The Weis Center for the Performing Arts will welcome IBMA-award winning bluegrass music ensemble East Nash Grass on Thursday, February 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center.
The performance is sponsored, in part, by the Columbia-Montour Visitors Bureau and the News Item.
East Nash Grass exemplifies the best of what bluegrass has to offer — as being named the 2024 IBMA [International Bluegrass Music Association] New Artist of the Year would suggest.
But their breathtaking talent as singers, instrumentalists, and composers is just the beginning. While other acts chase their tail in search of nostalgia, the secret to East Nash Grass lies in their unflinching ability to be themselves.
It certainly helps that they are a veritable supergroup of award-winners who have been performing longer than anyone would guess that they’ve been alive. With a lifetime of experience in both new and legacy acts (Dan Tyminski, Tim O’Brien, Sierra Hull, Rhonda Vincent, etc.), the tradition of bluegrass is fundamental to who they are as musicians and performers.
Yet it’s their irreverent, adventurous, and audacious tendencies as next-gen performers that light a fire under audiences. Their ability to hone this edge was forged in the crucible of a dive bar outside of Nashville, TN that they all but single-handedly put on the (bluegrass) map during their seven-year weekly residency.
After hundreds of sets (and countless late-night jams), through personnel changes, industry changes, and a never-ending string of unprecedented world events, East Nash Grass has coalesced into the hair-raising ensemble of Harry Clark [mandolin], Cory Walker [banjo], James Kee [guitar], and IBMA 2025 Fiddle Player of the Year Maddie Denton [fiddle], Their love of both bluegrass and the absurd can be felt in both their live shows and on their new album “All God’s Children” (Mountain Fever, 2025).
Much like watching a bowling ball and feather fall together, expectations of what should and shouldn’t work are challenged as the paradox of authenticity is revealed. Shock leads to excitement as risks keep listeners on the edge of their seats and irrefutable mastery drives home that this is no mere imitation of bluegrass: this IS bluegrass.
TICKETS
Tickets are $30 for adults, $24 for seniors 62+ and subscribers, $20 for youth 18 and under, $20 for Bucknell employees and retirees (limit 2), free for Bucknell students (limit 1) and $20 for non-Bucknell students (limit 2).
Tickets can be reserved by calling 570-577-1000 or online at Bucknell.edu/BoxOffice.
Tickets are also available in person from several locations including the Weis Center lobby (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and the CAP Center Box Office, located on the ground floor of the Elaine Langone Center (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.).
For more information about this event, contact Lisa Leighton, marketing and outreach director, at 570-577-3727 or by e-mail at lisa.leighton@bucknell.edu.
For more information about the Weis Center for the Performing Arts, go to Bucknell.edu/WeisCenter or search for the Weis Center on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.