FreshGrass finalists announced

The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) has announced six finalists for their inaugural $10,000 band contest to be held during the FreshGrass festival September 20-22 in North Adams, MA. The bands fall within the festival’s targeted demographic of bluegrass and roots music, with a number who have been previously profiled at Bluegrass Today.

The Grand Prize winner will leave with a $5000 cash prize, plus a one day recording package at the Compass Records studio in Nashville, complete with artist mentoring from Compass President (and FreshGrass performer) Alison Brown. Second place finishers will be awarded a $2000 prize, with $1000 for third. The other three finalists will get $250 each.

The finalists are:

• Chasing Blue
• Six Deadly Venoms
• The Vickie Vaughn Band
• Cricket Tell The Weather
• Molly Tuttle, John Mailander, and Ethan Jodziewicz
• The Lonely Heartstring Band

These six were selected from among all applications received by a panel of music industry experts, who will judge the finalists’ live performances at the festival on September 22. Judges include Alison Brown, Chris Wadsworth from FreshGrass, Matt Glaser from Berklee College of Music, and Rachel Chanoff, the museum’s Curator of Performing Arts.

In addition to music from top acoustic, roots and bluegrass artists, attendees will have access to a number of exhibits from the museum.

Full details can be found online.