our human and cosmic dramas through the infinite and beautiful forms we take.

Photo Credit: Wes Proffitt

Black History Month: Music Industry Leaders

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

While the entire industry surrounding roots music ratchets up its awareness around social justice issues and attempts to create a more representative and inclusive community, it’s apparent that, now more than ever, we need industry leaders of diverse cultural, ethnic, gender, and identity backgrounds. As we cap off this year’s Black History Month, BGS wants to spotlight not only the Black artists, songwriters, musicians, and instrumentalists who make these genres and this industry great, but also the writers, thinkers, leaders, and stakeholders working behind the scenes to craft a better, more just reality for all folks in roots music. Here are just a few of the Black industry insiders and community builders who inspire us and are leading the way.

Marcus Amaker

Charleston, South Carolina’s first poet laureate, Marcus Amaker, is also a musician, author, performer, and designer. Oh, and he’s also composed an opera! A true multi-hyphenate, Amaker’s visual art has anchored No Depression’s print journal since 2017, just after its rebirth. He has released an impressive thirty-five albums of electronic music and his latest book, Black Music Is, is a “poetic love letter to Black music and history” through the eyes and ears of Bebop the cat, who spins vinyl records and listens to all sorts of genres – from bluegrass to hip-hop.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Kyshona (@kyshonamusic)

Kyshona Armstrong

Songwriter, recording artist, and community builder Kyshona is well known in Nashville and in the folk and Americana scenes for her grounded, embodied songs that explore themes of agency, justice, mental health, healing, connection, and growth. Her career began in music therapy and she brings sensibilities from that expertise with her into every avenue of her professional life. She founded and runs Your Song, a non-profit, collaborative songwriting program that connects performing arts centers, musicians, and artists with vulnerable communities to promote healing and community connectedness. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, she also began holding events and meet-ups for music professionals seeking to move through this extractive, punishing industry more healthfully and mindfully and joyfully.

Marcus Dowling

Writer, thinker, fashion icon, and Tennessean columnist Marcus Dowling has been publishing writings on dance music, food, hip-hop, Nashville, and country music for more than fifteen years. In 2021, he was awarded the Rolling Stone Chet Flippo Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism. Just about everyone who has ever been anyone in the modern country scene has spoken with and been written about by Dowling, who brings vibrant, artful descriptions as well as thoughtful perspective and context to his interviews and features. But, it’s not just the Shania Twains, Kelsea Ballerinis, and Tyler Hubbards of the world that he covers, he connects the dots between past generations and the future, highlighting new artists, forgotten or underappreciated legends, and creators too often relegated to the shadows, as well.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Tanner (@tannerliterally)

Holly G & Tanner D

Holly G and Tanner D are the co-founders and co-orchestrators of Black Opry, a touring collective, showcase, revue, and community that re-centers Black musicians, songwriters, and instrumentalists in country music. Black Opry rose to notoriety rapidly in the wake of the social unrests surrounding race, police brutality, and state-facilitated murder of Black folks in 2020, but the groundwork for this trailblazing group had been laid long before that pivotal year. Both Holly and Tanner began their work as fans of the music, giving them a particular perspective on how to create spaces in country music that truly feel inviting, receptive, and open to all, while still focusing their mission on the historic and current factors that continue to channel Black fans out of country and toward other genres.

Benjamin Hunter

Benjamin Hunter is a speaker, musician, educator, and organizer perhaps best known in roots music circles from his duo with Joe Seamons, but his work extends far beyond his expertise in the primordial musical ooze that became blues, bluegrass, old-time, and country. He’s founded and co-founded multiple organizations with artistic purviews: Community Arts Create (with a mission to break down social barriers through cross-generational and multi-cultural arts programming, especially folk art), Hillman City Collaboratory (a social change incubator), Black & Tan Hall (a venue, restaurant, and gathering space), and many more. Based in the Pacific northwest, Hunter was Seattle’s Music Commissioner from 2014 to 2020. And his resume continues, these being merely the tip of the iceberg of his experience.

Brandi Waller-Pace

Brandi Waller-Pace is an educator, academic, and musician who founded Decolonizing the Music Room, a non-profit with a mission of re-centering Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian voices in music education, complicating and subverting endemic colonialism and classism in Western European classical music, its history, and its instruction. She’s also a board member for Folk Alliance International and with DTMR founded the Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival, which will be held this year on March 18. BGS first met and collaborated with Waller-Pace in 2020, when she and DTMR curated our virtual Shout & Shine Online showcase as part of IBMA’s annual business conference. Her approach to the work of anti-racism and decolonization is grounded and realistic, while offering models for how to move into the future with justice and representation as keystones in our musical spaces.


Lillian Werbin

Elderly Instruments in Lansing, MI has been a beacon of roots music for now more than fifty years. It’s a true community center, not just a purveyor of fine instruments, and Lillian Werbin recently took the reigns of this folk-, old-time-, and bluegrass-hallowed ground from her father, Stan Werbin. Lillian is not only CEO at Elderly, but also chairs the board of Bluegrass Pride, a non-profit with a mission of uplifting LGBTQ+ folks in bluegrass, and also serves on the board of the IBMA Foundation and advises its Arnold Schultz Fund, which strives to increase participation of people of color in bluegrass music. In Lillian’s free time, you’ll often find this musical workaholic running music camps, facilitating online events, and saying yes to just about every mission-minded project that comes across their desk.

Pat Mitchell Worley

Pat Mitchell Worley is the president and CEO of Stax Soulsville Foundation in Memphis, which oversees the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Stax Music Academy, and The Soulsville Charter School, all with a mission to perpetuate the soul of Stax Records. Worley was just awarded the Spirit of Folk Award by Folk Alliance International earlier this month. She’s also a veteran radio host in Memphis, where she’s hosted the Beale Street Caravan, a weekly show that has run for more than twenty years and is the most widely distributed blues radio program in the world. She began her career as writer in her late teens, then went on to work at the Blues Foundation before starting on the radio in the early 2000s. While as a child she may have dreamed of becoming an astronaut someday, her work in music has always reached for the stars.

Photo Credit: Diana Deaver (Marcus Amaker); Nora Canfield (Kyshona); Phil Eich (Lillian Werbin)

Harmonics with Beth Behrs: Dr. Tara Swart

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Dr. Tara Swart is a neuroscientist, medical doctor, Senior Lecturer at MIT, and author of best-seller The Source.


LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • STITCHER • AMAZON • POCKET CASTS • MP3

Dr. Swart and host Beth Behrs have an in-depth conversation on neuroplasticity and how we can physically change the structure of our brains through our thoughts, and therefore, change our lives. Following a full career in medicine, Dr. Tara was surprised to realize the scientific evidence supporting the Law of Attraction, and has since committed her work to helping others use science-backed practices to live their fullest lives.

Listen and subscribe to Harmonics through all podcast platforms and follow Harmonics and Beth Behrs on Instagram for series updates!

This episode of Harmonics is brought to you by BLUblox: blue light blocking glasses, backed by science. Reclaim your energy and block out the unhealthy effects of blue light on your mental and physical health. Take 15% off your order with code “HARMONICS”

Harmonics with Beth Behrs: Episode 9, The Brothers Koren

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

This episode almost didn’t happen. I thought long and hard about taking this step to not only be vulnerable with listeners, but also to put out some music into the world that I never intended to be shared — music that was strictly intended as therapy. But, the reason I started this podcast was to explore how creativity is healing, and also to have creatives be open and honest about the messy bits: everything that forms the human experience. None of us get through life without the messy bits. How could I interview everyone else and hear their open and vulnerable takes on healing and the process of their creativity, and not let you hear the same?


LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • STITCHER • AMAZON • POCKET CASTS • MP3

I am so grateful to the Brothers Koren. They have an incredible program called the Songwriter’s Journey, where they help folks to reclaim their “Big Voice” — and to reclaim their power, creativity, and truth through that voice. As musicians they’ve toured with the likes of Coldplay, Pink, and Rod Stewart, but they decided that after so many years in the music industry, they wanted to use their voices, their music and their incredible talents to help others. In this special, co-interview episode we discuss our creative process as we worked together for the past year and a half, after they came into my life at one of the most difficult times for me, especially regarding my relationship to art.

We lost my grandmother at the beginning of the pandemic last year, and even though my grandfather is suffering from dementia, at our family’s memorial service (held via Zoom) he once again became the man we all knew and loved — the man who, at a young age, had instilled in me his deep love of nature — who was now soothing and bringing our family together in our grief. I hope you’ll stay tuned to the end of this episode for the premiere of our song “The Moon Will Stay,” which is a collaboration between a poem I wrote for my grandfather and the beautiful music it inspired in Thorald and Isaak Koren. There are incredible studies about the healing power of music, especially for those with Alzheimer’s and dementia, and I’m so glad I was able to write this for my grandfather and for him to have heard it before we someday will inevitably lose him. But not today — because the moon will stay, and we will always have that. — Beth Behrs

More music from Beth Behrs and the Brothers Koren will be available on Bandcamp later this month. All proceeds will benefit mental health-focused charities.

Follow @harmonicspodcast on Instagram for more updates on how you can download this music and support these important causes!

‘Harmonics with Beth Behrs’ Debuts on BGS Podcast Network on September 8

Posted on by Editor

The Bluegrass Situation is thrilled to announce the newest addition to the BGS Podcast Network: Harmonics With Beth Behrs. The eight-episode podcast explores the intersections of music, creativity, wellness, and healing. (Subscribe here.)

Hosted and produced by actress, comedian, and banjo lover Beth Behrs (The Neighborhood, 2 Broke Girls) each episode features a deep dive conversation into topics such as mental health, sound healing, songwriting as therapy, ancient musical traditions, and the power of the creative process on our physical bodies and emotional selves.

The first two episodes of the series premiere on Tuesday, September 8, kicking off with guests Glennon Doyle (New York Times bestselling author of Untamed) and renowned sound healer Geeta Novotny. Other featured season one guests include Brandi Carlile, Mary Gauthier, Mickey Guyton, Tichina Arnold, and Allison Russell.

Behrs says, “Songs are simple ways of telling stories, you can find a song to fit any mood you’re in. That’s because music bypasses the intellect and goes straight to the heart. I’ve always felt that healing is creative and creativity is healing. Maybe it’s magic? I want to feel closer to the magic. I want all of you to feel closer to the magic. Harmonics was born so we could explore the intersection between music, healing, creativity, and spirituality- and in doing so, makes ourselves feel a part of something bigger. Less alone. More connected.”

Amy Reitnouer Jacobs, co-founder and executive director of BGS, says, “Developing this show with Beth was a dream — we’ve wanted to do something together for a long time. During this time when we’re all refocusing our lives and constantly assessing the state of the world, creating a space where women could be honest and vulnerable about so many topics — such as maintaining creative processes under stress and maintaining mental and physical health at home — seemed more relevant and necessary than ever before. We’re honored to feature so many incredible talents from the roots music world, but I think the breadth of our guests will show our audience that so many of these themes are universal and relevant across the creative spectrum.”

 

The Show On The Road – David Bromberg

Posted on by Chris Jacobs
This week, The Show On The Road features living folk-blues legend and underground guitar icon David Bromberg.


LISTEN: APPLE PODCASTS • MP3

Host Z. Lupetin got to speak with the now 74-year-old Bromberg in a hotel room before the pandemic shutdown, prior to Bromberg playing a show at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles back in February, 2020.

Coming out of the fertile Greenwich Village scene on the heels of Bob Dylan, Ramblin Jack Elliot and other shaggy troubadour-storytellers, Bromberg’s encyclopedic knowledge of American songwriting traditions made him a coffee house wunderkind who refused to be pigeonholed in one genre. By the age of thirty, Bromberg was the go-to guitarist for Dylan, Willie Nelson, John Prine and Ringo Starr, and he could be found jamming at dinner parties with George Harrison.

A man of many interests and talents, Bromberg actually stepped away from performing for nearly two decades at the height of his notoriety, moving to Chicago to learn how to build and then appraise violins. He became obsessed with identifying the best instruments just by sight, and even opened a respected instrument shop in Wilmington, Delaware called David Bromberg Fine Violins.

He returned after twenty two years off the road with the triumphant and Grammy-nominated Try Me One More Time in 2006, and has assembled an energetic band of friends that continues to join him on his new, high energy offerings.

Bromberg’s muscular and ever genre-bending 2020 release, Big Road pays homage to his heroes like Charlie Rich and 1930’s bluesman Tommy Johnson, but also injects heavy doses of swampy rock, horn-heavy funk, and good-humored, folk storytelling along the way.

Stick around to the end of the episode to hear him play a new acoustic tune called “Buddy Brown’s Blues.”