Rounder Recording Artist Blue Highway headlines Friday night, June 6, at Sally Gap Bluegrass Festival near Williamsburg, KY.

The Sally Gap Bluegrass Festival returns June 6-8 at Jackson Farm, near Williamsburg, Ky.

Fronting this year’s show are Blue Highway, which will perform on Friday,and the Lonesome River Band, Saturday’s top act.

The festival is sponsored by Jackson Farms and Southern Sun.

The event focuses heavily on children’s activities, with a special workshop, the “American Traditional Music Project,” in which participants will be building their own banjos.

The festival also features the Sally Gap Children’s Band and special classroom teachers workshop, “Utilizing Bluegrass Music in the Classroom,” utilizing the International Bluegrass Music Association’s teaching model. The workshop will be held at the University of the Cumberlands.

Other bands on the play bill are Kentucky Win, Southern Sun, Blue Moon Rising, Blue Storm, and Ron, Vernon,
and Straight Creek, Virgil Bowlin and Peerless Mountain and the Dixie Ryders.

Ticket and camping information is available at http://www.sallygapbgfestival.com.

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Jesse McReynolds will host the Pick Inn Spring Festival May 16-17, 2008. Photo by Travis Tackett

Veteran country and bluegrass entertainer Jesse McReynolds will host The Pick Inn Spring Festival on Friday and Saturday, May 16 -17, 2008.

“Events such as this one give me something to do here at home when I am not at the Opry or traveling,” he said.

He said providing new ways that the audience can get to know him and his music is one of the basics that have helped him to maintain the longevity of his career.

The event at 550 Zieglers Fort Road in Gallatin, Tenn. across from Bledsoe Creek State Park will feature Jesse McReynolds and The Virginia Boys, Lonnie Jones and Hard Drive, Harv Mason & the Straight Arrow Boys, Pastor Rodney Haskin and the Fiddlin’ Preachin’ Band, Luke McKnight and Thunder Road, Curly Seckler, Eddie and Martha Adcock, New Foundation, Daniel Rothwell and Granddaddy, Champ Buckdancer Thomas “Magic” Maupin, Judy Carrier and Rens Vreeburg, Dr. Johnnie Feelgood and the Do Gooders and others.

He and his wife Joy will debut their new Pick Inn Music Pavilion. Friday the event is 4-9 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Adult admission is $15 adult or both days for $25; seniors: $12 or $20 for two days, Children 6-12 $6 or $10 for two days, Under age 6, free with adult. For more information, call at (615) 452-7321.

McReynolds, a IBMA Bluegrass Hall of Fame member, is still touring around the world but he is creating unique opportunities for people to come to see him right at home on his Gallatin farm outside Nashville where he has lived since the early 1960s.

McReynolds dailey radio show catching on

“Daily radio shows were the norm for performers when Jim and I started,” he said. “I wanted to go back and capture the way radio use to be a long time ago. This is a little different because it’s a little like an interview show.”

Each weekday morning now Jesse with his able co-host Harv Mason sit down in the living room of The Pick Inn, a hilltop log cabin on 32 acres overlooking Old Hickory Lake, where the McReynolds’ host weddings, music concerts, festivals, and teaches workshops.

Often the radio show includes downhome commercials, guests dropping by telling stories and jokes, musicians playing tunes and joining in on the fun by singing a song or just providing applause and laughter. An audience is also welcome.

“Instead of having all professionals come in, I just like to sit down and pick with ordinary people,” he said “It’s more like a family get together - like a jam session.”

“The Pick Inn Party Radio Show” airs from 8-9 a.m. (CST, 9-10 a.m. Eastern) on WHIN 1010 AM and can be found live on the web at whinradio.com. The show features live music and recorded music from the Jim and Jesse catalog, phone call-ins and guests.

“We are getting calls from all over the country,” he said. “It is amazing how people are giving us compliments about how they enjoy the radio show.”

For more information, visit www.jimandjesse.com.

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Niles Bluegrass Festival will be held June 5-8 in Riverfront Park in downtown Niles, Mich.

Niles is 8 miles north of South Bend, Ind.

The free festival this year will feature 13 bands, although the bands and performance schedules have yet to be posted at www.nilesbluegrass.com.

The festival will feature three stages of music, an open jam gospel session, a pickers tent, workshops, food, arts and crafts.

Information is available at www.nilesbluegrass.com or from the the Michigan Main Street (Downtown Development Association) office at 269-687-4332.

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Award-winning fiddler Michael Cleveland and his band Flamekeeper will headline the 13th annual Mayfest Bluegrass Festival at the Kent County Fairgrounds in Lowell, Mich.

The festival will be held May 16-18. Cleveland and his group will perform Saturday.

The remainder of the lineup consists of local and regional bands.

The West Michigan Bluegrass Music Association, sponsors of the festival, are holding a potluck and jam session on Thursday evening, the day before the festival kicks off.

Ticket and camping information can be found on the festival pages of the association’s Web page, http://www.wmbma.org

The lineup includes:

Friday, May 16

• 6:00-6:35 Thunder Floor Cloggers
• 6:40-7:25 Just Jammin’
• 7:30-8:15 The Bluegrass Echoes
• 8:15-8:20 50/50 drawing
• 8:25-9:10 The DooDads
• 9:15-10:00 Sandi Paul & Raisin Corn

Saturday, May 17

Workshops begin at 9am.

• 12:35-1:20 Just Jammin
• 1:25-2:10 The Oat Bran Boys
• 2:15-3:00 Black Canyon
• 3:05-3:50 The Williams Family
• 3:50-3:55 50/50 drawing
• 4:00-4:45 Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper
• 4:45-6:00 Supper break
• 6:00-6:35 The Thunder Floor Cloggers
• 6:40-7:25 Black Canyon
• 7:30-8:15 The Williams Family
• 8:15-8:20 50/50 drawing
• 8:25-9:10 Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper
• 9:15-10:00 The Oat Bran Boys

Sunday, May 18

• 10:00-10:55 Sunday opening and For Heaven’s Sake gospel show
• 11:00 Band auditions

Drawing for $100 to be held after the audition bands

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Wilksboro, NC — The high cost of travel and a downturn in the economy didn’t seem to slow down attendance to this years MerleFest. According to a press release on Merlefest’s website, this years festival was enjoyed by over 76,000 festival attendees this year. Over the course of four days, the Wilkes Community College campus became the home of a wide variety of traditional-plus fans and players with music featured on a multitude of stages daily.

Preliminary estimates show that MerleFest 2008 overall participation reached 76,708 which is comparable to 2007 participation of 79,412. “We are so proud that MerleFest fans remain committed to the event despite current economic conditions and threatening weather that included a storm delay on Saturday,” says festival director Ted Hagaman. “Since we opened ticket sales in November we have seen single day ticket sales outpace four-day ticket sales.”

Performers at MerleFest 2008 included The Avett Brothers; Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet featuring Bela Fleck, Casey Driessen, & Ben Sollee; Sam Bush; The Carolina Chocolate Drops; Jerry Douglas; Levon Helm & The Midnight Ramble on the Road with Special Guests; Solas “Reunion,”with Karan Casey & John Doyle; Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby with Kentucky Thunder; Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mtn Boys; Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives; Rhonda Vincent and The Rage; Dan Tyminski Band; Alison Brown Quartet with Joe Craven; Donna The Buffalo; Blue Highway; The Claire Lynch Band; Dirk Powell & Riley Baugus; Tony Rice; Peter Rowan; Ollabelle; Sally Van Meter; Rhonda Vincent & The Rage; Pete Wernick & Flexigrass; Tim O’Brien; The Waifs; The Waybacks; Old Crow Medicine Show, and many more.

Additional information about all aspects of the festival can be found at www.merlefest.org.

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