Nashville, Tenn. — It continues to be an amazing year for Nashville’s homegrown, uptown bluegrassers The SteelDrivers. Online retailer iTunes named the group the number one seller in 2008 in the Americana/Bluegrass Album category for their self-titled debut – beating out number two Alison Krauss and Robert Plant’s ‘Raising Sand’.

Marcy Cochran, fiddle player and vocalist with Washington, D.C.-based Dead Men’s Hollow, shares one of her favorite Christmas music memories. It’s a heart-warming and timely recollection, especially with so many American military men and women serving so far away from home on yet another Christmas season:

One of my favorite Christmastime memories as a performer is of going to Fort Riley, Kan., in November 2005 with my band, Dead Men’s Hollow, to perform in a gala Christmas concert for the men and women of the 24th Infantry Division.

Lyons, CO. — Planet Bluegrass is proud to announce the initial lineup for the 37th Annual RockyGrass Festival, held July 24-26 at the Planet Bluegrass Ranch in Lyons, CO. The lineup includes headliners Steve Earle & the Bluegrass Dukes, Hot Rize, Earl Scruggs, Del McCoury Band, California and many, many more along the banks of the St. Vrain River. Tickets and camping are on sale now at www.bluegrass.com or 800-624-2422, including a limited number of holiday-priced ($30 discount) three-day passes.