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Four venerated musicians  (and close friends) got together in a living room in 2012 to jam and have fun, and a wonderful new bluegrass power group  was formed!  Helen Highwater (the tough, whimsical goddess of string band music) combines David Grier on guitar, Missy Raines on bass, Mike Compton on mandolin, and Shad Cobb on fiddle.    This is their first time on the Joe Val stage, and we're excited to have them perform! These are musicians who have performed for decades. Their music is rooted but not frozen, recognizable but not predictable, comfy but not smug. It’s also a steel-railed groove of steam-powered drive—Gid Tanner and Bill Monroe stoking the coal car and one band barreling ahead, eyes around the curve. David Grier was named an Artist of the Decade in 2000 by Guitar Player magazine, has received the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Guitar Player of the Year award 3 times, and has played on 4 Grammy award-winning albums.Missy Raines is a 7-time IBMA Bass Player of the Year and a former member of the Claire Lynch and Eddie & Martha Adcock bands. She played as a duo with Jim Hurst and now fronts her own ensemble, The New Hip.Mike Compton is known as the Monroe-style mandolin player and has played with John Hartford and the Nashville Bluegrass Band. Mike received Grammy awards for his work on O Brother Where Art Thou and played on projects for Dr. Ralph Stanley and Elvis Costello.Shad Cobb is a powerful and nuanced fiddler who draws from deep traditions and has played for the Osborne Brothers, Willie Nelson, Steve Earle, Marty Raybon, Mike Snyder, and the John Cowan Band. (mateiral above adapted from the band's Facebook site) Band website

Danny Paisley and The Southern Grass have made their own niche in the bluegrass world. Danny has continued the venerated "Paisley Sound",  by carrying on the band founded by his father Bob Paisely.  Danny Paisley's powerful vocals have landed him several nominations for IBMA Male Vocalist nominations and winning the Male Vocalist of the Year award in 2016. In 2009 their song "Don't Throw Mama's Flowers Away" won IBMA Song of the Year, and the band has been nominated for Emerging Artist of the Year too.   If you like traditional bluegrass you'll really enjoy this group. With Danny Paisley on guitar, The Southern Grass continues the family tradition adding Danny’s son Ryan Paisley on mandolin.  The Southern Grass also includes Mark Delaney on banjo, TJ Lundy on fiddle and Bobby Lundy on bass. Band website back to schedule

Rhonda Vincent needs little introduction, and we're thrilled to have her headline our Friday night show.  She's a bluegrass superstar, 5-time Grammy nominee, and once again was nominated for 2014 IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year (just one among many of her IBMA nominations and awards). In November 2014 she had both the #1 and #2 slots in the Bluegrass Unlimited Music Chart with songs "Busy City" and "Only Me" (a duet with Willie Nelson) respectively.   We haven't had Rhonda at our festival in years, so please make sure you plan to see her exciting show! Band website  

Nominated for IBMA's 2014 Emerging Artist of the Year,  Town Mountain has created a mature well-traveled bluegrass sound, a telepathic pickin’ style filled with mesmerizing interplay, and intoxicating rhythms that energize every tune. “Centered around strong, soulful vocals, and poised to stay put,” says Woody Platt of the Steep Canyon Rangers, “Town Mountain are true to bluegrass in all the right ways." Banding together in 2005, Town Mountain is Robert Greer (guitar), Jesse Langlais (banjo), Phil Barker (mandolin), Jack Devereux (fiddle), and Zach Smith (bass).  Town Mountain will be joined by their former-and-once-again fiddler and current Boston-resident, Bobby Britt, on fiddle. The sound of the award-winning group Town Mountain can best be described as traditional bluegrass, albeit with a rough-hewn side to it that is not too slick or glossy. They are a band of the here-and-now, yet they have a groove that is based on the bluesy and swinging sounds explored by the first generation of bluegrass pioneers of the last century. Band website   photo by Jason Beverly

Bluegrass mandolin master Roland White has played in some of the most influential and popular groups in the music's history, and has played a notable part in creating that history. Springing from a large family of musicians, Roland and his younger brothers Eric and Clarence first played together as youngsters in their native Maine. Moving to southern California in 1955, The Country Boys (later to become The Kentucky Colonels) won talent contests, appeared on local television shows and even landed appearances on The Andy Griffith Show. They toured the country during the folk music boom of the early 60's, creating a sensation among coffeehouse, festival and college audiences with their instrumental virtuosity, traditional brother vocal harmonies and rhythmic innovations. The Kentucky Colonels' influence far exceeded the band's short tenure as an active band. Their "Appalachian Swing" album remains one of the most important albums of that era, a landmark in the history of bluegrass. Moving from The Kentucky Colonels into a position as guitarist for Bill Monroe in the late 60's, Roland absorbed the traditional feel and repertoire from his mentor, the Father of Bluegrass, which remains a strong element in his music today. From Monroe's band, Roland joined that of another bluegrass pioneer, Lester Flatt, playing mandolin and recording several albums as a member of The Nashville Grass from 1969-1973. In 1973 a short-lived reunion of The White Brothers was brought to an untimely end due to Clarence White's tragic death. Of this brief reunion came two concert recordings that capture the excitement of the White Brothers' sound fully matured, after Clarence's excursions in country rock with the Byrds and Roland's studies with the Monroe and Flatt. After Clarence's death Roland began a thirteen-year [...]

With chops so hot, Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen were named IBMA’s 2016 Instrumental Group of the Year for the second time, with a third nomination in 2017. Their critically acclaimed album Cold Spell earned a 2015 GRAMMY nomination for Best Bluegrass Album of the Year, yet the accolades don’t end there. Solivan, with banjoist Mike Munford, 2013 IBMA Banjo Player of the Year, award-winning guitarist Chris Luquette and bassist Jeremy Middleton, simmer a progressive bluegrass stew of infinite instrumental, vocal and songwriting skills soon to be featured once again on their new album If You Can't Stand the Heat slated to drop January 25th, 2019. Band website back to schedule  

Before Laurie Lewis and Kathy Kallick became the highly respected and successful singers, songwriters, and bluegrass bandleaders they are today, they were founding members of the groundbreaking northern California band the Good Ol’ Persons. Although Laurie remained in that group for only a short while before moving on to lead her own bands, she and Kathy forged a lifelong personal and professional friendship that endures to this day. They recorded a collaborative album, Together, in 1991, for Kaleidoscope Records, on which they performed their wonderful interpretation of the venerable "Little Annie," learned from Vern & Ray. Laurie and Kathy wrote in the liner notes, “This album is respectfully dedicated to Vern Williams and Ray Park, early sources of inspiration for both of us.” In 2014 Laurie and Kathy have published a new tribute album entitled "Laurie and Kathy Sings the songs of Vern and Ray" , in which the two perform music exclusively drawn from the repertoires of those early mentors, is the latest coming-together of this multi-talented twosome. It is long overdue.  (all above by Randy Pitts, from the album liner notes.) We're thrilled to have invited both bands to Joe Val this year, to make this special duet treat possible. photo by Irene Young Album Information

There is a tendency to think of West Coast bluegrass as being softer, jazzier, and somehow “other” than traditional. This can be the case, but there is also a school of bluegrass in Northern California which has, from the beginning, been steeped in Monroe-based tradition—as well as welcoming to women and original songs. Kathy Kallick (guitar, vocals) has been leading bands in this traditional brand of West Coast bluegrass since co-founding the internationally-acclaimed band, Good Ol’ Persons, in 1975. She continues to evolve as one of the music’s extraordinary composers and vocalists, now releasing her 17th album, recordings which include over 100 of her original songs. Along the way, she has won a Grammy and two IBMA Awards for her part on True Life Blues: The Songs Of Bill Monroe . Join her at Joe Val is Annie Staninec (fiddle, clawhammer banjo), Tom Bekeny ( mandolin, fiddle),  Greg Booth (dobro, banjo), and Cary Black (bass).

Two-time IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year, Laurie Lewis is an amazing singer, songwriter, and fiddler who has been impressing bluegrass crowds for over 30 years. Known for her lively stage shows, Laurie and her band are not to be missed. Since forming a musical partnership in 1986, when Tom first joined Laurie’s acclaimed band, Grant Street, Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum have recorded 12 albums and performed around the globe. These Grammy-nominated artists (for their 1995 album The Oak and the Laurel) are widely regarded as among the leading lights of modern bluegrass and are highly-prized by their peers as sidemen and producers. International Bluegrass Music Association executive director Dan Hays calls Laurie “one of the preeminent bluegrass and Americana artists of our time.” Acclaimed musician Sam Bush puts it more simply, calling her “a great singer, terrific fiddle player, fine songwriter, and one very good band leader.” Laurie also performed on both the Grammy-award winning, 1997 IBMA album of the year True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe, and the Grammy-nominated Ralph Stanley & Friends’ release Clinch Mountain Country. Joining her are the Right Hands, comprised of long-time playing partner Tom Rozum (mandolin), bassist Andrew Conklin , fiddler Chad Manning, banjoist Patrick Sauber, and guitarist Scott Huffman. Band website

It’s hard to write a brief description of a man and a band that has epitomized bluegrass music for decades.  Del McCoury is celebrating 50 years in the music business, and we’re proud to have him close our 30th Anniversary festival. Americana music icon Richard Thompson, who saw his "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" turned into a bluegrass standard when McCoury brought it into the fold, puts it this way. “McCoury is something special, a living link to the days when bluegrass was made only in hillbilly honkytonks, schoolhouse shows and on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, yet also a commandingly vital presence today, from prime time and late night talk show TV to music festivals where audiences number in the hundreds of thousands. Here's a guy who has been playing for fifty years, and he's still experimenting-still looking to do things outside the box, to bring other kinds of music into bluegrass form…I think that's the best bluegrass band, period. That's it." Del McCoury is joined by his sons Ronnie (mandolin) and Rob (banjo), as well as Jason Carter (fiddle) and Alan Bartram (bass), the band also known as the Travelin' McCourys.    Del is likely to retire from touring soon, so you must make this show! Band website