Flagstaff’s Pickin’ In The Pines Offers Early Bird Ticket Prices for Weekend Passes.

One this festival’s claims to fame is that they launched their first festival seven years ago with a stellar lineup for a first-time festival and everyone said it would be hard to beat in years to come.  But year after year Flagstaff’s Pickin’ In the Pines Bluegrass and Acoustic Music Festival presented by the Flagstaff Friends of Traditional Music manages to out-do themselves and their previous lineups of top-notch talent. And every year the comments from spectators and performers alike are made in absolute astonishment.  This year’s lineup looks to be true to form and the various committees that work year-round are making sure they don’t let us down.

Early Bird Weekend Passes are now on sale for the seventh annual Pickin’ in the Pines Bluegrass & Acoustic Music Festival. Weekend passes are available at the discounted rate of $60, with a $5 discount for Flagstaff Friends of Traditional Music members.

Expect to see a unique blend of traditional and contemporary bluegrass, progressive roots-folk, and rollicking old-time music at this year’s Pickin’ in the Pines, as well as workshops, a band contest, camping, jamming and much more.

The festival hosts world-class musicians from Carolina to California plus a full contingent of local and regional bands who play traditional or traditionally-inspired music. This year’s festival also features contra dancing, with evening dances both Friday and Saturday nights, and workshops during the day.

Children 16 and under are admitted free to the festival and many special activities are planned for kids.

Tickets are on sale now at Arizona Music Pro and the Wine Loft in downtown Flagstaff, by mail (PO Box 23701, Flagstaff, AZ 86002), at PickininthePines.org (via Paypal).

Visit PickininthePines.org for details about the schedule, activities, the band contest or anything else you might want to know about the festival.

Thanks to generous supporters, the festival is making every effort to keep tickets affordable, while maintaining its reputation as a high-quality festival. Pickin' in the Pines is supported by Flagstaff Cultural Partners and the City of Flagstaff BBB taxes, Coconino County Board of Supervisors, Arizona Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Background and lineup information

Flagstaff Friends of Traditional Music produced the inaugural Pickin’ in the Pines Bluegrass & Acoustic Music Festival in 2006, as the first major event held at Coconino County’s just-built amphitheater. Since then, the festival has gone on to win over many bluegrass and acoustic music fans. Pickin’ in the Pines has also been recognized for excellence, receiving the 2010 Viola Award for Outstanding Event and the Flagstaff Tourism Commission award for Special Event in 2010. The event has grown from that first year to attract nearly 2000 attendees, as well as an all-star lineup every year.

Some of the performers who have played at the festival over the years are The Seldom Scene, David Grisman, Sam Bush, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Steep Canyon Rangers, Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, Claire Lynch, the Gibson Brothers, Laurie Lewis, John Reischman and the Jaybirds, The Krüger Brothers, The Freighthoppers, Audie Blaylock and Redline, Crooked Still and many others.

The mission of Flagstaff Friends of Traditional Music, a 501(3)3 not-for-profit organization, i to preserve and promote all forms of traditional acoustic music and dance in Northern Arizona for the education, entertainment and cultural enrichment of the community. Learn more about FFOTM at ffotm.net.

2012 Festival Lineup

• Hot Rize, with special guests, Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers Blue Highway
• The SteelDrivers Laurie Lewis and The Right Hands The Foghorn Stringband
• Burnett Family Bluegrass Run Boy Run
• Muskellunge Bluegrass
• Cocks o’ the North
• The Knockabouts
• Zazu
• Backwater Opera
• Tony Norris
• Chuck Cheesman
• Cis Hinkle

Hot Rize, with special guests, Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers

Colorado band, Hot Rize formed in 1978 with a unique and exciting style of bluegrass. Named after the secret ingredient in Martha White Flour, a long-term sponsor of bluegrass music, the band took the bluegrass world by storm with

their fresh, contemporary approach to traditional music. Their strong and soulful bluegrass combined with their wacky but musically deft "alter-ego" country swing band, Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers, made them stars on the major festival circuit, and their powerful original songs consistently topped radio playlists.

The band features Tim O'Brien (vocals, mandolin, fiddle), Pete Wernick (banjo, vocals), Nick Forster (guitar, bass guitar, vocals, and the band's emcee) and Bryan Sutton (guitar, vocals). O’Brien, Wernick and Forster are original 1978 band members. Charles Sawtelle, who played with the band for the first 12 years, died in 1994. Sutton joined the band in 2002.

A number of their recordings – Walk the Way the Wind Blows, Colleen Malone, and Just Like You – reached top positions on the national bluegrass charts over the years. After 12 years of full-time year-round performing and recording, the group disbanded amicably, all members subsequently pursuing solo careers. After thirty years, devotees from past years are being joined by younger fans and the response has been electric. Hot Rize remains one of the top attractions in bluegrass.

Blue Highway

At the 17-year mark, Blue Highway is indisputably one of the most esteemed and influential groups in contemporary bluegrass. The band's nine exceptional albums and compelling live performances give proof to the stellar reviews, Grammy nominations, and numerous awards earned by the band since it first took the stage on December 31, 1994, with the same musicians that comprise Blue Highway today.

With a deep bench of virtuosic songwriters, vocalists and instrumentalists, Blue Highway's hallmark is an unwavering commitment to the ensemble, the “democracy of the band” that makes Blue Highway a powerhouse.

Individually, Jason Burleson (banjo, guitar, mandolin), Rob Ickes (Dobro), Shawn Lane (mandolin, fiddle, vocals), Tim Stafford (guitar, vocals), and Wayne Taylor (bass, vocals) are masters of their respective roles. Together, the five gifted artists selflessly merge their talents into a seamlessly brilliant group sound. As a result, the band moves from strength to strength, more mature and impressive with each new album.

Blue Highway has five gifted writers in its ranks. Rob and Jason turn out the heart-pounding instrumentals, while Shawn, Tim and Wayne give Blue Highway a depth of songwriting talent unprecedented in sixty years of bluegrass bands.

With ten highly-acclaimed albums to its credit, Blue Highway has garnered two Grammy nominations, a Dove Award, topped the Bluegrass Unlimited radio charts, and won numerous International Bluegrass Music Association awards.

Refusing to coast on past glories, Blue Highway continues to push its music to new levels of accomplishment. Artfully balanced between tradition and innovation, the band remains in the forefront of contemporary bluegrass music.

The SteelDrivers

Only Nashville could give birth to a band like the SteelDrivers: a group of seasoned veterans – each distinguished in his or her own right, each valued in the town’s commercial community – seizing an opportunity to follow their hearts to their souls’ reward. In doing so, they braid their bluegrass roots with new threads of their own design, bringing together country, soul, and other contemporary influences to create an unapologetic hybrid that is old as the hills but fresh as the morning dew. They perform original new songs with the old feeling, and SteelDrivers fan Vince Gill describes the band’s fusion as simply “an incredible combination.”

Collectively, the SteelDrivers have probably played and/or toured with every important Nashville musician. Richard Bailey (banjo) has recorded with an impressive array of traditional musicians, from Al Green to Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette and many more. A versatile veteran, Mike Fleming (bass, vocals) lays down the firm foundation and sings the baritone harmony that rounds out the SteelDrivers’ sound. Gary Nichols (guitar/vocals) is a hotshot instrumentalist, singing wonder and songwriting champ, and fits the classic definition of a “guitar slinger,” but he’s no novice, playing guitar and singing since the age of 6. Growing up in a family bluegrass band, Tammy Rogers (fiddle, vocals) brings a lifetime of instrumental and vocal experience to the SteelDrivers. With many years of recording touring and producing under his belt, Brent Truit (mandolin) has traveled the globe with James Taylor, Dixie Chicks and Dolly Parton, winning Grammy awards for his engineering and mixing on tracks from Disney's 'Monsters Inc" and "Toy Story II".

Laurie Lewis and The Right Hands

Pickin' in the Pines is delighted to have Laurie Lewis back at the festival this year. Since forming a musical partnership in 1986, when Tom Rozum first joined Laurie's acclaimed band, Grant Street, Laurie and Tom have recorded 12 albums and performed around the globe. These Grammy-nominated artists are widely regarded as leading lights of modern bluegrass and are highly-prized by their peers as sidemen and producers.

Laurie has been called “one of the preeminent bluegrass and Americana artists of our time.” Tom Rozum "possesses an earnest tenor voice in the vein of contemporary bluegrass great Tim O'Brien, and peels off rhythmically crisp licks on mandolin and guitar." Laurie and Tom are joined by Chad Manning, Patrick Sauber, Andrew Conklin, appearing as The Right Hands.

The Foghorn Stringband

Internationally acclaimed Foghorn Stringband has been at the vanguard of a revival in American old-time music for over a decade now. They’ve traveled the globe, inspiring a new generation of old-time musicians, without compromising their love of traditional American music. But they’ve gathered new ideas and new band members too. Their unique sound still comes from the fiery, intertwining melodies of Stephen “Sammy” Lind’s fiddle and Caleb Klauder’s mandolin, supported by the bedrock-solid rhythm foundation of Reeb Willms’ guitar and Nadine Landry’s bass. Vocally, they deliver four powerful and exceptional voices in countless combinations of harmonies. They don’t fancy up the music to make it more modern, instead they reach deep into the heart of the songs, pulling out the deep emotions that made them so enduring in the first place. It’s a whole new world today for folk musicians, but the four powerhouse musicians in the Foghorn Stringband prove that they’re still riding on the cutting edge, with one foot in the analog past and one foot in the digital future.

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