Celebrate-- September is Worldwide Bluegrass Music Month!

September is just around the corner, so members of the bluegrass industry and community around the globe will be making plans to celebrate Worldwide Bluegrass Music Month. Give a bluegrass CD to a friend, invite someone to a live bluegrass concert or jam session, give your son or daughter a banjo lesson, stage a bluegrass performance in a place that will introduce new audiences to the music, make a presentation about bluegrass at a local school or civic group, take a luthier to lunch, write a thank-you letter to your favorite bluegrass DJ, event producer, songwriter and/or journalist---along with the person who taught you that first G chord.
Bill Monroe’s 100th birthday is also coming up soon on September 13, 2011, so it’s time to start planning now how your band, your radio show, your bluegrass association or your bluegrass-related business will celebrate all year long. In fact, you may want to celebrate from September, 2010 – September 2011!
IBMA member Bob Wolff originally envisioned and created Worldwide Bluegrass Music Month in May, as a grass roots movement in 1988. With the encouragement of a group of bluegrass record label reps and Mr. Wolff’s blessing, the decision was made last spring to shift the celebration to September, to capitalize on media attention surrounding the IBMA Awards, World of Bluegrass events and Bill Monroe’s birthday. The goals remain the same, according to IBMA Executive Director Dan Hays: “to further encourage a grassroots effort to celebrate the music and build new audiences, bring broader media coverage, and assist the industry in exposing the music for sale at retail, at live events, through broadcast exposure and other means.” Full story.