Wintergrass 2015

[BigSkyTaylorPlayer]

Anyone going?  The festival runs Feb 26 - Mar 1, 2015 held at the Hyatt Regency in Bellevue, WA.  Taylor Guitars is a sponsor and going to have a booth there, I hope to try out some of the new 800s and 600s.

http://wintergrass.com

[DennisG]

I've been living in Seattle for 27 years, and never been to Wintergrass.  That may change this year, now that I see Sarah Jarosz is going to be there.  I've seen Kathy Kallick and Laurie Lewis ... both are excellent.

[BigSkyTaylorPlayer]

Hi Dennis, would be good to meet another UTGF member.  I'm bringing my mamdolin, on the fence about my guitar but I may bring it and see if the Taylor booth might take a look at it, I haven't had anything done to it for a couple years now except change strings.

I want to see Kathy and Laurie as well but looking forward to Mr. Sun.  Roy Andrade, Joe Walsh, and Grant Gordy were at Targhee camp last August as instructors, they were great!

Maybe see you there, we are arriving Wed and going to see a bit of the Bellvue/Seattle area.  Come by the Montana Rockies BG Association room - 355 or Greg Boyds booth for some jamming.

[HAPPYDAN]

I was there for the whole show last year - volunteered as an Usher, worked the Grand Ballroom. Saw some fantastic artists, heard lots of hallway jammers, met a distant relative from Corbin KY playing mandolin. Bad side? I got lost in the maze-like parking garage every night. Fortunately, parking for V's was free. My schedule wouldn't allow me to be there this year. Hope you enjoy it!

[BigSkyTaylorPlayer]

Hi Dan, just got back home tonight.  What a fabulous festival!  I spent the last three days going to workshops, shows, and jamming.  It's really too bad us humans have to stop and eat and rest or I would have done it straight thru.  I haven't been up that late for quite some time now....ha

The taylor guys were there with all the goodies, customs, 800s, 600s, Minis, 12 strings, over 15-20 guitars total....and I played them all.... . There were lots of other vendors there with wonderful guitars and mandolins as well as banjos, fiddles, and other items.

The workshops were great!  Del McCoury and his son Ronnie sat down for 2 hours to wow the crowd and answer the required dumb pick and string questions but they handled it well, it was Del's 75th birthday and they played two killer sets.  Other bands there were Della Mae, Steel Wheels, Steeldrivers, Sarah Jarosz, Joe Craven, Mr. Sun, Billy Strings and Don Julin and so many others.

If you can try to go as it is so worth it.  The Hyatt was a wonderful host site and all the people, cars, buildings, and concrete in Bellevue reminded me of why we moved out of the Northern Virgnia area.

[HAPPYDAN]

There's not much of a Bluegrass fan base in Washington, at least not on the west side of the Cascades. But the Grand was SRO every night Thursday thru Saturday. But - and this will tell my age - I got a real kick out of seeing so many men with hair ON TOP of their heads, wearing WRIST WATCHES. Think about it - kind of rare these days! Glad you got to visit some of the seminars. So many of the Bluegrass artists really enjoy teaching and helping others to learn an "old timey" art form. True Americana!