The Dirty Grass Players and Honey Dewdrops will play a mix of bluegrass originals and bluegrass covers of pop songs the morning of Jan. 11 at Union Craft Brewing. Illustration by Kevin Sherry.

Update: This show is now SOLD OUT! If you don’t have tickets, you can tune in at 10 a.m. for the live broadcast. 

Kids love bluegrass, and parents love pop music. So why not combine the two?

WTMD’s Saturday Morning Tunes is excited to announce our first ever PopGrass Fest on Jan. 11, featuring original bluegrass songs and bluegrass covers of pop songs from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s from Baltimore’s own Dirty Grass Players and the Honey Dewdrops.

This lineup was curated with help from our good friends at the Charm City Bluegrass Festival.

It’s also our first family concert at Union Craft Brewing, 1700 W. 41st St. in Baltimore.

Both bands will play a mix of half original bluegrass songs and half pop covers. Which pop songs? That’s a surprise — for now.

Doors open at 9:30 a.m. and the music starts at 10 a.m. and runs for about an hour, so you can be home in time for lunch and naptime.

Illustrations by the Baltimore artist and children’s book author Kevin Sherry

 

About the bands

Hailing from Baltimore, the Dirty Grass Players have established themselves with one toe-tappin’ foot in traditional bluegrass and blazing musicianship that pushes boundaries. Comprised of Mikey Sallemi on Bass, Alex Berman on Banjo, Ben Kolakowski with the guitar, and Ryan Rogers on mandolin, this four piece is successfully bringing their growing fan base a down, dirty and heated performance. Their ability to seamlessly transition from down home bluegrass to spirited improvisation makes each performance unique. Throw in some Allman Brothers, Pink Floyd or a dash of southern rock and you’ll quickly understand what they mean by Dirty Grass.

Americana duo The Honey Dewdrops – Laura Wortman and Kagey Parrish – have long felt the push-and-pull between their original roots in the Appalachian mountains and their current home in urban Baltimore. You’ll hear it in their harmony soaked songs and the mastery of their instruments’ acoustic tones, but also in their songwriting, which reflects the hard realities of today. With their fifth independent release, Anyone Can See out on March 1st, 2019, they have primed the creative energy so prevalent on their previous releases. Each song sparkles with focused intensity, and, with their new album, the duo show that they’re growing rapidly as artists, enthusiastically exchanging an impossible quest for perfection for the compelling ebbs and flows that accompany an intimate, authentic kind of expression.

About Saturday Morning Tunes

Since Saturday Morning Tunes launched in January 2017, more than 6,000 different parents and kids from all across Maryland and beyond have come to one of our concerts for the whole family. We had 1,200 parents and kids at our Phish show alone!

**Family Four Packs are good for any combination of four people. Also, even though it’s free for them, please be sure to reserve a spot for your under 2-year-old. so we have an accurate head count.**

Tickets are a donation to WTMD, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and are non-refundable. Proceeds from this concert help support children’s programming on-air and in our community.