THROUGH THE LENS: IBMA Keeps Eyes Toward the Future at World of Bluegrass 2023

The week following AmericanaFest in Nashville, many fans of roots music trekked 539 miles due east to downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, for the largest urban bluegrass festival in the world, the International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass. The first three days of end-of-September event are a conference with musical showcases, and then, for Friday and Saturday, the city closes five blocks of Fayetteville Street to cars, filling the streets with music fans and locals to watch music on six stages plus the nearby Red Hat Amphitheater.

Marking the transition between conference and festival Thursday night was the IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards show, hosted by Molly Tuttle and Ketch Secor at the Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts. The winners (see the full list here) demonstrated that a younger generation of players are becoming the stars of the music. Moreover, with Billy Strings’ third consecutive Entertainer of the Year award, Molly Tuttle’s trio of wins, and half of the instrumentalist awards going to women (Kristin Scott Benson on banjo, Sierra Hull on mandolin, and Vickie Vaughn on bass), bluegrass and its fans, perhaps more than any other music genre, have embraced the the future.

How times have changed. Some 50 years ago when hippies and the counterculture invaded bluegrass and traditional music, it was viewed with open hostility by many in the bluegrass community. I know, I was there. As it seemed that most of the children of bluegrass fans had defected to rock and roll and other genres, it was these interlopers who rekindled interest in a genre that, despite the greatness of its players, had become somewhat stagnant. 

Two of those who were considered outsiders early in their careers, Sam Bush and David Grisman, are revered today and were inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame during this year’s awards show. The Hall of Fame also posthumously inducted Wilma Lee Cooper into its Early Contributors category. Cooper, whom many fans today may not know, was dubbed the “First Lady of Bluegrass” by the Smithsonian Institution in 1974 after decades of performing with her husband, Stoney Cooper.

Bluegrass, once the bastion of viewing tradition as a wall, is making big strides into acceptance and inclusion, as evidenced by its latest Hall of Fame nominees and rising talent that showcased at this year’s conference and festival, including Jake Blount, Kaia Kater, Tray Wellington, Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band, South Korea’s Country Gongbang, and members of IBMA’s Kids on Bluegrass program. I don’t think we’ll have to wait another 50 years to see some of those names honored by the Hall of Fame.

There was also some big news that dropped during this year’s event: Next year, 2024, will be the last time it will be held in Raleigh. IBMA gave no reason for the move away from the city that’s hosted World of Bluegrass since 2012 and is currently searching for a new host locale for 2025 and beyond. However, in a joint statement with its local partners, IBMA announced plans to “build on their partnership” with a new festival in Raleigh beginning in 2025 that will expand to feature gospel, blues, and Americana music.

Could the IBMA be thinking about returning to Nashville? After all, that was the host city before Raleigh came into the picture. Additionally, as Nashville has grown exponentially since then it would certainly reach a larger audience. If so, and if, like this year, it is held the week after AmericanaFest, the move would not disappoint a whole lot of roots music fans.

IBMA and ND veteran photographers Todd Gunsher, Willa Stein, and Rob Laughter were there to catch the action. Click on any photo below to view the gallery as a full-size slideshow.