Kentucky Historical Society
KHS to Host Concert with Blue Grass Boys

FRANKFORT, Ky. (Aug. 31, 2010)— Celebrate Kentucky’s bluegrass tradition with the Bill Monroe Centennial Kick-Off Concert from 6:30 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 9, in the Cralle-Day Garden at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History in downtown Frankfort. The concert is sponsored by the Kentucky Folklife Program, an interagency program of the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) and the Kentucky Arts Council.

The Bill Monroe Centennial Kick-Off Concert will begin the commemoration of the bluegrass star just before what would have been his 99th birthday. The concert will feature Jim Smoak and Danny Jones, former members of Monroe’s band the Blue Grass Boys, and master bluegrass musicians Michael Cleveland, Steve Cooley and Larry Raley.

Smoak played the banjo in the Blue Grass Boys during the early 1950s, when he was still in his teens. He later played with country artists Little Jimmy Dickens and Hylo Brown and the Timberliners, and released albums under his own name. Jones has been at the epicenter of the bluegrass music scene since the 1960s. He started out in the Grayson County Boys and then went on to play a mandolin in the Bluegrass Alliance. Jones later joined Monroe, Bluegrass Generation and the Goins Brothers.

Bluegrass music scholar Thomas A. Adler, Ph.D., will interview the musicians between performances and will provide a multimedia presentation about the life of Bill Monroe.

The concert is free with admission to the KHS history campus: $4 for adults, $2 for youth ages six to 18 and free for children five and under. For more information, contact Mark Brown at 502-564-1792 or Mark.Brown@ky.gov.

The KHS Foundation and the Grand Theatre are co-sponsoring a concert featuring Del McCoury, the guitarist and singer for Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. McCoury’s sons Ron, on the banjo, and Rob, on the mandolin, will join their father for this high-energy show. For more information, visit Grand Theatre’s website at www.grandtheatrefrankfort.org or call the Grand ticket office at 502-352-7469.

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The Kentucky Folklife Program identifies, documents, conserves and presents the Commonwealth's diverse cultural traditions through concerts, exhibits, narrative stages, archives, grant programs and classroom and community partnerships. It is an interagency program of the Kentucky Historical Society and the Kentucky Arts Council supported with state tax dollars and funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.