Open Mic
Sat. 6 a.m. ET, Mon. 5 a.m. ET
Thurs. 3 a.m. ET, Fri. 6 p.m. ET
This show features a rotating cast of hosts and themes. We’d love to receive your comments on this show.
June 29-July 11: Over 400 people joined us on Sunday, June 22 for the very first Bluegrass Country Open House. This week, we open the mic for the bands that entertained everyone from the lawn of our building in Northwest D.C.; All4Hym, Andrew Acosta’s New Old Time String Band, Hubie King and the Old Timers, The Lisa Kay Band, and Scythian.
June 20-27: The Tom Cat Reeder Show. LIVE on Friday 6/20 and rebroadcast throughout the week.
June 14-19: This week we Open the Mic for Carol Beaugard of Lonesome Pine RFD. She’s joined by over the phone by Laurie Lewis and in the studio by guitarist and vocalist Michael Daves.
June 7-13: This week we Open the Mic for two family bands; The Whitetop Mountain Band who live along Virginia’s Crooked Road and The Gibson Brothers who make their home in upstate New York. Both groups were in our studio recently for some music and conversation.
May 31-June 6: Williams & Clark Expedition visited our studio in Washington D.C. to chat with Host Katy Daley. The band discusses their new album, Brand New Set of Blues, and we hear recordings from their concert recent at Cherrydale United Methodist Church in Arlington, Virginia.
May 16-29: The Tom Cat Reeder Show
May 10-15: We’ll hear Old-time band, The Freighthoppers, as well as Author of “Beach to Bluegrass,” Joe Tennis who visited host Carol Beaugard on Lonesome Pine RFD in the studio earlier this month for some conversation and live music.
May 3 - 9: Its festival season and one of the best festivals in D.C. during the summer is the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. We’ll hear performances from 2006 and 2007 by folksinger Maria Dunn, John Wort Hannam, and the bluegrass band, No Speed Limit. Highlights from the 2008 festival will be broadcast in July.
April 19 - May 2: 40th Anniversary Programming - Join Bill Foster for a two-hour feature on Buzz Busby, one of the founding fathers of Washington, DC bluegrass. We’ll play some of Buzz’s tunes and hear an interview with the mandolin-player that originally aired on WAMU in 1975.
April 12-18: This week we Open the Mic for multi-instrumentalist and founder of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band John McEuen. John visited host Carol Beaugard on Lonesome Pine RFD in the WFDU studios earlier this month for some conversation and live bluegrass.
April 5-11: On March 28th the Larry Stephenson Band appeared at Cherrydale United Methodist Church in Arlington, Virginia. Larry was joined by Kyle Perkins on bass, Kristen Scott Benson on banjo, Josh Williams on guitar, and Jason Barie on fiddle. We’ll hear the two hour performance in its entirety.
March 29 - April 4:T his week we Open the Mic for Cherryholmes and David Davis and the Warrior River Boys. Both groups visited host Carol Beaugard on Lonesome Pine RFD in the WFDU studios earlier this month for some conversation and live bluegrass.
March 21-28: The Tom Cat Reeder Show
March 8-20: A Prairie Home Companion, from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota, with special guests, the self-described “mother” of Bluegrass, Mr. Sam Bush, and the valedictorian of an Angel Choir, singer-songwriter Suzy Bogguss. Also, The Royal Academy of Radio Actors: Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Tom Keith, The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band with Rich Dworksy, John Niemann and Joe Savage. All this, plus the News From Lake Wobegon.
February 23-March 7: Carol Beaugard of Lonesome Pine RFD interviews Tony Trischka and they discuss his recent IBMA awards, Grammy nominations, and Territory, his upcoming release on Smithsonian Folkways. The two are also joined over the phone by Judy Thompson, widow to the late banjo player Bobby Thompson, and reminisce over the gifted and influential musician.
February 8-22: The Tom Cat Reeder Show
January 28-February 7: 40th Anniversary programming, we dig into the archives to present historical shows from the beginnings of bluegrass on WAMU 88.5. Hear Gary Henderson and Katy Daley “Saturday Morning Bluegrass” in April of 1975, as well as Dick Spottswood on the Home Grown Music Hour.
January 12 - 26: Mountain Stage, a live performance program from West Virginia Public Radio, is heard each week in Bluegrass Country on Saturday at 10 p.m. ET. This week we present a rebroadcast of Mountain Stage featuring Raplh Stanley, Yonder Mountain String Band, Tim O’Brien, Odetta, and Dale Jett.
December 27 - January 11: Fantasy Festival in the Kampground of Our Minds. Here at Bluegrass Country, we’ve been to many concerts this year, and so have you, but we bet you’ve never been to K.O.M. for this all star Fantasy Festival.
December 8-24: This week we Open the Mic for Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper. The band joined hosts Carol Beaugard and Steve Lutke on Lonesome Pine RFD in the WFDU studios on Friday, December 7, 2007 for some conversation and smokin’ hot bluegrass.
November 24 - December 7: Forty years ago Dick Spottswood first walked in the door at WAMU with an armload of pre-digital-era records to begin a new show called Bluegrass Unlimited. In 1967, Lester and Earl were still a team, and “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” accompanied Bonnie and Clyde as they shot up the Mid-West countryside in the Warren Beatty film. The forces of tradition and modernity were at war, and bluegrass was systematically exiled from country radio playlists in favor of a crossover hybrid called “countrypolitan.” When WAMU chose to provide a bluegrass sanctuary, thousands of area fans embraced public radio.
November 10-23: We dig into the archives, but not very far, for 40th Anniversary Programming: Music from Foggy Hollow’s 100th show on WAMU’s Bluegrass Country from 2003, featuring phone calls from listeners.
November 3-9: Hour 1 is filled with Spooky Songs and Hour 2 is Sound Sessions with Smithsonain Folkways.
October 20 - November 2: 2007 IBMA Awards Show recorded at The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 4th . Mandolin player Sam Bush hosts the awards with performances from Tony Trischka, the Infamous Stringdusters, Cherryholmes, and Bradley Walker.
October 13-19: IBMA Rebroadcast, Did you miss the live broadcasts from the IBMA World of Bluegrass in Nashville? Well then tune in to our Open Mic program to hear Jen, Katy, Lee, and Bob interview guests such as Larry Stephenson, Larry Cordle, Steep Canyon Rangers, The GrassCats and Greg Cayhill.
September 29 - October 12: Bluegrass Unlimited Marathon, Four episodes of Bluegrass Unlimited from 1970 with host Richard Spottswood and engineer/producer Gary Henderson. The first two programs are part of a two show series about the Blue Ridge label. The 3rd and 4th episodes are part of a series on the Bailey Brother.
September 22-28: Red Shipley Rebroadcasts, we are rebroadcasting Red Shipley’s last show as host of Stained Glass Bluegrass .
September 7 - 21: Bill Foster reviews the past 40 years of bluegrass, from 1967 to the present. He plays music from that period and discusses how the music influenced WAMU 88.5’s sound and how the bluegrass scene was, in turn, impacted by WAMU 88.5. The show also contains clips of Pete Kukyendall as host of Bluegrass Unlimited and Eddie Stubbs dropping in to hang out with Les McIntyre and play some of his private collection.
August 17-28: This week we Open the Mic for Bill Foster and Les McIntyre. This All Night Bluegrass show aired in February of 1982. The show evolved into our current Bluegrass Overnight programming and both Bill Foster and Les McIntyre became mainstays of the WAMU family.
August 3-14: Listen to Lee Michael Demsey host the Bluegrass Country show on WAMU 88.5 from September 13, 2000, the89th birthday of Bill Monroe. Lee plays his 1983 interview with Bill Monroe along with his usual mix of contemporary and traditional bluegrass.
July 6 - 17: Join Bob Webster for a summer show as he checks in with Peter Wernick, aka Dr. Banjo, along with Jamie Dailey, Tony Williamson, and Lorraine Jordan and members of the Carolina Road Band.
June 15-26: GoBluegrass with Bill Miller: This week we open the mic for long-time radio personality Bill Miller. He’s hung his headphones at commercial stations in Tampa Bay, Oklahoma City, Indianapolis, and Charlotte. He occasionally hosts bluegrass shows for WDVX fm in Knoxville, Tennessee and joins us this week to host GoBluegrass.
May 18-29: Production Director, Jen Hitt, brings you two hours of bluegrass balancing the new, the old, the near, and the far with songs from No Speed Limit, Jim & Jesse, Culpeper’s Chesham Creek, and Calgary’s Steve Fisher.
May 4-15: “DC Area Bluegrass with Bill Foster,” Listen to his 2 hour show highlighting DC Area Bluegrass, new and old, from the numerous artists who have helped to make Washington , D.C. the “Bluegrass Capitol”.
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