Coping without IBMA

There is no describing the joy one gets walking the town of Raleigh, NC alongside all of your bluegrass heroes. It's the most awesome feeling in the world to connect with old friends for your annual jam session. Essentially, it's Disneyland for the bluegrasser. It's what the NQC is to Southern Gospel groups.

....so I'm told.

I have yet to make it to IBMA's World of Bluegrass. Every year, I tune in to the awards show, and I stay glued to social media to watch all of the awesomeness that happens on the other side of the country.

Rest assured if you share these feelings with me that you are not alone.  Even though it seems like everybody and their brother's gerbil goes to IBMA and leaves you at home to do normal life stuff, there is a world of bluegrassers out there who are also missing the fun and frolic. 

So here's the plan: I hereby declare a festival of IBMA proportions for those who cannot attend. We shall call it...

...IBMStay which stands for International Bluegrass Music Staycation. Half the fun, twice the loneliness, for FREE! Let me tell you how it works.

Gather all of your favorite bluegrass records and play them back to back to back. When that is finished, post videos online of yourself picking your favorite tracks from these albums with the hashtag #IBMStay. If you find someone else in your friend's list chose the same song/key as you did, tag them in every single video you post until IBMStay is over. If you happen to come up with really awesome licks or figure out instrumental solos note for note, post a video online of you doing a Workshop and tag every single person you know who plays the same instrument as you. The most crucial part about making this festival work is that you MUST be alone and never make contact with anybody face-to-face.

Otherwise, you might as well had gone to Raleigh.