Sometimes I find it truly incredible how different each festival is. Sure, when you poke around in different genres you’re going to have a different vibe, but even within the realm of strings and grass, you’ll find the good and you’ll find the bad. Northwest String Summit at Horning’s Hideout in Oregon doesn’t exactly make it into either category. I think it stands alone in the “this is the most amazing, beautiful, compelling, warming, etc.

In just a week, on July 18^th, it’ll be that time of the summer again. That time when people from all over the country storm the state of Oregon with their families, their banjos, fiddles, mandolins, guitars, etc., and head to the small town of North Plains. Slowly they will wind their way through towering green trees and down a curvy road, until finally, they find themselves in a clearing surrounded by peacocks and shimmering shades of green. Not a bad tradition, if you ask me.

The 12th Annual Northwest String Summit returns to Horning's Hideout (North Plains, OR) with the finest acoustic pickers and standout electric bands from July 18 - 21, 2013. Located just 20 miles outside of Portland, OR, Horning's Hideout stands as one of the most scenic festival sites in the country. A family-friendly and locally-sourced festival, Northwest String Summit caps its capacity at 4,500 attendees to ensure an intimate experience for all festival-goers at an incredible ticket price.

For the past few years, one of the best-kept secrets of the Bay Area music scene was a David Grisman Bluegrass Experience show. With lines stretching for blocks, it would be standing room only to hear this amazing band. Now at last, everyone can hear David Grisman and his stellar group of Bay Area bluegrass musicians on DGBX - The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience.

Award-winning mandolinist and music producer David Grisman announced today the HD release of First Time Together! featuring Martin Taylor (guitar), Frank Vignola (guitar), Samson Grisman (bass) and of course, the Dawg himself on mandolin. In one day-long session, this brand new quartet recorded a dozen tunes.

Didn’t you always dream of having Jerry Garcia and David Grisman pick the night away in your living room?

Yeah, me too.

Award-winning mandolinist and music producer David Grisman announced today the HD release of the 1991 Grammy-nominated Garcia/Grisman album, as well as Garcia/Grisman - Alternate. This new edition of Garcia/Grisman celebrates the 70th birthday of the late Jerry Garcia, and contains the original nine tracks in the high-definition (24 bit, 96 khz) format. The second album contains nine previously-unreleased alternate takes, also in high-definition.

There were bigger, more well-known happenings this past weekend. So what was I doing in the middle of a pasture, in a 1975 Apache Mesa, covering the Grey Fox Music Festival? I was going through initiation. You see, this isn’t a festival. It’s a family; a tight knit group of Northeastern hippies, strict grass fans, old party hounds, their new-picking offspring and countless other factions who are represented in this family-friendly, hard partying, yet responsibly sustaining event.

With a career spanning over half a century, it’s difficult to conceive of a musician treating an audience to tunes that sound nothing but fresh.  However, Mr.