Upcoming Bluegrass Related Events

/Events/
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Southern Rail heads to Cape Cod!

First Encounter Coffeehouse Chapel in the Pines, 220 Samoset Rd, Eastham, MA

Southern Rail brings their upbeat brand of Bluegrass and happy mayhem to the First Encounter Coffeehouse on Saturday Jan. 14th. This promises to be another packed house, featuring high-energy exuberant bluegrass with lush harmonies, irrepressible good humor, and sparkling banjo, guitar and mandolin. Southern Rail will be celebrating the release of their eagerly anticipated 12th CD, “Voices in the Wind”.

$20

Rick Fire and the Rick Tones, Featuring Ricky Mier, Charles Berthoud, JD Williams and Meg Griffith and Thor Davidson at The Blue Moon Coffeehouse in Rockland, MA on Saturday, Jan 14

Blue Moon Coffeehouse 45 Webster Street, , Rockland, MA

Get ready for Rick and the Rick tones at The Blue Moon Coffeehouse in Rockland, MA on January 14th! This brand new band has some members I bet you already know and love. At the center of the music is banjo master Ricky Mier, co-founder of the band Twisted Pine, Cat and the Moon and a former member of Hot Day at the Zoo. He is accompanied by other incredibly talented musicians: bassist Charles Berthoud, JD Williams,  Meg Griffith and Thor Davidson. Their music is rooted in bluegrass, but has elements of Celtic, funk music, jazz, rock, classical, blues, and gospel. Ricky Mier is winner of the gold medal at the 2014 Freshgrass Banjo Contest and, with his band Twisted Pine, has won band contests at Freshgrass, Thomas Point Beach and tied for first place at Rocky Grass. Mier has performed on the main stages of other major festivals such as Grey Fox, Celtic Connections (Scotland), The Green River Festival, and Joe Val. He has performed with Bela Fleck and Victor Wooten and has shared the stage with acoustic heavy weights such as The Punch Brothers, Peter Rowan, Alison Brown, Hot Rize, The Gibson Brothers, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Yonder Mountain String Band, The Sam Bush Band, Del McCoury Band, Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen, and more. Charles Berthoud is a world-class bass player who has won awards such as 1st place at the New Hampshire Bass Solo Competition. JD Williams, multi-instrumentalist with the acoustic Americana band, Amy Gallatin & Stillwaters, has completed over a dozen international tours, been honored with the Sam Eisenson Award for Country Music. Here's a video of the band to check out: https://youtu.be/8xEkK686Xa. Hope you can make it! It's going … Read More »

$10 – $12

GuitartownCT presents The Page Turners

Best Video 1842 Whitney Avenue, Hamden, CT

Boston based Carolyn Kendrick and Jake Howard blend bluegrass and whiskey-fueled old-time into new roots music. Won 2016 Freshgrass Best Duo award. Performing as trio w/bass.

$15 – $20

The Page Turners, Winner of the 2016 FreshGrass Duo Contest, at The Blue Moon Coffeehouse, Sat. January 28th

Blue Moon Coffeehouse 45 Webster Street, , Rockland, MA

On Saturday, January 28th, The Blue Moon Coffeehouse in Rockland features The Page Turners. Winners of the 2016 Freshgrass Best Duo Award, Carolyn Kendrick and Jake Howard have a strong foothold in the acoustic music scene. They became musical friends as students of Berklee College of Music and started playing together through the Berklee American Roots Program. The Page Turners are known for their solid harmonies and soaring fiddle runs. They like to blend their love of bluegrass, whiskey-fueled old time, country music, swing, and fearless song writing into one all-purpose seasoning of good ole’ fashioned Roots music. They are have played at The Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, the Berklee American Roots Roadshow and will be featured on the 2017 FressGrass stage. Tickets are $10 at the door; children 12 and under are free. The show starts at 7:30 pm. Between sets by the band, there will be an open mike.  The address is 45 Webster Street, Rockland, MA

$10 – $12

Recurring

2-Hour Fast Jam

On the Cambridge/Arlington border Cambridge, MA

These weekly Teacher-Directed Jams hosted by Tony Watt are open to all bluegrass instruments, both rhythm and lead players. Each week we play through songs from the same set repertoire at various tempos depending on the experience level of the jam. You can attend even if you don’t know all of the tunes as I have mp3s and copies of tab, chords, and lyrics for most of these tunes, however, I only have tabs for mandolin, guitar, and bass at this time. Every Wednesday the “2-Hour Fast” jam meets from 7 until 9 pm in north Cambridge. Each week we play through as many songs as we can from the following list: Whiskey Before Breakfast (in D), Nine Pound Hammer (in A), Cherokee Shuffle (in A), Clinch Mountain Backstep (in A), Little Maggie (in A), Wayfaring Stranger (in Em), I am a Pilgrim (in G), and possibly Red Haired Boy (in A) time permitting. These are my fastest teacher-directed jams, and some might argue we play some of these songs too fast. The jams are held in north Cambridge, about a half mile from where Rt. 2 hits Cambridge at the Alewife T station. This location is one block from the intersection of Rt. 16 and Mass. Ave., near the Cambridge/Arlington border. There is plenty of meter-free, permit-free parking on Mass. Ave., and the location is only a 10-minute walk from Alewife and 15 minutes from Davis Sq. Most of the attendees of the jam are what I call “subscribers”, which means they have paid in advance and committed to attend a block of six jams. The subscriber cost is $20 per 2-hour jam, but you can attend even if you are not a subscriber by RSVP’ing on a … Read More »

$20 – $25
Recurring

“Songs Beyond” Fast Jam

On the Cambridge/Arlington border Cambridge, MA

These weekly Teacher-Directed Jams hosted by Tony Watt are open to all bluegrass instruments, both rhythm and lead players. Each week we play through songs from the same set repertoire at various tempos depending on the experience level of the jam. You can attend even if you don’t know all of the tunes as I have mp3s and copies of tab, chords, and lyrics for most of these tunes, however, I only have tabs for mandolin, guitar, and bass at this time. Every Wednesday the “Songs Beyond" fast jam meets from 9 until 10 pm in north Cambridge. Each week we play through songs chosen by a rotating "DJ" (a regular jam member) from the following repertoire: Big Sciota (in G), Big Spike Hammer (in A), Bill Cheatham (in A), Gold Rush (in A), Billy in the Lowground (in C), Fireball Mail (in G), Wayfaring Stranger (in Em), Blackberry Blossom (in G), St. Anne's Reel (in D), and possibly Old Joe Clark (in A). These are my fastest teacher-directed jams, and some might argue we play some of these songs too fast. The jams are held in north Cambridge, about a half mile from where Rt. 2 hits Cambridge at the Alewife T station. This location is one block from the intersection of Rt. 16 and Mass. Ave., near the Cambridge/Arlington border. There is plenty of meter-free, permit-free parking on Mass. Ave., and the location is only a 10-minute walk from Alewife and 15 minutes from Davis Sq. Most of the attendees of the jam are what I call “subscribers”, which means they have paid in advance and committed to attend a block of six jams. The subscriber cost is $10 per hour-long jam, but you … Read More »

$10 – $15
Recurring

2-Hour Intermediate Jam

On the Cambridge/Arlington border Cambridge, MA

These weekly Teacher-Directed Jams hosted by Tony Watt are open to all bluegrass instruments, both rhythm and lead players. Each week we play through songs from the same set repertoire at various tempos depending on the experience level of the jam. You can attend even if you don’t know all of the tunes as I have mp3s and copies of tab, chords, and lyrics for most of these tunes, however, I only have tabs for mandolin, guitar, and bass at this time. Every Monday the “2-Hour Intermediate” jam meets from 7 until 9 pm in north Cambridge. Each week we play through as many songs as we can from the following list: Red Haired Boy (in A), Nine Pound Hammer (in A), Cherokee Shuffle (in A), Little Maggie (in A), Clinch Mountain Backstep (in A), I am a Pilgrim (in G), Whiskey Before Breakfast (in D), Wayfaring Stranger (in Em), and Old Joe Clark in A (time permitting). The term “Intermediate” refers to the speed of the jam, which is faster than my slowest jams (on Sundays) but slower than my fastest jams (on Wednesdays). The jams are held in north Cambridge, about a half mile from where Rt. 2 hits Cambridge at the Alewife T station. This location is one block from the intersection of Rt. 16 and Mass. Ave., near the Cambridge/Arlington border. There is plenty of meter-free, permit-free parking on Mass. Ave., and the location is only a 10-minute walk from Alewife and 15 minutes from Davis Sq. Most of the attendees of the jam are what I call “subscribers”, which means they have paid in advance and committed to attend a block of six jams. The subscriber cost is $20 per … Read More »

$20 – $25

“Songs Beyond” Fast Jam

On the Cambridge/Arlington border Cambridge, MA

These weekly Teacher-Directed Jams hosted by Tony Watt are open to all bluegrass instruments, both rhythm and lead players. Each week we play through songs from the same set repertoire at various tempos depending on the experience level of the jam. You can attend even if you don’t know all of the tunes as I have mp3s and copies of tab, chords, and lyrics for most of these tunes, however, I only have tabs for mandolin, guitar, and bass at this time. Every Wednesday the “Songs Beyond" fast jam meets from 9 until 10 pm in north Cambridge. Each week we play through songs chosen by a rotating "DJ" (a regular jam member) from the following repertoire: Big Sciota (in G), Big Spike Hammer (in A), Bill Cheatham (in A), Gold Rush (in A), Billy in the Lowground (in C), Fireball Mail (in G), Wayfaring Stranger (in Em), Blackberry Blossom (in G), St. Anne's Reel (in D), and possibly Old Joe Clark (in A). These are my fastest teacher-directed jams, and some might argue we play some of these songs too fast. The jams are held in north Cambridge, about a half mile from where Rt. 2 hits Cambridge at the Alewife T station. This location is one block from the intersection of Rt. 16 and Mass. Ave., near the Cambridge/Arlington border. There is plenty of meter-free, permit-free parking on Mass. Ave., and the location is only a 10-minute walk from Alewife and 15 minutes from Davis Sq. Most of the attendees of the jam are what I call “subscribers”, which means they have paid in advance and committed to attend a block of six jams. The subscriber cost is $10 per hour-long jam, but you … Read More »

$10 – $15

West End Blend at Riverwalk Cafe & Music Bar

Riverwalk Cafe & Music Bar 35 Railroad Square, Nashua, NH

Hartford based powerhouse funk/soul band debuts their high energy dance party at the Riverwalk Cafe & Music Bar!

Noam Pikelny with Special Guest Anaïs Mitchell

Sanders Theatre 45 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA

Noam Pikelny, hailed by the Chicago Tribune as the “pros’ top banjo picker,” has emerged as the preeminent banjoist of his generation. Noam is a founding member of Punch Brothers, a string ensemble which The Boston Globe calls “a virtuosic revelation” and The New Yorker describes as “wide- ranging and restlessly imaginative.” Singer and songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, who appeared on the Series in 2016’s Use Your Voice with Patty Griffin and Sara Watkins, appears as a special guest.

$42