Our guitars have been part of the IBMA exhibit hall for years, but not every year do we get to go and be a part of it personally. We can feel a bit isolated out west being so far from the hub of bluegrass, so it was great to meet face to face with new and old friends.
The 2025 Keynote speaker (during the business conference) featured one of our favorite people, Billy Strings! He could not have spoken his truth louder, his words were powerful and heartfelt. Here is the video of the keynote address as well as Tom Power’s interview, which is very enlightening, with thoughtful questions and responses by Billy about his bluegrass journey from his traditional roots and structure of playing to becoming enamored by the jam band community attitude of improvisational riffs. ** his keynote starts at 49:07**
We were able to take in some of those improvisational riffs at his concert in Chattanooga and loved running into him at the Exhibit hall as he took some time to check out the vendors and meet his fans. Thanks Billy for being a part of IBMA this year and always being a champion for so many. Congrats to you and your talented band mates on the Entertainer of the Year win!
So much music was to be had on the 3 stages outside the exhibit hall which included a wide variety of sounds from Sierra Hull, Wood Brothers, Alison Brown, Gililan Welch and David Rawlings, Jim Lauderdale and The Po’Ramblin Boys, The Infamous Stringdusters and Mountain Grass Unit.
There were young players all around with the Kids on Bluegrass in full swing. We were proud to be a sponsor of this program helping engage the next generation of bluegrass musicians! Here is a post of our upcoming new model with lots of young people sampling it!
I finally was able to meet this passionate young man, Myles Gee, after many back and forth messages. I can’t wait to see how his life moves into the future : ) Here is a video of him singing a tune with the new DMC model.
Peter Rowan was at IBMA too let us not forget – a man in his 80’s traveling and making it all work – remember he took bluegrass and wrote songs intertwined with reggae, his Buddhist influences, southwest Native American sounds and he played his traditional tunes – he is a legendary example of expanding the genre of bluegrass. His set at IBMA included the electric guitar, keyboards, drums, fiddle, bass, fender telecaster, mandolin and banjo. He brings it all together and it works!
One of my main takeaways from this years IBMA is we have to keep welcoming eveyone that has a connection to bluegrass, that is what is going to keep bluegrass flourishing into the future. Keep an open mind and love this music because it encompasses so much – progressive jamming sounds that can be outrageous to jazz and gospel influences and back around to the traditional. Bluegrass has a huge crowd out there! Keep it real and love one another!
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