Bluegrass & BBQ and Silver Dollar City Single Mic Competition

Joe and I had the priviledge to attend part of the Bluegrass and BBQ Festival at Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO this past weekend.  Bluegrass and BBQ this year is a 3 week event filled with great bluegrass music by some of the most talented artists put together by DA Callaway and his staff.  Part of the event is a National Single Mic Competition where bands are selected to participate using just a single microphone similar to that used by the father of bluegrass himself Bill Monroe.  This year there were 22 bands that performed from all across the United States..including Fine Line Bluegrass from Iowa.  I (Lori King) was asked to be a judge for the first round of the competition.  All bands are given 6 minutes to showcase their talents by performing 2 songs and have specific criteria that the judges are looking for based on the performance including: Stage presence, vocal ability, instrumentation, and audience appeal.  The contest has 3 judges for the first round and 3 different judges for the 2nd tround.  The scores are then added together from both rounds to determine a winner.  This years winners were close:

 1st Place – Lonesome Meadow, from Westerville, OH (514 points)
2nd Place – Pure Tradition, from Jay, OK (512 Points)
3rd Place – The Lindsey Family, from Greensburg, KY (511 points)

1st Place received $2,000, 2nd Place $1200, and 3rd Place $800.  In addition the winner will be guaranteed a spot to perform at SDC at the 2014 event.  It should be noted that all the bands did a fantastic job performing on such a large stage to a packed house of people.

Also while we were there we had the great opportunity to visit with our good friends of Blue Highway who performed for us here in Iowa on March 1, 2013.  The guys were gracious as always and put on two stellar performances that we were able to attend. 

Once again thanks to everyone that supports our bluegrass efforts here in Iowa.  Maybe someday we can put on our own event similar to this one.  For more information regarding BMAI check us out on the web at www.iowabluegrassmusic.com