World of Bluegrass comes to Chattanooga and the Latest Bonnaroo 2025 News

The Snake and Jake's barn is back.

Yeah.

And it's almost like we manifested it back together.

I think we did.

The podcast that doesn't even get recognized in their own town.

Right.

So seemingly feels like we, well, I'm kidding.

We, they're not listening to us to make decisions infrastructurely.

But we were just talking about that the other week.

How cool is that?

Jake and Snake and Jake's is back.

You are looking live from the World Headquarters in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The What Podcast.

I'm Barry.

That's Russ.

That's Brian.

And I mentioned World Headquarters because it's an inside joke.

But apparently we're one of those podcasts that doesn't exist here in Chattanooga.

According to some media.

We can't get any love.

So whatever.

That's funny.

I didn't know you're going to go there.

We can never just a second.

Yeah, we never get recognized as a podcast in this city.

And we have, I don't know if I want to say the most popular one in the city, but we

certainly do deserve to be recognized.

We have a national footprint.

I like to believe.

Yeah.

I mean, I think we're kind of a big deal.

I might have to take some of the blame on that.

I'm blacklisted by a lot of people in this town.

They don't they don't like me.

That might be part of what it is.

Well, I think it's funny.

I'd rather be mysterious.

Well, yeah.

So what you're talking about is there was another article that came out on the Chattanoogan,

which is a local online newspaper.

And it's you know, here's a list of all the podcasts from Chattanooga.

And every time one of these lists comes out, we always get mentioned.

Yeah.

Anywho, it's fine.

Yeah, I don't care.

I don't care.

It's gotten to a point where I hope they leave us off now.

I know, right?

Exactly.

Yeah, I know.

It's better.

It's better because people reach out and they're like they did it again, man.

Yeah, I know.

It's funny.

And I also mentioned World Headquarters because guys we got to do what we love to do every

now and then that's take a field trip pack everything and those are fun.

And we got a great show for you today and it all kind of it's kind of what's the word

not funny.

It's all bluegrass.

We've got a good hour long of bluegrass.

And if you've been listening to this show and certainly Brian's other show Stone on

Air, you know, we're not huge bluegrass fans.

But what we like to do is go to the source and by God we went to the source.

I don't know how you can go much more to the source than what we did.

IBM, a world of bluegrass coming to travel.

International Bluegrass Music Association, Ken White, the executive director and local

bluegrass musician Randy Steele were our guests.

Was that Thursday?

Thursday.

Thursday.

We met them.

They were doing a they were going to do a press conference, which they did for the entire

city and Brian reached out to our mutual friend Randy and I had already I'm glad you

did but I was already on Ken's radar to try to set something up.

So you got it done quicker and they were great.

I had a blast.

Yeah, it was a lot of fun.

Along those lines, Mia Culpa for a couple of the episode that we did a couple weeks

ago when we talked about bluegrass.

I said one of the dumbest things I think I've ever said and I've said some pretty dumb

things.

Yeah, those lists are long for all of us.

We were talking about Cindy Pinyon whose name you will hear mentioned in our interview because

she is probably that she is the queen of bluegrass in this region.

But I misquoted hers because she's very specific about what bluegrass is for her.

And I think I was trying to say bluegrass to her doesn't have drums and it does not

have any electricity.

There's no amplification.

And I said no banjo.

She is a bluegrass lover through and through not electrified and I don't think drums and

no banjo that ain't grass.

So I'll say purists.

So yeah, yeah, right.

I mean, I might as well have said I don't even know no overalls.

I mean, there's no stand up bass.

Yeah.

Violin, who's heard of it?

No clogging.

I mean, I pick one.

No banjo.

Maybe the dumbest.

Yeah.

I think you got called out on that too.

Of course I did.

I'm the only thing I'm stunned about is that I wasn't more called out.

Yeah.

Should have been flogged.

Was that maybe when I was, it was because I was surprised, which is equally, maybe not

equally as dumb, but close to dumb that I didn't know that there was not drums usually

in a traditional bluegrass setup.

I just, I wasn't thinking about that during the Billy Strings thing.

And I was like, why doesn't he have drums?

It's like, well, because it's a bluegrass act.

I think we were, we were going, I don't know, synapses.

And I did also want to say, cause we got called on out on a little bit and, and I mean, I

don't, Brian, if it feels like I'm throwing you under a bus, I don't mean to, but I don't

care.

I felt like we went a little bit too long about the goose thing.

Last week kind of went down a rabbit hole where we were talking about things we don't

know the answer to, which is something we try not to do here.

We typically like the phone.

Yeah.

The rumor nature.

I don't mind mentioning it, but we went a little long in my opinion.

Hmm.

Well, I hadn't thought about it.

Maybe so.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Fair enough.

I was, it's the first time I had done much.

I don't want to say the word investigation because that's the wrong word, but looking

into reading a little further than the headline and the sub headline on things about goose

that were further that I knew of.

So at that moment I was a little bit more curious, possibly might be the word.

Maybe that's why, but hey, I don't know.

What are you going to do?

Yeah.

Like I said, and Russ, you know, we've said it from the start.

If we don't know something, we typically like to pick up a phone and call the person who

has the answer, which we haven't, and I still haven't.

Unfortunately, there's no one to call to get this answer.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We typically don't do rumors and all that.

So that's kind of a little bit of a good for us.

I'm not sure what's wrong on that one, but anyway, wanted to put that out there because

I know I've gotten a couple of emails and comments and Reddit stuff, but whatever.

I don't worry about that.

Reddit had a field day.

Yeah.

But you know, like, like if I'm wrong about the banjo, I'm going to be the first guy to

raise my hand and say that was just stupid.

And it was on my part.

One might also say ignorant to Barry.

Ignorant Barry.

Yeah.

Just like the pizza.

Just like the pizza.

The pizza.

Yeah.

I mean, on top of that, too, though, I will say, I mean, it is the talk of the jam band

scene.

So that's kind of where it comes from.

But anywho, yeah, I'm regardless.

I look forward to the Goose Show at Bonnarooo.

I cannot wait for that.

Me too.

Speaking of, before we go into our interview with Ken and Randy, the Who Stage lineup came

out as well as some information as to where this stage might be.

And it's not going to be anywhere close to us.

Right?

No.

And in years past, most of the times I don't know anybody on the Who Stage.

Most of the time.

Every now and again.

That's kind of the point.

I know.

I know.

But I also like to pride myself on knowing a little more occasionally.

Clearly we're wrong on that a lot.

Many times I don't know anything or maybe one.

And last year was the exception.

I knew like three.

It was the first time that I knew several and was really excited about the Who Stage.

And when I went to it three times, I was impressed with how good it looked and how well I thought

it fit into the infrastructure of the entire Senru landscape.

And poof, now it's gone.

I don't know any of the names on this year, but that's back to normal.

That's back to how it normally is.

What's not normal is way out at what did we say?

We were talking right before in the very in-depth pre-show meeting.

Plaza 7.

Wow, that's nowhere near anything.

And yes, of course, my first thought is, well, that's nowhere near us.

Right, Barry, Greg, Lord Taco, Brian from the show.

Yeah, we're not way out on the outskirts.

Occasionally, occasionally we'll take a run around and take a look, but not a whole lot.

Yeah, I want to say.

Still, that's a long ways away, no matter where anybody is.

It is.

You know, we went out to the beer exchange last year at the Group Plaza.

That's Plaza 5, correct?

We weren't even that close at that point.

And that's pretty far out from Senru.

So this is Plaza 7, so it's even even a little more further out.

Yeah, and less about us.

I know hard to believe, right?

I mean, if you're in Plaza 7, you're close.

So you're great.

It's all about who, you know, as I like to say about whose ox is being gored.

So less about all of that.

These bands got to have a little wind out of the sails.

Just a touch, just a bit.

I mean, they're happy to be there.

No matter what these guys, these guys and gals are up and comers.

They're going to take anything.

They play in the parking lot of the Waffle House down the road next to the liquor store.

You know, y'all know what I'm talking about.

They would play there.

But there's got to be a little but really, we're not.

But we're not right next to where all that other stuff is.

We're not in the mix.

There's got to be a, you know, shred of disappointment.

And we'll see. I mean, I'm not going to hate, hate, hate.

I just my first thought is no.

And now that things are starting to come become clear, I guess,

with lineups and things like where this will be, you know,

we're going to have Brad and Cory back on.

We still need to have Brian Benson on.

Brian Benson, for those who don't remember, is the the guy who books the lineup.

He and Stephen, you know, I want to hear their their thinking.

And we know for a fact that it is being thought about.

It's not like a random.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And it might be that.

Yeah, I have a good reason.

This is what most people this.

I mean, it might be a great move.

Exactly. It might be.

We'll find out in practice.

We'll find out.

And especially as you know, we talked at length last week about the

potential for selling out.

And I really do feel like they're trying to manage the crowd,

especially with that many people.

So, you know, we're that's one small way to do it.

Yeah, it is a way to do it.

Not as many big acts and where in the woods,

but bring in the infinities, you know,

move things around.

So I'm interested to hear the the logic behind it.

Well, speaking of that, we got to get to the biggest news of the

of the last week, potentially.

The snake and Jake's barn is back.

Yeah. And it's almost like we manifested it back together.

I think we did the podcast.

It doesn't even get recognized in their own town.

So seemingly feels like we I'm kidding.

They're not listening to us to make decisions infrastructurally.

But we were just talking about that the other week.

How cool is that?

Jake and Snake and Jake's is back.

That it's best, right? It's coming back.

Never been in it before.

So it's like I'm all excited about something I've never even been.

Speaking of a crowd control,

that's where everybody wanted to go back in the day, because it's air conditioned.

I never went because I couldn't get in.

I just walked by and thought, oh, a Christmas Christmas themed

cabin always looked like it was the those in the early days.

That was before the other.

Yeah. So like that was the place that never stopped.

Right. Like no matter what, it was going all the time.

Well, now Senru has got a little more never stop action going on.

And we'll see.

But yeah, I guess RIP House of Matru Mooney.

I don't think anybody's going to miss that.

Well, I think they're still doing matrimony type things.

We just don't know where yet, but it won't take up that big footprint.

It'll be somewhere else.

It's funny you say that, Brian, because I can remember there was that

and the silent disco was always packed and the line to get into the comedy tent.

I always had to laugh at because they they would find the shade

because remember, there was that one tree and all line.

And they would all sit.

And it was like a sundial as the sun moved.

It would start moving.

Go with the gate. Yeah.

Pretty funny. Well, and also because of an AC, you know. Right.

Right. That's why you wanted in. Yeah.

I only went to the comedy tent one time. Sorry, Tago.

My one time I went to the

Christmas bar and Sneak and Jakes.

Reggie Watts did a kind of a unannounced surprise stand up set in there.

I just happened to walk in and he comes out on stage

and just starts talking to me. Really? Yeah. It was really cool.

I think that was twenty eighteen because he performed twenty eighteen.

I was I was about to correct myself.

I said I've only been in the comedy tent twice.

It was actually twice once forever ago.

Jim Brewer, like twenty years ago. Yeah.

Eighteen years ago.

And then Reggie Watts in that probably that same year.

Twenty eighteen. Yeah. Well, this was twenty eighteen.

I don't think there was a comedy tent.

This was just in Sneak and Jakes.

Oh, was it gone by then? I guess it was. Yeah. Hmm.

Yeah. The last one I remember was the Conan thing,

where they put this video screen out in the field between the other and what?

This tent. Yeah.

Yeah. I guess it has been gone a long time.

I guess it has. Yeah.

Uh, yeah. What's the other?

Oh, I want to thank I didn't his last name's on his not on his Instagram,

but Sean, one of our listeners sent me a

a direct message to a podcast about

MJ Linderman speaking about his talking about how his song,

what his songs are about and just writing songs.

I think that was in response to me saying, I don't know what the hell

of the guy sings about, but I really like it.

So that was a pretty cool pull to throw out there.

So thank you, Sean, for that.

And then what about the Oregon Trail video game simulation thing?

You guys see that? Yeah, that's all. Yeah.

How neat. I don't know what it's there for.

And I didn't even finish it.

But I'm like, this is cool looking.

I don't know how many kids that go to bond room know what Oregon Trail is.

At this point, probably not a lot.

Well, we get it.

Good for you. For everybody, watchers and listeners that know what Oregon Trail is.

But what a what a cool little simulated thing they put together on there.

Well, and along those lines, just thanks to everybody for the discord,

all the recommendations.

Oh, yeah. I mean, Brian, you've touched on that the last couple of weeks.

But it's been great.

I mean, everything that people have sent pretty much I've I've been into.

Yeah, I need to make a round to all of them.

Put it together, another playlist and get my second round.

But I've still been to that point.

I've been stuck on MJ Lenderman, stuck on it.

It is he is the can't miss for me.

And it mannequin pussy might be the other one.

I still I still have trouble saying that.

Those two bands like I don't know if I'm going to run to my mom's dinner.

But I'll tell you what, man.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Tell us again, Brian.

What was your favorite thing about?

Well, see, last year was beaches and this year it's mannequin pussy.

Yeah. Yeah.

But I've been gone over the top.

Yeah, this bond thing is getting a little out of hand, buddy.

Yeah, it's going to be fun.

I've been stuck on the the Colts.

This band that I've found through the lineup has been I've been enjoying.

Yeah. Not the cult.

I think it's just Colts.

All right. Yeah. I'll give it a listen this week.

All right. So as we said, we took a field trip.

Brandy Steele for people not from this area.

Look him up. What's the what's his band name, Brian?

High Cold Wind.

It's got one of the members speaking of Bonnaroo on the on the who stage

last year with Monrovia.

Tyler Martelli is a guitar player for both Monrovia,

Bonnaroo last year, who's exploding name in last year.

And he's a guitar player for Randy Steele as well.

So Randy to me is one of the better musicians in town.

And I've said that for years. I love his recordings.

They do bluegrass, right?

I mean, this is they do it traditional and they do it right. Correct.

With banjos, with banjos.

Yeah, with

and occasionally a drum set, but not usually.

And Ken White, again, the big news.

And you'll hear all about it.

But this IBM is is a world of bluegrass and lots of lots of events

stick international or world or national in their name.

But this is legit.

This is I think, Brian, you point out and I think you nailed it.

It's kind of like a South by or an Austin city limits.

It's a convention.

It's a business gathering.

Label people, musicians.

Everybody's coming to Chattanooga.

It had been in Raleigh for 12 years.

They are not happy that they've lost it.

And Chattanooga is thrilled to have it.

And we got an early, early look.

I mean, those guys were great, gave us what?

Almost an hour of their time before they were going to do a pod.

I mean, a press conference. So pretty interesting.

What were your you want to talk about?

What your takeaways were going in or coming out?

Yeah, we'll get it on the way out. All right. Let's talk about it.

So let's listen to the interview and we'll be right back.

Being the big bluegrass fans that, you know, we are,

we decided we would go to the source.

No, seriously, we're very excited.

We've got a huge event.

I keep wanting to call it a festival.

It's not really a festival as such.

The festival is part of the experience.

But yeah, OK, we're here today.

Or taco, obviously, Brian.

I'm Barry, Randy Steele and Ken White with I am IBM, a BMA,

which is coming to Chattanooga this fall, right?

That's all September 16th.

Yeah, we're going to talk.

I'll talk all about it.

Very excited.

This is a huge event.

It's been in Raleigh for how long?

For the last 12 years and started in Owensboro, Kentucky.

Then it moved to Louisville, then moved to Nashville.

And then it's been in Raleigh for 12 years.

And now Chattanooga, here we come.

We're going to get into the details of it here in a little bit.

But I want to, I think, maybe start chronologically and explain.

Randy, correct me if I'm wrong, but it was you who basically said,

why can't we have it here?

Right. And kind of reached out.

Take all the credit, Randy.

It's all you.

Trying to give it to you.

Really, I would say a ton of credit goes to Donna L.

Like she was the one who that I got in touch with and said,

hey, I don't know if you guys are familiar with this,

but I've been an IBM member for years and they're moving.

They're talking about literally in the where should we go?

So maybe we should reach out or something you guys think about reaching out.

And she took off with it.

She really grabbed hold of it with both hands in a way that I she

in a way I wasn't expecting, because it was literally a phone call

every day for a couple of weeks about explaining bluegrass culture

and explaining that it's going to be the majority of people listen

are also going to be musicians and that there's going to be all this jamming

going around town and stuff like that.

So only really just the initial signal was just like, hey,

has anybody thought about this?

But I'd definitely say, you know, chatting a tourism

and the city really deserve a ton of credit.

Yeah, that I was going to say, Donna Ellis, which Chattanooga tourism

country company, this is this is her job.

But and I remember talking to her when this was announced and

bluegrass is not on her radar, but she was smart enough to say,

Randy, I think knows what he's talking about.

Let me look into this.

And she's a former media member here in the city of Chattanooga, too,

sure, for those that are not aware of her background comes from

what we do here with, you know,

interviewing, discussing the things going on in town.

But yeah, it is Donna on top of the bluegrass scene.

Probably not. Just like many of us aren't.

She is now, though. She is.

I was going to say, that's right.

Just graduated from a leadership.

That's right. He's on it.

And we're here to educate you guys.

So don't worry. Yeah, we'll get you up to speed.

It's funny. You mentioned the leadership role here.

I've got that part of my notes and highlights, which I don't even remember

why at this point. But I said talk about the

your involvement with or the discussions, the discourse with Chattanooga tourism,

because it's not just a city who went after this. It was

which is subsidized by the city or through taxes in some way.

But it's not a city entity.

The Chattanooga tourism is.

And would you talk about that discussion?

Yeah, really?

From my point, it really was just about let me introduce what bluegrass is.

And let me show you what's been going on at IBM for the last number of years.

I think one of the things that,

especially when we first started talking about was the

IBM, a that really maybe set Donna up or made her intrigued

was the inclusion aspect of the IBM pulls apart.

It's a big part of the community

is trying to include as many people in bluegrass as possible.

And it's I think like really,

I would hate to say what Chattanooga tourism did,

because I really wasn't a part of that.

I really was only a part of like just kind of helping them understand,

you know, the bluegrass culture, you know.

Yeah. And basically saying this is what we have going in Chattanooga, you know,

three sisters, best festival in the state of Tennessee happens here.

Maybe an entire southeast. Yeah.

And we also we have Boxcar Pinyon that happens every May.

It's a great traditional bluegrass festival.

We have a ton of bluegrass things that happen here in town.

And we have a ton of great bluegrass musicians, writers,

all of those folks that are here and are moving here.

Really, a lot of that a lot of musicians seem to be moving to Chattanooga.

I mean, I'm glad you mentioned three sisters because

Chattanooga was on the radar for this many years ago, if I understand correctly.

And because of the timing, three sisters was fairly new.

So it didn't, you know, didn't feel right at the time.

And I'm not out over speaking when I say that. Right.

No, I think there were a lot of factors back then.

You know, Chattanooga has a lot more going on with facilities, hotels.

It's more of a destination now than it was 10 years ago.

But yes, three sisters is here.

And it's important to us that that continue and thrive.

So figuring out a way to coexist here is important to us. Yeah.

All right. Let's let's dive into the detail.

And then I've got we've got more questions.

I want to hear from Randy, you know, his perspective, because you have been.

You've been to over in Raleigh, so you know what it's about.

But can like I said at the beginning, it is festival is part of it,

but it's so much more.

So what all? Yeah.

What is the world of Bluegrass Festival?

Well, the world of bluegrass.

It's a week long celebration of bluegrass.

It starts with a business conference on Tuesday through Thursday.

So with a big expo hall.

So if you want to go play a new Martin guitar or an old Martin guitar

or look at instruments, the expo hall is going to be your place to go.

If you do any business in bluegrass, if you're a record label or a publication,

you're they're all going to be there.

If you're an artist

needing to make relationships, this is the place to be.

So anybody that does business in bluegrass is going to be here

for those three days, at least internationally, internationally.

Yeah. Yeah.

From all over the world.

One of the things that we do is we have an international band grant.

And so what we do is we ask bands from all over the world to submit

and then we choose one and we give them a grant to come here

to perform at World of Bluegrass.

And then in the next year, the next summer, they we set up a tour for them

where they play festivals all around.

So it's a way for international bands to come here

and, you know, create an audience overseas,

which is really hard for a bluegrass band to do.

But sorry, World of Bluegrass.

So the conference during the day,

but in the evenings is showcases in local venues.

We call it the Bluegrass Ramble.

And we've identified five clubs down near the Choo Choo area

where there's going to be tons of bluegrass going on in the evenings.

This is an opportunity for bands to play in front of live audiences,

but also to get in front of talent buyers.

Talent buyers want to see what is this band?

Not only what do they sound like, how do they connect with an audience?

So that's this is a big part of it.

And not just new bands, but established bands come to because

this is a way for them to show kind of what their latest and greatest is.

So that's going to be exciting.

So for the to the average person who doesn't really care

about the the business part, the business part or where the bands go from here

or or or where the where the convention, what happens in the, you know, in the future.

They're just interested in something to do in their town.

Well, right. What is that?

This is so multifaceted.

It's not necessarily buy a ticket, go to show.

It's far more far more intricate than that.

There's well, if you're talking about the ramble part in particular.

Yeah, if there's if there's a local person here in Chattanooga that's a Bluegrass curious,

then getting a ticket to the ramble, you're going to get to see 30 bands

in five different venues.

It's one of those experiences where you can pop in and take in as much

or as little as you want, and it's going to be exciting and vibrant.

So that's a good public facing part of that week.

But from there, then Thursday night is we call it the biggest night in bluegrass.

It's the Bluegrass Awards.

I mean, Bluegrass Awards will be at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium.

And it's shaped enough to be a really big show.

That's a thirty five hundred capacity.

Is that right, Barry? At Memorial, maybe?

Yeah. Thirty three to four thousand our local theater.

So multiple events all over this downtown city.

For the most part, with with South by Southwest being in the news,

their their music portion of their festival has been reduced or if not all eliminated.

And then, you know, like a thing like Austin City Limits.

This has got to feel like that a little bit.

The way it's designed, right? It really does. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I was trying to think of other things like this.

Sundance is the only other one.

Well, I just went came from Big Ears this past weekend in Knoxville.

Yeah. And again, a smorgasbord of amazing music there.

And it took me a minute when I got there to realize

I didn't have to sit there if I didn't went into the music.

I could get up and go somewhere else.

And that was a little distracting.

But also as a fan, it was liberating

because there was just so much going on.

I could just take it all in.

But yeah, South by Southwest, I think is a good analogy in that regard.

You know, there's a lot going on and you can dip your toe in

or just dive right in either way.

All right. So now I'll ask you, Randy, because you come at this as a musician,

a fan, you're in the business, you're involved in this.

So from your perspective, what was it like going and what do you anticipate here?

When it was in Raleigh, right? In Raleigh. Yeah. In Raleigh.

So I think for me, here locally, the biggest thing that I've seen

and this has already been taking place, I've been watching

the amount of bands that are coming to Chattanooga right now

to play bluegrass, to try to build audience here,

because if they get into that world of bluegrass, they get into that ramble.

They want to show all those talent buyers a big crowd.

Or so if you're a band like, I don't know if you paid attention,

but Shadowgrass just got booked to play Riverfront Nights.

I do know Shadowgrass.

If you watch them over this last year, they've been to Barrel House two or three times.

They've been coming to Chattanooga basically every other month or every third month.

And that's what they're doing. They're trying to build a crowd.

Interesting. And that's happening all over the place on every level

of bluegrass musician, because it is important.

You get here, you get in front of a good crowd that knows who you are.

And you have talent buyers out from other festivals.

They're going to be like, oh, man, we should definitely get Randy Stilt

and Harkole Winn out here to come play this, because I'll see how the crowd did,

how they reacted to him.

So to me, that's the biggest change that I really have already seen.

And I think, too, there is not really I haven't seen like

it Bristol Rhythm and Roots.

Have you guys ever been to Bristol Rhythm and Roots?

Where you go right downtown, they turn every single business into a venue.

The barber shop, there's a show going on every show for like two blocks,

every place for two blocks.

And this is going to have a miniature version of that feel,

but it's just bluegrass music on top of that bluegrass.

Just bluegrass music. Come on.

Sorry, I'm at that in a good way.

OK, I got it.

Yeah, none of that other stuff, just bluegrass.

That's what we're saying.

You know, that's from Bluegrass guys.

So I like it.

You know, I look forward to those banjo intros that you load.

So my.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

But what your experience when you were in Raleigh, North Carolina,

a city of the great state of North Carolina, I mean that sincerely.

I love the state. I've never been to Raleigh.

How I mean, everything I could tell when I

I bought a subscription to their paper for a week

so I could do some research and everything I could tell.

The city loved the event.

The media loved the event.

The city, the Reddit pages and Reddit hates everything.

And I couldn't find it.

I was because I was looking for a reason as they left.

You know where I am.

I'm looking for a reason to say this is not as cool as everybody says it is.

Left for a reason.

And I'm looking around to find one with the confirmation,

looking for confirmation bias, and I couldn't find it.

I couldn't find it on Reddit.

I couldn't find it on Twitter. Couldn't find anywhere.

Raleigh loved it. What?

Everybody loves bluegrass. They just don't know it.

Well, everybody loves a good time.

Yeah. And live music is generally a good time.

But how how does Raleigh lose it to Chattanooga?

Is it them losing it or us getting it? Chattanooga getting it?

A little of both.

I would say and I'll I'll get to that one.

But I also want to say there are four components.

The world of bluegrass on the weekend is the festival component,

which is going to be the biggest public facing part.

But as far as Raleigh goes, you know, if we were any other business conference,

we would change cities every year or two.

So the fact that we were in Raleigh for 12 is amazing.

It's a long time. It is.

And I've only been in my role for like a year and a half.

So when I jumped in and saw how the event went down in Raleigh,

I was amazed because after 11 or 12 years, they knew how to do it.

The challenge for coming to Chattanooga is we're inventing it from scratch.

And this is this is a foreign concept to the city of Chattanooga.

Yeah, it is. I mean, we're we're starting to get the city's getting cooler

and more fun and more more eclectic all the time.

We're always a little behind, a little behind the Raleigh's,

a little behind the Atlanta's, a little behind

Charlotte's and those kinds of cities.

But I'm excited as I can be. Yeah, absolutely.

That's why we're here today.

Well, so so are we.

And I think that's part of what drew us to Chattanooga was the people.

I mean, my first introduction was Donna L.

I met her in Huntsville at a music cities conference.

And if you've met Donna L,

the enthusiasm and the energy is palpable.

Yeah, she'll be OK when she comes out of her shell.

You know, I've been working on her with that.

But then I got to meet the rest of the Chattanooga tourism team

and got to meet some folks from the city here.

And I think at the end of the day, it's all about the people

and the relationships, and they just kind of want us over.

I think I don't remember

can if we spoke, I was still at the paper at the time.

I'm not there anymore.

But I do remember talking to Donna L and some other people with the city

and hearing that it wasn't just one person or one entity.

In fact, that would have been a deal killer.

Right. If it was one person trying to drive this train,

it was the fact that so many people bought in immediately and said,

how can we help? Right. Totally.

I mean, at the end of the day, this experience is all about the people.

World of Bluegrass is just a blank canvas

that the people make the experiences within, if that makes sense.

So all the beautiful things that are going to happen is because the musicians

that show up and the fans that show up and the support staff that help make it happen.

Do you remember either of you off top of your head, the five venues

where things are going to be held and did they reach out?

I mean, were they did you choose them or did they reach out

and say we would like to be one of the hosts or how does that work?

Well, one of the things that we wanted to happen for the ramble

was we wanted it walkable.

In Raleigh, they don't have a lot of downtown venues

and the venues that we had, it was quite a quite a trek.

So when we were scouting here, it was important that, you know,

everything was within five, 10 minute walk.

So Barrel House Ballroom is a cornerstone.

Then Hi-Fi Clyde's right down the street and then Songbirds there

over across the street, literally.

Yeah. Within about two blocks of each other. Exactly.

Then if you cross over to the Choo Choo, we're looking at the Comedy Catch

and Gate 11. Oh, nice.

Yeah. We'll also have showcases back at the Convention Center.

But that's a little bit more of a trek. It's still walkable.

I think so. Still pretty, pretty, pretty walkable.

That's always been the great thing that I've heard about Chattanooga

is people love the fact they can drive here from wherever, park their car

on a Friday and leave on Sunday and not get in the car again.

So that was a big selling point for us. Absolutely.

And, you know, to that, I mean, we're just talking about

the official Ramble showcases.

There's going to be, as Randy said, there's going to be activations

all over the city.

And I'm already hearing lots of things bubbling up

about people wanting to put unofficial showcases together.

I was I'm glad you just said unofficial because I was just thinking that

this has got an organic feel to it, that if the if

I'll just use an example of one down by the river, Friends of Mine Bar,

the home bar, it's a new newer place in town.

If they want to have a bluegrass night

because everybody else is doing bluegrass, we want that to happen.

That's going to happen. It sounds like. Yeah.

It's not it's not sanctioned necessarily.

Well, it sounds like that opportunity is available to anybody.

Very much so. The buskers from buskers to to to business owners.

Yep. I fully expect bluegrass musicians are going to descend

like a plague of locusts on this town.

It's going to be banjo.

Come on.

Banjo is just I've been talking about it my whole life.

Banjo intros every third song.

It's going to be great for you, Brian.

I'm on the hour.

Yeah. Yeah.

Now, it's going to be great.

Again, it gives local businesses an opportunity to put their own spin on it, too.

And along those lines, I feel like we need to give a shout out.

We did a little bit earlier to three sisters, the Bright family, George

and his three sisters.

They're the host.

Their dad, Fletcher, started that thing.

They're involved.

If if tell me how they are, I know they they gave their blessing

and you guys were smart to ask.

Oh, yeah. My first thought was real quick for you.

I want you to answer that as long as you want.

But I was my first thought was, what are we doing trying to ruin our own festival?

Yeah. Yeah.

We got a great festival.

A great throw it out or something.

That was my first thought. Sure.

I quickly realized that that was not the case.

Can you talk about that, how that came together?

Because that just seemed like a deal breaker to me.

Well, you know, it was a concern of ours, for sure,

because by its nature, Abby Mae is not

a presenter or a festival producer.

It is just one piece of our event.

So why would we want to

harm something that's already flourishing and growing? Yeah.

For those three sisters, we've been doing this, what, 15, 20, 20 years?

Pretty. Yeah, pretty close to that.

Yeah, it's one of those who don't know it's

one of the best festivals, as you said, in the state, maybe the South.

They bring in the very best free every year.

As I say, I talked to George and.

Yeah, I mean, they and they have a world class talent there.

Absolutely. So infamous string dusters last year.

It's always the best of the best.

Yeah. But Sister Sadie, yeah.

Brothers Comatose. Yeah.

Yonder Mountain many years ago.

But names you've heard every year names, you know, and just real quick,

just because I know, but it's sort of similar to you calling Donna L and saying,

hey, I got this idea.

George went into it.

George Bright went into his dad Fletcher's and I got this crazy idea.

And an hour later, it's let's do it.

Well, I love how that sort of happens.

I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky.

And back in the 80s, they had a free downtown festival

sponsored by Kentucky Fried Chicken and, you know, Doc Watson, Peter Rowan,

David Grissman, Tony Rice.

They all played their Newgrass revival.

And it was free.

And George was inspired by that.

And he's like, why can't we do that here?

And they can. We can pay for it.

Well, he can.

I can't do it, but he can.

With money in general.

Yeah, exactly.

So, yeah, we we don't want to interfere with that at all.

And it's and they butt up.

They come back to back almost almost.

Yeah. And that was a concern.

You know, could you get bluegrass fatigue potentially?

No, that's an impossibility.

That's not a thing. That's an impossibility.

Such that let's talk again in a little while.

I think it was it's important to us not to feature the same bands

that they're going to have. Right. Sure.

Again, just so that we don't compromise their event.

But and I also wanted to mention Cindy Pinyon, the boxcar Pinyon,

that's her dad or her late father.

She's been doing that fest.

You and her sister have been putting that thing on forever and ever.

So are they involved at all or they just again with the blessing?

I know that I BMA has been and has been doing, you know,

Cindy has a weekly bluegrass thing that she does on Friday nights.

And then she has a second Saturday thing that she does in North Georgia

at this church that she's been getting going on.

That's been really, really cool on top of her regular normal bluegrass fest.

So Cindy Pinyon is bluegrass to me in this town.

I mean, she's a heartbeat.

Honestly, if it wasn't for Boxcar Pinyon Memorial Bluegrass Festival,

I don't think I would even be into bluegrass.

It was one of the things that I took my family to when I was just

first starting to play the banjo and first started to get into it.

And that family feel of that festival, I mean, it really did just change

my outlook on music festivals in general.

But really what bluegrass was because you really saw it.

It really is this huge community of musicians.

Yeah. And all varying forms, good or bad.

So Cindy's her.

You're going to see her today.

I know she'll be here and she'll have all of her stuff out to promote.

She's such a big part of bluegrass that I don't see any way that this

that she's not involved in some in some form or fashion.

Russ, I'll get you a copy of one of her stickers, bumper stickers.

I've got one. Yeah.

For people, people not from Chattanooga, you've seen this,

these bumper stickers, and I don't care where you live.

Anywhere in the world.

They are all you've seen one manipulated into something else.

Yeah. A version.

We we stuck a few all over Europe with one time when we got a few in Montana.

We stuck. Nice.

All right. She gives them out.

So it's pretty good.

I want to ask a generic question with bluegrass music that just popped into my head.

Randy and Ken, both of you could could speak to this.

Does it seem like the bluegrass community is

is far nicer to each other and get along better as an overall genre

than, say, alt rock, indie rock or or or any other pop pop music?

It feels like there's a camaraderie that it's not as much of a

a competition amongst each other.

Maybe I'm maybe I'm looking at all of it wrong, but it feels like there's

there's there's it's a strong community no matter if you're in Europe,

Montana, Raleigh or Chattanooga.

Well, and the great thing is, is that, like I said,

it is it's a lot of musician based audience.

A lot of people play. So it's like baseball.

I mean, we grew up playing baseball.

Way to put that. Yeah, I don't I can't play ball on a high level,

but I know how to play it fundamentally and I watch it.

And I and it means more to me because of that.

Exactly. Our audience is a lot like that.

Yeah, but the rock guy playing guitar, watching the rock show gets pissed off

that that guy's on stage and he's not.

You're right. You're right.

But that is much in the blue.

The bluegrass guys are like, thank God I'm not on that.

Yeah, turn it down.

Turn it back in.

But I mean, I to somewhat answer your question, I mean, for them,

that's by it by its nature.

That's what it was. Right.

It was get together at the end of the day and pick a little inclusive

string band music.

You know, that's really how it was all brought about was old string band music

and coal mines in Kentucky getting moved into popular country music in the 50s.

You know, yeah, community is a big part of all that,

you know, whether it's picking on the porch or now if you're picking on the stage.

Another great thing about bluegrass is it doesn't matter

if you're nine year old just starting out or if you're

a Grand Ole Opry member.

We have access to those people, you know, we don't have to have a wristband

to go talk to.

Rhonda, Vincent or Ricky Skaggs or Vince Gill,

you know, obviously, they're probably not going to put themselves

in too many of those situations.

But at IBM, you have an opportunity to talk to serious professionals.

And I've seen jam sessions with those nine year old kids.

Who have you got to jam with?

And the creepy I've got. Oh, man.

At different at different versions of these festivals,

I got in jam with huge people that I'd never, ever thought I would be able to play with,

mostly, you know, I've gotten to play with one of the McCurry brothers

one time in a jam that just happened to pop up where I was just around.

McCurry played here, the three sisters, many got to play with Sam Bush,

got Sam Bush at IBM, a, you know, which was amazing.

And just because IBM is coming to town,

I've gotten to meet a bunch of different folks.

C.J. Lewandowski, who's the main for po ramble boys, a band I adore.

I've been following for a number of years.

Now I get to talk to him all the time.

He's come to Chattanooga and he's like, what's good venues in Chattanooga?

What do you think?

You know, it's like that's the best part about it, honestly.

How long, Randy, have you been in the IBM as a member?

I have been probably, I think, six years.

OK, so I know I have tried.

I have my the majority of my relationship with IBM is being turned down

for the world. Bluegrass Ramble.

I've been turned down, I think, like four years in a row.

I got my fingers crossed this year.

Yeah. At this point, I'd be like, screw those guys.

So now that now the real goal comes out.

Yeah, you guys are saying that's the whole reason.

I was like, you know, if I can't go to them, maybe they'll come to me.

Well, play that work the room.

Well, play. Work the scene.

I got to tell my Dale McCurry story because he was at Bonnarooo several years ago

and he was signing autographs at like five o'clock.

And I happened to be in the area where it was.

I said, I'm going to go get in line and, you know, stake the man's hand.

He was there with this one of his sons and a photographer named John Goldman

came up and saw me.

We met over years of doing Bonnarooo.

And he was like, why don't you get him to sign the picture in the magazine

that I took?

So I have a picture of me standing with John with Dell behind us

with the magazine. That's pretty cool. That's very cool.

Yeah, that's like this is one of the most surreal things I've ever been a part.

You know, you don't get access to Jay-Z like that.

No, KG Elephant's not going to sit around and go through your pictures

and take pictures.

I can swell enough guys, you know, but.

You mentioned the ticketing in the access sort of thing.

How does that work?

Is there an all access?

I can get an all access and do everything.

I can a la carte it.

How does for people listening, how they. Yeah, it's going to.

There is no magic super pass.

I wish there was.

But each of those four different sections will have its own individual ticket.

So you can do as much or as little as you want.

You can buy a ticket to the Ramble and just do that.

You can buy a ticket to the festival and just do that or a word show.

If you buy a conference pass, then Ramble is included in that.

So do you have a sense of numbers like how many?

Businesses label people, industry types will come to this type of thing.

How many fans do you expect? How many musicians?

Do you have any kind of?

Well, see, that's part of the problem is this is a whole new paradigm here.

I will say I think conference attendance is usually in the 15 to 1800 folks.

So. But as far as public attendance of the Ramble on the festival,

that's still to be determined.

Gotcha. The speaking of of the Ramble Festival

Convention Center aspect of it, what is the cornerstone here?

What is what is the if someone's like, hey, I just I'm going to check out one thing.

I got time to come down for the day or two or one night.

Is it a well, it's going to be an event like main venue kind of night?

The crescendo of the week.

The main event will be the Friday night or Saturday night of the festival.

And that's the memorial auditorium.

No, actually, that's going to be down here in the city center.

OK, we didn't talk much about that, but it's going to be.

We need to talk about that.

Well, if you want to. Yeah.

Yes, please. I just I got turned around when you said memorial earlier.

I thought that that maybe was what you're talking about as being that.

Well, we considered that.

But, you know, part of the reason to come well

and part of what Chattanooga tourism's

goal was is to really create energy in a vibrant downtown.

And we got done. Yes, for sure.

I mean, I know the Friday night concerts here are a big damn deal.

Pardon my French.

But so what we were looking to do is do three stages

in a contiguous footprint right here.

So we're looking at the Miller Park stage, Miller Plaza,

and then putting a stage over here in Patton Square.

So there's right in the city center. Nice.

We've got the riverfront Ross's landing that we have a lot of events at.

That would be my first thought. Well, that's where it's going to be.

Well, it would probably be easier to do it on the river.

I'll say just already built for that for the logistics.

But I think Chattanooga tourism feels like those events

don't draw as much revenue to downtown.

You know, they kind of swoop in people.

Well, that back, one dog every year.

That's debate every year, no matter what the event is.

You got somebody who hates it and somebody who loves it from a from a business

commerce standpoint. Right.

Also, my first thought, as you were speaking of it, is that

to have a unique original event.

Let's not go to the same place, which had a new guy as most are live.

That feels like everything else you're doing when you when you described it.

I was like, well, that's like what everything else you're doing.

Well, yeah.

Will it be all activities going at the same time at all three places or will it?

We've got the sets kind of staggered.

So that you can actually, again,

yeah, walk around and catch as much or a little as you.

Is that a ticketed gated event on its own? It will be.

OK, because this is a pretty this is a difficult area.

It's hard to explain on a on a podcast, audio, even with some video.

It's kind of hard to explain, but that's a difficult area to

it presents some logistical challenges.

You know, again, I we love a challenge.

You're going to learn. Figure it out. Exactly.

We're going to learn a lot.

Cool. It's it's a good setup, though.

I mean, what's the whole perimeter of being able to walk

is going to be a lot different than especially for the folks who are traveling?

Are you going to play?

I don't know. Fingers crossed.

Still don't know. Randy's going to play.

I'll play every night.

Play somewhere.

Well, you know, we talked about other venues that would be having,

you know, some things that there's a couple of other venues

I know that are already talking about having showcases and and so.

Yeah. You know, be on the lookout for all around official and unofficial.

Yeah. And we should have said I should have said earlier,

if you don't know Randy Steels music, you should look it up.

He's one of the very best in town.

Oh, thank you. And I've said that for years and years.

The best banjo intros I know.

Sounds amazing.

I was trying to come up with something.

Couldn't resist.

All right, Ron, what else?

What else in your notes? I got to ask this.

So is this true or not, Randy?

Your uncle was a member of the Aquarium Rescue Unit.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Paul Henson.

I had no idea. Yeah. When when

when so Colonel Bruce Aquarium Rescue unit

did two albums for Capricorn and they had one in the 90s.

Yeah, they did that live one from Athens and they did mirrors of embarrassment.

They Colonel Bruce was having health.

I can't remember exactly why he was having health problems,

but for some reason he left.

They still had a contract and they decided to keep it

and they changed the band around and it just became Aquarium Rescue Unit.

So the album that they put out

is called They Put Out One Called The Calling.

And then he played Paul was also a member of O'Teal and the Peacemakers

when O'Teal Burbage had his band.

Yeah, O'Teal, now part of the dead and company. Yeah.

Yeah. So when I was a kid, when I was like 16, I was first starting to play like

I got to go to Super Jam and Athens.

We traveled all around with them.

They were opening for Blues Traveler at the time and we were going

to the festival. They were probably I met Derek Trucks when we were both like 15 years old.

Well, there's my note next on there was and you still can't get in.

I can't get in. I can't get in.

You should have led with this story about the same age as Derek Trucks.

So I thought that was my note here that surely you spent a few minutes with Derek.

Dude, let me tell you a Derek Trucks story. Tell me.

All right. So we're at

Athens Theater, old Athens Theater before it burned. Right.

Aquarium risk. No, Derek Trucks is opening up for Aquarium Rescue Unit.

So he's a child. He's a child. His parents are there.

He's a child. Probably 14.

And I think I'm a year older than him. I may have 15 or 16.

I mean, young person anyway, but you have to have a child.

Yeah. I mean, he's literally a child. Yeah. Middle schooler.

And at that at Athens Theater, the way they have the backstage set up,

there's actually like before it burned anyway.

I have no idea what it is now, but there was like a little access way

that you could sit up in on the backstage, but you're a floor level above.

And so me and my buddy, because we were with our parents, too.

We didn't want to be with our parents. Of course not.

We snuck up to the top.

And then here comes somebody up there behind us.

And it's Derek Trucks who probably doesn't want to be with his parents either.

Yeah. And so there's like he might want to be with his parents.

I don't know.

And we watched the whole Aquarium Rescue Unit show.

And it's this the band at this time is like Jimmy Herring on guitar.

The Kofi who's with panic now. Yeah.

Kofi Burbridge was obviously still alive.

He's playing piano and flute and he just slays.

And they kind of did after Colonel Bruce, they kind of did the spinal tap drummer

thing. Jeff Seip was with him for a little while, but they moved around

to a couple of different guys.

I can't remember who was playing.

Matt Mundy was out of the van.

Matt Mundy was already gone.

He he was gone before Bruce left.

He had kind of backed off.

Interesting note, though, I've gotten a chance to pick with Matt Mundy here

recently a couple of times because he's around town.

You know, he's in North Georgia. Right.

Awesome player.

But I've got to I've got a quick Derek Trucks story.

So I got to interview him several times and he one of the nicest people ever.

And I told him that soon we got on the phone.

I said, and he said, you know, just that's the way I was raised.

He said, in fact, he used to go to these competitions.

I guess they had him.

He Johnny Lang and Bonham Assa.

They're all about the same.

So they're coming up.

They're the wonder kids, you know, wonder kind.

And anyway, one of them, I won't.

I don't remember if it was Bonham Assa or Johnny Lang, but pitched a fit.

Just I'm not carrying my own guitar or that kind of.

Yeah, those electric guitar players back.

And here's Derek.

He's just standing watching.

All of a sudden, his dad goes, wow.

And they're excited. What did I do?

Nothing. But if you ever do that.

Awesome. I was thinking, man, if that was my kid.

Yeah, that's what he got.

It was taken care of. Awesome.

So can you mentioned earlier that?

I don't remember how you worded it.

If it was up to you or up to the organization, it would be moved.

The event would move a lot.

I'm guessing that is just to well, to showcase as much as possible.

What what is the long term view?

I'm guessing you don't have an answer.

I didn't say that.

I didn't say I was wanting to move it every year because it's going to take us.

I'm sorry. No, no, no.

No, no, no. It's just I think.

Well, we've committed to at least three years here in Chattanooga.

Yeah. And I think that'll give us and Chattanooga time to see if this is something.

Sure. Yeah. I don't expect this festival to necessarily be Chattanooga's forever.

That was not my. Well, why not?

But it was 12 years.

Maybe 13. We got to do one more. Exactly.

That is that is it's in the car.

There there is no set goal here.

Other than to just keep doing it for as long as.

Yeah. As long as as long as people show up, as long as we can keep

the association viable, because I'm sure you know.

I mean, we've we've been running through some festivals here recently in the city

after having them all of my adult life, all my more than adult life.

And and it's it's bumming a lot of us out. Sure.

Well, we don't have a yearly guaranteed thing we do here in town.

That's that's on a on a on a bigger stage level.

Right. We got a lot of small stuff.

But Riverbend and Moon River came here and they were so successful for so long.

And so my first thought was, well, OK, great.

For a year or two. OK, OK.

Well, but you know, I would, you know, one or two or three is better than zero.

Captain obvious here, you know, event production is hard.

Yeah. And especially especially post covid.

So I'm not surprised about Moon River and Riverbend.

I'm not either. But for us, it's important to kind of grow

into whatever this experience is.

Obviously, first year, we want to make a big splash,

but we're looking for a place to grow.

And Chattanooga is primed for us.

I would say I look at Chattanooga kind of like I look at,

you know, Austin and Nashville in the 70s.

It's an affordable place for artists to live and make their art.

You know, Nashville musicians can't afford to live there.

They call it what Los Angeles East?

Yeah. It's in Las Vegas. Yeah.

You know, so they're Chattanooga is vibrant.

And so why wouldn't we want to be a part of building something here?

I think I should have asked you this very first.

What is your title? Actual title?

I'm the executive director of the International Bluegrass Music Association.

Thank you. And as you mentioned earlier, you just took that position recently.

But you've been a player.

Oh, yeah. Involved in this for a long time.

Would you speak to your your your history of playing and your music roots?

I got to this role.

I got a banjo for Christmas when I was 12.

And me and my sister played in bluegrass bands growing up.

And then I heard Tony Rice play and I'm like, I can't do that on the banjo.

So I picked up the guitar and that led me to playing all kinds of styles

and all kinds of things.

I wound up moving to Nashville and playing in some bluegrass bands,

traveled all over the country.

Actually, I was at one of the early world of bluegrass is in Owensboro.

The first few, actually.

So I saw this organization as it was starting out in these events,

as they were starting out, and it was exciting for a young a youngin.

Yeah. It says you play the grand old Opry Telluride. Yeah.

Is it true? It's even true. You study.

You you study jazz music early on.

So you just try to get all the foundational music of America or the world.

Hey, there's only two kinds of music. Good and bad.

Is that Duke Ellington? Yeah.

So I when I heard Tony Rice and David Grissman,

you know, that was my gateway into jazz.

And then from there, Miles Davis, you know, it just blew my mind.

So when I went to college the second time, I went to music school.

And, you know, they didn't have a bluegrass degree up there where I was from.

That was kind of a new thing.

So I played in jazz bands and and I got to stay with a really great

bebop guitarist, Jimmy Rainey, who recorded with Stan Getz back in the day.

He was a formal he was a big influence for me.

So I like to say jazz for my head and bluegrass for my heart.

Well, you certainly have the fundamentals covered. Yeah.

With jazz and bluegrass.

You know, if you can play music, I'll say if you can play bluegrass,

you can play anything. It's true.

So I mean, Jerry Garcia was the bluegrass guy of the dead.

Bob Weir was the rock guy.

They had kind of their own little everybody had their own little part.

We talk Bonnarooo ad nauseam on this show, sometimes to an absurd,

ridiculous level every week.

Can't get out of here.

It's a freaking week whether we want to or not.

So we can't get out of here without asking at least.

Randy, have you been to Manchester during June?

Have you been to the Bonnarooo?

Is gig time for me.

So I would do the same thing as I'll be a man.

Try to get into Bonnarooo a bunch of times, but you've not not even attended.

I've never been never had a chance to.

And I also have my my regular job keeps me from being a fire department

for like a full weekend.

So I got a that's the problem with the shift work.

I like fire department when you're working, you're working.

Yeah, there's not really a way, you know, working your work.

What about you? Can you been to the farm?

I have not for the last get you guys there.

Yeah, I'm fixing to retire.

So I'm in good shape this year.

Well, for the last year.

Yeah, what's that?

Well, that's the fire department. Yeah.

I've been living in Kansas for the last 30 years,

so the commute has been hard to go to a little bit of a drive.

But now that I'm in the area, I hope to do that.

A little bit of a it's interesting you went to Big Ears

because that's the same founder, Ashley Caps.

Big Ears is his baby.

He founded Bonnarooo, but Big Ears is you can tell

that's where he puts a lot of his energy.

Well, as a jazz fan, that it was off the charts for me.

Yeah, it's cool.

One last thing.

Does this Billy Strings thing just blow my mind away

and nobody else is and they just come?

It's amazing. It is.

All of our going on with.

Yeah, it's wild.

I can't wrap my brain around the popularity, the amount of.

I mean, this is is he the biggest bluegrass artist

in the history of the genre?

I know that's difficult question to just say out loud to such an old.

No, it's not. Yes, he is. Yeah.

OK. I mean, nobody's done stadiums before this.

Yeah, another after to the rafters.

It's amazing. And they're great shows.

That's the best part about it.

They're fantastic shows in their bluegrass and their bluegrass.

It's I know I thought it was going to be something a little.

I was like, surely it's not just bluegrass.

Yeah, there's a banjo intro.

How big it is. It got him there.

That's how I'm so happy I went.

But I still couldn't believe it. It's amazing.

I'm a month out and I away from it.

And I'm still thinking this is wild. Yeah.

All right. There you go.

Big deal. It's a very big deal, right?

Yeah. Just like I had mentioned in when we were talking to the guys that

and I I can't remember, I do a few podcasts here and there.

I don't remember when I talk about when aware, but I was absolutely

looking for a reason to not like this.

I thought there's there's and I wasn't even just trying to be that way.

I just I just thought it was a little weird.

I just thought you guys are forcing something.

You guys, when I say the city, our city, we just lost a couple of

music festivals as long timers here on the show.

We'll know because we mentioned it here and there.

And with the frustration, we've all three and the whole city has had with losing

a heritage indigenous festival to, you know, we created as a city 40 years ago.

And then one moon river that just came in and used us in the best way possible.

And we lost him, too.

And so when I thought this was like, they're just pulling that there's a Tennessee

special events fund, some kind of actual.

Finally, the Tennessee legislator did something good in this state

and allocated money for things like this.

And I just thought they pulled some strings.

They got this money and they're making this thing that nobody really cares about.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

Yes, they got the money. Yes, they pulled the strings.

But it's a great thing.

And I cannot wait.

It's going to be it's going to be a great time in September of this year.

And if you don't live here and you don't like bluegrass,

you're wondering why is this podcast talking about it?

It's same reason we talked with the folks from Southstar down in Huntsville

and any other festival that we talk about is because it's all relative.

It's all how it works.

It's the sausage making stuff.

It's you know, why does Govball work

and why does any of the others that we might have some other festivals

around the southeast ish will be talking about soon enough.

So correct. Yeah.

I mean, it's it's fun stuff.

I mean, I know, you know, we Bonnarooo is why we're here.

But let's be honest.

So it's so much we can talk about a barn with people having a party in it.

Like Snake and Jamie.

And it's fun. We there's plenty to talk about.

But we also love all music festivals.

I don't go to them like I used to.

Like it used to be one of those.

How many can I fit into one year? Right.

Not as much anymore.

But I certainly am still fascinated and keep an eye on the entire industry.

Yeah, exactly.

They all have some similarities and some differences.

And, you know, that's what we kind of like to talk about.

So I'm fascinated by this one.

As we said, Randy, you know, had been going to the one in Raleigh.

And I guess he heard that they might be looking to move.

And he said, why not Chattanooga?

And I love stories like that.

Yeah, next thing you know, he raised his hand and and talked to Donna

L at the Chattanooga Tourism Company, who has no he is.

She has less interest in bluegrass, probably than all three of us combined.

Yeah, yeah.

But her her her her background is, I know we mentioned a little bit,

but is in media and music radio.

And it was with hip hop, R&B, kind of urban styles.

Doesn't mean that that's all she likes, but generally.

And she worked in it for forever.

Generally, when you get the opportunity to work in music radio

for as long as she had.

That's on another planet, right?

From what bluegrass is.

And so but they're they're all smart.

They're all smart people. They know it works.

She latched on to it. So.

All right. So there you go.

I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did.

You might notice if you're watching this, I'm not on the bus.

And I am.

You got a nice little floral background there.

Background here.

Yeah. Getting ready for the Easter almost with those pastels back there.

Yeah. I took a trip to Nashville and tried to take the bus,

made it down I-24 to about Trenton, which is not quite halfway.

Yeah. We buried the lead here. Yeah.

Taco got stuck on the side of 24 last night.

Yeah. My accelerator cable went out and so, you know, engine runs perfect.

But if you can't if you hit the pedal and nothing happens, it's no good.

So I had to call a tow truck, sat on the side of the road for a little while,

got towed home, got another car, drove back to Nashville.

So it was a long day yesterday.

But the good news is it'll be an easy fix.

I've got another accelerator cable. I'll put it back in.

And fortunately, this happened before June.

Yeah. Right.

So that the fact you still went to Nashville,

you got towed back, got another one of your five cars

and then that can easily break down to

which girlfriend left this car.

Yeah. I consider it owner cars from an ex.

I considered staying home just because I thought,

do I really want to chance it again?

I mean, what more could happen?

But fortunately, I made it.

And so everything worked out.

I wouldn't have gone to Nashville again until June. Yeah.

All right. This ain't going to work for me.

But they could you made it there and you made it.

There was some time left to still have some day, man.

So you made some good time. It looked like.

Yeah, I still made it there with plenty of time.

I, you know, was several hours behind what I wanted to be there.

But it all worked out real quick. What's the occasion?

What are you doing there?

Uh, well, unfortunately, I had a friend to pass away from cancer recently.

And, you know, I'm sorry.

But that's the occasion.

I mean, so, you know, I know, but still I asked that so flippantly.

Yeah. Well, it's all right.

And this is, you know, I was here back in October.

Was another friend had passed away from cancer.

So I was going to say this is becoming all too familiar for you.

Yeah, I'm tired of making these trips.

I mean, I love coming and seeing everybody,

but we need a better occasion to get together for sure.

Well, we got one in a couple of months.

I know we got one in a couple of months, but yeah, glad you made it.

Glad you're good. And get the bus back on the road.

Yeah. And there's also there's chickens in this room.

I don't know if you can hear them in the background, but they've got live

chickens in a coop right over here.

No, I did not hear the chicken.

Hey, see if you can get a couple of them lined up for Camp Nut Butter.

OK, I'll see if I can sneak it out.

I still think it'd be awesome.

In the old days, we could have got away with it.

You don't have to ask. Just bring them.

I still think it'd be hilarious.

They can get some eggs, though. Yeah.

Yeah. There's an egg joke in there, but they're getting old.

So I'm not going to try to make one.

All right. We've got some more shows lined up.

I'm excited about what we have coming.

So yeah, and I will tease this.

We don't really ever tease coming up from talking about this.

Snake and Jake things. I'm going to stay on the guy.

But I don't know this for a fact, but it could be the fact

that the guy that I've been working on since last year,

who got married with the Beaches officiating the band

might have been the last person ever

with nuptials in that building now that they've, you know,

now that they're making the change,

might have been the very last one.

I don't know. That was late in the weekend.

Got to find out. We might.

I don't know if that enhances the story or not.

Maybe it doesn't. Maybe the story is not worth telling anyway.

I don't know. We'll see. I'm working on that.

And I do hope that they still do, you know, marriages,

sort of, kind of, I guess.

I don't know. That's a thing you can put out in the.

In in the NGA anywhere.

And yeah, that'll work just fine right there.

Just pick a spot. That'll work fine.

Just in the Grove. That'd be a great place.

But anyway, still going to try to get his name's Brian.

So that's I can remember that.

I'm still going to work on. Brian, if you're listening, call me, man.

Yeah. Speaking of, since we're now into April,

it's almost time to start putting our camp, your own camp pile at home

and making your lists and doing your shopping.

And we need to reach out to

our Nashville people in Beth, right?

Russ, yes.

So dot com. Yeah.

Jerry and Mike and.

Brad, right? Other Brad.

Yeah, other Brad and Beth.

Yeah, I hope they'll still have us.

And if so, we need to we need to coordinate because those guys

bring literally the kitchen sink.

We need to see what we can contribute.

And I'll tell you a little quick early when we do do's and don'ts

and all the preparation

episodes as we get closer.

That shoe. Yeah.

Thing that you put on the door.

It's like a shoe organizer that has become very trendy.

It's like picked up a lot.

Maybe it has been for years and I just didn't notice it.

But when I've seen online, mostly read or wherever,

that's becoming the most like, let me tell you about this awesome thing.

I never saw it till maybe just last year.

And it's just an organizer.

You know, you put your shoes at home.

But this is where you throw your ketchup.

You throw your anything that doesn't need to be refrigerated.

Your crack. It's like a little pantry. Yeah.

That might be the new like must have at a campsite.

So so that the mister on the fan.

Yes, I want to do that, too.

I'm big into this mister fan idea.

And Brad's idea about Brad Parker's the adult.

Juice. Yeah, the little squeeze packs of apple juice and whatnot.

Yeah, little energy packets. Yeah.

Not just for kids. I love it.

Yeah, we'll have to add all that.

All right. Anything else, guys?

I don't think so.

No, you mentioned, you know, we're trying to line up some other shows and stuff,

like with the dude that got married.

But we I don't want to give too much away.

But we do have a few other things in the works that we're trying to get

organized and planned.

So we've got some interviews maybe coming up soon.

Absolutely. Got some label people reached out.

I'm excited about that.

And I haven't told you guys again.

I hate teasing, but I don't mind.

Heard from the Bonnarooo folks, they have an idea for us.

And I don't know what it is.

I just know I was. OK.

And I shut your showdown.

How about putting facts out there?

I got a good idea.

Quit your show. Yeah.

I'm I'm excited to see what it is.

But it's like, can I get your email?

Because we have an idea.

So I'll just leave it at that.

Oh, I guess the last tiny tease is I've

I've almost got an in on four twenty Sweetwater Music Festival.

That's just for me, not anybody else.

I don't know. I don't know.

I don't talk about teasing. I'm working on it.

But it would be I don't know.

We'll see. I haven't been to four twenty in a long time.

It's coming up. So anywho, the good the difficult part

about these lining all this stuff up is is that introductory email goes well.

Right. It goes well. It's all pleasant.

But then the continued follow up tends to trail off sometimes.

Yeah. We'll see how it goes. Yeah. Yeah.

I'll get back to you.

Yeah, we'll circle around about it.

We'll circle around after the holidays.

Wait, it's April holidays. Which holiday?

All right. All right, guys.

Thanks. Good show.

Enjoyed it. See everybody.

Please keep sending those discord recommendations or emails or whatever.

Like share all the things.

Exactly. Great. All of that.