The International Bluegrass Music Awards will once again stream live online, this year from the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh, NC on Thursday, September 26. And again, Bluegrass Today will produce a Red Carpet interview program hosted by Katy Daley, morning host at WAMU’s Bluegrass Country.
The awards show proper is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. (EDT), preceded by the Red Carpet show. Start time for the interview portion hasn’t been nailed down, but we will announce that here soon.
Video production and technical details are again being handled by the folks who present the weekly Music City Roots program from Nashville. While there was a special honor in having the awards show in the Ryman Auditorium of late, the Duke Energy Center is a high-tech modern facility, so lighting and camera placement should be more conducive to telecast this year.
The show is bluegrass’ big night each year to show off the best in our music, written and produced for 2013 by Chris Stuart and Jon Weisberger. They promise a fast-moving show mixing all the elements we expect from a gala awards presentation: performances by top artists, celebrity presenters from the bluegrass community, special collaborations, and the often emotional Hall of Fame inductions.
One highlight is certain to be the 2013 Bluegrass Youth All-Stars, a tradition dating back to 1993 in which young pickers likely to have an impact on the music are introduced to a wider audience on stage. Stuart tells us that they put a good bit of time and effort into selecting their All-Stars this year.
“We concentrated on kids recommended to us in the 12 to 15 age range. We wanted a representative for every instrument, including dobro. And we wanted kids that weren’t already playing professionally, as a number in that age range already are. We were very happy to see that we got a couple of girls on fiddle and banjo who were the best candidates we saw, including the lead singer.”
Selected this year are Korey Brodsky on guitar (14, from Connecticut), Michael Kilby on dobro (15, from British Columbia), Brandy Miller on banjo (15, from North Carolina), Jacob Burleson on mandolin (14, from North Carolina), Jimmy Meyer on bass (14, from Missouri), and both Samantha Snyder (14, from North Carolina) and Grant Rigney (16, from Tennessee) on fiddle. You may recognize some of those names, as several have been profiled previously at Bluegrass Today.
The youth band will be coached by Stephen Mougin, Tony Watt and Laura Orshaw prior to their performance, all of whom have many years’ experience with youth instruction and band coaching.
Here’s a look back at the 2003 All-Stars. See if you recognize any of these bright young faces.
Stuart also says that the Hall of Fame tributes will be special. The Earls Of Leicester, a special project band of Jerry Douglas’, will perform to celebrate Paul Warren. The group features Paul’s son Johnny on fiddle, along with Tim O’Brien on mandolin, Shawn Camp on guitar, Charlie Cushman on banjo, and Barry Bales on bass. Ron Stewart will preside over the induction.
Details of the Tony Rice induction are being closely held, but Chris did say that Peter Rowan will present, and that a special reunion band has been assembled in Tony’s honor.
The Steep Canyon Rangers will serve as hosts for the show.
This annual awards show is a great way to show what bluegrass music has to offer, and the stream will be available at no charge online. Bluegrass Today is proud to be a sponsor of the awards show, and to produce the Red Carpet show beforehand. Think of it as our Bluegrass Super Bowl, and consider inviting some friends over to watch it with you on the 26th. Let them see what bluegrass has to offer!
We will have a prominent link to the stream here, so just visit Bluegrass Today and watch it all go down.
