Monday, November 30, 2009

Calling all bluegrass associations around the world!

The International Bluegrass Music Museum wants to partner with you! We’re starting an official Bluegrass Museum Ambassadors Program, and we’re inviting your association to participate.

Your association will appoint or elect a person who is willing and enthusiastic about being an Ambassador from your association to the International Bluegrass Music Museum. This Museum Ambassador will work with the Bluegrass Museum on special projects, report news and information for our newsletter, report Museum news back to your association for members and newsletters, encourage Museum membership and donations, encourage donation of bluegrass artifacts to the Museum and attend a yearly meeting of Ambassadors at ROMP in Owensboro each year. ROMP takes place the 4th weekend of June.

Ambassadors will receive a complimentary IBMM membership, a VIP ROMP pass (which includes VIP access to all events, backstage privileges, meals with Artists/Pioneers), and an Ambassadors t-shirt. The museum will arrange low-cost lodging for your stay at ROMP, getting you in on our artists’ rates (typically $54/night + tax).

What we need from you:
Designate your official Museum Ambassador and send us the following information.

Association Name:
Ambassador:
Mailing Address:
Phone Number:
Email Address:
T-shirt size: S M L XL 2XL

Please mail this information to the address below or email it to gabrielle@bluegrassmuseum.org.

International Bluegrass Music Museum
Attn: Bluegrass Ambassadors
207 East Second Street
Owensboro, KY 42303

Monday, November 23, 2009

Holiday benefit concert at Bluegrass Museum

Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike will be giving the International Bluegrass Music Museum an early holiday present—a concert benefiting the museum on December 10th at 7:00 p.m. with opening support by Up-N-Gone.

“We love spreading the joy and meaning behind the Christmas season in song,” Smith says. “We are especially grateful this holiday season for our wonderful fans; you folks have made it possible for us to continue doing what we love to do, even in this difficult economy. Thank you!”

This concert will take place in the museum's ‘Bluegrass Unlimited Theater’ and will be broadcast globally over RBI: Radio Bluegrass International, the museum's online radio station. If you can't make the concert, you can still be there virtually by going to the museum’s website, www.bluegrassmuseum.org and clicking on RBI (the radio icon on the upper left-hand corner of the home page).

“The International Bluegrass Music Museum is preserving an important part of America's musical history in a very welcoming, interactive, fun yet classy way,” Smith says. “We're proud to be part of their outreach to the community, both as part of their upcoming ‘Bluegrass In The Schools’ program in January and with our Christmas Concert on Dec. 10th, where folks can expect a mix of our regular material as well as songs of the season.”

Concert seating for Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike is quite limited—call in advance for reservations. Tickets are $10 per person, in advance or at the door. For reservations, call 888 MY BANJO (888-692-2656).

The Bluegrass Museum is located at 117 Daviess Street, in downtown Owensboro, Ky. The museum is inside the RiverPark Center Complex, a large red brick building on the right, just beside the blue bridge over the Ohio River. Directions are on the museum's website under ‘Plan A Visit.’

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Blue Grass Boys Reunion!

The International Bluegrass Music Museum will host a gathering of all living Blue Grass Boys who played with Bill Monroe as part of the Pioneers of Bluegrass Reunion held during its River of Music Party (ROMP) in June.

This will be the third annual reunion event, but the first to include a Blue Grass Boys gathering. To date, more than 60 “pioneers”—those musicians who were working in bluegrass before 1960—have attended the event. ROMP 2010 is scheduled for June 24-26, and museum director Gabrielle Gray says she hopes to attract as many of the 90 or so living Blue Grass Boys to the event as possible.

The Museum will also be making a documentary of the gathering, to supplement its Video Oral History Project that has recorded 175 interviews with bluegrass pioneers. In addition to the reunion events and main stage concert, ROMP features a Pioneers Recognition Ceremony, the Legends Supper, the IBMA Bluegrass Hall of Fame unveiling, a film festival and more.

For information on the reunion, call the museum at 888-MY BANJO or e-mail Gray at gabrielle@bluegrassmuseum.org.