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Bluegrass Heritage Festival – April 23 – 25th
Mile 0 festival – April 27th – May 1st
Larry Joe Taylor Festival – September 13 – 18th
James Wimmer Bristol Spring Bluegrass – April 9th – 10th
The Calf Fry – April 29th – May 1
Backwoods At Mullberry Mountain – August 26 – 29th
Red Dirt And Barbeque Festival – May 1st
DelFest – September 23-26th
Roots Under The Texas Sky – November 1 – 3rd
The Western Swing Out – May 28-31st
Dr. Ralph Stanley Memorial – May 26 – 29th
Valley Bluegrass Festival – May 1 and 2nd
Moonrunners Music Festival – October 9th and 10th
Texas Crab Festival – May 7 -9th
Bluegrass Island Festival – October 21 – 23rd
Plum Hollow Festival – May 27th – May 29th
Pickathon – July 30th – August 2nd
The Blue Ox – August 19 – 21st
Back 40 folk Festival – June 3 – 6th

Mountain Music Festival – June 3rd – 5th
Pondstock At Lake Hedke – June 10 – 12th
Stringbean Memorial Bluegrass Festival – June 17 – 19th
ROMP – June 23 – 26th
So Cal Hoedown – June 26th
Camp Greensky – June 3 – 5th
Telluride Bluegrass Festival – June 17 – 20th
Tailgates And Tallboys – June 3 – 4th
Moccasin Creek Music festival – June 17th – 21st
Laurel Cove Music Festival – June 11th – 12th
The Campout – June 18th – 20th
The Albino Skunk Festival – May 13th – 15th

Windy City Music Festival – July 9-11th
Floyd Fest – July 21 – 25th
Winnipeg Folk Festival – July 8 – 11th
Northwest String Summit – July 15th – 18th
Red Ants Pants – July 21 – 25th
Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival – July 16-19th
The Redwood Ramble – July 15-18th
Red Wing Roots Music Festival – July 9 – 11th
Under The Big Sky Festival – July 17 – 18th
Rockygrass Bluegrass Festival – July 22 – 25th
Master Musicians Festival – July 16-17th
Oyster Ridge Music Festival – July 23-25th
Podunk Bluegrass Festival – August 12-15th
Pickin’ In Parsons – August 3 – 7th
Braun Brothers Reunion – August 12 – 14th
Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival – August 13 – 15th
Fayetteville Roots – August 26 – 29th
Hoxeyville Music Festival – August 13-15th
Symco Hotrod Weekender – August 13th and 14th
Railbird Music Festival – August 20-21st
Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival – August 13 – 16th
Moondance Festival – August 13-16th
Viva Las Vegas – September 9-12th
Merlefest – September 16 – 19th
Americanafest – september 21 – 26th
Doyle Lawson Bluegrass Festival – September 24- 26th
Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival – September 19 – 26th
Chet Kingery Memorial Bluegrass – September 4th
Festival of The Horse – September – 10 – 12th
Dumplin Valley Bluegrass Festival – September 16 – 18th
Oldtone Roots Festival – September 12 – 14th
Bristol Rhythm And Roots – September 10 – 12th
Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival – September 12-20th
New England Shake Up – September 24 – 26th
Freshgrass Bluegrass Festival – September 24-26th
Pickin’ In The Pines – September 17- 19th
Hoopla At Devil’s Backbone – September 25 – 27th
Vine Grove Bluegrass Festival – September 23 – 25th
Bluebird music Festival – September 25th and 26th
Firewater music Festival – Sept 30th – October 2nd
Locki’n Music Festival – October 1-4th
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass – October 1- 3rd
Hangtown Music Festival – October 21 – 24th
ACL Fest – October 1 – 10th
Old Settler’s Music Festival – October 21st – 24th
Old Mill Music Festival – November 6 and 7th
Moonshiner’s Ball – October 7 – 10th

My dear friends over in Eastern Kentucky are brewing up an absolutely amazing festival right as we speak, and I am keeping a watchful eye upon this event. I covered this event for many years, before the covid basically stopped all life last year. Every single festival that I deal with on a yearly basis had cancelled for 2021, and even then some have once again moved to 2022.

The Master Musicians Festival has once again launched a fantastic campaign to make your July even hotter this year. I’m going to be talking about many of the musical acts that will be adorning the stages that weekend, and I’ll also delve into some of the different things to do there.

I’ve always been a huge advocate for this festival, because of the outstanding job they do on behalf of the community. See, this one isn’t your typical run of the mill festival here. They rely solely on sponsors and US to provide the revenue possible to continue to hire the talent.

For the last 6 months, I have been researching and making articles on how we can all do our part in resurrecting live music again. All  of the smaller venue shows have returned, as well as larger shows now. NOW IS the most important time to come forth and financially, and physically support whatever music community you love…more to come.

The History Of Master Musicians Festival

Non-Profit Board Keeps Ticket Prices Low

I try my best to stay in the loop in the Texas music community, and I use organizations like this one to do that. The Texas Regional Radio Report is one of the many resources I use to obtain information. In this article here, I will tell you why I like them so much.

I was finished going through my divorce in 2006, and in 2007 I began once again delving into the music to heal. MySpace and internet radio were other ways I found, I discovered Ryan Bingham, Son Volt and many others.

I could list thousands of bands that influenced me back then with Texas music, as well as Roots music. Currently all of these years later, I enjoy spending time studying and writing about Country Music and other genres, and I enjoy local music as well.

In 2004, they started this fine resource information project for upcoming talent, that people like me lust after to find new artists to feature. This is a chart based publication that has a purpose to help regional talent.

They feature TWO different charts to generate notice for the ones considered “Texas Red Dirt” and the “Texas  Only” bands. They reflect the song activity of each individual artist, that best suit them.

Miss Bri Bagwell has been one of the many women I have been enjoying in the “Texas red Dirt” market for many years. To be completely honest, I just call it all good music, and I try not to make boxes or lump people into those boxes.

Even though we haven’t heard a new album from her since 2018’s “In My Defense”, we do have a new single from her called “As Soon As You”. And even though we have a lapse in time for new music, she runs a very strict show schedule and performs many shows a year.

 

Here at Gary Hayes Country, we do not jumble a bunch of epexegesis and click bait together to generate hits on this site. In fact, we do a lot of direct information on our articles on behalf of all of the bands and venues.

I myself am an ardent advocate for ALL of the interdependent venues, located all over America. I have a ton of separate articles for these venues and festivals, and the thousands of bands that adorn their stages.

The Grey Eagle in Ashville North Carolina is another of the few venues we promote, that I have not been to yet. Time has always prohibited me from visiting this venue, as it has prohibited all of us on things.

The world of music is a vast, amazing mass of people and places that spans a large area. Getting the chance to get to all of these places, for all of these bands and artists isn’t always easy. In time, I shall indeed get to them all.

The Grey Eagle Announces Plans to Reopen Thursday, April 1st Asheville’s longest running music venue and neighborhood taqueria will welcome guests for dining and socially distanced concerts after a winter hiatus ASHEVILLE – Live music fans rejoice; Asheville’s beloved River Arts District music venue The Grey Eagle is set to emerge from winter hibernation this Thursday, April 1st. Following a short pandemic-induced hiatus, the city’s longest running live music establishment is ready to shake the frost off its bones and welcome fans back to its flagship location with heightened safety measures and a stacked calendar of socially distanced events on the horizon. “We couldn’t be more excited to get back to it,” says venue owner Russ Keith. “Putting on shows and giving people the opportunity to enjoy live music in a safe environment is the heartbeat of our business; not to mention allowing artists the chance to perform and connect with their fans once again. Our industry has gone through a lot in the past year, but we’re relieved to have made it to this point, and now we’re just looking ahead toward the future.” In anticipation of its grand reopening, The Grey Eagle has already announced a bevy of limited capacity, reserved seating events taking place both indoors (with generously-spaced tables and masks required) as well on its airy outdoor patio. Highlights include an intimate duo performance by Charleston’s Stop Light Observations (April 16 at 8:00 PM), a sold out double-header evening with Brent Cobb + Kendell Marvel (May 22 at 6:30 PM and 9:30 PM, respectively), and a special Father’s Day performance featuring Firecracker Jazz Band (June 20 at 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM). Following a string of successful off-site events, The Grey Eagle looks forward to reviving its drive-in series with Big Something + Too Many Zooz at Maggie Valley Festival Grounds (May 28), with additional drive-ins to be announced soon. For a full lineup of calendar listings, visit www.thegreyeagle.com/calendar. Although The Grey Eagle’s brick and mortar site has been closed to the public since December, the venue and its taqueria counterpart have had a surprisingly busy year. In late 2020, The Grey Eagle Taqueria welcomed two new locations under its wing, linking arms with both BearWaters Brewing Company in Maggie Valley, NC and Big Pillow Brewing in Hot Springs for exclusive food programming. Now in its 26th year of operation, The Grey Eagle continues to deliver top notch live music experiences and delicious latin-inspired cuisine to the mountains of Western North Carolina. Stay tuned for additional show announcements and mark your calendars for The Grey Eagle and The Grey Eagle Taqueria’s grand reopening on April 1st. For up-to-date information on all things The Grey Eagle, including show listings, safety protocols, and more, visit www.thegreyeagle.com.

This brings me to another subject I wanted to talk about, which was the long awaited album from Mr. John Moreland called Live At The Grey Eagle.  Mr. Gordon Wilson and Mr. John himself make this album, that was released in 2020 an instant classic, and a must have in your collection.

He delves deeply into his older albums, while using material from his “Big Bad Luv” album. The songs “Avalon” from his first album Earthbound Blues, and his 2012 second album called ‘In the throes” included songs like “Blacklist” and also “3:59 am”.

While he is obviously focused upon his more current albums, he equally maintains the relevance of his older songs. He breaks the album up with ( what is in my opinion ) his greatest song he has ever released, with a whopping 4 and a half minute performance of that song.

His live shows are a quality of wordsmith and poignant guitar playing, that would be ruined by a full band. This man was meant to play an intimate and acoustic setting….like this album

Right now, I am focusing on music festivals information. Lineups are changing daily, as they are all striving to book last year’s advertised lineup. While that is a noble and fan worthy concept, it is just simply not possible for the bands to be at all of them at once. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the lineup slightly changed when you arrive.

What I will be doing further on in the year, is publish a separate article for each one of these festivals, however I will be making extra articles with all of the information you need to start planning your experience.

Rockabilly has a TON of Legendary festivals that have paved the way for many smaller ones. The Viva Las Vegas rockabilly Weekender is the KING of them, as they are currently the largest Rockabilly festival in the world.

This one annually invokes over 20,000 people to the event, for not only music, but car shows and fashion shows as well. Bowling, Tattoo expos, even sober and singles meetings. The only thing they do not have are info panels like Americanafest has.

Like the other festivals I am promoting this year, I’ll be writing more on each individual festival according to the year portion. So near the time of each festival, keep in touch with us.

2 GREAT EVENTS VIVA LAS VEGAS #24 SEPTEMBER 2021 VLV24 will be upon us before we know it. All indications are that it will be a good one. There is some information below. VIVA LAS VEGAS #25 APRIL 2022 Everyone is asking when will rooms in The Orleans go on sale. Keep reading down this email information about that so that you do not miss out. We have added a Covid information page to the VLV website. This will have information as we receive it about event restrictions imposed by the local health authority. It also has links to state and county information for Las Vegas. There is a link to what Boyd Gaming are doing for customers safety at The Orleans. This page is not complete as it will change as the situation changes in Las Vegas. Click on the green image above or use this URL https://www.vivalasvegas.net/covid-updates/ VLV25 HOTEL ROOMS Hotel rooms for VLV25 in April 2022 will go on sale some time in early April. Look out for another email newsletter sometime in the near future which will have that information. The date and links to book. The rooms cannot be booked until then and are strictly one room per person. VLV TICKETS VLV24 Tickets are available now on the website or by clicking the image to the left. If you have VLV23 tickets we must transfer them to VLV24 and issue new tickets. You cannot arrive at VLV expecting to use VLV23 tickets. This is to control numbers at VLV24. VLV25 Tickets will go on sale on 1st June 2021 on the VLV website. A MESSAGE TO VENDORS TO OUR RETURNING VENDORS Please check email and spam/bulk folders. Robbyn has reached out to everyone but still has not heard back from everyone. If you can’t find your email, please let her know at robbyn@vivalasvegas.net She will get you all up to date on everything. TO POTENTIAL NEW VENDORS We have a few spaces left at the car show. If you are interested, please email Robbyn at robbyn@vivalasvegas.net FASHION SHOW We have one spot for a designer/company in our Fashion Show. For more info, please email robbyn@vivalasvegas.net THE GREATEST ROCKIN’ RADIO STATION ON THE PLANET www.rockin247radio.com

VLV25 HOTEL ROOMS HERE IS THE INFORMATION FOR BOOKING VLV25 HOTEL ROOMS

LINKS TO BOOK VLV25 HOTEL ROOMS Here are the links to book hotel rooms at THE ORLEANS HOTEL and THE GOLD COAST HOTEL. Booking opens at these times: 1am USA Pacific – 4am USA Eastern – 9am UK – 10:00 EU – 19:00 AEDT These times are online bookings only. Telephone bookings open at 7am Pacific time. Each person may only book one room. OR COPY & PASTE URL; https://reservations.coastcasinos.com/cgi-bin/lansaweb?procfun+rn+resnet+OR1+funcparms+UP(A2560):;VIVA22;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;?&d=m OR CLICK ON GROUP CODE GROUP CODE VIVA22OR OR COPY & PASTE URL: https://reservations.coastcasinos.com/cgi-bin/lansaweb?procfun+rn+resnet+GC1+funcparms+UP(A2560):;VIVA22;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;?&d=m OR CLICK ON GROUP CODE GROUP CODE VIVA22GC

I know that with great certainty that many of you will be logging on to my website for the many articles about the festivals, as they all announce their intention to have an actual festival in 2021. Now mind you, some of them have announced their decision to cancel the 2021 season.

Americanafest is one of my TOP 5 favorite mega festivals of all time. Not only do you get the best bang for your bucks, as it involves hundreds of acts for one price, but it also gives you a plethora of industry information.

Basically, everyone is in town during that week, whether it is from the Nashville scene or Texas music front. There are informational panels going on, and so much knowledge being shared….and the networking is beyond integral for someone like me. For two reasons, as a journalist I need the connections, and as a music fan…I LOVE to listen and learn.

Whether they know who I am or not, whether they care who I am or not, I GET TO stand around and LISTEN to what they  have to say, and learn from them. See, one side of this music thing YOU don’t see is the business side of it, like I get to see. THIS FESTIVAL encompasses that side of the business, that people like me fail from not knowing…and that’s exactly why I learn it!

Each year, I try my best to come out and get involved in every way I can there on their behalf. I am currently now supporting all of the venues, and bands, trying to put money into the local music economy and preaching the word of supporting local music. So, we will be posting more information SOON!

Photo: Nathan Zucker

“The coolest music scene today.” – The New York Times

The annual event brings together fans and music industry professionals alike, offering four days of celebration through seminars, panels and networking opportunities by day and raw, intimate showcases each night.

Our 21st annual AMERICANAFEST will take place September 22-25, 2021, gathering thousands of artists, fans, and industry professionals from all over the world in Nashville, TN. 2021 promises to once again be the must-attend event for anyone who loves the melting pot of Americana’s influences including roots, folk, country, blues and soul-based music. Each year, AMERICANAFEST brings together legendary artists, the next generation of rising stars, fans, and industry professionals for multiple days of music and education.

Our conference portion features numerous panels, seminars, exclusive day time performances, and much more, proudly providing Nashville’s most educational music industry forum. This special event covers the interests and needs of artists, managers, labels, radio stations, publishers, agents, promoters, retailers, legal and business affairs executives, merchandisers and new media professionals – all enthusiastically attended and presented by music industry leaders.
 And FYI, you do not have to be a member of the Americana Music Association or in the music industry to purchase a Conference + Festival Pass and attend all the events. We encourage all music lovers to be a part of the conference experience.

If you choose not to be a part of the entire AMERICANAFEST experience through a Conference + Festival Pass, then our Festival Pass is the option for you. For four nights, AMERICANAFEST will feature hundreds of live performances at Nashville’s most prominent venues and much, much, more! However, passes do not guarantee entry if venue is at capacity. If there is a must-see band on your list we suggest arriving to the venue early.

Photos: Nathan Zucker