Pickin' in the Pines bluegrass festival back at Fort Tuthill County Park this weekend

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - Tickets are on sale now for the eighth annual Pickin' in the Pines Bluegrass and Acoustic Music Festival Sept. 13-15 at Fort Tuthill County Park in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Every year, the festival features traditional bluegrass bands, old-time music and contemporary bluegrass-inspired acoustic music performed by world-class musicians from Carolina to California. This year's festival includes The Infamous Stringdusters, Russel Moore and IIIrd Tyme Out, The Krüger Brothers, plus Chatham County Line, The Freight Hoppers, and The Kathy Kallick Band.

The festival also features workshops by members of the lineup bands. Workshops are the best chance to see the bands up close and learn more about technique, band dynamics and more. A lengthier summit is also planned, with instrument builders attending from all over the southwestern U.S. to discuss their processes and philosophies, and showcase instruments from their workshops.

The Pickin' in the Pines band contest has helped launch several young bands over the past few years, including Run Boy Run, the Railsplitters, Backwater Opera, Whistle Stop and Headline Bluegrass Band. Again in 2013, 10 bands will compete for cash prizes totaling $1,750 provided by local businesses Hufford, Horstman, Mongine, Parnell and Tucker, PC, Grand Canyon Railway and Custom Sound Instruments.

The festival also includes opportunities for camping.

Children 16 and younger are admitted free to the festival and many special activities are planned for the kids. Performances by Chuck Cheeseman's Dancing with No Shoes On are planned and Todd's Musical Petting Zoo is featured again this year.

The festival main stage is located inside the Pepsi Amphitheater at Fort Tuthill County Park. Workshops take place at various locations around the park.

Weekend passes are $80 until Sept. 12 and $90 at the gate.

Friday-only tickets are $30 until Sept. 12 and $35 at the gate.

Saturday-only tickets are $55 until Sept. 12 and $60 at the gate.

Sunday-only tickets are $40 until Sept. 12 and $45 at the gate.

Bands

The Infamous Stringdusters

The Infamous Stringdusters sound like no one else, combining virtuosic chops on five traditional bluegrass instruments, with an ethos of pushing the genre forward. With Travis Book (bass), Andy Falco (guitar), Jeremy Garrett (fiddle), Andy Hall (dobro), and Chris Pandolfi (banjo), the Strindusters' live show takes improvised string band music to new places, combining musicianship and songwriting with experimental performance and contagious energy flowing between the band and the crowd.

Russel Moore and IIIrd Tyme Out

Fresh off his win of the International Bluegrass Music Association's (IBMA) male vocalist of the year for the second consecutive year, Russel Moore is truly at the top of his game and with Steve Dilling (vocals and banjo), Edgar Loudermilk (vocals and bass), Wayne Benson (vocals and mandolin) and Justen Haynes (vocals and fiddle) is celebrating 20 years as one of the genre's most awarded and influential groups in modern day bluegrass. A cappella renditions of many songs can rarely be matched, and have garnered them seven Vocal Group of the Year awards from IBMA. Their superb instrumentation provides even more quality sound to their rich vocal. All this and more makes this supergroup one of bluegrass music music's most recognized and in-demand bands.

The Krüger Brothers

Brothers Jens and Uwe Krüger started singing and playing instruments at a very young age, performing regularly by the time they were 11 and 12 years old. They began their professional career in 1979 and were joined in the early 90s by Joel Landsberg, a native of New York City who also had a very extensive musical upbringing. Together they established the incomparable sound that the trio is known for today.

Since their formal introduction to American audiences in 1997, their facility with their instruments and unique take on the American Songbook have made them a fixture within the world of acoustic music. Their original music, composed by Jens Krüger is crafted around their discerning taste and the result is unpretentious, cultivated and fresh.

Chatham County Line

Chatham County Line's music has been called "traditionally-minded...and a great example of contemporary bluegrass music," but their sound is influenced by rock and roll and traditional country as well. Formed in 1999 in Raleigh N.C., they have recorded many original tunes on their five CDs. The band features Dave Wilson (guitar and vocals), Chandler Hold (banjo and vocals) John Teer (fiddle, mandolin and vocals) and Greg Readling (bass and vocals).

The Freight Hoppers

The Freight Hoppers have been presenting Old Time String Band Music for more than 20 years. The band started presenting their take on fiddle band music four times a day, seven days a week at the Great Smokey Mountains Railway shortly after forming back in 1992. This afforded the group plenty of paid rehearsal time to hone a sound that has proven entertaining and distinctively theirs.

The Freight Hoppers play hard driving old time music with an emotional raw excitement that keeps one foot planted in the past and the other in the present. Of course that's only when they want to keep their foot still, for this is high energy dance music of an older day played like there is no tomorrow. Finding their passion from a love of stringband music of the 1920s and 30s, The Freight Hoppers have been entertaining crowds of fans at festivals and music halls alike as they travel around the country and beyond.

The heart of the band is held together by the powerhouse fiddle and banjo combo of Edward Hunter and Frank Lee, while the rhythm section of Isaac Deal (guitar and vocals) and Bradley Adams (bass) keep the groove moving. Add in the vocal duo of Lee and Deal and you have one of the most exciting and traditional bands to come out of the woodwork. Based out of the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, The Freight Hoppers draw from a steep source of rural southern music for their inspiration.

Kathy Kallick Band

Kathy Kallick (guitar and vocals) has been leading bands in the traditional brand of West Coast bluegrass since co-founding the internationally-acclaimed band, Good Ol' Persons in 1975. She continues to evolve as one of the genre's extraordinary composers and vocalists, now releasing her 17th album, recordings which include more than 100 of her original songs. Along the way, she has won a Grammy and two IBMA Awards for her part on True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe, had numerous albums and songs on the national bluegrass charts, performed and recorded with the Frank Wakefield Band, and written and recorded award-winning music for children and families. The band consists of Annie Staninec (fiddle, clawhammer banjo and vocals), Tom Bekeny (mandolin, fiddle and vocals), Greg Booth (dobro, banjo and vocals), and Cary Black (acoustic bass and vocals).

More information about the bands, photos, or the rest of the lineup is available at www.pickininthepines.org.

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