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<h3>The stage is located at the intersection of Main and Washington Streets, in front of the old Courthouse.</h3><h1></h1><h1>Boy Named Banjo</h1>In a time when the popular choice is to chase the double yellow line down the road to country radio, Boy Named Banjo thrives on its fringes. The Nashville-raised five-piece is a fusion of contemporary country, Americana and folk-rock stacked on a foundation of bluegrass.<img class="q-image" src="https://api.brightrtravel.com/media/volatile/static-page-block-images/581c1ddb-f000-4f75-ab48-0602413f2799/original.jpeg" alt="block_ID_1097">“We’re trying to find our own niche within popular country music today,” says Sam McCullough (drums). “But not straight down the middle.”The band, which has been together in some iteration since members were in high school, is comprised of Barton Davies (banjo), Ford Garrard (bass/upright bass), Sam McCullough (drums) Willard Logan (mandolin, acoustic/electric guitar) and William Reames (acoustic guitar/harmonica). William and Willard played in a middle school garage rock band together, but it wasn’t until William met Barton in high school English class that Boy Named Banjo started to take shape.Barton had just started playing banjo when he heard William listening to bluegrass music. He suggested they jam together, which led to them asking Willard to join them. The guys started playing music on the streets of downtown Nashville, which is where the name “Boy Named Banjo” was created, outside of the famed Robert’s Western World. While playing, a man walked by and yelled to Barton “Play that banjo boy!” Later that night William came up with the name Boy Named Banjo, which has stuck ever since.Ford started playing bass when he was 13 years old, and he, Willard, William and Barton shared a guitar teacher. They played a couple of shows together in high school, but it wasn’t until after college that Ford and Sam joined the band and together the five guys formed the band Boy Named Banjo that we know today.“I was like, ‘I don’t think you need a drummer because you’re a bluegrass band, but I’ll be your drummer if you want me to be,'” Sam recalls. “They were like, ‘Hell yeah, let’s do it.'”That was the summer of 2013, and the addition of the bass and drums immediately started to evolve the group’s sound from its rootsy, string band feel into something more commercial. Not only did the band continue to steadily release music independently, releasing two albums and an EP, the band developed its one-of-a-kind live show over the years until it attracted Mercury Records Nashville’s attention in 2019.Boy Named Banjo had just launched their most extensive headlining tour to date when the pandemic commanded them to drive the 36 hours from Portland, Oregon, back to Nashville and put their lives on hold for the next 18 months. They became the first act that Universal Music Group Nashville signed via Zoom about two weeks later.“We’re a very live-driven band,” William said. “We love to play live. We love for people just to have a great time. We also have a lot of banjo solos and electric guitar. I feel like our music is an escape from everyday life. You come to a show, and we have a little bit of something for everyone.”While the pause wasn’t what anyone planned, Boy Named Banjo released their debut EP, Circles, in summer of 2021. The collection includes seven tracks co-written by members of the band including the compassionate “Go Out Dancing,” which the band says takes on a much larger meaning post pandemic thinking “if it really was ending” what would we do? They used the time to write songs and hone in on their sound with writer/producer Oscar Charles (Carly Pearce, Charlie Worsham, Elvie Shane). With a catalogue of songs to choose from, and recent time spent in the studio, the guys are deciding what to run with next.“They built themselves into something great and Nashville noticed. These guys are realer than the real deal,” says Charles.“The pause was tough touring wise because that’s where we really thrive is on the road,” William said. “If people haven’t heard us, they seem to get it when they see us live. That’s a huge aspect of what we do, so figuring out how to capture our live sound in the studio is tricky. But that time allowed us to figure that out a little bit.”Until now, members say, they were finding their way through their “musical adolescence.” “We have a special chemistry together,” Barton said.“I think we’re really just starting to know what Boy Named Banjo sounds like from here on out,” Sam said.The band is currently out on the road playing some of country music’s largest festivals including Dierks Bentley’s Seven Peaks, Country Jam, and they recently made their CMA Fest debut playing at the Ascend Amphitheatre Nighttime Concert. They head out on the road this fall as direct support to multi- PLATINUM singer/songwriter, Kip Moore on his Fire on Wheels Tour.<h1>Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley</h1>"Two musical phenoms" -NPR"An acoustic firestorm...Ickes & Hensley are changing the rules." -Vintage Guitar"Two bluegrass aces...Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley shred" -Rolling Stone"Hot-shot guitar picking...steel-string bluegrass with all the intensity of rock 'n' roll" -Acoustic Guitar"Dual lightning strikes in a bottle." -Guitar Player"Two of the finest musicians playing today" -No Depression<img class="q-image" src="https://api.brightrtravel.com/media/volatile/static-page-block-images/3ac4d058-b954-45bd-a24a-fd321e07ea06/original.jpeg" alt="block_ID_1098"> Take Rob Ickes, the most decorated musician in IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) Awards history with 15 IBMA Dobro Player of the Year honors, and 2023 IBMA Guitar Player of the Year Trey Hensley, a Tennessee-born guitar prodigy identified as “Nashville's hottest young player” by Acoustic Guitar magazine, and you have Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley, a very special powerhouse GRAMMY®-nominated acoustic duo that has electrified the acoustic music scene. Noted for their guitar prowess (Ickes & Hensley were invited to perform at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival 2023 in Los Angeles alongside some of the world's greatest guitarists), white-hot picking (as Acoustic Guitar puts it: "hot-shot guitar picking...steel-string bluegrass with all the intensity of rock 'n' roll"), world class musicianship, soulful stone country vocals and top-shelf songwriting, Ickes & Hensley cleverly meld bluegrass, country, blues, rock, jam grass, and more to create a signature musical blend that defies restrictions of genre. Ickes & Hensley were influenced by repertoires as diverse as The Allman Brothers Band, Earl Scruggs, Ray Charles, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens and Stevie Ray Vaughan. The duo has collaborated with Vince Gill, Taj Mahal, Tommy Emmanuel, Little Feat, Marty Stuart, Steve Wariner, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Leftover Salmon, Rodney Crowell, David Grisman, Jorma Kaukonen, and Hot Tuna, among many others. Among many others, Rob & Trey have received praise from the likes of legends such as Marty Stuart ("In this ever-changing world of Country Music, it's comforting to know that the real deal still exists") and Merle Haggard ("I'm sure I don't make a true 'critic' since I'm already such a fan, but this album from Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley is a wonderful piece of work. And my songwriting side is truly overwhelmed. Thank you, thank you, thank you.") Ickes, a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, former founding member of bluegrass "supergroup" Blue Highway and highly sought-after Dobro master, has graced the recordings and concerts of artists such as Merle Haggard, Alison Krauss, Alan Jackson, Reba McEntire, Earl Scruggs, Tony Rice and many more. Ickes was a key member of Willie Nelson's all-star band for the GRAMMY®-nominated 2023 Willie Nelson album, Bluegrass. Hensley, a native of Johnson City, Tennessee, made his Grand Ole Opry debut at the age of 11, performing with Marty Stuart and Earl Scruggs (thanks to an invite from Stuart), and has since appeared on stage with the likes of Johnny Cash, Peter Frampton, Charlie Daniels and Old Crow Medicine Show. Hensley was chosen to perform in December 2022 as part of special 2-night-only engagement with Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and many special guests celebrating the 50 Anniversary of Will The Circle Be Unbroken at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville. Ickes & Hensley are frequent performers at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and those performances can be heard worldwide on the WSM-AM broadcasts online. Their reach nationwide is vast via television: PBS' award-winning David Holt's State of Music; RFD-TV's Emmy-nominated TV series, My Bluegrass Story (they each had their own episode), PBS’ WoodSongs and Circle All Access’ Opry Live and radio: NPR’s Mountain Stage and WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour (on 537 radio stations around the world). The new critically acclaimed, song-centric Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley album, Living In A Song—produced by GRAMMY® Award-winning producer/engineer/songwriter Brent Maher (The Judds, Elvis Presley, Merle Haggard, Kenny Rogers, Tina Turner)—highlights the songcraft of Ickes & Hensley like never before. Featuring the title cut, “Deeper Than A Dirt Road,” and “Way Downtown,” Living In A Song was a Top 5 Bluegrass album, Top 10 Americana album and Top 40 Current Country album. On October 27, 2023, an album entitled A Tribute To The Judds was released worldwide by BMG. Ickes & Hensley collaborated with Molly Tuttle on "John Deere Tractor" for the project, alongside an all-star cast including Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, Gwen Stefani & Blake Shelton, Lainey Wilson, and many more. On March 8, 2024, the Taj Mahal Sextet (of which Ickes & Hensley are members) released Swingin' Live At The Church In Tulsa to acclaim from SPIN, Performing Songwriter, No Depression and more.<h1>The Wilson Springs Hotel</h1>Homegrown in the rich music scene of Virginia, Wilson Springs Hotel is a band brought together under a genreless flag; A folk band committed to rock and roll, and a rock band committed to classic country.After forming in 2021, Jacob Ritter (guitar/songwriter/lead vocals), Victor McManus (lead guitar), Brendan Boylan (fiddle), Sebastien Richard (drums) and Andrew Carper (bass), released two albums in quick succession and are once again releasing new music in 2024. Their first single “Pulling Weeds”, available now, explores the struggle with repetitive mental loops, like attempting to get nutrients out of the same spent garden. Their new songs are a split between a classic country, and a more rock influenced sound, finding the band still unwilling to conform to a single genre, and instead celebrating the many influences that brought them to where they are today.<img class="q-image" src="https://api.brightrtravel.com/media/volatile/static-page-block-images/1b88dc7e-ccb7-46b1-9c98-4bba9a39f776/original.jpeg" alt="block_ID_1099">Guitar player and lead singer/songwriter Jacob Ritter was living in Richmond and earning his living as a baker, when his relationship and corresponding plans for the future started to fall apart. Ritter had grown up playing harmonica and washboard with his older brother, but had more recently begun writing songs on the mandolin. “I always wanted to have a touring band, and felt that it was something I had missed out on doing.” When the pandemic hit in 2020, his dreams came into sharper focus, and Ritter got to work making them happen. “I think the world almost ending in 2020, or at least feeling like it was going to end. It made me think, ‘we better not miss the boat, let's get out there while we can’”.Ritter’s college friend, guitar and pedal steel player Victor McMannus, was an obvious choice for the group, as the two had played together in the band Muther Goose, and had a long standing musical rapport and chemistry. “I went to Victor and said, ‘hey we’ve always wanted to do this, let’s just make it happen’. He was in.Sebastien Richard, a trained sound engineer, also met McMannus and Jacob through the band Muther Goose. Wilson Springs Hotel wanted him to join as the bass player, but he was initially unsure of the idea, having identified with the production aspect of music first and foremost. However, the group’s musical connection grew organically, and Richard soon became a foundational member, moving from bass to drums and then, in a full circle moment, back to producer on the new album.Fiddle player Brendan Boylan was busking on the street when he was approached by Ritter, who asked if he wanted to try out playing in a band. Boylan was training to work at the Virginia State Legislature, but soon put those plans aside. “He just said, ‘boys, I hate this job, and I’m quitting’”, explains Ritter, “That was that, and now he’s a full time musician”.As a group, the band quickly realized that their strength was in creating a melting pot sound, rather than trying to rein one another in. Ritter loved old classic country and bluegrass, folks like Dwight Yokam, Eddie Arnold, and Willie Nelson. But his bandmates were coming from entirely different directions; Boylan was a classically trained violinist, and McManus was more versed in classic rock and metal. Richard had played bass for a psych-rock band. “We have kind of a weird sound,” says Ritter, “Wild tones, fuzz pedals, feedback encouraged…”“We are a group of guys who decided to finally do something that we’ve always wanted to do” says Ritter, “Maybe we thought things would be going a little faster, or it’s not exactly where we thought we’d be…but 4 years down the road we are making some of the best stuff that we’ve ever made.”Ritter’s love for Virginia and its regional festivals has inspired the project from day one, and the full circle nature of his experience is not lost on him. .“I’ve been going to these same festivals since I was a kid,” says Ritter. “I haven’t missed a year, but I’ve moved from audience member to work crew, to finally, performer. And that feel’s really good.”<h3></h3><h3>Music and stage arranged by <a href="https://www.limekilntheater.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lime Kiln Theater</a>.</h3>