Bands

2025 Artist Lineup

Saturday, September 6

Michael Cleveland & Jason Carter

Michael Cleveland and Jason Carter are two of the most celebrated fiddlers in bluegrass music. Both deeply rooted in tradition yet unafraid to push musical boundaries, they have come together for a new collaboration, Carter & Cleveland.

Kaia Kater

Kaia Kater is a songwriter, banjoist, and composer whose music explores history, identity, and resilience. Her new album, Strange Medicine (out May 2024 on Free Dirt Records), weaves together the voices of women and revolutionaries throughout time, transforming stories of oppression into defiant expressions of power. Co-produced with Joe Grass and featuring collaborators like Aoife O’Donovan, Allison Russell, and Taj Mahal, the album pushes the boundaries of Americana, incorporating influences from jazz, minimalist composition, and film scoring. A gifted storyteller, Kater uses her songs to reclaim narratives, challenge expectations, and celebrate the strength found in self-expression.

The Mammals

The Mammals are folksingers Ruth Ungar, Mike Merenda, and a cohort of compelling collaborators who form a touring quintet on the fiddle, banjo, guitar, organ, bass, and drums. Over the past 20 years they have quietly composed a canon of original songs (“Some of the best songwriting of their generation” – LA Times) that both reflect our culture and offer a vision of how the world might yet be. “These days we sing about what we’re for over what we’re against,” says singer/songwriter, Mike Merenda, and what they’re for is “nothing short of sublime” according to (Americana UK).

The Hackensaw Boys

Roots music shapeshifters Hackensaw Boys have been making audiences holler and dance since way back in 1999. Formed in Charlottesville and now based in Lynchburg, Virginia, this hard traveling group has built an international following for their high-energy performances and down-to-earth presentation. Despite their roots in traditional music, their homegrown aesthetic (bolstered by the “charismo,” their calling card percussion instrument handmade from cans and other metal objects) belies their contemporary approach to songcraft and showmanship. Hackensaw Boys’ music today has just as much in common with the straight-ahead sound of the Del McCoury Band as it does with the indie rock of Pavement and the modern folk of the Avett Brothers and Mountain Goats.

The Woodshedders

The Woodshedders are an Indie Roots band boasting four all-original studio albums and performances at hundreds of festivals and shows. The band consists of Dwayne Brooke on guitar and vocals, Fiddlin’ Dave Van Deventer on Fiddle, Jesse Shultazaberger on drums, Will Spaulding on guitar, banjo, and vocals, and Randy Ball on bass. The Woodshedders bring lyricism and musicality to fun, danceable shows that swerve through Honky-Tonk, Gypsy, Appalachian, and Vintage Rock n’ Roll, often in the same song. They are the also the traditional late night band at the beloved dance barn at Virginia’s celebrated
 Watermelon Pickers’ Fest.

Larry Keel’s Electric Larry Land

Larry Keel’s latest project, “Electric Larry Land” presents Keel’s simultaneously gritty and suave original music applied to an electric format, creating what he calls a “sonic groove-and-vibe machine”. With this unit, Keel gives rein to his innate drive to expand his songs and playing style with this high-powered, highly creative and highly accomplished 4-piece band comprised of electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass and drums. It’s dynamic Acoustic Rock at its finest. Keel and “Electric Larry Land” are in full production mode on a new recording, with an EP set for release summer, 2024.

Shade Tree Collective

The Shade Tree Collective’s hard-driving bluegrass and innovative originals unite audiences with energy and enthusiasm. Stemming from the Old Line State and expanding with musicians and influences from Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and beyond, The Shade Tree Collective makes audiences everywhere whoop and holler, bringing people together for a bluegrass experience they won’t soon forget.

Friday, September 5

Foghorn String Band

The Foghorn Stringband is the present day gold standard for real-deal hard-hitting genuine old-time American string band music, with eight albums, thousands of shows, over 15 years of touring under their belts, and an entirely new generation of roots musicians following their lead.

Host Band

Furnace Mountain Band

Furnace Mountain consists of Aimee Curl on bass and vocals, Dave Van Deventer on fiddle and vocals, and Morgan Morrison on guitar, bouzouki, and vocals, and Danny Knicely on mandolin and fiddle. The band creates music that is at times lively and raucous, with spirited fiddle melodies weaving in and around the powerful rhythms of the bass and bouzouki, and other times poignant and poetic, with sublime vocal harmonies beautifully interpreting some of the oldest songs ever written.

Born in the holler of Tennessee’s first legal moonshine distillery, Seth Mulder & Midnight Run blend tradition with innovation through genuine songwriting and tasteful arrangements, bringing to life their original music and lost covers like no other in the genre. Combining elements of bluegrass, country, and folk music, their sound resonates with traditional and contemporary audiences alike. “In the day and age where authenticity is everything, Seth Mulder & Midnight Run are the real deal.”

John R Miller is a true hyphenate artist: singer-songwriter-picker. One of his biggest long-time fans is roots music favorite Tyler Childers, who says he’s “a well-travelled wordsmith mapping out the world he’s seen, three chords at a time.” Miller is somehow able to transport us to a shadowy honkytonk and get existential all in the same line with his tightly writtencompositions. Miller’s own guitar-playing is on fine display here along with vocals that evoke the white-waters of the Potomac River rumbling below the high ridges of his native Shenandoah Valley.

Miss Tess is one of those singular artists who deserve all the superlatives and accolades one could hoist upon a rare talent such as hers. This unassuming chanteuse is, as they say in the business, a true “triple threat” – a superb songwriter and adept multi-instrumentalist with an extraordinary voice that can sing the birds from the trees. Her music takes root and draws from an era when country music, contrary to popular belief, was downright sophisticated, and filled with instrumentalists who were every bit as hip musically as their jazz counterparts – stretching back to a time when Western swing bands and jazz bands played a lot of the same material – albeit with a different accent, informed by their physical location.

Born from the tradition of Bluegrass jams and potlucks, The Plate Scrapers — Derek Kretzer (banjo), Andrew Jordan (guitar), Robbie Mann (fiddle), Jody Mosser (dobro), and Kevin Johnson (bass) — have been putting in the work and showcasing their love for the genre since 2014.

They have since released 4 studio albums, 3 live albums, and have toured relentlessly up and down the east coast and into the midwest. They have been featured on WAMU Bluegrass Country Radio, performed as an IBMA Official Showcase artist, and their latest release, Artifacts (2024) had multiple singles on the Airplay Direct bluegrass/folk charts as well as rave reviews from Bluegrass Today.

GRAMMY Award winning American Roots artists Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer join with Chinese classical hammered dulcimer player Chao Tian in a show that combines music from China to Appalachia and beyond. Instrumentation includes yangqin (Chinese hammered dulcimer), gourd banjo, five-string banjo, ukulele, guitars, dumbek, cello-banjo and mandolin.

Pictrola fuses modern bluegrass with rock, jazz, folk, swing, and jams, performing a mixture of originals and fun takes on crowd favorites. The band originated when members met at DelFest Academy in 2017 and has since evolved into a powerful group with a well-honed and varied repertoire, featuring close vocal harmonies and skillful instrumental work.

The Short Hill Mountain Boys play their own blend of bluegrass, old-time, cajun, classic country, and folk music with a rare passion. Their harmony vocals, fiddling, and guitar picking are tight and practiced like the suit-and-cowboy-hat bluegrass acts, but imbued with the authenticity, spontaneity, and infectious good time of old time mountain music, in which they are well steeped. The Short Hill Mountain Boys’ love of the music and skilled musicianship makes converts of audiences new to the genre and is sure to draw and impress aficionados.

Thursday, September 4

“We hope our audiences get a chance to escape the confines of time and the pressures of modern life” explains Jesse Iaquinto of Fireside Collective, “We prioritize groove so our listeners can dance and let loose. The pinnacle is when we all transcend our individual selves, both onstage and in the audience, and become one entity experiencing the precious nature of life. We are all one, and music allows us to experience that.”

Inspired by the burgeoning art scene, close knit community, and natural beauty of Asheville, North Carolina, newgrass turned eclectic jam band Fireside Collective has been spent a decade working towards this very pinnacle.

The United States Navy Band Country Current is the Navy’s premier country-bluegrass ensemble. The group is nationally renowned for its versatility and “eye-popping” musicianship, performing a blend of modern country music and cutting-edge bluegrass. This seven-member ensemble employs musicians from diverse backgrounds with extensive high-profile recording and touring experience in the music scenes of Nashville, New York, New Orleans and more. In the tradition of country music, each member is a skilled performer on multiple instruments.

Back by popular demand! Two-step into the heart of Americana with the Thursday afternoon Honky-Tonk Revue. Featuring honky tonk and classic country tunes performed by Melissa Wright and her hand-picked team of all-star musicians, and a two-step workshop sure to get dancers of all ages tapping their toes. Read More

Don’t miss a moment! Get your tickets now.