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Musings on folk, Americana, country, bluegrass and newgrass

Tag Archives: Duke Energy Center


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Bluegrass music’s biggest night is 2019 International Bluegrass Music Awards

Tonight’s the night: the biggest night of the year for bluegrass musicians around the globe. All eyes and ears will be focused on the red carpet at the Duke Energy Performing Arts Center in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, as the industry’s biggest and brightest stars head to the 30th Annual International Bluegrass Music Awards.

Nominees for “Entertainer of the Year” are Balsam Range, Sam Bush Band, The Earls of Leicester, Del McCoury Band and first-time nominee Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers. The five nominees have a whopping 24 nominations among them this year. Multiple nominations for Sister Sadie, Carolina Blue, Mile Twelve, Molly Tuttle, Missy Raines and Rhonda Vincent are also notable on this year’s list of nominees.

Can’t make it the awards show in person? The show will be broadcast live on Sirius XM Satellite Radio (Bluegrass Junction) at 7:30 p.m. EDT, streamed via Facebook Live and will be made available for rebroadcast by radio stations worldwide, thanks to the sponsorship of Chiesi USA, Virginia Tourism, Deering Banjos, Compass Records, the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum, BMI, and Boston Bluegrass Union. A special red carpet live stream will be available on IBMA’s Instagram page as well. Continue reading →


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Flashback Friday: Seven Questions with Tim O’Brien

In light of the fact that West Virginia native and Grammy-winning, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Tim O’Brien is bringing his prodigious talents to Asheville and Raleigh this weekend with “The Banjo Tramps,” today’s Flashback Friday is an interview I had the privilege of conducting at Rooster Walk Music and Arts Festival a few years ago. Continue reading →


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Mountain Faith to perform on April 7 at Duke Energy Center in Raleigh

Mountain Faith, the 2016 International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Emerging Artist of the Year, is heading back to downtown Raleigh at 8 p.m. on Friday, April 7, to perform at the Duke Energy Center.

The bluegrass, folk and gospel family band that hails from Sylva, North Carolina, has been playing its unique brand of music since 2000.

The band is made up of Summer McMahan, Brayden McMahan, Sam McMahan, Cory Piatt and Luke Dotson.

In 2015, the band made it to the semifinal round on the popular TV show “America’s Got Talent” propelled by Mountain Faith’s unique cover of the OneRepublic hit “Counting Stars.” The same year the band traveled to the Persian Gulf and performed six concerts for our men and women serving in the military.

The group’s most recent project is “Battlefield.”