Winfield, KS., — Over the past 40 years music lovers have been coming to this community in south-central Kansas to listen to and share music with like minded friends. One of the tendencies of the artists that have made Winfield and the Walnut Valley Festival a stopping point during their musical tours across the country has been their willingness to be accessible to the fans that come to their festival sets. As a result, the fans and artists have developed lasting friendships that have been nurtured by time spent in conversation and shared events. One topic that is very common as a conversation subject is “how do you play that one thing?”…

Winfield, KS., — Genre-busting Artist Michael Martin Murphey, whose latest release on Rural Rhythm Records is Tall Grass & Cool Water, will make his debut appearance at the prestigious Walnut Valley Festival on Sept. 15 – 17 in Winfield, Ks. Murphey will be joined by his crackerjack band, The Rio Grande Band, featuring renowned guitarist Pat Flynn of New Grass Revival fame….

Winfield, KS., — Vexillology, is according to Wikipedia, the scholarly study of flags. Bright colors have become a common welcome to travelers upon their arrival to the Winfield Fairgrounds during the Walnut Valley Festival. Those bright colors are in the form of flags, organization flags, state flags and various country flags. A total of 98 different flags to be precise, and if you count duplications of the United States and the Walnut Valley Association flags there are 100 even. New to the lineup of flags this year are Malaysia, Myanmar, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. So why these 4 countries flags? True, none of the 4 is known worldwide for their contributions to bluegrass or even acoustic music. However, a citizen from each of these countries has made his way to the sunflower state to attend the Walnut Valley Festival

Hendersonville, Tenn., — BlueHighways TV (BHTV), an independent multi-platform network that offers a window into the music, neighborhoods, art and celebrations that define America’s vivid culture and character, announced it will launch with five new operators: Piedmont Communications, Surry Telecommunications, and Wilkes Communications, all based in North Carolina; Sandhill Telephone Co-op in South Carolina; and IdeaTek Systems, Inc. in Kansas.

“Our network is extremely appealing to operators across the nation…

The International Autoharp Championship at the Walnut Valley Festival included ten contestants who hailed from seven different states. When the cut to the final five was made, two contestants each from California and Colorado and one from Missouri prevailed.

First place was awarded to Lucille Reilly of Denver, CO. Lucille has been to the festival numerous times and has entered this contest six times. In 1995 and again in 2003 she was the champion in this contest making her a three time winner of the International Autoharp contest. In addition she was the 1997 National Hammer Dulcimer Champion. Earlier this year, she entered the Mt. Laurel autoharp contest and placed first and since she did the same in 1995 and then won the competition in Winfield she thought she would try to duplicate the feat….