Monthly Bluegrass Jam
2022-06-25 14:00 - 17:00, 2022-07-23 14:00 - 17:00, 2022-09-24 14:00 - 17:00, 2022-10-22 14:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Birthplace of Country Music Museum, 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, 24201, United States
The Birthplace of Country Music Museum in partnership with the East Tennessee Bluegrass Association is hosting a monthly gathering of local musicians for a bluegrass jam session! The jam events are intended to provide a space for local musicians to gather and pick, collaborate, share their experiences, and—most importantly—to have fun. The jams are acoustic and only feature traditional bluegrass instruments: acoustic guitar, upright bass, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, and dobro.
The jams are free and open to the public. All ages and skill levels are welcome. Those just interested in listening are also welcome!
Bluegrass Jams will be held on the fourth Saturday of each month from 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m., serving as a great warm-up for Saturday night gigs! Musicians are asked to bring their own instruments.
The sessions will be held in the Learning Center at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.
For more information call 423-573-1927.

1927 Concert Series
2022-07-23 18:00 - 21:00 | TN
The Birthplace of Country Music proudly presents the intimate 1927 Concert Series experience featuring live music by the charismatic, soon-to-be icon of country, Hannah Dasher.
Date: Saturday, July 23, 2022
Time: 6:00 p.m. EDT
Location: Birthplace of Country Music Museum
Tickets: $100
BUY TICKETS
The 1927 Concert Series is an intimate concert experience set in the “acoustically perfect” Performance Theater at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. It’s more than a night of music, it’s a very personal event with some of the most renowned roots music artists performing today. Guests are asked to arrive promptly at 6:00 p.m. to enjoy heavy hors d’oeuvres by Catering by Catherine and an open bar (ages 21+ with valid ID) before the show, food and drinks included with ticket. Post-performance, guests will have the opportunity to mingle with the artist(s) after the show.
Members of the Birthplace of Country Music’s 1927 Society are given access to exclusive ticket pre-sales to the 1927 Society Concert Series before they go on sale to the public. To learn more about becoming a member of the 1927 Society and all its advantages, click here.
About the Artist

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Nashville’s best-kept secret: Hannah Dasher.
When Dasher takes the stage, you see a country star who was born to entertain.
What you don’t see is what it took her to get to that stage. “In order to pay my band, I had to start cleaning houses and sell all my guitars, including the first and only one my daddy ever gave me. For years, I wrote songs and played shows on borrowed guitars,” Dasher recalls. “Eventually, I scrubbed enough toilets to buy my first Gibson.”
Aside from Hannah’s work ethic, her strong, non-conforming, swaggy lyrics set her apart from her peers early on, earning her the nickname Hannah Damn Dasher. Accompanying her big hair and her larger-than-life personality is a voice that’s even bigger. Listen closely and you’ll hear remnants of Lorrie Morgan, Dolly Parton, Aretha Franklin and Alan Jackson. It all makes for a sound that’s familiar — like your favorite 90’s country — yet uniquely fresh.
In fact, that fresh take on the familiar further sets Dasher apart from every other country music hopeful who moves to Nashville to chase the neon dream. Her carefully crafted songs, classically country voice and presence on stage give her a leg up in a genre where fitting in just wasn’t a good fit.
And already, it’s starting to pay off. During the quarantine summer of 2020, Dasher decided to try out her comedic, country music-infused cooking series, “Stand By Your Pan” on TikTok. Within six months, her platform grew from 12,000 followers to over a million. “People appreciate that I’m authentically unfiltered Hannah, and I’m very confident in who God made me to be,” she says.
Quite the entertainer beyond the kitchen, the triple threat is now a Fender Next Artist, and the face of the new 2021 Telecaster coming this fall. “Jaren Johnston (from the band The Cadillac Three) gave me my first electric guitar a few years ago and said, ‘Now here. Learn it!’ So I did. I don’t know the notes, I just play by ear.”
While Dasher’s ascent has been almost a decade in the making, someone once told her, “Reba wasn’t built in a day.” So she’s comfortable with the slow climb, because she’s surrounded herself with a Nashville family of songwriters, musicians, producers and industry allies who push her to be better. “So many people have had instrumental talks with me about getting out of my own way. It’s hard to relinquish control of your art and to navigate that, while keeping everyone around me inspired.”
Her latest release The Half Record — due out July 9 — is the music that Dasher is very proud to be sharing with the world. “I like to leave things better than I found them. This is so much bigger than me,” she shares.
Being born and raised near Savannah, Georgia, Dasher likes to say that she’s been keeping country country since 1989. And while she did have some rock and Motown influences in the mix, the cassettes she wore out when she was growing up were Patsy Cline’s Greatest Hits, Clint Black’s Killin’ Time and Alan Jackson’s A Lot About Livin’ (And a Little ’bout Love).
Now that she’s fully immersed in the grown-up life of a country singer-songwriter, Dasher admits that from a very young age, she was not merely a fair-weather fan. She was the kind of fan who made country music her life’s mission. “I didn’t like to read books, but I’d read song lyrics and liner notes front to back. I was that nerdy kid who knew who Keith Stegall was when I was 8 years old,” she admits. “And I always wanted to be a country singer. Hell, I practiced my CMA Awards speeches in front of my bathroom mirror with a hairbrush as a little girl.”
Once she’d moved to Nashville after graduating from college, Dasher balanced her work at Bass Pro Shops with her work honing her songwriting craft. It paid off just a year and a half after she arrived, when she signed a publishing deal in 2012.But it wasn’t until 2017 that she signed with Sony Music Nashville. “I knew I wanted to be a singer, but then I discovered songwriting,” Dasher recalls. “Then I thought, ‘Maybe I want both. Maybe I don’t just want to be Reba McEntire. Maybe I want to be Alan Jackson as well.’ It took five years between my publishing and record deals because I felt like I couldn’t be the kind of artist I wanted to be until the songs were in place.”
“I was loading up my gun for the gun fight,” she says of the years she spent learning how to trust her pen. “I even had an early cut with Brad Paisley — a co-write with Paisley, Chris DuBois and Brent Anderson — called ‘Go to Bed Early.’ It was an idea I’d started working on right around the time I got fired from Bass Pro Shop.”
Once Sony discovered and then signed Dasher, she says, her team was careful about the timing of her releases, because in country music, timing can be everything. “They never made me feel like I wasn’t enough,” the CMT Next Women of Country says. And now that the time is right, Dasher is all in. She was born to entertain, and now she’s devoted 32 years of hard work to perfecting her art. It shows at all her shows. Hannah Damn Dasher, indeed.

"Born in Bristol" Global Premiere & 1920s-Themed Watch Party
2022-07-30 20:00 - 23:00, 2022-07-30 22:00 - 23:00 | TN
Join us for the “Born in Bristol” World Premiere Outdoor Watch Party in Historic Downtown Bristol!
Date: Saturday, July 30, 2022
Time: 8:00 p.m. EDT
Location: The Downtown Center, 810 State Street, Bristol, TN
Cost: Event is FREE, but please RSVP
CLICK HERE TO RSVP
Watch the global premiere of “Born in Bristol” from home at 8/7c on DittyTV and 10/9c on Circle All Access Network

In celebration of the 95th anniversary of the 1927 Bristol Sessions, the public is invited to attend the world premiere of “Born in Bristol” at 8 p.m. EDT, July 30. The 1920s-themed, outdoor watch party will be held at the Downtown Center (810 State Street) in Bristol. Festivities kick off with live music by Northfork. The watch party will synchronize at 10 p.m. EDT with Circle Network’s global premiere.
The event is free, but the public is asked to RSVP online to attend. Attendees are encouraged to dress in the period of the roaring twenties. Movie concessions and adult beverages will be available for purchase; alcohol will only be sold to patrons 21 and over with valid photo ID.
“Born in Bristol,” produced by Tennessee Tourism and Plan A Films, is a 53-minute docudrama profiling the 2015 recording of Orthophonic Joy: The 1927 Bristol Sessions Revisited CD project. Orthophonic Joy was produced in partnership with Tennessee Tourism and the Virginia Tourism Corporation. The film features interviews with artists including Ashley Campbell, Ashley Monroe, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Eric Church, Marty Stuart, Shannon Campbell, Sheryl Crow, Steve Earle, and Vince Gill, as well as GRAMMY-winning producer Carl Jackson. Cinematic reenactments were shot in several locations in Historic Downtown Bristol.
“Born in Bristol” will premiere globally on Saturday, July 30 at 10/9c on Circle Network and repeats throughout August. It will also debut on connected devices worldwide on DittyTV on Saturday, July 30 at 8/7c with repeats in August.
The watch party is presented by the Birthplace of Country Music, in partnership with the City of Bristol, Tennessee, Bristol, Tennessee Parks & Recreation, Believe in Bristol, Explore Bristol, Express AV and Bristol Broadcasting Company.

Trivia Night: Mountain Dew & More
2022-08-03 18:30 - 21:00 | Michael Waltrip Brewing, 221 Moore Street, BRISTOL, VA, 242014140, United States
When: Wednesday, August 3, 7:00-9:00pm
Where: Michael Waltrip Brewing, 221 Moore Street, Bristol, VA
Cost: Free and open to the public; a donation of $10 per team is suggested (all proceeds will support the museum’s educational and public programming)
Quiz team info: No limit on the number of quiz team members! Please arrive by 6:30pm to register your team for the event.
Join us at Michael Waltrip Brewing on Wednesday, August 3, for Trivia Night: Mountain Dew & More! Quiz Maestro Eric Drummond Smith, along with the Birthplace of Country Music Museum’s curatorial team, will have questions galore on history, moonshine, NASCAR, music, an infamous lime-green soda, and hillbilly lore, from easy peasy to downright diabolical. So get your dream team together and come out for an evening of trivia fun. The winning team will receive some great museum and Mountain Dew swag!
This event is complementary programming to the museum’s current special exhibit – “It’ll Tickle Yore Innards!”: A (Hillbilly) History of Mountain Dew – on display through August 7.
Trivia Night: Mountain Dew & More is free but a donation of $10 per team is suggested – all proceeds will support the museum’s free or low-cost educational and public programming. There will be a donation jar at the event for anyone who would like to contribute.
Please arrive by 6:30pm to register your quiz team.

Radio Bristol's Farm and Fun Time
2022-08-11 19:00 - 20:30 | TN
Date: Thursday, August 11, 2022
Time: 7:00 p.m. EDT (Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; audience asked to be seated by 6:55 p.m.)
Location: Performance Theater at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum
Tickets: $35
BUY TICKETS HERE
Join us in the intimate performance theater at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum for WBCM Radio Bristol’s Farm and Fun Time live variety show with special guests Fireside Collective, Larry Bellorin and Joe Troop.
Hosted by Kris Truelsen and his house band Bill and the Belles, Farm and Fun Time is a re-imagining of the classic WCYB Radio program of the same name that aired in the 1940s and 1950s. Radio Bristol’s Farm and Fun broadcasts live before a studio audience and recorded for television syndication on PBS stations across the South. It can be accessed on 100.1 FM in the Bristol area, or online at ListenRadioBristol.org and on Radio Bristol’s free mobile app. Viewers may also tune in to watch through Radio Bristol’s Facebook page.

About Fireside Collective
A quintet who cheerfully disregard every kind of one-dimensional label that might be attached to their music, Fireside Collective has been on a roll since emerging seven years ago from the fertile roots music scene of Asheville, North Carolina. In quick order, the progressive bluegrass group released its debut album, won the 2016 Band Contest at MerleFest, earned an International Bluegrass Music Association Momentum Band of the Year nomination and embarked on an ambitious touring schedule that’s earned an enthusiastic reception from traditional bluegrass to wide-ranging, eclectic music festival audiences alike.
​Blending the characteristic interplay of bluegrass instrumentation and harmonies with strong original material and exuberant energy, Fireside Collective has drawn on folk, blues, funk and a wide variety of bluegrass sounds to create a distinctive body of work that’s all their own.

About Larry Bellorin and Joe Troop
Larry Bellorín & Joe Troop were destined to make music together. Larry hails from Monagas, Venezuela and is a legend of Llanera music. Joe is from North Carolina and is a GRAMMY-nominated bluegrass and oldtime musician. Larry was forced into exile and is an asylum seeker in North Carolina. Joe, after a decade in South America, got stranded back in his stomping grounds in the pandemic. Larry works construction to make ends meet. Joe’s acclaimed “latingrass” band Che Apalache was forced into hiatus, and he shifted into action working with asylum seeking migrants.
Currently based in the Triangle of North Carolina, both men are versatile multi-instrumentalists and singer-songwriters on a mission to show that music has no borders. As a duo they perform a fusion of Venezuelan and Appalachian folk music on harp, banjo, cuatro, fiddle, guitar, maracas and whatever else they decide to throw in the van. The program they offer features a distinct blend of their musical inheritances and traditions as well as storytelling about the ways that music and social movements coalesce.

About Bill and the Belles
Bill and the Belles is a Johnson City, TN-based band known for combining a stringband format with their signature harmonies, candid songwriting, and pop sensibilities. Their delightfully deadpan new album, Happy Again, is full of life, humor, and tongue-in-cheek explorations of love and loss. Bill and the Belles is Kris Truelsen on guitar, fiddler Kalia Yeagle, banjo/banjo-uke player Aidan VanSuetendael, and bassist Andrew Small. The group has a knack for saying sad things with a bit of an ironic smirk, and anyone who’s been to one of their shows can attest that you leave feeling lighter and refreshed. This is a band that revels in the in-between: deeply engaged with the stringband tradition and eager to stretch those influences to a contemporary setting. A timeless place where Jimmie Rodgers and Phil Spector can overlap, and a driving fiddle and banjo tune makes way for a sentimental parlor song. And while Bill and the Belles’ latest chapter offers a bigger, moodier, and more decade-ambiguous sound, they maintain their status as the most refreshing stringband around. Visit the band’s website at BillandtheBelles.com for touring and more information.

Bristol Rhythm Green Team/HOKA 5K Plog
2022-08-13 09:00 - 12:30 | TN
Date: Saturday, August 13, 2022
Time: 9:00 a.m. EDT
Location: State Street Brewing (801 State Street, Bristol, VA)
Cost: Free to participate (beer and food not included)
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Plogging is a community and environmentally focused way to exercise. You pick up trash and recyclables as you walk/run. This event gives us the opportunity to call attention to the important of recycling and not littering and keeping our Downtown clean.
What to expect:
Meet us at State Street Brewing at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 13. Participants will have two walk/run routes to choose from, each starting in Historic Downtown Bristol, and then branching out to nearby neighborhoods in Tennessee and Virginia.
HOKA and Mountain Sports, Ltd. will be set up at the brewery with shoes to demo during the run and to purchase. The Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion Green Team will be there to talk about volunteer opportunities at Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion music festival coming up September 9-11 in Historic Downtown Bristol.
The San Taco food truck will be on site at 11:00 a.m. so you can hang out with some good brews and food after helping make Bristol a greener place to live!
Participants will have the chance to take home some cool swag, and the person who brings back the most trash/recyclables will win a weekend pass to Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion!
Stick around after the plogging session for a raffle, where you’ll have the chance to win some cool prizes, including a pair of HOKA shoes and two passes to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.
Special thanks to Appalachian Chiropractic Wellness Center for their sponsorship of the BRRR Green Team!
Itinerary:
9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
Arrive at State Street Brewery to get your maps for plogging route and grab a pair of HOKA shoes to test out during the plog! Demo shoe sizes are limited, and available on a first-come, first-served basis, so please arrive early to secure your size.
9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
5K plog, walk or run. Pick up trash along your route.
11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Raffle and prizes awarded
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Food truck and beer available for purchase.
Click here for more information on HOKA event standards, event safety guidelines and to register.

Bristol Sessions Super Raffle Prize Drawing
2022-09-11 12:00 - 16:00 | TN
Join us in-person or tune in to WBCM Radio Bristol for the Bristol Sessions Super Raffle live drawing at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum during Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion – where we’re giving away up to $250,000 in cash and big prizes!
Date: Sunday, September 11, 2022
Time: Noon – 4:00 p.m.
Location: Birthplace of Country Music Museum
Raffle Ticket Price: $100
BUY RAFFLE TICKETS
BROWSE RAFFLE PRIZES
The Birthplace of Country Music (BCM) will hold its fourth annual Bristol Sessions Super Raffle as a fundraiser to benefit the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. The Super Raffle drawings will take place on Sunday, September 11, 2022, from 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. The Super Raffle is an opportunity for patrons to support the Museum while creating an opportunity to win one of 49 great prizes.
A winner will be drawn every five (5) minutes and prizes include vehicles, a vacation, jewelry, a motorcycle, and much more – plus LOTS OF CASH! Only 5,000 tickets are available for purchase, and ticket buyers do not have to be present to win.
Winners will be announced during the live event at the Museum. Winners will also be notified via phone or mail. Additionally, winners will be listed on the Bristol Sessions Super Raffle website and Facebook event page on the day of the Raffle.
Raffle tickets are for sale for $100 each and include two ticket numbers on each ticket. BCM is offering an incentive to ticket purchasers who buy multiple tickets. The “Buy 10 Get 1 Free” offer gives the buyer a free ticket with the purchase of 10 tickets. The “Buy 10 get 1 free” option must be purchased by a single buyer, and those 11 tickets must all be in one individual’s name, or in no more than two names designated by the buyer (if, as example, a male Buyer wants to put 5 in his name, and 6 in his wife’s name).
Tickets can be purchased online or at one of the following locations:

Birthplace of Country Music Museum (Bristol, VA)
Progressive Tractor (18044 Lee Hwy. Abingdon, VA)
The Travel Shop (339 W. Main Street, Abingdon, VA)
Friendship Ford (3192 W. State Street, Bristol, TN)
Abingdon Olive Oil Company 102 E Main St Suite #1, Kingsport, TN
Abingdon Olive Oil Company 335 Cummings St. Abingdon, VA
Friendship Motorsports (2033 W. State Street, Bristol, TN)
Wallace Kia of Bristol (340 Volunteer Parkway, Bristol, TN)
Wallace Nissan of Kingsport (2733 East Stone Drive, Kingsport, TN 37660)
Cranberry Lane (623 State St, Bristol, VA 24201)
Online at BristolSessionsSuperRaffle.org

Tickets for the Raffle will be on sale until September 10 or when 5,000 tickets are sold.
If tickets are still available, they will be sold at the Museum and online until 11:59 PM on Saturday, September 10, 2022. Tickets may not be sold by other ticket sellers after 11:59 on September 7, 2022.
The Raffle drawing will be held on Sunday September 11, 2022, and the drawing will take place at the Museum at 101 Country Music Way, just outside Festival gates.
For a complete list of rules, frequently asked questions, a list of all the prizes, and to purchase tickets, click here.

DBVI "Out of Sight" Experience
2022-10-12 12:00 - 16:00 | TN
Date: Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Time: 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Location: Birthplace of Country Music Museum
FREE EVENT!
The Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired brings it’s “Out of Sight” Experience to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum to celebrate National Disability Employment Awareness Month and White Cane Day. Drop in anytime during the day, or make it a point to hear DBVI success stories during a special presentation at 2:30 p.m. in the performance theater. There will be free activities and drawings for door prizes.
Visit DBVI on Facebook for more information.

Radio Bristol's Farm and Fun Time
2022-10-13 19:00 - 20:30 | TN
Date: Thursday, October 13, 2022
Time: 7:00 p.m. EDT (Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; audience asked to be seated by 6:55 p.m.)
Location: Performance Theater at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum
Tickets: $35
SOLD OUT!
Join us in the intimate performance theater at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum for WBCM Radio Bristol’s Farm and Fun Time live variety show with special guests Sunny Sweeney and Ferd.
Hosted by Kris Truelsen and his house band Bill and the Belles, Farm and Fun Time is a re-imagining of the classic WCYB Radio program of the same name that aired in the 1940s and 1950s. Radio Bristol’s Farm and Fun broadcasts live before a studio audience and recorded for television syndication on PBS stations across the South. It can be accessed on 100.1 FM in the Bristol area, or online at ListenRadioBristol.org and on Radio Bristol’s free mobile app. Viewers may also tune in to watch through Radio Bristol’s Facebook page.

About Sunny Sweeney
Sunny Sweeney, a genre-bending, songwriting spitfire who has spent equal time in the rich musical traditions of Texas and Tennessee, returns with Married Alone, the celebrated singer-songwriter’s fifth studio album and the follow-up to 2017’s critically acclaimed Trophy. Co-produced by beloved Texas musician and larger-than-life personality Paul Cauthen and the Texas Gentlemen’s multi-hyphenate Beau Bedford, Married Alone is Sweeney’s finest work yet, bringing together confessional songwriting, image-rich narratives and no shortage of sonic surprises for a loosely conceptual album about loss and healing.

About FERD
Ferd is a man and a band creating a fresh and vibrant interpretation of American music. Ferd is set to release their first album, Feelin’ Like the Wind, in 2022. The album is a musical journey into the toils of joy we all find while stumbling our way to forgiveness.
Ferd Moyse the man was raised in the Mississippi Delta. Born in the land of the Blues, he was exposed to music from the beginning. Sometimes his parents might take him to parties where the likes of Sam Chatman may have been playing, but when he was old enough to be left alone, his job was staying home flipping cassette tapes for his father’s weekly ritual of recording a Mississippi Public Radio show called, “Grass Roots.” The 3-hour show was young Ferd’s introduction into bluegrass and old time music.
At the same time, music was all over the Delta and he would see things from Son Thomas playing at his church or John Hartford at an old high school auditorium. Ferd began playing guitar at an early age and began performing with various blues bands around Mississippi. A chance encounter with a Doc and Merle Watson CD turned his attention to acoustic music and into Appalachia. He moved to western North Carolina and crossed paths with the fiddle, eventually becoming fiddler and singer with the Virginia based Hackensaw Boys.The band was turning heads making original music with a punk-rock spirit. With the Hackensaw Boys, Ferd traveled nationally and internationally playing every festival and club stage they could find, creating an unpretentious version of our folk music. They eventually released albums for Netwerk and Free Dirt Record labels and even working with grammy-winning producer Larry Campbell. Ferd is also know all over by his work with the New York based bard, Morgan O’kane. Together, Ferd and O’kane have traveled extensively busking and playing stages from Brazil to Belfast.

About Bill and the Belles
Bill and the Belles is a Johnson City, TN-based band known for combining a stringband format with their signature harmonies, candid songwriting, and pop sensibilities. Their delightfully deadpan new album, Happy Again, is full of life, humor, and tongue-in-cheek explorations of love and loss. Bill and the Belles is Kris Truelsen on guitar, fiddler Kalia Yeagle, banjo/banjo-uke player Aidan VanSuetendael, and bassist Andrew Small. The group has a knack for saying sad things with a bit of an ironic smirk, and anyone who’s been to one of their shows can attest that you leave feeling lighter and refreshed. This is a band that revels in the in-between: deeply engaged with the stringband tradition and eager to stretch those influences to a contemporary setting. A timeless place where Jimmie Rodgers and Phil Spector can overlap, and a driving fiddle and banjo tune makes way for a sentimental parlor song. And while Bill and the Belles’ latest chapter offers a bigger, moodier, and more decade-ambiguous sound, they maintain their status as the most refreshing stringband around. Visit the band’s website at BillandtheBelles.com for touring and more information.

1927 Concert Series featuring Western Centuries
2022-10-14 18:00 - 21:00 | TN
The Birthplace of Country Music presents the 1927 Concert Series, an intimate concert experience, featuring Seattle-based roots band Western Centuries at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.
Date: Friday, October 14, 2022
Time: 6:00 p.m. EDT
Location: Birthplace of Country Music
Tickets: $100
Click Here to Purchase Tickets
The 1927 Concert Series is an intimate concert experience set in the “acoustically perfect” performance theater at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. It’s more than a night of music, it’s a very personal event with some of the most renowned roots music artists performing today. Guests are asked to arrive promptly at 6:00 p.m. to enjoy heavy hors d’oeuvres and an open bar (ages 21+ with valid ID) before the show, food and drinks included with ticket. Post-performance, guests will have the opportunity to mingle with the artist(s) after the show.
Members of the Birthplace of Country Music’s 1927 Society are given access to exclusive ticket pre-sales to the 1927 Society Concert Series before they go on sale to the public. To learn more about becoming a member of the 1927 Society and all its advantages, click here.

About Western Centuries
In an age when independence is idolized and every person seems to be seeking their own lone wolf career path, Seattle-based roots band Western Centuries believes that the way forward is better together. Collaboration, inspiration and mutual admiration are what Cahalen Morrison, Ethan Lawton, and Jim Miller cite as the heart of their project. Western Centuries celebrates their third album as a “band’s band” with the release of “Call the Captain,” (a tongue-in-cheek reference to the band’s lack of hierarchy), on Free Dirt Records. Unsurprisingly for such an egalitarian outfit, the collection offers harsh criticism of dogmatic belief systems, all while leading by example with a unique, genre-defying sound.
“Western Centuries comprises a terrific blend of what we love at WNCW: good ole’ rock-n-roll, a healthy dose of honky-tonk twang, and some great songwriting courtesy of Cahalen Morrison, Jim Miller, and Ethan Lawton.” —Martin Anderson, Music Director & Morning Host, WNCW-FM, Spindale, NC
Visit the band’s website at WesternCenturies.com.

Square Dance at the Museum is BACK!
2022-11-04 19:00 - 21:00 | Birthplace of Country Music Museum, 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, 24201, United States
UPDATE: EVENT SOLD OUT!
Time to “do-si-do”! You’re invited to a square dance at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum!
Date: Friday, November 4, 2022
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Location: Birthplace of Country Music Museum
Tickets: Free, but please RSVP HERE
After a two-year break, Square Dancing at the Museum is back! Join us for an evening of old-fashioned square dancing with caller Tyler Hughes, who will lead the evening with live music to get your feet moving. No partner or experience necessary – just a desire to have a great night out!
This square dance is free and open to the public, though donations will be greatly appreciated!
Get your dancing shoes on and spread the word! For more information, email info@birthplaceofcountrymusic.org or call 423-573-1927.

* The square dance will be held in the museum’s Special Exhibits Gallery, and we ask participants to wear sturdy, comfortable shoes (no heels please!) to protect the wooden floor.

A BCM Christmas with Riders in the Sky
2022-12-02 18:00 - 21:00 | TN
Tickets now on sale to the public!
Date: Friday, December 2, 2022
Time 6:00 p.m. EST
Location: Performance Theater, Birthplace of Country Music Museum
Tickets: $100
BUY TICKETS
Join us for a very special BCM Christmas special with Riders in the Sky, which includes dinner and a cash bar, hosted by WBCM Radio Bristol.
Click here to learn more about the benefits of becoming a member of our 1927 Society so that you may receive exclusive, first-access to concert tickets and more.
About Riders in the Sky

40 years ago there were no laptops, no cellular phones, no Google, no downloads, no Skype, no Tweets, no Apple, no Microsoft, no texting, no electric cars, no Uber. A different world. But there were three young men with drive and wit who wanted to keep a special music alive. They believed in preserving the heritage of Western Music and presenting it to a new generation. They believed in entertaining, and they did so… entertaining themselves as well as the audience! And they believed in creating original Western Music to continue the tradition, not just seal it in amber as a museum piece.
The quartet has slowed up very little and the numbers begin to add up: an astonishing 7,200+ appearances, 35 years on the Grand Ole Opry, 40 records albums (well, now CDs,) and tours of all 50 states and all over the world.
Honors accumulated as well. In addition to the two GRAMMY Awards, Riders received numerous awards from the Western Music Association, including the highest: membership in the Western Music Hall of Fame; numerous Wrangler awards from the Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum; awards from the Academy of Western Artists; enshrinement in the Walkway of Western Stars, and more. What began as a celebration of classic Western Music and an evening of hilarity has become a career, and that career has become a legend, one which, 40 years on, shows no signs of stopping or even slowing down much.
Ranger Doug, Too Slim, Woody Paul and Joey the Cowpolka King… 44 years on, “The Cowboy Way.”

Bluegrass Jam
2022-12-03 14:00 - 17:00 | Birthplace of Country Music Museum, 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, 24201, United States
The Birthplace of Country Music Museum in partnership with the East Tennessee Bluegrass Association is hosting a monthly gathering of local musicians for a bluegrass jam session! The jam events are intended to provide a space for local musicians to gather and pick, collaborate, share their experiences, and—most importantly—to have fun. The jams are acoustic and only feature traditional bluegrass instruments: acoustic guitar, upright bass, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, and dobro.
The jams are free and open to the public. All ages and skill levels are welcome. Those just interested in listening are also welcome!
Bluegrass Jams will be held on Saturday Dec. 3 from 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m., serving as a great warm-up for Saturday night gigs! Musicians are asked to bring their own instruments.
The sessions will be held in the Learning Center at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.
For more information call 423-573-1927.

Farm and Fun Time featuring Darrell Scott, John Long
2022-12-08 19:00 - 21:00 | TN
Be part of the live studio audience for WBCM Radio Bristol’s variety show hosted by Kris Truelsen and his house band Bill and the Belles.
Date: Thursday, December 8, 2022
Time: 7:00 p.m. EST (Doors open at 6:30 p.m., audience is asked to be seated by 6:55 p.m.)
Location: Performance Theater, Birthplace of Country Music Museum
Tickets: $40
BUY TICKETS
Join us in the intimate performance theater at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum for WBCM Radio Bristol’s Farm and Fun Time live variety show with special guests Darrell Scott and John Long.
Hosted by Kris Truelsen and his house band Bill and the Belles, Farm and Fun Time is a re-imagining of the classic WCYB Radio program of the same name that aired in the 1940s and 1950s. Radio Bristol’s Farm and Fun Time broadcasts live before a studio audience and recorded for television syndication on Blue Ridge PBS, East Tennessee PBS, and PBS North Carolina. It can be accessed on 100.1 FM in the Bristol area, or online at ListenRadioBristol.org and on Radio Bristol’s free mobile app. Viewers may also tune in to watch through Radio Bristol’s Facebook page.
About Darrell Scott

Darrell Scott “mines and cultivates the everyday moment, taking the rote, menial, mundane, and allowing it to be surreal, ever poignant, and candidly honest, lilting, blooming, and resonating. The words he fosters allow us to make sense of the world, what is at stake here, and our place in it. And ultimately, Darrell knows the sole truth of life is that love is all that matters, that we don’t always get it right, but that’s the instinctive and requisite circuitous allure of things, why we forever chase it, and why it is held sacred.
2017 and 2018 Darrell opened for and performing with the Zac Brown Band, these days find him roaming his Tennessee wilderness acreage hiking along the small river, playing music, or sharing each day with the woman he loves, also an artist in her own right. He often leads songwriting workshops to help people tell their own truths with their stories, and is as busy as always writing, producing, performing, and just plain fully immersing himself at the hips in life.
​If one really opens their eyes and sees how incomparably varied in surreal depth and breadth the musical territory he is both delving into and setting the high water mark with, it leaves the rest in a bewildered wash of gravel road dust and fading taillights. For good luck finding that two-legged soul who walks around among us who can keep up with him─ain’t gonna happen.”
~ Nathaniel Riverhorse Nakadate
About John Long

Delta blues man John Long is a native of St. Louis, but his love of the blues took hold in Chicago. He moved to Denver in the mid-1970s and soon became known as “Colorado’s own Bluesman,” and has had the opportunity to open shows for many and varied names in the blues, and also folk music artists, many of whom he also got the chance to play with. A few of these included, along with Homesick, Muddy Waters, John Hammond, B.B. King, Snooky Pryor, John Lee Hooker, the Fabulous Thunderbirds (Stevie Ray & brother Jimmy), Odetta, Big Mama Thornton, George Thorogood, Phoebe Snow, Steve Goodman, John Prine, and Big Walter Horton. Long has played internationally, in Europe, Canada, Austria and Germany, as well as coast to coast in the United States.
About Bill and the Belles

Bill and the Belles is a Johnson City, TN-based band known for combining a stringband format with their signature harmonies, candid songwriting, and pop sensibilities. Their delightfully deadpan new album, Happy Again, is full of life, humor, and tongue-in-cheek explorations of love and loss. Bill and the Belles is Kris Truelsen on guitar, fiddler Kalia Yeagle, banjo/banjo-uke player Aidan VanSuetendael, and bassist Andrew Small. The group has a knack for saying sad things with a bit of an ironic smirk, and anyone who’s been to one of their shows can attest that you leave feeling lighter and refreshed. This is a band that revels in the in-between: deeply engaged with the stringband tradition and eager to stretch those influences to a contemporary setting. A timeless place where Jimmie Rodgers and Phil Spector can overlap, and a driving fiddle and banjo tune makes way for a sentimental parlor song. And while Bill and the Belles’ latest chapter offers a bigger, moodier, and more decade-ambiguous sound, they maintain their status as the most refreshing stringband around.

Farm and Fun Time featuring The Deslondes, Erika Lewis
2023-01-12 19:00 - 21:00 | TN
Be part of the live studio audience for WBCM Radio Bristol’s variety show hosted by Kris Truelsen and his house band Bill and the Belles.
Date: January 12, 2023
Time: 7:00 p.m. EST (Doors open at 6:30 p.m., audience is asked to be seated by 6:55 p.m.)
Location: Performance Theater, Birthplace of Country Music Museum
Tickets: $40
BUY TICKETS
Join us in the intimate performance theater at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum for WBCM Radio Bristol’s Farm and Fun Time live variety show with special guests The Deslondes and Erika Lewis.
Hosted by Kris Truelsen and his house band Bill and the Belles, Farm and Fun Time is a re-imagining of the classic WCYB Radio program of the same name that aired in the 1940s and 1950s. Radio Bristol’s Farm and Fun Time broadcasts live before a studio audience and recorded for television syndication on Blue Ridge PBS, East Tennessee PBS, and PBS North Carolina. It can be accessed on 100.1 FM in the Bristol area, or online at ListenRadioBristol.org and on Radio Bristol’s free mobile app. Viewers may also tune in to watch through Radio Bristol’s Facebook page.
About The Deslondes

The Deslondes revealed their self-titled debut to widespread tastemaker applause during 2015. However, they really hit their stride on “Hurry Home” in 2017. Right out of the gate, Noisey proclaimed, “The Deslondes have found a comfortable sound to create art in, and it serves them well,” while Rolling Stone noted, “The Deslondes’ take on country relies on gritty, grimy mix of early rock ‘n’ roll and lo-fi R&B.” In addition to praise from American Songwriter, Paste, The Boot, and more, the record closed out on the year on Uncut‘s “Favorite Albums of 2017.” The band’s latest record, “other side,” might just be its brightest yet.

About Erika Lewis

Known for her lengthy tenure touring and busking with beloved New Orleans jazz band Tuba Skinny, prolific songwriter and singer Erika Lewis has been churning out American originals all her own for the past several years. From classic country to cosmic Americana to dreamy indie folk, Lewis continues to dip her toes more deeply into an every expanding pool of roots music styles. Her new record, “A Walk Around the Sun,” was produced by John James Tourville of The Deslondes and is a testament to Lewis’ songwriting prowess and exceptional vocal ability.

About Bill and the Belles

Bill and the Belles is a Johnson City, TN-based band known for combining a stringband format with their signature harmonies, candid songwriting, and pop sensibilities. Their delightfully deadpan new album, Happy Again, is full of life, humor, and tongue-in-cheek explorations of love and loss. Bill and the Belles is Kris Truelsen on guitar, fiddler Kalia Yeagle, banjo/banjo-uke player Aidan VanSuetendael, and bassist Andrew Small. The group has a knack for saying sad things with a bit of an ironic smirk, and anyone who’s been to one of their shows can attest that you leave feeling lighter and refreshed. This is a band that revels in the in-between: deeply engaged with the stringband tradition and eager to stretch those influences to a contemporary setting. A timeless place where Jimmie Rodgers and Phil Spector can overlap, and a driving fiddle and banjo tune makes way for a sentimental parlor song. And while Bill and the Belles’ latest chapter offers a bigger, moodier, and more decade-ambiguous sound, they maintain their status as the most refreshing stringband around.

Monthly Country Jam
2023-01-14 14:00 - 17:00 | Birthplace of Country Music Museum, 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, 24201, United States
The Birthplace of Country Music Museum hosts a monthly gathering of local musicians for a country jam session focusing on country, old-time and blues music. The jam events are intended to provide a space for local musicians to gather and pick, collaborate, share their experiences, and—most importantly—to have fun!
The jams are free and open to the public. All ages and skill levels are welcome. Those just interested in attending as a spectator are also welcome at no charge.
Jams will be held on the second Saturday of each month from 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m., serving as a great warm-up for Saturday night gigs. Musicians are asked to bring their own instruments.
The sessions will be held in the Learning Center at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.
For more information call 423-573-1927.

Film Screening -- Seizing Justice: The Greensboro Four
2023-01-17 11:00 - 12:00, 2023-01-17 15:00 - 16:00 | Birthplace of Country Music Museum, 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, 24201, United States
Date: Tuesday, January 17, 2023
Time: 11:00 AM; 3:00 PM
Cost: Free and open to the public
Length: 47 minutes
Join us on Tuesday, January 17, at 11:00 AM or 3:00 PM for a FREE screening of the Smithsonian Channel documentary Seizing Justice: The Greensboro Four. Learn how four African American college students began a nonviolent sit-in at a Woolsworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and started a revolution.
This programming is part of Bristol’s MLK Jr. Day events for 2023. The Smithsonian Channel documentary is provided free to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum as a Smithsonian Affiliate.

Film Screening - Black Wings
2023-01-18 11:00 - 12:00, 2023-01-18 15:00 - 16:00 | TN
Date: Wednesday, January 18, 2023
Time: 11:00 AM; 3:00 PM
Cost: Free and open to the public
Length: 51 minutes
Join us on Wednesday, January 18, at 11:00 AM or 3:00 PM for a FREE screening of the Smithsonian Channel documentary Black Wings. For early aviators, conquering the forces of gravity was a daunting challenge. But Black aviators had an additional challenge – conquering the forces of racism. Meet the men and women who took to the skies throughout the 20th century, proving to a segregated nation that skin color doesn’t determine skill level. From biplanes to commercial jets, from barnstormers to wartime fighters, meet the path-breaking pilots who opened the skies for all – and contributed in countless ways to the development of aviation.
This programming is part of Bristol’s MLK Jr. Day events for 2023. The Smithsonian Channel documentary is provided free to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum as a Smithsonian Affiliate.

Film Screening and Discussion - The Green Book Guide to Freedom
2023-01-19 18:30 - 20:00 | Birthplace of Country Music Museum, 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, 24201, United States
Date: Thursday, January 19, 2023
Time: 6:30 PM
Cost: Free and open to the public
Length: 51 minutes
RSVP to attend HERE
Join us on Thursday, January 19, at 6:30 PM for a FREE screening of the Smithsonian Channel documentary The Green Book Guide to Freedom. By the turn of the 20th century, the motor age was dawning all across the United States. African-Americans embraced the automobile and the promise of the open road, but they faced a world of danger driving to unfamiliar locales. In the 1930s, a black postal carrier from Harlem named Victor Green published a book that was part travel guide and part survival guide. This is the story of The Negro Motorist Green Book, a travel guide to navigate the sometimes treacherous highways of a segregated nation. See how it became a roadmap to some of the most significant people, successful businesses, and important milestones of the Civil Rights Movement.
After the film, local community members Tina McDaniel, Jewell Bell, Lawrence Bell, and Vivian Releford will share stories and insights into their experiences traveling and how the Green Book was a part of those journeys.
For the safety of participants, masks are encouraged at this event.
This programming is part of Bristol’s MLK Jr. Day events for 2023. The Smithsonian Channel documentary is provided free to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum as a Smithsonian Affiliate.

Film Screening - Black in Space: Breaking the Color Barrier
2023-01-21 11:00 - 12:00, 2023-01-21 15:00 - 16:00 | Birthplace of Country Music Museum, 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, 24201, United States
Date: Saturday, January 21, 2023
Time: 11:00 AM; 3:00 PM
Cost: Free and open to the public
Length: 51 minutes
Join us on Saturday, January 21, at 11:00 AM or 3:00 PM for a FREE screening of the Smithsonian Channel documentary Black in Space: Breaking the Color Barrier. America’s experiences during the Civil Rights Movement and the Space Race are well documented. However, few know about the moment these two worlds collided, when the White House and NASA scrambled to put the first Black astronaut into orbit. This is the untold story of the decades-long battle between the U.S. and the Soviet Union to be the first superpower to bring diversity to the skies, told by the Black astronauts and their families who were part of this little known chapter of the Cold War.
This programming is part of Bristol’s MLK Jr. Day events for 2023. The Smithsonian Channel documentary is provided free to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum as a Smithsonian Affiliate.

SOLD OUT! 1927 Concert Series featuring Paul Thorn
2023-01-21 18:00 - 21:00 | TN
SORRY! Tickets to the 1927 Concert Series featuring Paul Thorn are now SOLD OUT.
Date: Saturday, January 21, 2023
Time: 6:00 p.m. EDT
Location: Birthplace of Country Music
Tickets: $100
The 1927 Concert Series is an intimate concert experience set in the “acoustically perfect” performance theater at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. It’s more than a night of music, it’s a very personal event with some of the most renowned roots music artists performing today. Guests are asked to arrive promptly at 6:00 p.m. to enjoy heavy hors d’oeuvres and an open bar (ages 21+ with valid ID) before the show, food and drinks included with ticket. Post-performance, guests will have the opportunity to mingle with the artist(s) after the show.
Members of the Birthplace of Country Music’s 1927 Society are given access to exclusive ticket pre-sales to the 1927 Society Concert Series before they go on sale to the public. To learn more about becoming a member of the 1927 Society and all its advantages, click here.

About Paul Thorn
Some years ago Paul Thorn performed on an outdoor stage at a street festival in the heart of a small Mississippi town. Suddenly, in mid song, Thorn stopped playing and looked down at the upturned, sugar-splattered face of a fan on the front row. “I sure would like me a funnel cake,” Thorn announced. The crowd exploded with laughter. By the end of the next song, someone in the audience had responded, and soon Thorn was happily munching on the doughy confection.
And that, dear people, is one more shining example of how Paul Thorn is able to breathe in the air around him, everyday and commonplace, and exhale something original and often side-splitting funny. It’s a kind of genius, and it’s there plain to see, in his music, his art and through his performances, which not only showcase his chops as a singer-songwriter, but as a pitch-perfect improv comic.
His audiences love it. And they come back for more because no two Paul Thorn performances are alike. For further confirmation of this, check out Thorn’s YouTube videos, though I warn you. You will find yourself a long time in this rabbit hole.
We live in a world where the terms “artist” and “genius” have been rendered meaningless through overuse. To use either in describing Thorn, though, is not overreach. Pick up any of his dozen or so CDs. The evidence is plain to see. Just listen.
Visit the Paul’s website: PaulThorn.com

Monthly Bluegrass Jam
2023-01-28 14:00 - 17:00 | Birthplace of Country Music Museum, 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, 24201, United States
The Birthplace of Country Music Museum, in partnership with the East Tennessee Bluegrass Association, hosts a monthly gathering of local musicians for a bluegrass jam session. The jam events are intended to provide a space for local musicians to gather and pick, collaborate, share their experiences, and—most importantly—to have fun. The jams are acoustic and only feature traditional bluegrass instruments: acoustic guitar, upright bass, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, and dobro.
The jams are free and open to the public. All ages and skill levels are welcome. Those just interested in joining as a spectator are welcome at no charge.
Bluegrass Jams will be held every fourth Saturday of the month from 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m., serving as a great warm-up for Saturday night gigs. Musicians are asked to bring their own instruments. Beginner-focused hour from 2:00-3:00.
The sessions will be held in the Learning Center at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.
For more information call 423-573-1927.

2023 Tennessee Songwriters Week Qualifying Round at the Museum
2023-02-04 13:00 - 16:00 | TN
The Birthplace of Country Music is hosting a qualifying round for the 2023 Tennessee Songwriters Week. Registration for songwriter participation at this Qualifying Round location is now closed.
Date: Saturday, February 4, 2023
Time: 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Location: Birthplace of Country Music Museum
Tickets: $10 (For spectators only; songwriters enter below, no registration fee required)

BUY SPECTATOR TICKETS HERE
REGISTRATION FOR SONGWRITERS NOW CLOSED
Aspiring singer-songwriters dream of the opportunity to perform at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe, and for a few lucky artists, that opportunity will arrive during 2023 Tennessee Songwriters Week! A number of venues, including the Birthplace of Country Music in Downtown Bristol, Virginia-Tennessee, will host qualifying rounds for singer-songwriters to compete for a place in the spotlight at this historic proving ground for artists – and spectators are invited to watch the competition!
Four (4) songwriters will be chosen from the Bristol competition to move forward and compete during Tennessee Songwriters Week Showcase at The Down Home in Johnson City, Tennessee on Feb. 22. One songwriter will move forward from each Showcase event across the state of Tennessee to perform at Bluebird Cafe in March.
Up to 20 contestants will be considered for the Qualifying Round at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum on Saturday, February 4, 2023, but we will be accepting a waitlist after the first 20 spots are filled. There is no registration fee. Any legal resident of the Unites States, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are eligible.
The deadline to register for Bristol qualifying round is Friday, January 13, 2023.
To enter, songwriters must submit their contact information, song lyrics for the song they plan to perform, and a YouTube link to a video of the song they will perform during the competition. Songwriters will be judged based on their overall performance, originality and connection to the audience. Songs deemed inappropriate or inflammatory will not be considered. Songwriters are only permitted to register with one venue during qualifying rounds. Internet access is required to enter, with no purchase necessary.
Tennessee Songwriters Week Official Rules.
For more information on qualifying rounds across the state of Tennessee, click here.
For 2023 Tennessee Songwriters Week FAQs, click here.
Timeline of events for Tennessee Songwriters Week:
December 15: Songwriter registration opens
January 13: Deadline for Bristol qualifying round entry
January 29 – February 11: Qualifying Rounds statewide
February 19 – 25: Showcase Events statewide
March ?: Finale at The Bluebird Cafe
