36 past events with the bluegrass tag

Sierra Hull is the first bluegrass musician to receive a Presidential Scholarship to the Berklee College of Music. Signing with Rounder Records at the age of 13, Sierra has always had a passion for her music. In the past three years, she has received five International Bluegrass Music Association nominations.

Tickets on sale August 12, 2013.

For more information call the Emens Auditorium Box Office at (765) 285-1539 or visit www.bsu.edu/emens

Mastering modern traditional bluegrass, The Boxcars exhibit their versatile talent as a band and as individuals. The members have numerous IBMA and Grammy Awards along with having shared the stage with most of the top names in bluegrass. As a group, they have earned two consecutive IBMA Instrumental Group of the Year awards.

Tickets on sale August 12, 2013.

For more information call the Emens Auditorium Box Office at (765) 285-1539 or visit www.bsu.edu/emens

The Steeldrivers

Critically acclaimed bluegrassers' THe Steeldrivers will be coming to Canan Commons for a FREE concert as part of the Muncie Three Trails Music Series. With songs covered by Adele and multiple Grammy nods, this is a concert not be missed. Opening will be Hoosier bluegrassers' New Balance. For more information, please visit www.munciethreetrails.org.

get ready for the first-ever first-annual BROKEN HOMECOMING MUSIC FESTIVAL. we're gonna showcasing bands from our own broken home, the Rust Belt, in a two-part two-venue all-day folk/folk-punk/cowpunk/bluegrass and hip-hop nightmare extravaganza.

Village Green Records (3pm--9pm)

3--3:30pm: Zorn Crowder
3:45--4:15pm: Ripped From the Roots
4:30--5pm: Palmer House
5:15--5:45pm: C is for Cadaver
6--6:30pm: 40RTY
6:45--7:15pm: Old Fox Road
7:30--8pm: Pour Choices
8:15--9pm: Mr.Meaner

Be Here Now (9pm-2am)

Hip Hop portion of the night! For more info, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/1865369673480891/

Balsam Range

Bluegrass greats Balsam Range will perform in a FREE, all ages outdoor concert as part of the Muncie Three Trails Music Series. The concert will take place at Canan Commons in downtown Muncie, IN on Friday, July 13th at 7 PM. Flatland Harmony Experiment will open the show.

Balsam Range is one of the most decorated bluegrass groups of the last decade, receiving 8 nominations from the IBMA in 2017 alone, including winning the award for Album of the Year and being nominated for Entertainer of the Year, Instrumental Group of the Year, and Vocal Group of the Year.

Full details of this concert and the Three Trails series can be found at www.munciethreetrails.com.

Bluegrass greats Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper will perform in a FREE, all ages, outdoor concert as part of the 2021 Muncie Three Trails Music Series! The concert will take place at 7:00 PM on Saturday, August 7th at Canan Commons in Downtown Muncie, Indiana. Muncie's Bashville Boys will open the show.

Michael Cleveland is one of the most decorated fiddle players in bluegrass history, with 12 IBMA “Fiddle Player of the Year” awards. Michael was also inducted into the National Fiddle Player Hall of Fame in 2018, and, along with his group, Flamekeeper, most recently won the 2020 Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album for their release, “Tall Fiddller”. “He plays fearless and it’s intoxicating to play with him because he makes you play fearless,” says Country Music Hall of Famer Vince Gill. “It’s wicked to see how much music he pulls out of a bow. He’s untouchable.” In addition to Vince Gill, Michael has also played with such legendary musicians as Marty Stuart, Tim O’Brien, J.D. Crowe and the New South, Ralph Stanley, Doc Watson, Larry Sparks, and Doyle Lawson.

Since forming his group Flamekeeper in 2006, they have won 6 additional IBMA awards for Instrumental Group of the Year. The band’s current line-up of Josh Richards on guitar, Nathan Livers on mandolin, Jasiah Strode on banjo, and Chris Douglas on bass, definitely keeps the flame burning bright. Come join us for what is sure to be a fantastic show!

The Muncie Three Trails Music Series is unique in the state of Indiana as the only annual music series featuring current recording artists of national stature and critical acclaim in FREE public concerts. Other 2021 series artists are Asleep At The Wheel, the Sensational Barnes Brothers, and the Lost Bayou Ramblers. Full information about the series and all 2021 artists can be found at www.MuncieThreeTrails.com

Enjoy the Trails, Enjoy the Music!

Join us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter too!

The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys LIVE at the 2023 Muncie Three Trails Music Series!

Please join us on Saturday, August 12th at 7:00pm, at Canan Commons in Downtown Muncie, Indiana for our Summer of FREE CONCERTS with The Po' Ramblin' Boys and special guest opener The Bashville Boys!

At a time when most people feel constantly distracted by technology and barraged by the news, authenticity and straightforward honesty are paramount. There’s something about the music of The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys that cuts right through the noise of the world and speaks plainly to the soul. Formed in the Smoky Mountains, The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys are at once exactly what you would expect and not at all what you would expect from a tattooed East Tennessee Bluegrass outfit. No strangers to hard work, the boys are as much at home riding in their restored Eagle tour bus as they are crawling underneath to fix it when it needs maintenance. But they take pride in being ambassadors of their genre, and the group has brought their music from rural bluegrass festival stages to the rock clubs of Europe, and even the Grammy Red Carpet, with stunning results. “I think to a certain extent everyone is just craving music that they can feel, and any music that feels real will reach any audience” says CJ Lewandowski, the groups founder.

In 2014, Lewandowski was working at Ole Smoky Moonshine Distillery in Sevierville, TN. The distillery employed musicians to play for visitors seven days a week, and Lewandowski, who primarily plays mandolin and sings, was occasionally hired to fill in when the entertainment didn’t show. Eventually, the distillery approached him about forming a band for a full time slot, so he reached out to long time music friends Jereme Brown, who plays banjo for the group, and Josh Rinkel, who plays guitar. “Jereme was doing a lot of welding work at that time, and Josh was running a sign company”, says Lewandowski, “I think we were all ready to do something new, something with our music but we didn’t know when or how”. Bassist Jasper Lorentzen happened to be working in the tasting room at the distillery, and he turned out to be the perfect addition to the band. Apparently the bluegrass world agreed, as the group garnered the International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA) Emerging Artist of the Year award in 2018. Then, in 2020, the finishing touch was added to the quartet when Laura Orshaw, a seasoned fiddle player and singer, joined the Boys.

Material for the group’s freshman Rounder Records album, Toil, Tears & Trouble, is a combination of original songs and old numbers that honor the group’s mentors and bluegrass heroes. “We love to dig up old songs that haven’t been heard in years and bring them back into the spotlight”, explains Lewandowski. The record has enjoyed great acclaim, receiving the band’s first Grammy nomination for “Best Bluegrass Album,” an “Album of the Year” nomination from the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), and winning “Song of the Year” award from the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music for America for the tune “Next Train South.”

Visit The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys here:

https://www.theporamblinboys.com

The primary mission of the Muncie Three Trails Music Series is to bring critically acclaimed, national recording artists to perform at Canan Commons, Muncie’s newest outdoor performance venue, located in the heart of Downtown. All concerts are free to the public. Our second mission is to promote the many recreational, artistic, and cultural attractions located along, or in close proximity to, Canan Commons and Muncie’s popular “Three Trails” -- The White River Greenway, The Cardinal Greenway, and The Muncie Arts and Culture Trail. We hope that the combination of outstanding concerts and Muncie’s attractions will provide both local citizens and visitors from throughout the region and state with a full day of fun and music.

Explore The Trails, Enjoy The Music!

Please visit our website to learn much more about our 2023 Muncie Three Trails Music Series:

https://www.munciethreetrails.com

Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper LIVE at the 2023 Muncie Three Trails Music Series!

Please join us on Friday, August 25th at 7:00pm, at Canan Commons in Downtown Muncie, Indiana for our Summer of FREE CONCERTS with Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper and special guest opener The Punkin Holler Boys!

"My desire to present the amazing artistry of Michael Cleveland to residents of Muncie and East Central Indiana was one of my main motivations in starting the Muncie Three Trails Music Series."

- Rick Zeigler, Founder, Muncie Three Trails Music Series

The tension between tradition and innovation is at the core of bluegrass music, and the fiddle playing of Michael Cleveland exemplifies this musical tug of war. As a boy, Cleveland heard a local fiddler play “Orange Blossom Special,” which sparked a lifelong obsession with the tune that mimics the sound of a train. Cleveland’s improvisational versions push the piece’s descriptive tones and percussive bowing to a new level. With an encyclopedic memory for melodies, and an uncanny intuition for improvisation, Cleveland’s music is both rooted in tradition and fueled by his melodic imagination.

From an early age, Cleveland heard old-time and bluegrass music at local jams and festivals near his hometown of Henryville, Indiana. His grandparents hosted regular bluegrass gatherings at the American Legion, and at age four, he began playing the fiddle. He attended the Kentucky School for the Blind in Louisville, where he learned the Suzuki method of violin. While he practiced the violin at school, he played fiddle at home. Traveling with his grandparents to area bluegrass festivals, he heard many legendary players perform at Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Festival in Bean Blossom, Indiana. At the age of nine, Cleveland got to play with Monroe—a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship in the inaugural class of 1982—at the festival. When Cleveland was 12, he met music historian Dave Samuelson, who recognized the young musician’s interest and talent. Samuelson curated several Braille-labeled tapes for the young musician, which served as Cleveland’s essential listening guide to bluegrass music. Cleveland’s repertoire and musicianship grew, and in 1993 he played the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) awards show with the Bluegrass Youth All-Stars.

Cleveland began playing professionally after he graduated from high school, first with Jeff White and later with Dale Ann Bradley and Rhonda Vincent. Since he was young, however, Cleveland had dreamed of leading his own band. In 2006, he formed Flamekeeper, now seven-time recipients of the IBMA’s “Instrumental Group of the Year” award. Flamekeeper includes Josh Richards, Nathan Livers, Jasiah Shrode, and Chris Douglas. In addition to touring with his band, Cleveland has performed with a legendary list of bluegrass greats. Nevertheless, he remains rooted in his local Southern Indiana community, where he continues to play with friends when he is not on tour.

Widely considered the best bluegrass fiddler of his generation, Cleveland has been recognized 12 times as the IBMA’s “Fiddler of the Year,” and in 2018 he was inducted into the National Fiddler’s Hall of Fame. His recording Fiddler’s Dream was nominated in 2018 for a Grammy for “Best Bluegrass Album,” and in 2019, his album Tall Fiddler won that award. In 2019, Cleveland’s amazing life of adversity and achievement was featured in the documentary film Flamekeeper: The Michael Cleveland Story. And in 2022, he, like his idol Bill Monroe, was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship.

Visit Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper here:

www.michaelclevelandfiddle.com

Presented by Ball State University, THANK YOU to our Sponsors!

The primary mission of the Muncie Three Trails Music Series is to bring critically acclaimed, national recording artists to perform at Canan Commons, Muncie’s newest outdoor performance venue, located in the heart of Downtown. All concerts are free to the public. Our second mission is to promote the many recreational, artistic, and cultural attractions located along, or in close proximity to, Canan Commons and Muncie’s popular “Three Trails” -- The White River Greenway, The Cardinal Greenway, and The Muncie Arts and Culture Trail. We hope that the combination of outstanding concerts and Muncie’s attractions will provide both local citizens and visitors from throughout the region and state with a full day of fun and music.

Explore The Trails, Enjoy The Music!

Please visit our website to learn much more about our 2023 Muncie Three Trails Music Series:

https://www.munciethreetrails.com

Stampede String Band is on their Mid-Western tour and is joined by special guest Oxford Baking Company (OBC)!
Over the last decade, The Stampede String Band has earned a reputation for their hard-hitting acoustic performances, thoughtful lyrics, and powerhouse vocal harmonies. The Last Shall Be First is not just another decent Stampede album: it’s a hair-raising experience. Its ten tracks include eight new originals, a cover of former band member Scot Heminger’s track “Long Time” that originally appeared on an album by his band Dos Ringos, and a cover of Blind Willie Johnson’s soul-splitting spiritual, “Nobody’s Fault But Mine.”

The Stampede String Band will be touring in 2023 with the original lineup, celebrating both this new release and the 10 year anniversary of their first studio album, Moonsville.

Our second FREE Concert of the 2024 Muncie Three Trails Music Series brings Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers to our Canan Commons stage in Downtown Muncie! We will welcome openers My Brother’s Keeper as well! Our concerts are FREE, held outdoors, and lawn chairs are welcome! Come early and come hungry for the local food/drink vendors!

The music of Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers is best described as authentic bluegrass, marked by consistently clean harmonies, Joe’s driving Scruggs-style banjo playing (he won SPGMA’s Banjo Player of the Year in 2023), and entertaining showmanship. Mullins has recorded over 22 albums and had eleven #1 songs, and has received over a dozen International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) and Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music Association (SPGMA) awards, including the 2019 award for IBMA Entertainer of the Year (with the Radio Ramblers), the highest award a band can earn within the genre.

Our 2024 Season is sponsored by Ball State University, thank you!

🎶 Explore The Trails, Enjoy The Music! 🎶

Learn more about the band here:

www.radioramblers.com

Learn more about the Muncie Three Trails Music Series here:

https://www.munciethreetrails.com

One of the most multi-faceted minds in roots music, Alison Brown is a GRAMMY-winning musician, GRAMMY-nominated producer, former investment banker (with an AB from Harvard and an MBA from UCLA), and co-founder of The Compass Records Group which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2023.

Although Alison began her musical career as a teenager in the Southern California bluegrass scene, she has built a reputation as one of today’s most forward thinking and innovative banjo players. She is known for taking the instrument far beyond its Appalachian roots by blending bluegrass and jazz influences into a sonic tapestry that has earned praise and recognition from a variety of national tastemakers including The Wall Street Journal, CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, and USA Today.

Grammy-winning bluegrass greats Steep Canyon Rangers will open our 2025 Muncie Three Trails Music Series with our first FREE CONCERT on Saturday, May 31st at Canan Commons in Downtown Muncie! Our first opening act of the 2025 season will be Muncie's Mike Martin & The Beautiful Mess! Lawn chairs, dancing, and all ages are welcome! Come early and come hungry for our local food/drink vendors too! Explore the Trails, Enjoy the Music! 

Learn more about the 2025 Series here:

https://www.MuncieThreeTrails.com

RSVP here:

https://www.facebook.com/share/1BnNozA8G1/

Over the band’s esteemed career, Steep Canyon Rangers have released 14 studio albums, three collaborative albums with actor and banjoist Steve Martin, and been inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame! Heralds of the Carolina sound for more than two decades, the GRAMMY-winning Steep Canyon Rangers find themselves in a unique seat at the table for their new release, Morning Shift. On this record, the band tell stories that both honor their roots, and expand upon the living art of bluegrass music. Recorded in Bat Cave, NC, at the Hickory Nut Gap Inn, a historical refuge settled near a long-forgotten crossroads of Southern Appalachia, this was the perfect space to feel confident in expanding upon that Carolina sound, the perfect runway to let their well-oiled machine do what it does best- craft stories from the ground up, as a unit. With a sure hand at the wheel was the distinguished Darrell Scott, whom the Rangers put full faith in to navigate the waters of producing their most important record to date. “It was like going to recording camp,” said Scott, “We ate together, we stayed at the Inn together the whole time, and we recorded. Going about it that way made for a very organic record.” A thoughtful approach to collaboration, ironclad creative trust, and a collective drive towards authentic storytelling, makes for not only a quintessential Rangers record, but a modern North Carolina classic.

Steep Canyon Rangers is made up of Graham Sharp on banjo and vocals, Mike Guggino on mandolin/mandola and vocals, Aaron Burdett on guitar and vocals, Nicky Sanders on fiddle and vocals, Mike Ashworth on drums and vocals, and Barrett Smith on bass, guitar, and vocals. Hailing from both the Appalachian and Piedmont regions of North Carolina, the Rangers have long held traditional bluegrass paramount, while possessing an exceptional ability to bring it down the mountain, and to incorporate accessible influences from all walks of the region. Too, newcomer Burdett brings a soul-stirring element to the Rangers’ mastery of mountain music. Burdett is an award-winning singer-songwriter, and a student of folk tradition. He provides a fresh, emotional context to the songbook, which “can reach out and touch your heart or slap you in the face,” to use the praise of drummer and multi-instrumentalist, Mike Ashworth. “I’ve always loved traditional Old Time and Bluegrass, and the concept of neo- traditional re-visitations and interpretations of those styles.” says Burdett. “Once I started singing with the Rangers, I saw an opportunity to try to write some songs for the band that brought in the traditional sounds and structures that I grew up hearing here in western North Carolina.”

With the band’s last few albums, they have gained recognition well beyond the world of bluegrass, earning a reputation as some of the most influential songwriters in Americana today. Steep Canyon Rangers have appeared on some of music’s biggest stages and in 2013, Nobody Knows You won the GRAMMY Award for Best Bluegrass Album, while 2012’s Rare Bird and 2020’s North Carolina Songbook garnered nominations in the same category!

Learn more about Steep Canyon Rangers here:

https://www.SteepCanyon.com

You are going to love this FREE show! And we're making sure of it with our great local opening act, long-time patrons of the arts in Muncie, Mike Martin & The Beautiful Mess! Their music has been called everything from folk to bluegrass to punk rock to Celtic to country. The band consists of Mike on guitar, Caryn Egan on viola, Ripley Owermohle on banjo and harmonica, James Reynen on bass, and CJ Barrow on drums (all but CJ also share vocal duties). The last two years the band has won Country Americana Band of the Year in Charleston, SC. Mike, an East Central Indiana native, states, “Muncie had a huge influence on my music and my music business." - come show them your love of Muncie too!