I do not typically attend music festivals two years in a row. As a journalist who reviews festivals, I usually choose different ones each season, circling back only every few years to see how promoters have improved things. Yet over the Fourth of July weekend, I found myself once again at Nelson Ledges Quarry Park for the Grassfire Festival—barely a year since my last visit.

Amidst their 20th anniversary as a band, GRAMMY-winning quintet, The SteelDrivers, aren’t looking over their shoulders at the road to the here and now. Quite the contrary, where the Americana and bluegrass icons are aiming is headlong towards the unknowns of tomorrow with one simple, yet powerful, thought permeating throughout: What’s next? “Very early in the game, we were determined to do our own original music. And we stood by it, where now we’re reaping those rewards,” says SteelDrivers fiddler, Tammy Rogers.

For the last two decades, GRAMMY-winning quintet The SteelDrivers have had a pretty simple process of whittling down songs to record for their new albums: Do we all like them? Do they have that SteelDrivers sound? With their new single, “Booze and Cigarettes”—the latest from Outrun, the band’s upcoming album on the legendary Sun Records—the choice was a no-brainer. Like most SteelDrivers songs, there’s a good time layer to their Bluegrass Americana styling with a slight tinge of something deeper at play.

MerleFest, presented by Window World, wrapped up its 37th annual celebration with a romp-roaring tribute to the music and community that folk icon Doc Watson championed throughout his life. Over the course of four vibrant days, nearly one hundred acts ranging from rising stars to seasoned legends graced a dozen stages across the campus of Wilkes Community College, drawing thousands to the rolling hills that canvas the region.

Ah, the murder ballad. From “Tom Dooly” to “Stagger Lee” to “Pretty Polly” to more modern takes like “Caleb Meyer,” the category has permeated folk music the world over with its dark narratives and moral high grounds. Grammy-winning quintet The SteelDrivers are no strangers to the genre, their catalog full of songs like “If It Hadn’t Been For Love” and “Shallow Grave,” garnering tens of millions of streams and becoming fan favorites at live shows.

That SteelDrivers sound. Those already initiated with the two-decade-running, Grammy-winning quintet The SteelDrivers will know exactly what it means—the bluesy-leaning, stomp inducing, singular style that’s made fans of folks from Adele to Bill Murray to hundreds of thousands more fans across the globe for the past two decades.

DelFest, the roots music and family festival founded by bluegrass and Americana icon Del McCoury, is thrilled to announce the next round of artists for the 2025 installation of the festival.

Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival is just around the corner, promising an unforgettable weekend of larger-than-life musical performances. Scheduled for July 17-21 at the picturesque Walsh Farm in Oak Hill, NY, the 2024 installment of the legendary bluegrass celebration is set to be a highlight of the summer.

What began as a casual jam session over a decade ago has become one of today’s leaders in the Americana/Bluegrass music world. The venerable Rounder Records immediately signed the band and released their eponymous debut in 2008 that scored their first GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group w/ Vocal for the song Blue Side Of The Mountain.

Music and outdoor enthusiasts alike can look forward to an eventful few months ahead at Beech Mountain Resort with the return of its annual concert series taking place this summer.