LISSA ALEXANDER
reporter@pqbnews.com
Hot bluegrass bands from around North America are making their way to the area for the 36th annual Coombs Bluegrass Festival running July 31 to August 3.
Jeff Scroggins & Colorado is a high energy band from Colorado featuring Jeff’s lighting-fast fingers on banjo and his son Tristan, an award-winning mandolin player.
Lead vocals are sung by Greg Blake who has been nominated twice as Traditional Male Vocalist of the Year with the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America (SPBGMA) and his bluegrass guitar skills hassecured him Guitarist of the Year at SPBGMA five times.
The ladies in the band are equally impressive with Annie Savage’s high energy fiddle-style. She is a classically trained musician and teacher. KC Groves founded the all-girl band Uncle Earl, which toured internationally for years and she now teaches through Planet Bluegrass.
The Bix Mix Boys from Edmonton, Alberta give a nice Canadian ring to bluegrass music. The five-piece band plays original songs about Alberta and Canada and also puts their own spin on works by other Canadian artists.
Special Consensus is a Grammy-nominated acoustic bluegrass band coming from Chicago, Illinois.
The group formed in 1975 and received a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album for its 16th recording which came out in 2012 called Scratch Gravel Road.
Other groups at the festival this year include the Clover Point Drifters from Victoria, Dysfunction Junction from Seattle, the Coombs Old Time Fiddlers and Island Blue Rose.
There is camping available on-site at the Coombs Rodeo Grounds. A four-day festival pass which includes camping costs $80 for adults, $60 for youth and kids 12 and under are free. A one-day pass is $35 for adults, $25 for youth.
For more information visit www.coombsbluegrass.com or call 250-752-0383.
