Denison University’s Bluegrass Festival features several renowned performers as well as workshops and rehearsal experiences to showcase the very best of bluegrass.

Schedule Of Events

12:00pm - 3:00pm - Bluegrass and American Roots Festival: Band Mixer Workshop at The Eisner Center

Bring your instruments and join us for an afternoon of workshops with the Denison Roots faculty and The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys where students, local musicians, and guest artists can form pop-up bands for rehearsals, jamming, and performances in a band-mixer format.

7:00pm - 8:30pm - Bluegrass and American Roots Festival: The Po' Ramblin' Boys at Swasey Chapel

The Department of Music presents its annual Bluegrass and American Roots Festival, featuring The Cleverlys on Friday night and The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys on Saturday night. Denison’s Bluegrass and American Roots Ensemble, under the direction of Adam Schlenker, will open each concert with a short set. In addition to the two evenings of exciting concerts, there will be an afternoon of workshops on Saturday where students, local musicians, and guest artists can form pop-up bands for rehearsals, jamming, and performances in a band-mixer format. These events are free and open to the public; however, concert tickets are required.

At a time when most people feel constantly distracted by technology and barraged by the news, authenticity and straightforward honesty are paramount. There’s something about the music of The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys that cuts right through the noise of the world and speaks plainly to the soul. Formed in the Smoky Mountains, The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys are at once exactly what you would expect and not at all what you would expect from a tattooed East Tennessee Bluegrass outfit. No strangers to hard work, the boys are as much at home riding in their 1965 GM Tour bus as they are crawling underneath to fix it when it needs maintenance. But they take pride in being ambassadors of their genre, and the group has brought their music from rural bluegrass festival stages to the rock clubs of Europe, with stunning results.