Videos Archive - Page 19 of 34 - The Bluegrass Situation

WATCH: Chris Eldridge, “Angeles” (From Whiskey Sour Happy Hour)

In May 2020, Punch Brothers’ guitarist Chris Eldridge graced our Whiskey Sour Happy Hour “stage,” delivering a – erhm – loving tribute to the city in which BGS was born, with a cover of Elliott Smith’s “Angeles.”

This performance was originally part of BGS’ Whiskey Sour Happy Hour, a series benefitting MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund and providing personal protective equipment and supplies for first responders through Direct Relief.

You can still watch all episodes of Whiskey Sour Happy Hour here! We hope you enjoy this highlight cut from the oh-so-talented Chris Eldridge.

WATCH: Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi, “Last Night I Dreamed of Loving You”

Last spring, on an episode of our virtual happy hour variety show, Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi brought us a stunningly haunting version of “Last Night I Dreamed of Loving You.” The song was written by Hugh Moffatt and made popular by Kathy Mattea, whom Giddens was “obsessed” with way back at the start of her love affair with country music.

Whiskey Sour Happy Hour benefitted MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund and helped provide personal protective equipment and supplies for first responders through Direct Relief.

You can still watch all episodes of Whiskey Sour Happy Hour here! We hope you enjoy this highlight cut of Giddens and Turrisi’s quarantine collaboration.

WATCH: Shout & Shine featuring Jackie Venson

BGS is proud to announce Shout & Shine Episode 4! Austin, Texas songwriter and guitar-slinger Jackie Venson is our guest for this livestream iteration of Shout & Shine, which comprises short-form, intimate video performances by underrepresented and marginalized artists in Americana, folk, and bluegrass.

Please support Jackie Venson directly, via her merch store: http://bit.ly/JackieVensonMerch and visit Venson’s website for more information and music.

Shout & Shine is presented by Preston Thompson Guitars and will be streamed live right here on February 3, 2021 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET.

Photo credit: Ismael Quintanilla III

WATCH: Sierra Hull, “King of Anything”

Seven-time IBMA Award winner Sierra Hull graced us with a cover of a Sara Bareilles pop hit about owning your power during her performance originally streamed as part of Episode 2 of Whiskey Sour Happy Hour. Back in the spring of 2020 we partnered with our co-founder Ed Helms on the virtual variety series, which benefitted MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund and provided personal protective equipment and supplies through Direct Relief.

You can still watch the full episode here! We hope you enjoy this highlight cut of Hull’s version of Bareilles’ hit.

A Place in the Band: Ruth Ungar

Editor’s note: Register for the Blue Ridge Music Center’s FREE virtual A Place in the Band conference held Friday, February 26, 2021 here.

BGS has been proud to partner with the Blue Ridge Music Center on their online series, A Place in the Band: Women in Bluegrass & American Roots Music. The 10-part series explores the triumphs and struggles of prominent women with careers in the music industry.

Musicians Kristin Scott Benson and Ruth Ungar as well as audio engineer Haley Miller Coots are featured in this week’s final episodes, which are available with the full series on the Blue Ridge Music Center’s YouTube channel, at their website, BlueRidgeMusicCenter.org, and here on BGS. All three of these women come from families with deep roots and historical connections to traditional and folk music.

In this edition of A Place in the Band we feature Ruth Ungar, who was raised in a folk music family and learned fiddle at an early age. Her father, fiddler and composer Jay Ungar, wrote “Ashokan Farewell” and her mom, Lyn Hardy, is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Along with her husband Michael Merenda, Ruth has recorded and performed original American music for over two decades, both with the band The Mammals and as the duo Mike & Ruthy. She has also performed and recorded with Sometymes Why, an American Folk Noir band that includes Kristin Andreassen and Aoife O’Donovan. Ruth and Mike and their two children make their home in the Hudson River Valley where they host their own thriving community folk festival, The Hoot. The Hoot is held bi-annually at The Ashokan Center, an outdoor education, conference and retreat center in the Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York, where Ruth is the Director of Arts and Education.

“We are grateful to all the women musicians and industry professionals who agreed to take part in the Women in Bluegrass & American Music interview series,” Blue Ridge Music Center director Richard Emmett says via email. “We hope you’ll take some time to give a look and listen to some of these women and their stories… We’re sure you’ll be entertained and we hope you’ll take away some new insights and perspectives.”

The Blue Ridge Music Center would like to thank their sponsors, supporters, and media partners: The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, The National Parks Foundation, and BGS.

Explore more from A Place in the Band, sign up for the conference, and learn more about the Blue Ridge Music Center here.

Video credit: Joe Dejarnette, Studio 808A
Graphic credit: Jacob LeBlanc, Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation

A Place in the Band: Haley Miller Coots

Editor’s note: Register for the Blue Ridge Music Center’s FREE virtual A Place in the Band conference held Friday, February 26, 2021 here.

In this edition of A Place in the Band meet Haley Miller Coots, a professional audio engineer who works for SE Systems, a sound and event production company based in North Carolina. SE Systems provides sound, staging, lighting and production services for major festivals, concert series, venues, and touring performers and bands. Some of their more well known clients include MerleFest, IBMA’s World of Bluegrass, and The Tangier Center in Greensboro, NC. Miller Coots has toured as audio engineer for Alison Krauss and Union Station, run sound at both MerleFest and IBMA among other festivals, and worked with both the Winston-Salem and North Carolina Symphonies on the Pop Series concerts, particularly the bluegrass and Americana oriented collaborations.

Explore more from A Place in the Band, sign up for the conference, and learn more about the Blue Ridge Music Center here.

Video credit: Joe Dejarnette, Studio 808A
Graphic credit: Jacob LeBlanc, Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation

A Place in the Band: Kristin Scott Benson

Editor’s note: Register for the Blue Ridge Music Center’s FREE virtual A Place in the Band conference held Friday, February 26, 2021 here.

This edition of A Place in the Band features five-time IBMA Banjo Player of the Year winner and recipient of the 2018 Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass, Kristin Scott Benson. Since 2008, she has been a member of Grammy-nominated and two-time IBMA Entertainers of the Year, The Grascals. Kristin is one of the nation’s top bluegrass banjo players, exhibiting impeccable taste, timing, and tone. With an attentive ear to back-up, she is known and respected as a true team player among her peers. Many consider her to be one of the first females to successfully be a side-musician in a top-tiered bluegrass band. Kristin’s latest solo album, Stringworks, was released in 2016. It debuted in the top-ten on Billboard’s Bluegrass album chart and the original opening track, “Great Waterton,” was nominated for IBMA’s Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year. Kristin lives in South Carolina with her husband Wayne Benson (mandolin player for IIIrd Tyme Out) and their son.

Explore more from A Place in the Band, sign up for the conference, and learn more about the Blue Ridge Music Center here.

Video credit: Joe Dejarnette, Studio 808A
Graphic credit: Jacob LeBlanc, Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation

A Place in the Band: Traci Thomas

Editor’s note: Register for the Blue Ridge Music Center’s FREE virtual A Place in the Band conference held Friday, February 26, 2021 here.

BGS is proud to partner with the Blue Ridge Music Center on their online series, A Place in the Band: Women in Bluegrass & American Roots Music. The 10-part series explores the triumphs and struggles of prominent women with careers in the music industry.

Musicians Alice Gerrard, Laurie Lewis, Amythyst Kiah, and artist manager Traci Thomas are featured in this week’s episodes, which are available with the full series on the Blue Ridge Music Center’s YouTube channel, at their website, BlueRidgeMusicCenter.org, and here on BGS. Along with an online conference hosted by BRMC in late February, the series is part of a project that began in 2020 to honor the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment granting women in the United States the right to vote.

In this edition of A Place in the Band, North Carolina singer-songwriter and social justice activist Laurelyn Dossett interviews artist publicity and management professional Traci Thomas. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Thomas was a founding member of the American Music Association. She was honored by the Country Music Hall of Fame at the Museum’s Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum in 2017. In her interview, Thomas talks about artist management and how she ended up in that role, being a woman in the business and how things have changed, and gives her advice to young women entering the field.

Rounding out the 10 interviews will be three final episodes featuring Kristin Scott Benson, Ruth Ungar Merenda, and Haley Miller Coots debuting on Tuesday, January 26.

Explore more from A Place in the Band, sign up for the conference, and learn more about the Blue Ridge Music Center here.

Video credit: Joe Dejarnette, Studio 808A
Graphic credit: Jacob LeBlanc, Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation

A Place in the Band: Amythyst Kiah

Editor’s note: Register for the Blue Ridge Music Center’s FREE virtual A Place in the Band conference held Friday, February 26, 2021 here.

In this edition of A Place in the Band, North Carolina singer-songwriter and social justice activist Laurelyn Dossett interviews rising folk and Americana star, Amythyst Kiah. Kiah, a Johnson City, Tennessee native, graduated from the Bluegrass, Old-time, and Country Music program at Eastern Tennessee State University. Finding inspiration in old-time, string band music, alternative rock, folk, country, and blues, Kiah brings her banjo and guitar playing, vocals, and songwriting skills to the stage as a solo artist and with her band, Her Chest of Glass. She was nominated for a Grammy in 2019 for her song “Black Myself“, which she recorded with supergroup Our Native Daughters. In her interview, Kiah talks about her musical beginnings and introduction to roots music, her mentors and influences, lessons from the pandemic, and about the Our Native Daughters project and what it means to her.

Rounding out the 10 interviews will be three final episodes featuring Kristin Scott Benson, Ruth Ungar Merenda, and Haley Miller Coots debuting on Tuesday, January 26.

Explore more from A Place in the Band, sign up for the conference, and learn more about the Blue Ridge Music Center here.

Video credit: Joe Dejarnette, Studio 808A
Graphic credit: Jacob LeBlanc, Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation

A Place in the Band: Laurie Lewis

Editor’s note: Register for the Blue Ridge Music Center’s FREE virtual A Place in the Band conference held Friday, February 26, 2021 here.

In this edition of A Place in the Band, North Carolina singer-songwriter and social justice activist Laurelyn Dossett interviews Grammy nominee, Laurie Lewis. Lewis, of Berkeley, California, has been at the forefront of the west-coast bluegrass scene since the 1970s. A co-founder of the Good Ol’ Persons, she’s gone on to front her own bands, including the Grant Street String Band, and currently Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands. In her interview, she talks about her mentors and inspirations, pathways and roadblocks in her career, inspiring young women playing today, her role in producing records, and how the pandemic has affected her this past year.

Rounding out the 10 interviews will be three final episodes featuring Kristin Scott Benson, Ruth Ungar Merenda, and Haley Miller Coots debuting on Tuesday, January 26.

Explore more from A Place in the Band, sign up for the conference, and learn more about the Blue Ridge Music Center here.

Video credit: Joe Dejarnette, Studio 808A
Graphic credit: Jacob LeBlanc, Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation