The South Carolina Waterfowl Association’s Wildlife Education Center is the new home of BirdFest, a beloved bluegrass music festival, held on May 5-6, 2023 in Pinewood, South Carolina. This year’s BirdFest is headlined by the well-known bluegrass ensemble Steep Canyon Rangers on Friday and Saturday nights. Other acts include Town Mountain, Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley, Amanda Anne Platt & the Honeycutters, Seth Walker, and Henhouse Prowlers. Purchase tickets and learn more at BirdfestMusic.com.

Like many touring musicians, Edward David Anderson (EDA) has logged a lot of seat time in vans and RVs beginning in the mid-1990s. His band, Backyard Tire Fire, toured a bit with Gov’t Mule, Reverend Horton Heat and others, crisscrossing Canada and the United States.

Dark Shadow Recording is thrilled to welcome the Henhouse Prowlers to the DSR label family, joining Becky Buller, Rick Faris, Laura Orshaw, Rick Lang, Stillhouse Junkies, Full Cord, Nedski and Mojo, and Stephen and Jana Mougin. A band that has been making waves on the bluegrass scene for a number of years, the Henhouse Prowlers have made a mission of taking bluegrass around the globe and Dark Shadow Recording is eager to join them on their journey.

We’re tickled to announce the initial lineup for the 2022 festival taking place June 1-4 in Springville, IN. We’ve put together a superlative lineup that features many of the acts that were booked (and never performed) at the 2020 festival. We know this diverse lineup will appeal to bluegrass, newgrass, jamgrass and old time fans. At the center of our booking philosophy is the concept of putting together a roster of talent that is as eclectic and varied as the music of our festival namesake, John Hartford.

Let’s look at the creativity and courageousness exposing the truths, the deep meaning underfoot, like bugs after the rain, this past year has been insane. Rearranged and renamed, complaints unrestrained, this is the new normal. I’d wanted to write scripture about Shoe Fest, some sort of article of faith, a declaration of devotion to what made me fall in love with festivals in the first place… Alas, this is my iconoclast blast that shall be touted on Facebook groups across America, the finest in toilet reading material.

While post-pandemic etiquette is on a lot of folk’s minds, John Hartford Memorial Festival goers are a little different. 2020 ticket holders were refunded if they wanted but so many gave up the cost of their tickets to donate to the organization that 2021 turned into a modest camp out complete with 12 bands for free. Miles of silence and long days of dreary COVID but the faithful keep coming back to Bean Blossom.

Progressive bluegrass quartet, the Henhouse Prowlers, announce the release of their new album, The Departure today.

For Henhouse Prowlers, the way that this album was created was a departure from the “normal” way they have made records in the past. The sense of collaboration and camaraderie that came out of the recording session was musically powerful and resolute. Especially in light of the isolation and uncertainty of the past year.

A new player has emerged in the bustling field of music festivals. The inaugural Homegrown Music Festival has been announced for July 21-23 at Byrd’s Adventure Center nestled deep in the Ozark Mountains near Ozark, Arkansas. Aside from providing world class entertainment as announced in the first 2 rounds of the lineup, the folks behind Homegrown Music Festival have another mission: to be the areas first sustainable and family friendly music festival.

Santa came early this year.  I must have been a good girl because Sept 6-9 2013, everything I asked for was left under the trees at Shoe Fest.  I had a taste of Nederland CO here at Camp Shaw in Manteno IL.   I saw some of the best dub stop music all weekend long.