Burlington, MA – Rounder Records artists will be well represented at the 2009 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. The eighth annual four-day camping and music festival will again be held on June 11 – 14 on a beautiful 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles south of Nashville. Every year Bonnaroo seeks to make history by offering unique and exclusive performances by rock’s greatest legends as well as its most significant newcomers. More acts will be announced in the coming weeks, and the final Bonnaroo 2009 lineup will total over 120 bands and over 20 comedians performing on 13 stages over four days. For more information, please visit www.bonnaroo.com.

The SteelDrivers

The Steeldrivers "The Steeldrivers" (Rounder)

“If you want to hear real country music – the kind with just-short-of-reckless picking on acoustic instruments and naturally vivid vocal harmonies – these days you turn to bluegrass. If you want to hear something different in bluegrass, you turn to the SteelDrivers.” – The Wall Street Journal

With one foot in the field and the other in the factory, The SteelDrivers are a beacon beaming their own version of rhythm’n’bluegrass far across the musical landscape. Highly regarded behind the scenes as songsmiths and session men – with innumerable hits, cuts, and licks to their credit – The SteelDrivers are stepping out at long last. In their ten capable hands, back-country high-lonesome collides with Delta soul, resulting in the freshest sound to emerge from Music City in recent memory. Via eleven original songs, their debut album offers revealing new takes on classic themes of redemption and loss, and hope and home delivered with urgency and heart. The SteelDrivers are Richard Bailey, Mike Fleming, Mike Henderson, Tammy Rogers, and Chris Stapleton.

See them on Late Night with Conan O’Brien: www.rounder.com/thesteeldrivers/conan/

Béla Fleck & Toumani Diabate

Bela Fleck "Throw Down Your Heart: Tales From the Acoustic Planet Vol. 3, Africa Sessions" (Rounder)

Béla Fleck, banjo virtuoso and 18 time Grammy^® award winner, has introduced the banjo into jazz, pop, classical and world music settings during his 30-year career. In 2005, Fleck embarked on a musical adventure across Africa to explore the little-known origins of the banjo and to play with great African musicians. The result of that voyage is Throw Down Your Heart /Tales From the Acoustic Planet Vol. 3 / Africa Sessions (March 3rd, Rounder), his most ambitious and complex project to date. Fleck’s boundary-breaking musical adventure takes him to Uganda, Tanzania, The Gambia, and Mali, and provides a glimpse of the beauty and complexity of African music. Using his banjo, Béla transcends barriers of language and culture, finding common ground and forging connections with musicians from very different backgrounds.

Visit: www.throwdownyourheart.com