Dailey and Vincent

We are proud to present Dailey and Vincent. This band stole the show at the 2008 IBMA convention taking home seven major awards including: Entertainer of the Year, Vocal Group, Male Vocalist (Jamie), Album of the Year, Gospel Recorded Performance, Recorded Event of the Year, and Emerging Artist of the Year. Their first album is already considered one of the finest projects in bluegrass history. The band is led by two exceptional voices that have been compared to the very best duos ever to sing bluegrass. Jamie Dailey on guitar sang lead for Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver for a decade when the band won seven Vocal Group awards. He struck out on his own in 2007 to join Darrin Vincent, the long-time bass player of Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder. Their voices blend perfectly, harkening back to traditional sounds of The Louvin Brothers, Jim and Jesse, and Flatt and Scruggs. Backing them is a stellar cast of musicians who know traditional bluegrass inside out. Jeff Parker began playing mandolin at the age of six. He was with The Lonesome River Band before joining Dailey and Vincent. Adam Haynes has played the fiddle since he was 13. Adam was a member of The James King Band for six years. This is his third time on our stage. Joe Dean rounds out the band. He is barely 20 years old, and has already mastered the mandolin, dulcimer and the banjo. Give a listen to this top-flight traditional bluegrass band!

Find out more about Dailey and Vincent.

Grasstowne

Grasstowne is the long journey of three respected veterans in bluegrass and acoustic music. Phil Leadbetter, Steve Gulley and Alan Bibey were boyhood friends in the 1970s. After playing in numerous bluegrass bands over 30 years, these friends joined together to form Grasstowne and we are so happy they did. Alan Bibey is one of the most creative and gifted mandolinist in bluegrass. He has played with The New Quicksilver, IIIrd Tyme Out and BlueRidge. Alan has won various bluegrass awards including Instrumental Recording, Recorded Event, and Mandolin Player. Guitarist Steve Gulley is one of the finest country-bluegrass songwriters. His smooth tenor fronted Renfro Valley, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, and Mountain Heart. He is considered one of the greatest contemporary voices in bluegrass. Phil Ledbetter has been playing resonator guitar since 1975 playing with JD Crowe and the New South, and Wildfire. In 2005 he was named IBMA Dobro Player Of The Year and his solo album won Best Instrumental Album. Two young and talented players round out Grasstowne; Jason Davis on banjo, and Jamey Booher on upright bass. This band is as good as bluegrass gets. The proof is they won the 2008 Bluegrass Album of the Year.

Find out more about Grasstowne.

Dale Ann Bradley

As a Daughter of Bluegrass, Dale Ann Bradley captivated Yukoners at the 2008 festival with her silky lead voice and solid guitar rhythms. She has also enchanted the rest of bluegrass world, winning the Female Vocalist in 2007 and again in 2008! Longtime fan Alison Krauss comments: "Dale Ann Bradley is one of the most gifted vocalists bluegrass and country music has ever heard. She is a dream." Dale Ann easily moves among traditional and contemporary bluegrass, gospel, grassified soul music, real country, folk, and celtic. Her version of Pass Me Not at the church gospel concert last year was one of the most moving musical moments of our festivals, earning her a two minute standing ovation in the middle of the set. Gena Britt-Tew, another Daughter, is back singing lead, harmony and playing a soulful banjo. Rounding out the core of the band, Tom Laughlin plays mandolin and sings harmony.

Find out more about Dale Ann Bradley.

Spring Creek

In our tradition of presenting some of the hottest, innovative and emerging bands on the continent, take a long listen to Spring Creek. They just signed on with Rebel Records. The band counts contemporary bands such as Hot Rize and Country Gazette as their influences, but they can play it all: Stanley Brothers classics, Gillian Welch, Elton John, to their own compelling and innovative originals. This young band won stage contests at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and RockyGrass Festival in 2008. They have a real chemistry on stage, with youthful adrenalin and kinetic energy. Spring Creek is Jessica Smith on bass fiddle, Taylor Sims on guitar, Alex Johnstone on mandolin and fiddle, and Chris Elliott on banjo. All four musicians take their turn at singing lead vocals. Please warmly welcome these talented musicians from Lyons, Colorado.

Find out more about Spring Creek.

Radim Zenkl and Scott Nygaard

We presented Radim Zenkl in Haines Junction and Whitehorse in 2006. Our friend Alistair summed up his encore performance at Steve's Music Shoppe, "There is simply nothing you can say". Radim came to the US from the Czech Republic in 1989. He promptly entered the US mandolin championships and won with a gypsy original tune. Besides mandolin and mandola, he plays a 3 string ukelele, guitar, pipes, ethnic whistles, and digeridoo. His music is positively riveting, original and transcendental. Our esteemed artistic director says he is Mozart on the mandolin. Joining Radim on stage is acoustic guitar legend, Scott Nygaard, one of the most inventive guitarists in bluegrass and acoustic music. He is "a phenomenally talented stylist" playing a seamless stream of bluegrass, folk, blues, Cajun, and jazz solos all the while playing supportive and intriguing guitar accompaniment. The Edmonton Journal says "Scott Nygaard is possibly the best acoustic guitarist to come along in bluegrass music since Tony Rice". Sit back, relax, breathe in, and get ready for something completely and amazingly different: Radim Zenkl and Scott Nygaard.

Find out more about Radim Zenkl and Scott Nygaard.

Four Chords of Wood

Four Chords of Wood are five superb musicians on our stage for the second time since 2007. If the numbers are confusing their music is not. Steeped in tradition, the band writes and performs some of the finest original bluegrass songs anywhere including Nashville. Like the great bluegrass bands of the 1950s, they come dressed to impress, sporting white fedoras, working an entertaining choreography of footwork and fretwork around a single large diaphragm microphone. They lay down a solid and infectious rhythm with their acoustic instruments, and all of them can step up and rip a top-flight solo. Phil Shaver is on guitar and lead vocals. He is a great vocalist and lead guitar player. Aaron Murray plays a bluesy mandolin in the style of Bill Munroe, and sings tenor and lead vocals. Tim Cook is on banjo and sings baritone harmony. Paul Elliott is their fine fiddler, and Dave Klassen anchors the bluegrass 1-5 beat on upright bass.

Find out more about Four Chords of Wood.

Kim Beggs

Kim Beggs is home-grown Yukon talent who infuses sweet oldtyme country roots music with dark tales of northern life. She is truly an internationally known artist, nominated for both a Western Canadian & Canadian Folk Music Award for her album Wanderer's Paean. She also received Honourable Mention in the International Songwriting Competition 2007.

Kim has toured Canada, the USA and the UK where she played the Canada Day celebrations last year in London's Trafalgar Square. Performing with Kim is Todd Livingston on dobro, and Brian Kobayakawa on bass. Todd won the 2001 Rockygrass Dobro Champion, and co-founded the Colorado-based Hit & Run Bluegrass band. Brian is a wonderful acoustic bass player with Creaking Tree String Quartet. This is the fourth time Kim has played the festival, and each time it gets better and better. Don't miss this great trio.

And here is the great lineup of Yukon and Alaska bands that will be playing at the festival...

Canyon Mountain Boys

The boys in the black hats are back at the Kluane Mountain Bluegrass Festival. Their mission, as always, is to spread the bluegrass gospel north of 60. Brother Jeff Faulkner leads the singin' and the guitar playin'. Brother Mike Stockstill makes that heavenly music on the banjo. Brother Stephen Maltby's mandolin rings angel pure and the Reverend John Faulkner delivers the sermons and the bass lines.

The Canyon Mountain Boys have been pickin' and grinnin' for five years now, but all the Boys are alumni of long time northern bluegrass bands Klondike Fuel and Disturbin' the Peace. Playing an ever evolving mix of traditional and contemporary tunes, the band continually performs strong material and backs it up with solid playing. Whether you like truegrass or newgrass, CMB delivers the goods.

Join the congregation and join in the fun.

Bergman Family

Last spring Bruce and Deb Bergman joined forces with Marg Tatum and her fiddle. All three are longtime performers and instructors in the Whitehorse music scene. They soon found themselves anchored on the upright bass by Rob Bergman, who was living and playing in the Victoria area. The resulting music camp and festival experience was an unforgettable one, and all are excited to be back this year. Listen up for more old time and bluegrass flavoured Bergman favourites.

Steve Slade

Steve is the Yukon's acoustic troubadour, logging 25,000 kilometers a year traveling to gigs in the Yukon and 'outside'. He has performed in concert, coffeehouses and various festivals from the Yukon to Newfoundland and throughout the US. His prodigious repertoire of intelligent and affecting original songs strikes a universal chord everywhere he plays. His original compositions have been covered and recorded by various northern artists and closet musicians.

Along with his performance and songwriting skills, Steve is both a musical educator and an event producer. His innovative songwriting program keeps him busy in schools in the Yukon, British Columbia and Northwest Territories. When he is not playing he produces the Arts in the Park Program in Whitehorse and the Jammin4Jay Festival in Langley, British Columbia. Keitha Clarke (fiddle and voice) and Annie Avery (piano and voice) will join Steve at his first appearance on our festival stages.

Done Gone Stringband

The Done Gone String Band, hailing from Whitehorse, Yukon, brings you oldtime music in the tradition of the places where music is a part of daily living. Playing vintage-sounding originals as well the finest of traditional oldtime songs, the Done Gone Stringband includes two generations of the Hamilton family: Bob on mandolin and vocals, Sarah on fiddle and vocals, and Patrick on frailing banjo. The band also features Anne Louise Genest on vocals and rhythm guitar, and Nadine Landry on vocals and upright bass. Compelling harmonies, haunting melodies, and foot-stompin? instrumentals fuel this band like a moonshine powered rocket.

"When you think of musical families, from the Cashes to the Carters to the Everly brothers, all build on that genetic link that matches vocal talents. The Hamilton family is no different. Sarah and Bob's voices work together to provide some very beautiful harmonies. And Genest's distinctive vocal style shines in this band and allows the listener to fully enjoy the beauty of her talents." Mark Prins, Whitehorse Star "You got a groove goin' on that one!" Mike Compton, Nashville Bluegrass Band.

Find out more about Done Gone String Band.

Kevin Barr and Blue Eagle

Kevin Barr has been on the Yukon music scene for over 25 years, he has played with many bands, and sang on several studio sessions. He is one of the finest country voices in Canada. He is best known as the co-founder and lead singer of the Juno nominated band "Undertakin Daddies", who played the first Kluane Mountain Bluegrass Festival in 2003. He has toured the States, Canada and Europe. He is here to sing tunes off of his first solo CD, "Kevin Barr -Lost & Found".

Chuck Charlebois accompanies Kevin. He is noted for his fine guitar pickin' and vocal harmonies. Chuck has toured Canada and the States, played in and fronted many bands including "Posse" which first led him to the Yukon, where he joined the Bergman-Barr Band many years ago. Chuck is also known for his superb lead vocals. These two Yukon musicians will be a HOOOT to catch.

Barn Dance

This multi talented band has been heating up dance floors in the Yukon for several years. They play high energy fiddle and dance music from a variety of traditions including Old Time, Irish, French Canadian, Swing and Eastern European. They have played many family and barn dances in the Whitehorse area and have performed at coffee houses, music festivals, and the Yukon Arts Center.

Bob Kuiper plays bouzouki, mandolin and guitar. He is one of Yukon's only barn dance callers, with a repertoire of dances for all ages and abilities. He's been known to take an entire room full of staid beginners and turn them into an enthusiastic mass of hopping and twirling dance lunatics within a matter of minutes. Keitha Clark is the band's fiddler extraordinaire. She plays a wide range of Celtic, Canadian and Yukon tunes that are sure to get your feet moving. Annie Avery provides rhythm on the keyboard. Nadine Landry drives the beat with her stand up bass and vocals. Keiran Poile joins in on fiddle and is well known to younger audiences in the territory. Graeme Poile rounds out the sound with tasteful guitar licks and creative chords far beyond the 5th fret.