FreshGrass, a family-friendly bluegrass and roots music festival in the Berkshires of northwestern Massachusetts, is slated for Sept. 19-21, 2014. For three days and nights, the indoor galleries and outdoor courtyards and meadows of the MASS MoCA campus in North Adams will be filled with the sounds of banjos, fiddles, guitars, mandolins and voices of traditionalists and trailblazers alike. Featured performers range from well-known and acclaimed artists like Sam Bush, Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn, David Grisman Sextet, Emmylou Harris and Claire Lynch to newcomers like Connecticut’s Cricket Tell the Weather, the 2013 FreshGrass Award winners.
Kicking off the festivities on Friday, Sept. 19 will be flatpicking guitarist Michael Daves and banjoist Tony Trischka. The artist lineup for FreshGrass 2014 also includes Sam Amidon, Darol Anger, Alison Brown, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Michael Cleveland, The Dukhs, The Gibson Brothers, Haas Kowert Tice, Hurray for the Riff Raff, The Infamous Stringdusters, Aoife O’Donovan, Railroad Earth, Martha Redbone Roots Project, Valerie June, and several local bands. There will be a mix of concerts, pop-up performances and jam sessions.
FreshGrass Award Finalists Named and Set to Perform
Fifteen up-and-coming bluegrass artists and acts who offer a fresh take on the genre have been named as finalists for this year’s FreshGrass Award and will perform in the museum’s indoor galleries throughout the festival.
In its sophomore year, the contest has expanded from one category to three – affording unsigned bands, duos and banjo players an opportunity to compete for cash prizes totaling $15,000, recording time at Compass Records’ studio in Nashville, and a main stage slot at FreshGrass 2015. Winners will be named on Sunday, Sept. 21. A panel of industry professionals that included Alison Brown, The Gibson Brothers and Chris Pandolfi of The Infamous Stringdusters selected the following finalists:
Band Finalists: Eastbound Jesus, Many Nights Ahead, Pert Near Sandstone, The Sons of Bluegrass, Twisted Pine
Duo Finalists: Chris Coole & Ivan Rosenberg, Tatiana Hargreaves & Ethan Jodziewicz, No Bones About It, Quiles & Cloud, Molly Tuttle & John Mailander
Banjo Finalists: Jordan Alleman, Douglas Jay Goldstein, Gabe Hirschfeld, Ricky Mier, Walker Turner
“It’s a thrill to watch the next generation of music-makers hunker down in this contest, while the top bluegrass musicians in the country are playing right outside the doors on festival stages, jamming in workshops, picking in the courtyards, and sometimes popping on to the contest stage to have a listen,” says FreshGrass producer Chris Wadsworth.
Clinics and Workshops Abound
FreshGrass 2014 also will feature an array of instrumental clinics and industry workshops. These will include a Banjo MegaJam led by Grammy Award-winning banjo virtuoso Alison Brown, a FreshGrass Fiddle Summit, and a fingerpicking workshop conducted by Happy Traum. Budding mandolinists will have an opportunity to practice new methods with mandolin mavens. Professors from the American Roots Music Program at Berklee College of Music will discuss various aspects of bluegrass and roots music. And luthiers will demonstrate their craft throughout the weekend.
Children’s programming and a bounty of Berkshire fresh food and spirits round out the menu for FreshGrass; while festivalgoers also can enjoy the contemporary art exhibitions in MASS MoCA’s galleries.
Tickets for the festival may be purchased online at www.freshgrass.com, where you’ll also find daily schedules and more information on the event.
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