State of the Bluegrass
by Kevin Lynch, Host of UH Bluegrass Saturday
 9am to 1pm

     It’s that time of year when you ‘Bluegrassers’ are all tuned-up for the start of yet another festival season having spent the winter indoors arranging your vacation days accordingly. The festival promoters in the northeast have also been hard at work arranging the talent for your particular favorite weekends. Familiar performers, as well as a few new faces, will be appearing on the Bluegrass circuit this year. For those of your who haven’t made your final plans as yet, here’s a list of 1998 Connecticut festivals and contests with contact information.

Festivals:

• May 29-31  21st annual Strawberry Park Bluegrass Festival, Preston, CT. 860-886-1944.

• June 5-7   8th annual Sterling Park Bluegrass Festival, Sterling, CT. 860-564-8777.

• July 3-5 Mineral Springs Foot Stompin’ Festival, Stafford Springs, CT. 860-684-2993.

• July 24-25   3rd annual Podunk Bluegrass Festival, East Hartford, CT. 860-282-7577. Note: Live Broadcast on WWUH, Saturday, 7/25/98 11AM-5PM.

• August 14-16 10th annual CT. River Valley Bluegrass Festival, Moodus, CT. 860-347-5007.

• July 11   Roxbury Annual Pickin’-n-Fiddlin’ Contest, Roxbury, CT. 203-354-3588.

• August ? Morris Bluegrass Band and Instrument Contest, Morris, CT. (Exact time and phone unavailable at press time.)

• September 19 2nd annual CT. Audubon Fiddle contest, Glastonbury, CT. 860-633-8402

     That’s what is going down in CT. This summer. Try to support these events by attending s many as possible. Don’t forget the fact that you can volunteer your services at some of these venues in exchange for weekend camping, etc. Just give them a call and find out how you can help.

Bluegrass on the Internet

     In the past couple of years Bluegrass sites on the Internet have progressed to the point where there are now some extremely helpful and complete websites. Many of these include multiple links to a huge number of music-related services, performers, associations, live radio, live Bluegrass concerts and much, much more. Many of the Bluegrass internet sites continue to improve their capabilities and content on a regular basis.
     For Bluegrass fans in New England I suggest you make your first "visit" online to "Barb Dietrich’s Handy Bluegrass Links" at: www.tiac.net/users/jmmiller/ where you will find up-to-date Bluegrass information and many additional Bluegrass links at this award winning site.
     You folks who are online will find the following list of Bluegrass websites helpful and entertaining. I’ve also included other music-related sites which give you access to a variety of non-Bluegrass subjects which you may find of interest. Feel free to inform me of any additional Bluegrass websites, homepages, etc that you may find. I’m especially interested in any performer’s homepages, as I will list them in the next installment of "State of the Bluegrass." You may e-mail me personally at: Klbgrass@aol.com or here at the station. You’ll find our address listed on the Rollcall page at the front of this WWUH Program Guide. Here are some additional sites of interest. Surf away....

A multitude of links:

• http://www.xmission.com/~iama/newlinks.html

• http://rtpnet.ort/~bith/links.html

Internet Bluegrass Magazine: http://www.iBluegrass.com

The Bluegrass Connection: http://www.gotech.com

Bluegrass Festivals: http://www.festivalfinder.com/bluegrass/bluegrass.html

Live concerts from Station Inn, Nashville, TN: http://www.bluegrassradio.com

International Bluegrass Association (IBMA): http://www.ibma.org

Bluegrass website from Estonia: http://bgr.ee/links/

Bluegrass song lyrics from Japanese BG fans: http://www.msknet.or.jp/~motoya/index.html

Civil War songs (non BG, but interesting): http://www.erols.com/kfraser/

Next issue: sites for performers, magazines, record labels, music mail order, and more.

Copyright©WWUH: May/June Program Guide, 1998