David Grisman

The wild world of bluegrass spiraled into frenzy this past Friday morning when tickets to the forty-second annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival went on sale. Per usual, tickets flew off of the virtual shelves like canned goods in a doomsday scenario, leaving locked out festivalgoers in a state of disarray. “How could this happen to me again?” shouted bluegrass fans across the nation, their fists clenched and shaking at computer screens with a sense of Déjà vu.

Del & Dawg | East Virginia Blues No.1 | Oriental Theater | Denver, CO
Del & Dawg | Dark Hollow | Oriental Theater | Denver, CO

It’s felt like eons since David “Dawg” Grisman has played in Boulder. Not that is really been all too long, but since then residents have all sorts of jammy and traditional grass growing underneath them. Theater performances and community picks become increasingly popular and plentiful. A sort of roots resurgence has blossomed and a generation of newgrass players is inheriting while reinventing this tradition. Purists need to a look back a few generations to what Dawg music did for what was then current in bluegrass.

Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Festival (CBB) is ready to celebrate its 5th birthday! The wintertime roots fest returns with 17 shows format spanning three weeks in January and February!CBB V is anchored in eight shows over three weeks at the newly-minted Concord Music Hall, the West Loop’s City Winery, and Evanston’s SPACE.

What was once an anomaly is now a standard. Many lovers of classic Bay Area rock, blues, bluegrass, and beyond are investing in live archival releases above studio albums. Thanks to accessibility through vault discoveries and painstaking restoration, live recordings that are forty-plus years old are being heard by the band and fans alike for the first time. Artists such as Neil Young, Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Hot Tuna are releasing performances that haven’t been heard by audiences since the date of original performance.

Award-winning mandolinist and music producer David Grisman announced today the HD release of Old & In The Way – The Complete Boarding House Tapes. The 4-set compilation comes exactly 40 years after the band played two shows at The Boarding House in San Francisco – the first on October 1, 1973 and second on October 8, 1973, from which the original LP was produced.

Sometimes I find it truly incredible how different each festival is. Sure, when you poke around in different genres you’re going to have a different vibe, but even within the realm of strings and grass, you’ll find the good and you’ll find the bad. Northwest String Summit at Horning’s Hideout in Oregon doesn’t exactly make it into either category. I think it stands alone in the “this is the most amazing, beautiful, compelling, warming, etc.

In just a week, on July 18th, it’ll be that time of the summer again. That time when people from all over the country storm the state of Oregon with their families, their banjos, fiddles, mandolins, guitars, etc., and head to the small town of North Plains. Slowly they will wind their way through towering green trees and down a curvy road, until finally, they find themselves in a clearing surrounded by peacocks and shimmering shades of green. Not a bad tradition, if you ask me.

The 12th Annual Northwest String Summit returns to Horning's Hideout (North Plains, OR) with the finest acoustic pickers and standout electric bands from July 18 - 21, 2013. Located just 20 miles outside of Portland, OR, Horning's Hideout stands as one of the most scenic festival sites in the country. A family-friendly and locally-sourced festival, Northwest String Summit caps its capacity at 4,500 attendees to ensure an intimate experience for all festival-goers at an incredible ticket price.