Well, the bluegrass festival season is almost upon us here in the northeast.
The first festival happens a short five-hour drive from Buffalo in Wind Gap, Pa. This well-established festival features top name national acts and plenty of opportunities for late night jamming around the campfire or in the dim lights of a neighbor’s RV. The Wind Gap Bluegrass Festival takes place on May 23- 26.
by Mark Panfil
In the mean time, you may want to take advantage of some of the great jamming right here in the greater Buffalo area.
On the second Sunday of the month, pickers and singers of bluegrass music meet at Bennington Lanes in Bennington, N.Y., starting at 2 p.m..
On Saturday, May 4, pickers with a love of old timey music gather at Rohall’s Tavern on Amherst Street in Buffalo, starting at 3 p.m.
Every Tuesday in May and through the year you have your choice of a bluegrass jam in the city at Mr. Goodbar on Elmwood or a bluegrass jam in the hills in Springville at Concord Mercantile, 15 Franklin Street. These jams both start at 7 PM.
The Springville jam also reconvenes every Thursday at the same location.
Every first and third Thursday, you can catch the Buffalo Bluegrass All-Stars for a lunch time show at the Sportsmen’s Tavern. This group is made up of champion fiddler Phil Banaszak, award-winning guitar player Doug Yeomans, bass player-joke teller-founding member of Creek Bend Rich Schaefer and yours truly, Mark Panfil, on banjo and dobro.
Get out and hear some great live bluegrass as the weather is finally warming up in Western New York.
