A celebration of B’more bluegrass with the release of Tim Newby’s new book Bluegrass in Baltimore: The Hard Drivin’ Sound and its Legacy.

With an influx of Appalachian migrants who came looking for work in the 1940s and 1950s, Baltimore found itself populated by some extraordinary mountain musicians and was for a brief time the center of the bluegrass world. Life in Baltimore for these musicians was not easy. There were missed opportunities, personal demons and always the up-hill battle with prejudice against their hillbilly origins.

Based on interviews with many of the legendary players from this golden-age of bluegrass in Baltimore, Bluegrass in Baltimore: The Hard Drivin’ Sound & Its Legacy, is the first book to take an in-depth look into how the music that was played in Baltimore came to wield influence across a broad musical landscape. Bluegrass in Baltimore looks in detail at the highly-influential scene in Baltimore that produced such key figures as Del McCoury, Earl Taylor, Walt Hensley, Alice Gerrard, Hazel Dickens, Russ Hooper, Mike Seeger, and Mike Munford and explores their impact and lasting legacy.

Come celebrate the release of the book with author Tim Newby for an evening of music and discussion with some of those Baltimore greats and younger Baltimore torchbearers, including Cris Jacobs & Patrick McAvinue, Caleb Stine, and Bluestone.