Birthplace of newgrass music hosts 3-day festival

by Marissa Butler, Bowling Green Area Convention & Visitors Bureau


Monday, August 9, 2010 11:33 AM CDT


The world’s first International Newgrass Festival returns for year two August 20-22, 2010 at Ballance Farms in Oakland, Kentucky, honoring the musical genre that began in the area in the early ‘70s. The festival’s rural location sits just outside of Bowling Green, the city the Kentucky General Assembly recently declared as the official Birthplace of Newgrass music and where the “Father of Newgrass” and festival headliner Sam Bush grew up.
The three-day festival lineup includes Curtis Burch, a member with Bush in the band that started it all, New Grass Revival, as well as Cadillac Sky, Sierra Hull, The Greencards, Mountain Heart, Bearfoot, Dread Clampitt, Missy Raines and the New Hip, The Farewell Drifters, and Bob Lucas and Family. Hazel Johnson Band featuring the widow of New Grass Revival co-founder Courtney Johnson returns to kick off the festival on Friday.
“We wanted to present a quality festival in year one that folks would talk about and then hopefully grow it from there,” festival director Kenny Lee said. “That is exactly what happened, so now we are really geared up for another successful and highly entertaining weekend with some of the hottest bands in the genre.”
New to the festival this year are the Newgrass Festival Disc Golf Ace Race, an expanded viewing area for fans, a wider selection of vendors, a permanent stage structure, and a primitive camping section along the wooded portion of the property. Fans can enjoy yoga sessions each morning, a massage table, and arts and crafts displays between sets.
Newgrass is a sophisticated, progressive form of music that blends bluegrass instrumentation with other styles such as jazz, blues and rock ‘n roll. The 2010 festival performers range from the originators of the art form to young and upcoming acts in the Newgrass genre reigning from Australia to Alaska to Florida and beyond.
“It was amazing to hear the young musicians at the 2009 Festival repeatedly pay homage to the New Grass Revival, thanking them for blazing the trail,” said Marissa Butler of the Bowling Green Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. “For me, the best part of the whole weekend besides seeing Sam was being introduced to new bands that completely blew everyone’s minds.”
New Grass Revival rehearsed about 40 miles from Bowling Green in Hiseville and Temple Hill, Ky. where they pushed the boundaries of several musical styles. Sam Bush was honored in 2008 with a resolution from the Commonwealth of Kentucky as the founder of newgrass music, then during the 2010 session, Governor Steve Beshear signed House Joint Resolution 154 officially naming Sam Bush as Father of Newgrass Music and Bowling Green as the Birthplace of Newgrass Music.Read more.