Bluegrass bargain binge in Raleigh

Leaf peeping isn’t the only thing coming down the mountains and heading to the Piedmont.

Next week brings to Raleigh the third of six annual confabs of the International Bluegrass Music Association. Though the IBMA is based in Nashville, these gatherings – a business conference, award ceremonies and fan festival – bring the top established and up-and-coming bluegrass musicians to Raleigh’s downtown for five days ... and roughly 200,000 fans.

You’ll want to be there Friday or next Saturday – after the conference business and after the sold-out International Bluegrass Music Awards. The Wide Open Bluegrass fan festival includes ticketed concerts as well as performances on street stages Oct. 2-3.

The ticketed World of Bluegrass events are showcase concerts at Red Hat Amphitheatre; each features eight national-caliber acts; next Friday’s show was a sell-out days ago (Alison Krauss & Union Station, Steep Canyon Rangers, Balsam Range, etc.) and next Saturday’s (Sam Bush Band, Flatt Lonesome, the Kruger Brothers, etc.) likely is or will be, too.

No worries. Go for StreetFest – a music festival so large it consumes six blocks of Fayetteville Street. More than 90 bands will perform on six stages.

It’s great entertainment – and all free.

Both Friday and Saturday, music begins between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., depending on the stage, and continues to 11 p.m. That’s usually eight bands per stage, with 15-minute intermissions. Some play one day; others, both.

Also on very crowded Fayetteville Street is a large dance tent – guaranteed elbow room – with scheduled clogging performances and workshops, in addition to square, contra and open dances to live music.There are food and item vendors up and down the thoroughfare.

The street fest is produced by the Piedmont Council of Traditional Music, which screens and selects the acts.

Performers both days range from traditional to progressive bluegrass and reach the fringes. Bands come from as far afield as Texas, California and Canada. Kristy Cox, performing Friday afternoon, is a bluegrass star in her native Australia.

Solid bets? The Church Sisters (6:30 p.m. Friday) are young Virginia siblings with incredible vocals; Front Country – same time, different stage – are an up-and-coming band from San Francisco that’s making waves. Also: the Barefoot Movement (5:15 p.m. Saturday), a Carolinas/Tennessee quartet that tore up the crowd this August at Wisconsin’s Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua. Cherryville’s Darin & Brooke Aldridge, enormously popular at last year’s IBMA StreetFest year, return at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

One-of-a-kinders? Colorado’s Gangstergrass, which mixes hip-hop with bluegrass, close the dance tent Saturday. And then there’s the HillBenders, a Missouri outfit that scored big at the famous South by Southwest festival this spring by debuting “Tommy: A Bluegrass Opry” – which will be offered as a Friday stage-closer.

Who?

Yes, that “Tommy.”

This story was originally published September 25, 2015 at 3:00 AM with the headline "Bluegrass bargain binge in Raleigh."