History of the Bluegrass
on the Grass Festival

In the fall of 1995, Susan Nichols, associate dean of academic affairs, and Paul Riggs ’85, executive assistant to the president, asked Davis Tracy, director of the Counseling Center, to consider offering a summer bluegrass concert on campus.

“I asked them, ‘Do you mean play in one or host one?’ They said, ‘yes,’ ” Tracy recalls with a chuckle. The advisor to college radio station WDCV had never organized a music festival, but he was game.

In July 1996, on the lawn beside the Weiss Center for Performing Arts, Tracy and his band, Country Bob and the Barbeque Boys, took the stage and performed to a crowd of about 200. The Bluegrass on the Grass Festival was born.

The festival soon moved to the academic quad, encircled by Dickinson landmarks Bosler Hall and Old West. Fifteen years later, the one-day festival has become a regional event and draws close to 3,000 enthusiasts.

History of Performers

Throughout the years, Tracy has sought high-quality performers and a mix of bands that offers bluegrass aficionados a variety of styles and subgenres. Many bands return to play year after year, including the Dismembered Tennesseans, who have performed every year since the first and become the festival’s “house band.”

Performers hail mostly from southern Appalachia, including North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Maryland. Many of the groups have won numerous awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) and the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America. Chris Jones of Chris Jones and the Night Drivers is now the DJ for Bluegrass Junction, the Sirius/XM satellite radio station.

Along with the Dismembered Tennesseans, performers have included Dale Ann Bradley, IBMA 2009 female vocalist of the year; Butch Baldassari and Mike Bubb (IBMA ___ bass player of the year); Emory Lester, who began his career with the Country Gentlemen; Big Country Bluegrass; and Special Consensus. “Each year I try to stretch the audience a bit, from having a female vocalist to an exquisite instrumentalist,” Tracy says.

This year, one of the featured performers will be the Boxcars, which include Adam Steffey on mandolin and Ron Stewart on banjo. Steffey has played with Alison Kraus, and Stewart with the Lynn Morris Band, who also performed at the festival in the past.

Financial Support

Dickinson College provided the start-up funds for the festival and continues to make a significant donation in both money and in-kind services.

For the last 10 years, The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts/Jump Street also has supported Bluegrass on the Grass. In 2007, the council awarded the festival an annual program-stream grant, which is given to festivals that have established a history of community service over a six-year period. And in 2008, the Pennsylvania Department of Tourism granted the festival $1,000 to boost efforts in attracting tourists to Cumberland County.

In addition to more than 200 private donors, who are listed in the back of the annual program, Carlisle-area businesses have purchased program advertisements in support of the festival throughout the years.

Each year, the record companies that represent the performers support Bluegrass on the Grass. The music CDs that the companies provide are given away annually to festival attendees who purchase sponsor tickets. Sponsor-ticket sales make it possible to pay the bluegrass groups and provide them with first-class housing and food during the festival. Record companies that have supported the festival include Rebel Records, Rounder Records, Sugar Hill Records, Acoustic Disc Records, Pinecastle Records, Copper Creek Records, Mountain Roads Records and Rural Rhythm Records.

In business since 1833, the Martin Guitar Company of Nazareth, Pa., partnered with Bluegrass on the Grass Festival 10 years ago to support the event. Every year, the company gives away one of its guitars to a lucky sponsor-ticket holder. “Historically, a Martin guitar is the guitar you want to have if you play bluegrass,” says Tracy.

Celebrating 15 Years

Because of generous support from the college, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, music-industry contributions and more than 200 private donors, the festival has been free to the community since its inception. Anticipated and welcomed by fans and musicians alike, the festival’s popularity has grown tenfold in 15 years.

“This is the largest community event that the college hosts,” says Tracy. “We draw people from New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. People play together here who have never played together before.”