FESTIVAL PREVIEW
Thank you to our sponsors! Ted's RV Land, PlayBetterBluegrass.com, Harvest Carriers, Inc, Nechville Musical Products, State Bank of Richmond, Gruber Pallets, Inc, Deering Banjos, 98 Country, The Old-Time Herald, WVAL AM800 Radio, and Bernick's Pepsi.
Each year the volunteer organizing committee of the Minnesota Bluegrass & Old-Time Music Festival selects a theme for their annual music and camping revelry at El Rancho Mañana Campground in Stearns County. For 2010 they have decided that on August 12th through the 15th they will honor what is sometimes referred to as the “sixth” bluegrass instrument, the resophonic guitar. If you are not sure what a resophonic guitar is, you will be after attending this bluegrass bash. There will be performances by Rob Ickes, the International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA) Resophonic Guitar Player of the Year for the last four years, along with his band Blue Highway. Plus resophonic workshops, resophonic showcases, resophonic gatherings, and other activities to prove that bluegrass music resonates in Minnesota (dontchaknow). This will be the 31st annual Minnesota Bluegrass & Old-Time Music Festival, and as usual it will include twenty professional touring bands with over thirty hours of concerts on the Main Stage, daytime instrument demonstrations and nightly dances in the Showcase Tent, more than twenty workshops in the Workshop Area, open mic in The Ranch House, and children's activities with music, contests, crafts and games in the Family Area. New this year: the Showcase Tent will have a brand new dance floor and we will be unveiling a new stage venue - The Young Talent Stage. While planning is still tentative, the Young Talent Stage is expected to be in operation both Friday and Saturday nights. The concept is to create a place for the next generation of bluegrass and old-time pickers and listeners to get together, enjoy a show from their peers, join a jam session, perform on stage if they want, and generally have their own place to hang. For this inaugural year you can expect performances by The Kalisch Family, Blue Hazard, and others. You can also expect some open stage time for anyone interested, and maybe a draw band challenge for young adults (put your name in a hat to be drawn for creating a new band).
We have a great list of events again this year in the Showcase Tent. There will be the usual banjo, fiddle, guitar, and mandolin showcases. Of course with our resophonic theme we need to have a resophonic showcase, and we will on Saturday with Rob Ickes (Blue Highway), Larry Beem (Southern Reign), Chris Stockwell (Rarely Herd), and Willie Scott Bauer. A few other highlight showcases include one on duet singing (we couldn’t pass up the opportunity with The Gibson Brothers and Mac & Jenny Traynham on site), a comedy showcase with The Rarely Herd on Sunday, the “Role of Wind” in bluegrass and old-time music with Light Of The Moon, and a showcase on a local legend - Hank English of the Tennesseans. And an unusual highlight will be the “banjo builders” showcase on Saturday afternoon. Our new dance floor will surely get a workout with the dances that are planned. On Friday night there will be an old-time dance with The New Mules followed by a Cajun and western swing dance with Kevin Anthony & The Twin City Playboys. On Saturday there are two old-time dances scheduled, one with Big Hoedown and the other with Lulu Gals. The Lulu Gals will also be giving a clogging workshop earlier in the day. Our Workshop Area will again feature a beginner’s tent and an advanced tent, with each workshop limited to seven pickers with instruments who sign up when the workshop sign-up sheets are posted at 10:00 AM on Friday and Saturday. From 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM both days the tents will be filled with the usual array of fiddle, guitar, mandolin, banjo, and bass workshops, for both bluegrass and old-time styles. And this year there will be an unprecedented four resophonic guitar workshops (two each day). The Gathering Place always seems busy even though there are few things scheduled there. That is because it is a central meeting place for folks to join a jam session or just get together. There will be a few scheduled jam sessions led by Bill Cagley (Saturday) and Jerry & Shirley (Friday and Sunday), plus the now annual quilter’s fest on Saturday morning. This year you can also expect a resophonic guitar gathering with some resophonic builders, players, and a few rare and unusual resophonic instruments. The Marketplace Stage will again be active when the mainstage is not. In the mornings we are expecting The Kalisch Family, Rory & Kiley Ellingson, the Halvorsons, and Andy Glandt. Andy is a well known banjo player and entertainer from Germany. During dinner breaks the Okee Dokee Brothers and Sloughgrass will keep us entertained. And after the mainstage is done you can wind down with The Fish Heads on Friday and the Roe Family Singers on Saturday. The Family Area is incredibly popular, and all the most popular stuff will be back on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. On stage will be Rory & Kiley Ellingson, Andy Glandt, The Halvorsons, and The Okee Dokee Brothers. You can be in the talent show on both Friday and Saturday (with one group each day selected to play a tweener on the mainstage). Or join in one of the many craft projects or games that are continuously going on. Stick around Friday night for the campfire jam with The Fish Heads. Ranch House Live is another new performing platform that has been very popular the last few years. This year it will expand to all three nights. Contact Earl at 612-868-1313 to sign up before or during the festival for this single mic open stage in the ranch house. In addition to the all the bands on all the stages, a large portion of the 5,000 plus people that attend are amateur musicians. They will bring their instruments and join in the many impromptu jam sessions that go on day and night in the campgrounds. El Rancho Mañana provides a wonderful setting for the festival. The volunteers of the Minnesota Bluegrass & Old-Time Music Association (MBOTMA), the 501c3 non-profit that sponsors the event, have constructed a beautiful permanent stage facility which boasts intact tree support beams harvested from the grounds. The seating area is shaded with the natural vegetation of the area and is surrounded by lovely ponds. The gently rolling hills hide the numerous camping sites. Everything is conveniently connected by a dependable shuttle system and masked with a carnival type atmosphere. Everyone is friendly. This is a great family event to attend for the day or camp for the weekend, and has been twice nominated as Event of the Year by the IBMA in Nashville. Advance tickets are a great bargain and prices range from $19 for any single day to $72 for all four days including camping. Teenagers are only $10 for the weekend and children are free. You can get a full brochure mailed to you by calling 1-800-635-3037 or email to info@minnesotabluegrass.org.
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Meanwhile on the mainstage, in addition to Blue Highway on Saturday, we’ll be featuring The Gibson Brothers (#1 song and #1 album “Ring The Bell”) on Friday, Dan Paisley & Southern Grass (2009 Song of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year nominee), Mac & Jenny Traynham, The New Mules, The Rarely Herd, Big Hoedown, the Race For A Place champions Sweetgrass, The High 48s, Pert' Near Sandstone, Southern Reign, Kevin Anthony & The Twin City Playboys, Dick Kimmel & Co, Lulu Gals, Light Of The Moon, New North Stringband, and The Wild Spirit Band.