{"id":15370,"date":"2015-10-03T15:16:13","date_gmt":"2015-10-03T19:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=15370"},"modified":"2015-10-03T15:16:13","modified_gmt":"2015-10-03T19:16:13","slug":"the-bluest-day-last-day-in-raleigh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2015\/10\/03\/the-bluest-day-last-day-in-raleigh\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bluest Day: Last day in Raleigh"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The program cover for the 2015 IBMA awards booklet. Every year there’s a new art design for the annual conference.<\/p><\/div>\n

Here in Raleigh, the only thing bigger than the IBMA Convention this week has been hurricane Joaquin.\u00a0 The threat of a full-on hurricane has been lessening for the last couple of days, but the huge outdoor Wide Open Bluegrass festival has been moved indoors to the Raleigh Convention Center.\u00a0 We’re all grateful that the convention center is huge – and every nook and cranny is filled with food vendors, sculptors, painters, leather artisans, T-shirt artists, jewelry makers, soft drink marketers, hot dog samplers, and so much more.\u00a0 There are dozens of North Carolina foods to sample, and beautiful arts to purchase – many of them with a bluegrass theme.\u00a0 In addition to the entire street fair, all nine performance stages (including the 6,000-seat Red Hat Amphitheater) has been moved indoors.\u00a0 Don’t forget the film festival and the workshop stages too.\u00a0 Needless to say, it’s busy here.\u00a0 And crowded, but folks are polite and friendly, and everyone is here for the same thing:\u00a0 to hear some great bluegrass music.<\/p>\n

Thursday night was the big, big deal:\u00a0 the IBMA awards.\u00a0 Hosted by Eric and Leigh Gibson (who grew up in Clinton county- in Ellenburg Depot), the event featured special performances by Alison Krauss, Larry Sparks, The Steep Canyon Rangers with Edie Brickell, and many other nominees for bluegrass awards.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The awards night set list.<\/p><\/div>\n

Even though I was lucky enough to get a last-minute seat in the second row Thursday night, photography isn’t my strong suit, so if you’d like to see some great shots of the awards show, I recommend Todd Powers’ photos from the Bluegrass Today website<\/a>.\u00a0 For a complete list of the IBMA Award winners, click here<\/a>.\u00a0 The Earls of Leicester had a great night, winning album of the year, instrumental group and entertainers of the year.\u00a0 Becky Buller won three awards this year, including songwriter of the year.<\/p>\n

Alison Krauss made a special appearance to introduce Larry Sparks into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame.\u00a0 Bill Keith was also inducted, and offered one of the most entertaining speeches of the night.\u00a0 His advice to young musicians: “Consider taking up the banjo.\u00a0 It may weigh a lot, but it’ll never let you down.”\u00a0 The Bluegrass Today website also has great video footage of a Bill Keith tribute concert <\/a>which took place this summer at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival.\u00a0 See for yourself how Keith has influenced everyone that came after him.<\/p>\n

Photography\u00a0skills aside, here are a few of my shots from a memorable evening:<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Earls of Leicester, a Flatt & Scruggs tribute band, accepting one of six IBMA awards last Thursday.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Alison<\/a>

Alison Krauss’ induction of Larry Sparks into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Balsam<\/a>

Balsam Range, accepting the IBMA award for Song of The Year, for ‘Moon Over Memphis’.<\/p><\/div>\n

The IBMA Awards night is the biggest night in bluegrass.\u00a0 An IBMA trophy is a vote of confidence from peers around the world, and can change the course of a musician’s career.\u00a0 Big thumbs up to Jesse Brock of the Gibson Brothers band, for winning Mandolin Player of the Year.\u00a0 I hope he stays right where he is – he makes a great band even better.<\/p>\n

\"Me<\/a>

Me – sparkling on arrival at the IBMA awards in Raleigh, NC.<\/p><\/div>\n

Tune in to String Fever this coming Thursday to hear music of all the award winners.\u00a0 As always, I love hearing from you – email me anytime at Barb@ncpr.org.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here in Raleigh, the only thing bigger than the IBMA Convention this week has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15370"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15370"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15389,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15370\/revisions\/15389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}