March 02, 2012 ~ 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Cost: $15.00 ~ Kids $5.00
Preorder tickets by sending an email or calling 603.743.4700

David Surette with Jesse Brock, Claudine Langille, Skip Gorman, and David Surette, with special guest Susie Burke.

Goodtime Stringband stalwarts, Bob Sevigny  and Andy Sicard are going to be playing every Thursday evening from 6-8pm at Life Alive in Lowell.  The plan is to play music from the American folk genre, including old time, bluegrass, fiddle tunes and maybe some songbook standards.  Stuff you would hear in St. Anne’s Churchyard at the Lowell Folk Festival!

Performances will be by Bob, Andy and other musical guests –  they will be organic (acoustic  - no amplifiers or artificial flavorings) ,  locally grown and good for the soul.  Banjoist and fiddle player Nicholas Bogosian will be performing most of this month as well, along with a few other local musical guests.

Saturday, October 22nd and 29th, 2011  from noon – 3pm

The Goodtime Stringband will be performing at one of the country’s largest ongoing Halloween celebrations in the coming weeks – Haunted Happenings in Salem, MA! Stop by the town Common in the coming Saturdays to enjoy our music and some family fun.

The town common will be the center of tons of activities including costume parades, a zombie re-enactment of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video, ghost tours and much more.  On the common, there will be stuff for the whole family including small rides, face painting, balloons and much more. It will be spooktacular

For more information visit http://hauntedhappenings.org

Ricky Skaggs can imagine the look his old friend Bill Monroe might have had on his face if he were alive today to see the bluegrass world celebrate his legacy.

“He would get out of the car and have that back straight as an arrow, and he’d have that hat on, and he’d be pulling it off and thanking people,” Skaggs said. “He’d really be happy about people celebrating his life.”

As members of the International Bluegrass Music Association gather for their annual awards and conference in Nashville this week, Monroe and the message of his music are foremost on their minds. Monroe, the architect of bluegrass and a patron saint of country music, would have turned 100 on Sept. 13. He died in 1996 at the age of 84. Monroe is being honored with concerts in his memory and historical discussions this week, and he’ll play a prominent role during the Bluegrass Awards on Thursday as well.

He left behind a legacy that’s more vital and thriving than ever and a diaspora of former players and acolytes who continue to spread his music today. Bluegrass, developed from roots deep in the soil of his native Kentucky, has spread around the world. It’s evolved with each generation that’s passed since that mythic “birth of bluegrass” concert in December 1945 at The Ryman Auditorium that featured the debut of pioneering banjo player Earl Scruggs and guitarist Lester Flatt.

“Every country that I’ve ever been in in my whole life, I’ve always run into somebody who’s either talked to me about bluegrass or there was a bluegrass band there, whether it was Russia, Thailand, wherever I’ve been,” Skaggs said. “It’s a huge music that’s crossed lines.”

Monroe will be a featured presence at The Ryman on Thursday night when lead nominees The Boxcars, Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out, The Gibson Brothers and Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas join most of the genre’s biggest names for the annual IBMA Bluegrass Awards. He’s always been revered in Nashville, but the centennial gives those who knew him a welcome chance to talk about their memories and tell stories about a man who was larger than life.

“I think it’s a great time because we still have so many originators of styles such as Ralph Stanley, Earl Scruggs is still around, Doc Watson we still have, and we’ve got all these great young new bands,” said Sam Bush, who will host the awards show. “Some of them play what you call Nu Grass and some of them take great pride in following the tradition of Bill Monroe. So I think he’d be pretty proud of the entire scene that’s going on here.”

Bush said he’ll focus his remarks on something he once heard Monroe say after listening to a player mimic his sound flawlessly: “Bill looked at him and said, `Now that’s real good. What can you play on your own?’”

Monroe, born on a farm near Rosine, Ky., was already arguably country music’s greatest mandolin player when he formed his Blue Grass Boys in 1938 and began refining his sound.

“Bill Monroe was one of the greatest experimenters of them all,” Skaggs said. “The whole creation of bluegrass was an experiment. It was a test-tube baby.”

By the time he found Scruggs — Monroe reportedly began to dance with joy as Scruggs showed him his new three-fingered playing style — he was writing songs that would help redefine country music.

“One time he told me, `People don’t know it, but I learn from them,’” said Del McCoury, who was Monroe’s lead singer for a year in 1963-64. “He meant other musicians. His music comes from a lot of different styles, jazz and what he heard as a kid.”

In turn, he would influence new generations of young listeners with his sound. Doyle Lawson first heard Monroe in the late `40s on an Opry broadcast.

“I fell in love with it,” Lawson said. “I asked my mother, `Who is that?’ and she told me it’s Bill and he played mandolin and he sang really high. And from that day on I never took my eye off the ball. I knew I was going to play music.”

Last Call for Cape Cod Mandolin Camp! Jam, study, rehearse and perform at a favorite Cape Cod resort: East Sandwich Beach. Details here: http://www.nemandolins.com/CCMC.html

There’s still room in Seth Austen’s Old Time Bluegrass Band — and in August’s Texas Swing ensemble.  Special guest is Carlo Aonzo — Italy’s greatest mandolin virtuoso (and Winfield National Mandolin Champion).