This year, the Sultana Downrigger Festival, held annually in Chestertown, Maryland, featured an exciting blend of Bluegrass music, tall ships, fireworks, and incredibly delicious seafood. On Friday evening, after a late start from work, I found myself by the Chester River in Chestertown, Maryland. I arrived in time to catch […]
On Thursday, I had the opportunity to step out and make my way to The Manor Mill in Monkton, Md. This historic mill was buzzing with excitement as it played host to a sold-out show featuring the highly acclaimed bluegrass band, East Nash Grass. Their melodies had been gracing the […]
On the Chester river lies the town of Chestertown, MD. On this weekend the town was filled with folks that enjoy tall ships, music and good food. Demonstrations, book talks, antique boats and motors. Along with lots of maritime lure and watermen related items. Ships on hand we’re the KALMAR […]
From the piedmont lowlands of northern Maryland, we drove into America’s oldest mountains, her ridges blue in the heat-hazed distance. My wife found ourselves settled first into an old house in Purcellville, its floors sloping with time, its windows lead-wavy, its acreage covered by a working farm. From there, we […]
For the longest time, some music has had this ineffable quality to just make me feel a certain way, to almost change my life, if only for a moment. Miles Gannett’s Meridian did this to me. I first listened to it as I walked around a just-blooming saucer magnolia grove, […]
Touted as Franks Birthday Bash with two unique sold out sets, Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen came to Stages Music Arts in Cockeysville, Maryland this past Saturday night. The venue was really nice. Although small, it was very intimate and provided an “up close” feeling to the enjoyment of the […]
Hot Rod Mule brought their brand of bluegrass to Wrightsville, PA at The Burning Bridge Tavern Saturday night. The tavern is aptly named after the bridge that once spanned the Susquehanna River until 1863 when the Union militia burnt it down to thwart the advancement of the confederate troops trying […]
Every year, in the lead-up to April, Charm City Bluegrass hosts a battle of the bands featuring local-ish acts, most of which have gotten little to no real exposure. At the least, the winners have benefited from the Baltimore audience seeing them at Druid Hill Park in Baltimore, but often, […]
“There was Nashville, and then there was Baltimore”, Del McCoury said in Tim Newbys book Bluegrass in Baltimore. On this night, it was Baltimore, or rather Owings Mills. Del McCoury was explaining the prominence of the local bluegrass scene here in the early days of Del’s musical career. On Saturday […]
Town Mountain tours a lot. Somewhere between 130-150 shows a year, with significantly more days spent traveling, they’re nearly always on the road together, a tarheeled traveling family. Hailing from Asheville, North Carolina, I talked to Zach Smith, the band’s bassist, about their upcoming tour, including a show at The […]
On Labor Day weekend at the Skyline Ranch Resort in Front Royal, VA, and within spitting distance of Shenandoah National Park, the Appaloosa Festival will float into town. Expanded from a two-day to a three-day festival for the first time, hosts Scythian are welcoming an even larger slate of performers, […]
Music is hope, right? The Steel Wheels, from Harrisonburg, Virginia, traffic in that kind of positive ideology, steering roads on their bicycles and in vans, spreading a kind of honest truth in their music. Which isn’t to say their songs are full of Kumbaya (that’s not bad, either, fwiw), but […]
To call it “difficult” to summarize DelFest understates the reality. As an event, it offers more than music – which, frankly, is a lot in and of itself – instead providing a profound sense of community, of togetherness, and a wild joy. If anything, the truest theme and the greatest […]
Del McCoury has had a big year already. In February, he celebrated his birthday with the Grand Del Opry, which he characterized as “a great honor”, and his sons’ band The Travelin’ McCourys won a Grammy for their first album. “You know, last year we had a release party there […]
