2009 RockyGrass Festival to include Steve Earle, Hot Rize, Earl Scruggs, Del McCoury Band

Dec. 16, 2008 - PRLog -- Planet Bluegrass is proud to announce the initial lineup for the 37th Annual RockyGrass  Festival, held July 24-26 at the Planet Bluegrass Ranch in Lyons, CO.  The lineup includes headliners Steve Earle & the Bluegrass Dukes, Hot Rize, Earl Scruggs, Del McCoury Band and many, many more along the banks of the St. Vrain River.  Tickets and camping are on sale now at www.bluegrass.com or 800-624-2422, including a limited number of holiday-priced ($30 discount) three-day passes.

This year’s lineup brings together multiple generations of bluegrass legends.  Earl Scruggs (the father of bluegrass banjo), Del McCoury, and Byron Berline defined the bluegrass style as members of Bill Monroe’s seminal Bluegrass Boys. Younger bands like Danny Paisley & the Southern Grass and Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper carry on the tradition of gritty, soulful bluegrass. Meanwhile newgrass pioneers California, Three Ring Circle, Mike Marshall, and Darol Anger push traditional bluegrass music in new directions.

Award-winning bands and musicians perform on-stage all day long. From the nine-time International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) entertainer of the year Del McCoury Band; to two-time instrumental groups of the year California and Flamekeeper; to vocalists of the year Claire Lynch, Tim O’Brien, and Del McCoury; to instrumentalists of the year Rob Ickes, Michael Cleveland, Ronnie McCoury, Bryan Sutton, Jim Hurst, Jason Carter, Mark Schatz, and others.  

Songwriters Steve Earle, Claire Lynch, Darrell Scott, and Tim O’Brien continue to add pages to the bluegrass songbook with modern, political, and personal themes.  Younger bands Bearfoot, Sarah Jarosz, and The High 48s show off the next directions in this American artform; while bluegrass music crosses international boundaries as the Swiss-born Kruger Brothers and the Swedish stringband Väsen broaden the world’s acoustic palette.  Many more artists will be added in the coming months; this represents about two-thirds of the final lineup.

Tickets for RockyGrass typically sell-out months in advance of the festival, with this year’s on-site campground already selling out through an online lottery in November.  Now in its thirty-seventh year, RockyGrass is one of the most respected bluegrass festivals in the world – as “festivarians” come from nearly every US state and several foreign countries.  The 2004 RockyGrass festival was nominated for Bluegrass Event of the Year by the IBMA.

Along with the main and workshop stage performances, the festival hosts nationally-recognized band and solo instrument contests, a kids area, a beach next to the stage, and late-night campground jams at three different campgrounds.  The festival grounds is located along the wooded banks of the beautiful St. Vrain River in Lyons.  Non-musical recreation includes inner-tubing the St. Vrain from the Planet Bluegrass Ranch through the Meadow Park whitewater course, and mountain biking and hiking at nearby Hall and Heil Valley Open Spaces.

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Since 1990, Planet Bluegrass has been producing exquisite musical events in remarkable Colorado settings including the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, RockyGrass and the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival.