Bluegrass Museum's summer festival to feature GRAMMY-winners

by Gabrielle Gray, International Bluegrass Music Museum

The International Bluegrass Music Museum's ROMP Bluegrass Roots and Branches Festival will be held June 23-25, 2011 at Yellow Creek Park just outside Owensboro, Ky. Headlining the event are Steve Martin with the Steep Canyon Rangers, Emmylou Harris, Trampled By Turtles, Carolina Chocolate Drops and Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile.

Adult 3-day passes to this annual fundraising event are on sale in advance for $70 each. Museum members receive a $20 discount. Student 3-day passes are available for $55; active military and senior passes are $60. Three-day passes are sold in advance only. Single-day tickets are $25 and are available both in advance and at the gate. Dry tent camping at Yellow Creek Park is free for 3-day pass holders. For tickets, go to www.bluegrassmuseum.org or call 270-926-7891.

In addition to the artists listed above, the festival line-up includes bluegrass heavy hitters Tony Rice performing with Mountain Heart, The Infamous Stringdusters, Pete & Joan Wernick, Audie Blaylock & Redline, Kenny & Amanda Smith, Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike, GRAMMY-nominee Sarah Jarosz, IBMA Guitar Player of the Year Josh Williams, The 23 String Band, The Professors of Bluegrass , Loose Cannon Bluegrass Band, Bawn in the Mash, King's Highway, and the Museum's own student brigade, the Kentucky BlueGrass AllStars. Showcase bands are yet to be announced.

Museum Director Gabrielle Gray says that ROMP 2011 will undoubtedly be its biggest year to date. The expanded program is part of IBMM's year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Bill Monroe, Father of Bluegrass Music, who was born and grew to manhood in nearby Ohio County, Ky. The program will feature a wide variety of bluegrass and bluegrass-related genres including old time, Americana and jamgrass.

"We booked non-traditional acts to illustrate the wide range of influence bluegrass music and Bill Monroe have had-and increasingly continue to have-on today's music culture. We are so fortunate to have these artists coming to the heartland of bluegrass to perform for us," Gray says.

For the first time ROMP festival vendors will focus on local cuisine, with food provided by area chefs. "I think festivals-goers from around the country and the world are going to be impressed with the variety and quality of specialty food items. And of course, we will have local barbeque, for which Western Kentucky is world-famous," Gray says.

In addition to the musical line-up, this year's festival will feature Museum exhibits and a film festival of the Museum's documentaries on the lives of first generation bluegrass musicians. New to ROMP 2011 are late-night jams. "This year at ROMP we'll be having all-night jams around a bonfire after the main stage shuts down each night. It's a great way to make new friends-jamming 'til the sun comes up," Gray says.

For more information see the IBMM's web site at www.bluegrassmuseum.org or call 270-926-7891.

Mac Martin and the Dixie Travelers at ROMP - Photos

(Mac Martin & The Dixie Travelers were honored to be part of The Legends concert at the River of Music Party (ROMP,) last weekend. Mac is considered by the IBMA and IBMM, as a first generation artist, to be one of the founders of Bluegrass Music. Curly Sechler had requested to sing with Mac.)

A note and photos from Tim Custer:

Here's a photo of Mac & the DT's at ROMP.


Also one of me and Curly Sechler.

Norm's wife took photos with her camera of us on stage with Curly but I don't have them yet.

It was a great time.

Mac was well received and properly honored.

It was also a huge honor to play with Curly.

For a few moments when he & Mac were singing, I felt a little like Earl Scruggs! Ha-ha!

They also have a nice display of pioneers which includes Mac, hanging on the wall in the International Bluegrass Museum.

He's right there between J.D.Crowe, The Boys From Indiana, The Lilly Bros. and others.

Sorry that photo is of poorer quality... it's from my cell phone

Thought you'd enjoy.

Tim

Thank you Tim.

Mac Martin and the Dixie Travelers at ROMP

ROMP

(River of Music Party)

Mac Martin And The Dixie Travelers will be the featured bandat the Bluegrass Legends concert  Thursday June 24.

Joining the band for this show will be Bluegrass legend Curly Sechler.Curly and Mac sang together last year and Curly asked to sing with Mac again this year.

Mac is on the International Bluegrass Music Museum's list of Bluegrass Pioneers.

The ROMP Bluegrass Festival is sponsored by the International Bluegrass Music Museum and is a major fund raiser for the Museum.

The mission of the International Bluegrass Music Museum is to develop and maintain an environment in which people of all ages can discover the richness of bluegrass music.Owensboro, KY
The International Bluegrass Music Museum is located in the RiverPark Complex at the foot of "the blue bridge" in downtown Owensboro, Kentucky. As you draw near, you'll hear the sounds of bluegrass music emanating from the museum's radio station, RBI, with audio speakers taking the music to the streets. Only a few hundred feet from the museum's entrance, the sound of music drifts downstream via the mighty Ohio River, the subject of more than a few memorable bluegrass songs.
Bluegrass is the official State Music of Kentucky, and Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" shares with Stephen Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home" the honorable distinction of being the official Kentucky State Songs. The infectiously energetic style of dance that grew up around bluegrass and old time music is clogging, the official Kentucky State Dance. This museum, established to preserve the history of the music Mr. Monroe created, is located 30 minutes from the little town of Rosine, Kentucky, and Jerusalem Ridge, the homeplace where he was born and grew to manhood, and where he and members of his family now rest in peace.
 
Source WPBGC

ROMP lineup to Include Mac Martin & the Dixie Travelers

By Keith Lawrence, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.


Feb. 8--The International Bluegrass Music Museum's seventh annual River of Music Party on June 24-26 will bring the pioneers and legends of the genre together with young musicians who are pushing the boundaries of bluegrass.


Arthel Lane 'Doc' Watson, who turns 87 on March 3, is scheduled to perform at the RiverPark Center on June 24 with his grandson, Richard Watson, and David Holt, an old-time music scholar and performer.

Watson, who was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association's Hall of Fame in 2000, performed at ROMP in 2004 and 2006. Read more...