The International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky is the only museum of its kind, with an extensive collection of historical bluegrass music and memorabilia, and providing films, live demonstrations, events, concerts, and the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame for your entertainment and education.
Bluegrass or Mountain music has its roots in the Irish, Scottish, and English immigrants of the 1600's who took the threads of what was to evolve into bluegrass music with them as they settled the mountains of North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia. There, the songs were used to reflect and nurture their way of life: the hard work, the pride, the family, and community of the United States' early mountain and country peoples.
It took the introduction of the phonograph and radio in the early 1900's to bring this music back out of the mountains, now fully transformed into something new and worthy of America: bluegrass music. The rest is history - which brings us to the International Bluegrass Music Museum.
The mission of Kentucky's International Bluegrass Music Museum is to foster an environment in which this history is not only collected and protected but also maintained and exhibited to insure that bluegrass will have as vivid a present and future as it does a past.
With state of the art, interactive exhibits, live instrument demonstrations, and sponsoring events like the annual
ROMP (River Of Music Party) festival, the International Bluegrass Music Museum is maintaining that mission in grand style and fans of the genre should not miss an opportunity to visit the museum!
With 22,000 square feet of exhibit space, the International Bluegrass Music Museum is able to display their extensive collection of bluegrass recordings from the earliest days to today; vintage instruments - including Pete Seeger's banjo and Uncle Pen’s fiddle, performance attire, photographs, and more from the legendary Pioneers of Bluegrass and Hall of Fame members.
Looking for something a bit more lively? Take a look at the International Bluegrass Music Museum's current bluegrass music series, the funds from which go towards maintaining the museum and several of its programs:
Fall 2015 International Bluegrass Music Museum Benefit Concert Schedule
Oct 5 - Trout Steak Revival
Oct 22 - Ohio River Tour featuring: J.D. Wilkes and The Tillers
Nov 20 - Wood & Wire
Dec 4th - The Giving Tree Band
Dec 17th - Driftwood
Get more
information and tickets for the Fall 2015 Benefit Concert Series here