“Well, I’m breakin’ in a brand new pair of shoes. Don’t look at me like you think I’ve got the blues…”

So go the lyrics to a classic song by Bill Monroe, the Father of Bluegrass Music, and so it goes for the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, July 17-20 on the Walsh Farm in Oak Hill, NY. Grey Fox, the Northeast’s largest bluegrass festival, has a new home and a spectacular lineup of bluegrass luminaries chomping at the bit to break in the new site. Award-winning artists, intimate workshops, festive foods, rustic camping, round-the-clock jamming and thousands fans from all over North America and Europe are poised to make this year’s Grey Fox one of the most memorable ever. At last tally, bluegrass fans will be attending from 31 states and eleven countries.

New Home for Grey Fox: When the farm in Columbia County, NY that had been home to Grey Fox and its predecessors since 1976 was sold this January, festival organizers sprang into action to find a new site. After visiting dozens of properties, the 200-acre Walsh Farm in Oak Hill, NY was selected for its beautiful rural setting complete with flat, grassy camping and a gently rising natural amphitheater.

Spectacular Lineup: This year’s lineup has been dubbed a “Who’s Who of Bluegrass Music.” The world-class event features the 30th Anniversary Reunion of Hot Rize (7/19)David Grisman Bluegrass Experience (7/18); Sam Bush Band (7/19); Del McCoury Band (7/18); Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers (7/19); Jerry Douglas Band (7/19); The Sparrow Quartet (7/18); Tim O’Brien (7/18); The Grascals (7/18); Michael Cleveland & Flame Keeper (7/17); The Gibson Brothers (7/19); Uncle Earl (7/18-19); The Dailey & Vincent Band (7/17); Danny Paisley & Southern Grass (7/19); The Infamous Stringdusters (7/18-7/19); The Greencards (7/17-7/18); The Wilders (7/18-19); Steep Canyon Rangers (17, 18); The SteelDrivers (7/17); Chatham County Line (7/18-19); Missy Raines & The New Hip (7/19-20); Gravity (7/17-19); Adrienne Young & Little Sadie (7/17-19); Kindling Stone (7/17-19); Bill Keith (7/18-19); Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys (7/18); Red Stick Ramblers (7/17, 7/19); Fiddlestyx (7/17-19); John Kirk,. Trish Miller & Quickstep (7/17-19) plus dozens of Masters Stage, Family Stage and Workshop Artists. Dry Branch Fire Squad will preside as host band all weekend long as they have for nearly three decades.

Rare Main Stage Performances and Other Highlights

Hot Rize — one of the best loved bluegrass bands of all time-will be reuniting in a rare appearance to celebrate 30 years of making great music. While members Tim O’Brien (fiddle & mandolin), Pete Wernick (banjo) and Nick Forster (bass) have been pursuing careers individually since the early 90s, they occasionally get back together for special occasions such as this. Guitarist Bryan Sutton will take the place of the late Charles Sawtelle, who succumbed to leukemia in 1999. Also appearing is Red Knuckles and the Trail Blazers-the alter ego of Hot Rize-in which Tim, Pete, Nick and Bryan reappear as Red Knuckles, Waldo Otto, Wendall Mercantile and Slade who launch into a swingin’ set of 40s and 50s country music with all the trimmings. As with previous Red Knuckles shows, you never know who’ll be sitting in with the boys.
Hot Rize: http://www.drbanjo.com/bands/bands04-hr.html
Red Knuckles: http://www.drbanjo.com/bands-redknucklesandthetrailblazers.php

Bela Fleck — one of the top banjo players in the world today-will be performing at Grey Fox with Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet. While his name is widely known among banjo and jazz enthusiasts as the founder of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, his participation in the Sparrow Quartet is almost a well-kept secret. In May 2008 the group released their first full-length album, Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet, a never-before-heard combination of two banjos (clawhammer and three-finger style), cello (Ben Sollee) and fiddle (Casey Driessen). With Bela Fleck producing, Abigail selected the songs, co-wrote several with Ben Sollee and co-composed all of the music within the foursome. As a result of a tour of China in 2005, Abigail, who is fluent in Chinese, released Songs of a Traveling Daughter, which contains original songs in both Chinese and English. Now on tour in the U.S. and Canada, the super group will be traveling to Beijing later this year to perform at the Summer Olympics.
Bela Fleck: http://www.belafleck.com
Abigail Washburn: http://www.abigailwashburn.com

David Grisman’s iconic first recording, Old and In the Way (1975), with Jerry Garcia, Vassar Clements, John Kahn and Peter Rowan not only paved the way for a remarkable musical career, but laid the foundation for the new jazzy branches of bluegrass called “newgrass” and his own form of “Dawg Music.” Four decades later, he is one of the world’s foremost mandolin players and composers, having played and recorded with Stephane Grappelli, Bela Fleck, Earl Scruggs, Tony Rice and many others. In 2000, the documentary Grateful Dawg chronicled the deep friendship between David Grisman and the Grateful Dead’s lead man, Jerry Garcia. For the past few years, one of the best-kept secrets of the San Francisco Bay Area music scene was a David Grisman Bluegrass Experience show. With lines stretching for blocks, it would be standing room only to hear this amazing band. Now at last, everyone can hear David Grisman and his stellar group of Bay Area bluegrass musicians at Grey Fox at the group’s only appearance in the Northeast this summer. DGBX includes Keith Little (Ricky Skaggs, Dolly Parton, the Country Gentlemen) on 5-string banjo, guitar and vocals, Jim Nunally (John Reischman & the Jaybirds) on guitar and vocals, Chad Manning on fiddle, Samson Grisman on bass and of course, David Grisman on mandolin and vocals. DGBX is the debut recording of the Dawg’s own hand-picked bluegrass band.
David Grisman: http://www.dawgmusic.com

Exciting New Bands Are Always a Big Hit: Fans from around the globe have come to expect to hear bluegrass music’s hottest new bands at Grey Fox. Producer Mary Tyler Doub takes on this challenge happily. Over the years such notable artists as Alison Krauss, Nickel Creek, King Wilkie and others were booked at Grey Fox long before they made names for themselves. With an ear for extraordinary talent and an eagerness to share her finds with a discriminating and appreciative Grey Fox audience, Doub’s antennae are always searching for new talent. This year, she is pleased to present four bands who are certain to wow the Grey Fox faithful. This year fasten your seatbelts for The SteelDrivers (”not your daddy’s bluegrass”); The Dailey and Vincent Band (formerly of Ricky Skaggs and Doyle Lawson and already topping the bluegrass charts); Missy Raines and the New Hip (led by seven time IBMA Bass Player of the Year) and Gravity (contemporary bluegrass all the way from Stockholm, Sweden).
The SteelDrivers: http://www.thesteeldrivers.com
Dailey and Vincent Band: http://www.daileyvincent.com
Missy Raines and the New Hip: http://www.missyraines.com
Gravity http://www.myspace.com/gravitybluegrassband

Multiple Stages Spell F-U-N for Everyone: In addition to the Main Stage, Grey Fox offers plenty of other performance tents and learning programs. The Masters Stage is an intimate tented venue featuring unique combinations of world-renown instrumentalists, singers and songwriters in a relaxed, impromptu setting where artists can answer questions, play requests and be themselves. At the Dance Pavilion, bands such as Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys (from California) and the Red Stick Ramblers (from Louisiana) rock the night away to a packed dance floor. By day, instructors teach swing, Cajun. zydeco and square dancing in between sets by some of the best dance bands in the country. Meanwhile, at the Family Stage, kids enjoy arts, crafts (such as tie dying) and performances by clowns, magicians, musicians and nightly films. Kids often find themselves on stage with the performers acting as their “able assistants.”

Hands-on Learning: Bluegrass is one of the most accessible forms of music there is. Grey Fox fosters that accessibility via four hands-on learning programs. One of the most popular is the four-day Bluegrass Academy for Kids, led by Brian Wicklund, at which about 100 students (grade 2 and up) learn how to play, sing and perform traditional bluegrass music. The academy culminates with a Main Stage performance on Sunday afternoon to an enthusiastic crowd of fans and proud parents. Adult pickers during the festival are invited to the Grass Roots Learning Sessions to improve their playing and to the Slow Jam Tent where patient mentors lead beginners in playing simple songs. Bring your instrument and join the fun.
Brian Wicklund: http://www.fiddlepal.com

Bluegrass Jam Camp: Pete Wernick’s Bluegrass Jam Camp is also set to take place prior to the festival, across the road at the Durham-Oak Hill Fire Department. “Dr. Banjo” and his able staff will be showing budding musicians (and closet pickers) how easy it is to jam together. The camp takes place Tuesday through Thursday, July 15, 16 and 17. For more information and to register, visit http://www.drbanjo.com

What’s New at Grey Fox? For the first time at Grey Fox (and possibly at any bluegrass festival) festival goers will learn how to take their camp cooking to new heights of deliciousness. Jim Tarantino is a confirmed serial griller, cookbook author and banjo player from Philadelphia who will be demonstrating several easy, nutritious and delicious recipes from his book, “Marinades, Rubs, Brines, Cures and Glazes” (Ten Speed Press, 2006). Jim will also present a special class titled, Stocking the Bluegrass Bus for people who need to eat healthy, tasty and easy foods while on the road. Jim will be on hand to sign copies of his book throughout the weekend.

Also, the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) based in Nashville, TN, will, for the first time ever, be presenting a two-part professional development “crash course” for regional musicians. The three-hour course, Taking Your Band to the Next Level, will include topics on public relations, radio air-play, getting the best out of a recording session, other topics and a question and answer period with experts in the field. The course is free to festival attendees. IBMA has selected Grey Fox as the location of its first regional seminar because the festival is a mecca for so many full- and part-time professional musicians.
IBMA: http://www.ibma.org

About the Grey Fox Production Team: Mary Tyler Doub, producer of Grey Fox, has led the successful Grey Fox team since 1985. She currently serves as Chair of the Board of the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky and is past Chair of the Board of the International Bluegrass Music Association in Nashville, Tennessee. Ms. Doub, along with a small staff of year round employees, a few dozen crew chiefs and more than 500 dedicated volunteers from around the country join forces each July to bring the festival to life for the thousands of fans who for the first time will gather on the Walsh Farm in Oak Hill. The team’s foremost goals are to bring the joy of music to an ever growing audience and to contribute in a very positive way to the world of bluegrass music—one of the fastest growing musical genres in America—all in a setting that campers and day visitors will thoroughly enjoy.

Spreading the Joy: “It’s all about making the festival experience the very best that it can be for everyone involved. We want Grey Fox to be a joyful occasion for each and every person who is a part of the event. This is our vision,” says Ms. Doub. Her love of the four-day annual event runs deep. She has often been heard to say, “I have two children, and Grey Fox is my third.” She looks forward to hearing what people have to say about the festival’s new home. To gather feedback about the inaugural year on the Walsh Farm, volunteers will be collecting comments throughout the weekend. In addition, attendees will have an opportunity to share their experiences at a “Grey Family Town Meeting” on Sunday morning. An online survey will also be available after the event.

Camping gates open at noon on Wednesday, July 16. Day ticket gates open at 8 am Thursday through Sunday. On Thursday, music runs from 2:00 pm-midnight. On Friday and Saturday, music runs from 11:00 am to 1:00 am. Sunday music begins with a gospel set at 10:30 and music runs through 3:00 pm. Prices vary. Advance tickets are available online and by telephone. Be advised that Grey Fox usually sells out of camping tickets, so please plan ahead. Parking is free. An on-site shuttle will be available for those with physical limitations.

The entrance to Walsh Farm is located on Greene County Route 22. For door-to-door directions, festival goers may Google 1 Poultney Road, Oak Hill, NY 12460. Oak Hill is about 20 miles west of the NYS Thruway I-87 Exits 21 (Catskill) and 21B (Coxsackie).

Tickets & Information
http://www.greyfoxbluegrass.com
office@greyfoxbluegrass.com
US: 888.946.8495
Int’l: 315-724-4473