Midwest Bluegrass Festivals of Jacksonville, Ill., is gearing up to launch its warm-weather outdoor festival season.

First up will be the eighth annual Three Sisters Park Bluegrass Festival on June 6, 7 and 8 near Chillicothe, Ill. That’s a few miles north of Peoria.

The lineup includes Tennessee bands Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike and Kody Norris & the Watauga Mountain Boys, Frances Mooney & Fontana Sunset from Georgia and Wisconsin-based band Art Stevenson & High Water. Four Illinois groups will also entertain during the weekend. They are The Shipperts, Prairie Grass, Illinois Rail and Dale & Gloria Lowe.

The concert stage at Three Sisters Park is under cover, giving a clear green light to shows, no matter what the weather brings. Camping is also available at the park.

Headed by Terry and Jan Lease, Midwest Bluegrass Festivals also has festivals lined up throughout the summer. Here’s a look:

• July 11-13, Crazy Horse Campground Bluegrass Festival in Ashland, Ill.
• Aug. 8-10, Back Forty Bluegrass Festival in Curryville, Mo.
• Aug. 23-24, 14th annual Bluegrass in the Gardens festival at the Amish tourism spot Rockome Gardens near Arcola, Ill.

The Leases launch their season of indoor festivals during the winter months on Nov 7-9 with the 22nd annual Greater Downstate Indoor Bluegrass Festival at the Crowne Plaza in Springfield.

Band lineups as well as ticket and camping information where applicable are available at www.bluegrassmidwest.com.

Share This

Grasstowne

The 14th annual Naperville, Ill., Bluegrass Festival will feature several top acts during its March 28-30 run at the Holiday Inn Select.

Performers will include Rhonda Vincent & the Rage, Grasstowne, the Dailey-Vincent Band, James King Band, Monroe Crossing, Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike featuring Becky Buller, Art Stevenson & High Water, Ashton Gap, The King Family and Alison Coyer.

Concerts will be held Friday evening, Saturday morning, afternoon and evening and Sunday morning, when Art Stevenson’s band and The King Family will present a gospel show.

Keith Yoder will present instrument workshops on guitar, mandolin and banjo Saturday afternoon, and at 4 p.m. Rob Anderlik will present a dobro workshop.

Special jamming areas will be set up during the weekend. Admission to the jam rooms is free to concert ticket holders and $5 for those without tickets.

Festival promoters are Terry and Jan Lease of the Jacksonville, Ill., -based Midwest Bluegrass Festivals.

Information about tickets and reserving hotel rooms at a special bluegrass weekend rate is on their Web site, www.bluegrassmidwest.com.

The performance schedule follows:

March 28, Friday

• 7 PM Alison Coyer
• 7:20 PM James King Band
• 8:05 PM Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike
• 8:55 PM Grasstowne
• 9:40 PM Ashton Gap

March 29, Saturday

• 10:30 AM Open Stage- Talent Showcase
• 1 PM Art Stevenson & High Water
• 1:50 PM Dailey & Vincent
• 2:45 PM Rhonda Vincent & The Rage
• 3:35 PM Monroe Crossing
• 7 PM The King Family
• 7:30 PM Art Stevenson & High Water
• 8:10 PM Rhonda Vincent & The Rage
• 9:05 PM Dailey & Vincent
• 9:50 PM Monroe Crossing

March 30, Sunday

• 10 AM The King Family
• 10:30 AM Art Stevenson & High Water

Share This

Big Smith

Big Smith will be performing in Berwyn, IL this Saturday, Feb 23 at Fitzgerald’s. Doors open at 8:00 PM and Big Smith takes the stage at 9:00PM. Cover charge for the show is $8.00. Fitzgerald’s is located at 6615 Roosevelt Rd. in Berwyn IL. (PH 708-788-2118)

Big Smith also recently added Molly Healey as the newest full-time member, effective February 2008, adding much-needed fiddle textures to the bands sound. Healey has been an in demand player on the Springfield, Missouri music scene and her session work appears on close to twenty releases on the MayApple label.

Big Smith, a band from Springfield, Missouri composed of five cousins, including two sets of brothers: Mark and Jody Bilyeu, Bill and Rik Thomas, and Jay Williamson. The newest member, fiddle player Molly Healey, brings the total to six creative individuals bound together by blood and harmony. The group has been playing together since 1996.

In 2007 music became the full-time profession for all the guys in Big Smith, as their expanded touring schedule attests – 2008 will see them playing upwards of 110 shows. They have recently enjoyed high-profile opening gigs for the likes of Emmylou Harris, Doc Watson, The Avett Brothers and the Del McCoury band. Summer of 2008 finds them performing at Wakarusa Music Festival and traveling to Europe for the 21st Annual Country Rendez-Vous Festival in Crappone, France.

For more info on Big Smith check out the band’s website at www.bigsmithband.com or visit their Myspace page at www.myspace.com/bigsmithband

Share This

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Give Terry and Jan Lease some credit. They really know how to throw a bash — a bluegrass bash, that is.

Sunday marked the finale of the 21st annual Greater Downstate Indoor Bluegrass Festival, which has been promoted since its inception by the Leases and their organization, Midwest Bluegrass Festivals.

The promise of great things to come might have surfaced early for procrastinators who waited too long to obtain hotel accommodations at the Crown Plaza, a 14-story hotel where the festival was held. Those late callers discovered there was no room at the inn — the posh hotel was booked to the hilt for the three-day bluegrass weekend.

But early birds and procrastinators alike discovered that the 2007 edition of the downstate event was a fiddlers’ dream, a place where the cream of bluegrass fiddle players indeed rose to the top.

Legendary Bobby Hicks gave a one-day fiddle workshop and also played on stage. His performance of “Jerusalem’s Ridge,” with string wizard Michael Cleveland and his band Flamekeeper ripped the roof off the 1,200-seat hotel ballroom where the concerts were held. Hicks then took the spotlight with his famous “nothing but double-stops” version of “Maiden’s Prayer.”

Later in the evening, Hicks would return to the stage to perform “Roanoke” with Nothin’ Fancy and their very fancy conservatory-trained fiddle player, Chris Sexton.

“That was a lot of fun,” Hicks said Saturday while giving test rides to some old fiddles for sale in a guitar and instrument show, held in conjunction with the festival. “Those guys (Cleveland and Sexton) are great.”

But, let’s slam this in reverse for a second — back to Nothin’ Fancy and fiddler/violinist Sexton. He had the crowd roaring with his eclectic, anything-goes version of “Orange Blossom Special,” which has become a staple closer for the Virginia-based band.

Any thoughts that the fiddle fireworks had subsided when Friday’s final curtain fell quickly learned otherwise Saturday afternoon, when the Grascals opened the day’s shows. Jimmy Mattingly, the group’s regular fiddler, was on a 9-day sabbatical with his former boss, Garth Brooks. The previous Saturday, Jason Carter filled in with the group, but premiere fiddler Aubrey Haney got the call to ride to Illinois with the band.

But it wasn’t lightning speed or double shuffles that won the crowd over to Haney. Performing a bit of trickery, Haney undid the hair on his fiddle bow, stretched it over the top of the strings and had the bow stick itself running under the body of the fiddle. Haney told the audience he decided to try that so he could have bow hair making contact with all four strings at once. He literally sounded like a string quartet with his inspired version of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.

Fiddlers’ paradise continued to unfold with Rhonda Vincent’s Hunter Barry’s high-energy fiddling and then, with Ronnie Stewart from J.D. Crowe’s fine band, gliding flawlessly in and out, above and below the band’s lyrics. And give Stewart lots of credit for unabashed fortitude. Stewart noted he had seen Bobby Hicks in the audience earlier in the evening and sang the praises of Hick’s version of “Maiden’s Prayer.” Then, Stewart turned around and did his own soulful version of the old Bob Wills classic.

Have I mention, that this particular festival also had guitars, banjos, basses and mandolins? Of course, it did. But this 21st annual edition of Terry and Jan Lease’s big Springfield festival turned out to be the Year of the Fiddler.

Share This

NEW ATHENS, Illinois — Five levels of competition for fiddlers and three for banjo pickers are featured in an Oct. 27 competition at L&B’s East End in New Athens, Ill., in the greater St. Louis area.The contests, which start at noon and are non-profit, are being sponsored by The Bluegrass Shack, a fiddle and instrument shop , which caters to bluegrass consumers.

Registration starts at 11:30 a.m.

Fiddle contests are broken into Junior III for ages 12 and younger; Junior II for 13- to 15-year-olds; Junior I for 16- to 18-year-olds; Open for those 19 and older; and senior for fiddlers 60 and older.

First-place prizes in the fiddle contest range from $15 to $150, and the first five finishers in each class will receive cash, trophies or both. All junior competitors will receive a medal.

The banjo competition levels are Junior for those 15 and younger; open for those 16 and older; and senior, for those 60 and older. First-place prices range from $20 to $100. Cash prizes and trophies will be awarded to those finishing close to the top. As in the fiddle contests, all junior participants receive medals.

Entry fee for all contestants is $2, while $7 admission is being charged at the door. Contestants do not pay the admission fee.

Food and beverages will be available during the contest.

Other details, including all contest rules, are available from Chris Talley Armstrong at The Bluegrass Shack, 618-475-3678 or L&B’s Eastend, 618-475-8010.

Chris Talley Armstrong and her husband Earl run The Bluegrass Shop, which continues to gain notice from the bluegrass and acoustic music crowd in Illinois and Missouri. The small shop, which is crammed with fiddles and a variety of other musical instruments, has also become home to regular jam sessions that are drawing musicians from a wide circle. Armstrong is also becoming well known as a violin luthier in the region. And, in her spare time, she fronts the Chris Talley Trio.

Details about the fiddle and banjo contests, as well as The Bluegrass Shack itself, can be found at www.thebluegrassshack.com

Share This