Blizzard Bluegrass Weekend

Winter Happenings! Dear Bluegrass Friends!!!!!! Well, Happy December/Christmas to you all!!!!!! Hope this note finds you all well and sassy! Wanted to let you all know of a few bluegrass happenings coming up in December and January! First of all the monthly bluegrass jam will be this next Sunday December 13th at the Gateway Mall in Bismarck from 1pm-5pm. Bring your instrument and voices and play and sing along. I am guessing there may be a little Christmas music going on as well. This is always a fun time and they have a few chairs to sit on and who knows……you may even hear a little jingle bell……….:) There will be raffle tickets on sale for the bluegrass quilt to be raffled off in January at the monthly bluegrass jam on Sunday January 10th!!!!!!! This is a great way to support the new bluegrass association of ND called BAND! Tickets are 1 $ each or 6 for 5 $!!!!! Also on sale will be tickets for the 5th annual January bluegrass blizzard weekend at BSC with Cotton Wood and the Missouri River Boys with headline band from East Tennessee the College of Bluegrass band!!!!!! Here is a little bit about the history of this bluegrass weekend in January at BSC……… 5 years ago Blue Moon Rising called me and wanted to play a bluegrass concert in the winter and had recently played at the Cross Ranch State Park Missouri River Bluegrass festival. I called BSC and they came on board and let us host this event at the Sidney J. Lee Auditorium. Blue Moon came back 3 years in a row and had sell out concerts each year they played here. Last year we hosted the Special Consensus band and had…………… a……….blizzard for several days. We had a good hearty crowd but many missed the weekend due to icy roads and too much snow and also Interstate 94 being closed did not help the situation. SO!!!! This year we are on again for January 7,8, and 9th 2010 and have booked airfare and tickets are on sale now! We will be hosting the College of Bluegrass Band made up of 6 young adults 5 of them college students attending East Tennessee State U including Washburn’s own Ashley Wiese on guitar and vocals. Joining her will be Danny Stewart on bass from Pennsylvania, Colby Laney on mandolin/guitar from North Carolina, Chris Wade on banjo from Ohio, Tyler Williams on guitar, keyboard, vocals also from Ohio, and fiddler player Coleman Smith from Pennsylvania. This will be their 3rd appearance in ND and they are all looking forward to being the headline band each night! As you can see from the poster, tickets are on sale now and there are also 2 free community concerts to be held in Washburn on Thursday January 7th and on Friday January 8th in Steele. The workshop will be held on Saturday from 1-4pm and the cost is 5$ to attend. We are hoping for good weather this year and want to fill up the Sidney J. Lee auditorium each night. Please spread the word on the “bluegrass weekend” and hope many of you can make it out this year. The band will also be playing at the Prairie View Nursing home in Underwood on Tuesday Jan. 5th during the week. We all look forward to the week long bluegrass music that will be flowing all over our great state. J Be sure and book your hotel room at the Country Suites 701-258-4200 and tell them you are in town for the bluegrass concerts. Cotton Wood will be heading west in January on the 23rd up to Sidney, MT to the Mon-Dak Heritage Center for an evening concert there. We hope to book a show on Friday the 22nd somewhere and will keep you posted on where we end up that night. We will also be heading up to Minot in February on the 13th for the Frozen Fingers Festival. Have a great Christmas and stay healthy! On behalf of Cotton Wood we all wish you a Merry Christmas and hope to see you soon! Take care and see you all in January!!!!!!!!!! Jill Wiese www.cottonwoodbluegrass.com