Presented by an originally War Trace, TN, pioneering guitar shop, now Murfreesboro’s Gallagher Guitar Company, circa 2019-2020, Gallagher Guitar Company’s third annual bluegrass and bluegrass technique festival, Gallagherfest, headlined Blueridge mountain-based, progressive bluegrass quintet, Shadowgrass, along with Nashville-based, elongated jam quartet, Airshow, and Nashville fiddle-bluegrass, string quartet, Sicard Hollow, Saturday, May 16, 2026, to flex what jam scene the Middle Tennessee area has between this and annual Americana/Bluegrass/Roots music festival, CaveFest, situated in Pelham, TN, Octobers 10th and 11th, this year.
Since 2022, having the stamina and chops to close out three nights a fest at Pelham, TN’s CaveFest Music Festival, at their, now, staple afterparties in The Caverns, “it’s an admirable steadfast that positions Nashville-based, bluegrass-disciplined jam quartet, Airshow, ‘high-flying [a] unique contrast of familiar acoustic and mind-bending electric strategy from a campfire picking-party to the outreaches of the multiverse,’ that eventually turns into a realization, Airshow is building a jam scene in Middle Tennessee as they do the leg work along with these fest, touring out, melding/bridging similar acts through their adamancy between the October nights where their motivation seemingly derives.
Sicard Hollow, a Nashville-based bluegrass/string band quartet curated by Todd Mayo and his crew for the inaugural CaveFest in 2022, brought Sugar Leggs, up there, for the November, Basement East date in Nashville, back in 2024 before going to town on an almost three-hour set busted into two [songs].
And an inaugural guest for Gallagherfest topping the bill, invited back, Shadowgrass’ “progressive bluegrass” aspect encompasses out of this world-trained flat picking guitar from lead box guitarist, Keyser George, as well as the stellar, faze-ular effect (a rapidly oscillating echo pedal that makes the mandolin or guitar sound really spacey) hit by either the guitar or mandolin that throws these guys into space, but these aspects, too, are well kept on the thin line between bluegrass and jam, when not considering time restraints, however, considering time restraints, Shadowgrass exemplified lifting off from standard bluegrass tradition into a twenty-minute rendition of “Fire on the Mountain,”-and over the top of Murfreesboro!
but first the news,
Shotgun Granny boys origin story/voted South Carolina state song, last week:
There’s a lot of unpacking to do at a Shotgun Granny Boys show, and especially if it’s their first performance out public as a supergroup of other-band musicians, but forming a substantive bluegrass collective out of Nashville, Shotgun Granny Boys’ first performance -their first public performance!- lightenedening up an overcast morning/afternoon as Gallagherfest 2026, sharing the story of Shotgun Granny Boy’s origin making way for the sunshine, early.
With Ross Holmes of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on fiddle, Justin —–, Josh Matheny on the dobro, who recently joined Rhonda Vincent at The Opry, celebrating Ronnie Bowman, back in March; Brandon Snellings of Big River Revival on the mandolin, and Jeff Picker on the Bass (Ricky Skaggs), “this is a big cluster of guys who play with other bands,” said Kevin MaC, Kevin MaC, lead guitarist and vocalist for the Shotgun Granny Boys, a Nashville-based, bluegrass collective.
“The whole band got together -the late-Ronnie Bowman was one of my dearest friends, and I met Ronnie in… -I’m a songwriter in Nashville. So, I grew up picking bluegrass, and I met Ronnie and Dan Tyminski,” MaC continued.
“I didn’t know Dan, but I knew Ronnie, and I had this song, ‘Take me Back to Carolina When I Die.’ It actually got voted in, this week, as the new state song for South Carolina, so that’s a big honor to stick on my refrigerator. I called Ronnie and said ‘We’re gonna do ‘Carolina When I Die,’ next,’ will you sing this song with me?’ I said ‘Dan said he would sing it if you would’ -mind you, I didn’t know Dan Tyminski, at the time, so I lied to Ronnie, ‘and Dan said he’ll sing it if you will,’ and Ronnie said ‘you tell Dan I’m gonna sing on that song.’ And then I found Dan’s phone number, and I called Dan and said, ‘Hey Dan, Ronnie said he’ll sing on song if you will,’ and Dan said, ‘You tell Ronnie we’re gonna sing on that song.’ So, we’re gonna put this out in about a month, but then it just birthed a whole record, The Shotgun Granny Boys, so…. We got in the studio to do that one song and then we ended up going, I think, ten or twelve, so….” said MaC.
“Funny thing is I wrote this about North Carolina and South Carolina made this their state song,” said MaC.
“Thank you for letting us pick for you in Murfreesboro, today, and thank youto Dan Mathis and Gallagher Guitars, too. He’s a good man, y’all, to carry on the Gallagher legacy. Y’all give David a…(crowd cheers).”
“It’s not every day you get a friend -I’m in that business, man. If you find something like the legacy of Gallagher Guitars, they’ve got the right one running it. And their guitars sound good, too,” said MaC.
“This is ‘Carolina When I Die,’ and if you don’t like Caroline, close your ears.”
Co-written by Kevin MaC, Patrick Davis (SC poet laureate), Wyatt Durett, and Levi Lowry, “Carolina When I Die,” was recorded by Darius Rucker and Edwin McCain, according to Patrick Davis’ Youtube channel, as the bill this year juggled approval based on the change of a lyric, “Kings and Queens, and Senioritas of the night.”
-New EP out in a month, said Kevin MaC. Find them on instagram at their grandma’s whiskey page, Elsie Marshall Whiskey (@theshotgungranny) • Instagram photos and videos.
Heather Moulder EP: Half of Jake the Leg Stompers played one set and the other half , another:
With Wurlitzers at bluegrass festivals to saws bowed in tune, almost half of area Jake Leg Stompers played one set while the other, another, in the form of area letterpress printer and United States Postal Service bluegrass stamp designer, 2024, Heather Moulder’s live, Wurlitzer organ EP, was backed by Stomper vocalist and percussionist, Lesa Lawless. A following set, another almost-half of the Murfreesboro-staple sextet, Bill Stever and Captain Sam (Rorex) played an acoustic set with fiddle player, Holly Rielly.
Both concerts, in full, can be found at the B.E.Harmon Youtube Channel, with Heather’s on her own playlist, this making it a live EP released 5/18/2025. Heather’s backing electricity was provided by guitarist Mark Thornton, with backing vocals and percussion on the latter set with Jake Leg Stomper’s Lesa Lawless, found at CaveFests / Gallagherfests / Airshow’s featuring…. / area Jam – YouTube.
“Thank you to Holden’s Hardware for bringing us our instruments,” Bill and Sam said (Walnut House 10 audio).
Airshow
Okay, it wasn’t bluegrass, but I liked it a whole, whole lot,” said Havighurst!
You put a time limit on those guys, and they’ll abide. Mainly because their catalogue is vast and a range of song times are go from a standard few to several minutes, all the way to 3 hours, when conditions are right, like fitting logistics in a UPS truck to maximize profits, but mostly becuase they’re awesome and dorks at the same time. Have had conversations with these guys’ fathers outside of a cave with a different Captain, and know they’ve been doing that last one for a while and have genuine love in the music they present.
Throughout the years, they’ve jammed with Jim Lauderdale Lindsey Lou, Fireside Collective, Sam Grisman (list goes on) and genuinely explored the genre. Themes for each late night during CaveFests have evolved into their sets over the years, such as country nights, some Saturdays, when they explore-jam country ballads and Airshow’s take on “Funk vs. Bluegrass” themes, as well as “Jerry Garcia Band” theme, where they spelunk that stage of Garcia’s career. while members of the picking community that were schedluled that day may still be around to sit in, covering such breadth as a themem in one to three sittings. Then they take those connections on the road over the year, building a staple existence at other sposts, gradually opening up opportunities, and so forth. Makes for good noticings.
Shadowgrass
And Shadowgrass, being invited back from their inaugrual Gallagherfest headline, also making their CaveFest debut in 2024…
On a bigger scale, as these players of these current forms of genre-bending bluegrasses, (the bands and the festivals), have been in locomotion separately, yet dependently [across Middle Tennessee] over the past few years, curated, local bluegrass bands joining in Cavefest by Todd Mayo and his crew (the crew potentially broken down into two other staple cavefest bands, The Porch RascalsJackals [roadhouse] and Three Tall Pines [deep friends trad-grass]); local bluegrass bands spreading out from Cavefest, like Airshow, out playing with Sicard Hollow (or at least Stephen); crews progressively spreading out, as well, as Ricky Martini takes on Gallagherfest with Sam Rorex, Gallagher Guitar Co., and others somewhat affiliated with CaveFest, and CaveFest and GallagherFest evolution.
Gallagherfest, it seems like, now in it’s third year, has grown from local-locally sourced, with Wartrace and Bell Buckle-derived, Asher Cataldo and Bryce Reed, to last year’s Murfreesboro musicians such as bluesman, Joey Fletcher, to this year, tapping into the broader area’s more touring-out and active bluegrass and jam community with the three headliners.
The longwinded airshow paragraph was frankensteiend together from a past article on Airshow found only in the CaveFest 2024/Fall 2024 edition of the physical Folk & Proper Newspaper. Subscription information is found at Subscription – Folk & Proper News
Gallagher Guitar shop takes on the pioneering label due to preference from the likes of flat-picking, bluegrass guitar legend, Doc Watson [along with son, Merle].
Gallagherfest is somewhat of a successor to Cannonsburgh Village’s Dave Macon Days, which relocated to Medical Center Blvd., 202-, discontinuing the following year.
Dan Tyminski played Walnut House, last year, as Gallagherfest’s headliner, inside, 2025.
Bill to make SC poet laureate’s ‘Carolina When I Die’ new state song hits snag over lyrics, The South Carolina state house bill can be found here.
Other Airshow and Airshow related concert footage can be found at B.E.Harmon Youtube Channel. And, especially when I get my sht tgh.
visit Gallagher Music Fest (gallgherfest.com) for further information about the event.
Visit Gallagherguitars.com for further details on area hard bodies.
Leave a Reply