Suwannee Springfest Spotlight: Sam Bush, Del McCoury

Sam Bush

They call Sam Bush the Father of  Newgrass. Bush will tell you that his definition of newgrass is simply "contemporary music played on traditional bluegrass instruments." That covers a lot of territory.

In the years since Sam Bush's 1970s breakout band, the Newgrass Revival (with John Cowan and banjo impresario Bela Fleck) started bending genres, the morphing of musical styles has grown to jazzgrass, bluesgrass, folkgrass, jahgrass, funkgrass, and now, there's even punkgrass. Those old Newgrass Revival recordings still stand the test of time, and Bush has remained a tireless performer, innovator, and heck of a nice guy.  

A child prodigy musician who was national fiddling champion when he was only 15 years old, Bush is known primarily for his mandolin playing today. But he shreds the electric guitar and the fiddle alike in his fire-fueled performances. He's a four-time International Bluegrass Music Association Mandolin Player of the Year, and has won three Grammy awards.

Bush has played with everybody -- Bill Monroe, Doc and Merle Watson, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, Jerry Douglas, and Garth Brooks, to name a few famous ones.

Bush is one of this year's headliners at this year's Suwannee Springfest , which kicks off today at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park  in Live Oak, Fl. Tickets are available, and other details about this amazing fest are here. 

The Sam Bush Band plays at 3:30 p.m. Saturday on the ampitheater stage. And it's a good bet that Sam will be part of the all-star McCoury Jam that assembles later Saturday night -- at midnight in the ampitheater.

Del McCoury

Del McCoury -- another bluegrass legend  who has played with just about everybody, including a host of bluegrass greats as well as contemporary bands like Phish, String Cheese Incident, Steve Earl, and even funkalicious Bootsy Collins (GrooveGrass Boyz) -- hosts that jam. 

The Del McCoury Band is hot, hot, hot --- they won this year's Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album ("Streets of Baltimore.") Besides hosting the late-night jam, The Del McCoury Band plays earlier Saturday, at  6 p.m. Saturday in the ampitheater.