Department of Tourism
Bluegrass Museum Kicks Off Fundraising with CD Sale

OWENSBORO, Ky. – Organizers of the International Bluegrass Music Museum hope to attract 10,000 fans at their 3rd annual River of Music Party (“ROMP”) June 22-25, 2006.  ROMP is a fundraising event for the museum’s ongoing Video Oral History Project, in which the lives, stories, and musical styles of Bluegrass Music’s First Generation are being captured and archived on digital videotape for current and future generations to enjoy.
In its first two years, the ROMP line-up has included such bluegrass icons as Earl Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs, and dozens of other “legends.”  The 42 bands that will be performing at ROMP 2006--along with information on new locations, museum exhibit openings, and partnering events for next summer’s ROMP--will be announced at a press conference to be held at the museum in Owensboro during the 2nd week of January, 2006 (date TBA).
The museum is also raising money on its website by selling "The Rocky Top Album" for a special price. This CD features The Osborne Brothers, Charlie Daniels, Mac Wiseman, Del McCoury, and The GrooveGrass Boyz. Fans can show their support by ordering the CD online through www.bluegrass-museum.org or by calling 1-888-MY-BANJO. The cost is $8.99.
A regular schedule of jam sessions keeps the music wheels turning in and around the museum.  Musicians are joined by listeners on the first and third Saturdays of each month from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM.  All skill levels are welcome.  Occasionally big-name bluegrass acts pass through the area and join in on these jam sessions at the museum.  
“We’ll be holding a New Year’s Eve jam session with more of a party feeling starting at 8:00 PM,” said Mike Lawing, the museum’s marketing coordinator.
The museum has also started a 2-hour radio show, “Little Maggie and the Bluegrass Tramp,” airing Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings on WKWC 90.3 FM, the station sponsored by Kentucky Wesleyan College. The show features Lawing and his co-host, Little Maggie, spinning a wide variety of rare, vintage music from the museum’s collection, on-air interviews with bluegrass legends, and new releases from bluegrass and roots-of-bluegrass musicians all around the world.  
“Bluegrass is a true American art form that originated in Kentucky,” Lawing said. “It’s the fastest growing musical genre, with bands in hundreds of countries, including Japan, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland and Canada.”