The Desert Bluegrass Association is hosting its ninth annual Marana Bluegrass Festival this weekend at Gladden Farms Community Park.
Some of the area’s finest bluegrass pickers and purveyors will set up on the sprawling park for three days of live music, workshops and other events. It kicks off at 3 p.m. Friday, March 13, with instrumental contests for players of all levels, from beginners to intermediate, and a band scramble.
The months-old High Lonesome band, whose bluegrass beckons from the Southern mountain hollers and follows some of the traditions laid out by the Stanley Brothers, Flatt & Scruggs and the Louvin Brothers, performs at 5 p.m.
This is the festival’s fourth year at Gladden Farms. Before that, the festival had been held at Ora Mae Harn Park and at Crossrods in Continental Ranch. Desert Bluegrass Association President Dave Polston said he expects a couple hundred will show up for Friday’s opening day, but Saturday and Sunday attendance will likely top 500.
This will be the biggest concert to date for High Lonesome, a quartet that has only been together since the fall.
The band members — retired mechanic/bass player Andy Wallach, retired plumber/banjo player and lead vocalist Bill Paul, nursing administrator/guitar player Chip Thomason and retired Washington, D.C. lawyer/mandolin player John McCann — met at a neighborhood bluegrass jam, held monthly at an east-side bar, and quickly realized they had some musical chemistry.
“We just sort of looked at each other and said we should do something with this,” said McCann, who retired to Tucson in 2015. “It came together rather quickly.”
When he decided to move west, McCann, who regularly played bluegrass in the D.C. area, didn’t think he’d find much of a bluegrass scene in Tucson.
“Here’s the supreme irony: You come to a place like Tucson, which is not a hotbed for bluegrass, and three of us (bluegrass musicians) live within a two-mile radius,” he said.
The band, which also is on the lineup for the 2020 Tucson Folk Festival on April 4, will release its debut CD this month.
High Lonesome is among 13 acoustic bluegrass bands hailing from our own backyard and New Mexico that will perform throughout the weekend. In addition to performances, the festival features kids events including an instrument petting zoo, food vendors, workshops and after-hours parking lot jams that are open to the public to watch and participate.
Here’s the 411 on the 2020 Marana Bluegrass Festival.
- When: 3 to 6 p.m. Friday, March 13; 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, March 14; 9:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, March 15.
- Where: Gladden Farms Park, 12205 N. Tangerine Farms Road, off Interstate 10 and Tangerine.
- Cost: Free on Friday; $20 a day for Saturday and Sunday, or $30 for a weekend pass; free for children under 14 with a paid adult.
- The lineup: Includes Hard Road Trio, Sonoran Dogs, Titan Valley Warheads and High Lonesome.
