Just outside Martinsville, tucked away down amongst a hollow of southern Virginia, you will find Pop’s Farm, the home of Rooster Walk. The Rooster Walk Musical Festival started in 2009 as an annual party to honor high school friends and to raise money in their names for charity. It has since become one of the finest regional music festivals in the nation, with a dedicated fan base eager to ‘get their strut on’ every Memorial Day weekend.

This week, we had the opportunity to sit down with Johnny Buck, the executive director and co-founder of Rooster Walk, to discuss the upcoming Rooster Walk 14. The festival began in 2009 as a tribute to late high school friends Edwin Penn ('the rooster') and Walker Shank. From its inception, the festival has focused on supporting a charity that grants college scholarships to deserving seniors at Martinsville High School and provides instruments and funding to enhance local school band programs.

Sixthman, the leader in festivals and music cruises for more than two decades, has announced the 17th sailing of its renowned Cayamo: A Journey Through Song, a seven-night musical adventure traveling February 28-March 7, 2025 from Miami, FL to St. Croix, US Virgin Islands and St. John’s, Antigua aboard the luxurious Norwegian Gem. First Round Pre-sale Signups are available now through March 20 at 11:59 pm (ET). Pre-sales for Cayamo Alumni will be available March 19-21; New Guest Pre-sales are available March 22.

Emmylou Harris, a 2018 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner and member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, will headline the 14th annual Rooster Walk Music & Arts Festival with her band. Celebrated guitarist Cory Wong, a rising star on the international music scene, will also top the band lineup.

Today, The McCrary Sisters announce the full lineup for A McCrary Kind of Christmas, the 14th annual holiday celebration and concert that benefits St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as well as individual families in need in the greater Nashville area. It will be held on Friday, December 8 at 7pm at Riverside Revival in Nashville, TN.

Rufus and Martha Wainwright are extremely happy to announce the date and some details for their annual Christmas show, “A Not So Silent Night,” to take place at The Town Hall on December 22. A family tradition, the two siblings will be joined by their immediate family as well other members of the Wainwright and McGarrigle clans. Emmylou Harris is a part of the tradition too. She has been a part of almost every Christmas show since its inception since she had a strong creative history with the Wainwrights’ mother, Kate McGarrigle. Norah Jones is also a returning guest to the annual show.

Earl Scruggs rests in a vast suburban cemetery just outside Nashville, Tennessee, beside his devoted wife and manager, among countless other memorials to the departed. A short distance away, the Country Music Hall of Fame displays his banjo alongside the instruments of his bluegrass peers, Bill Monroe and Lester Flatt. While Scruggs might not have single-handedly birthed bluegrass, he undeniably propelled it to prominence with his groundbreaking three-finger playing style, relentless touring, and fusion of bluegrass with rock and pop.

The second annual Earl Scruggs Music Festival is right around the corner on Labor Day weekend, and I had the opportunity to chat this week with festival producer Claire Armbruster to get a preview of what they have planned for all of us this year.

Blue Note Napa is proud to announce the new music lineup for the 2023 Blue Note Summer Sessions concert series beginning May 19 through October. Tickets to the initial slate of events will go on sale this Thursday, March 9 at 10 a.m. PT via bluenotenapa.com, although more concerts will be rolled out in the near future.