Sunday, May 31
The Stage: 8 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

There is only one consensus pick of peers and predecessors, of the traditionalists, the rebels, and the next gen devotees. Music’s ultimate inside outsider. There is only one Sam Bush. 

On a Bowling Green, Kentucky cattle farm, Bush grew up encouraged by his parents’ record collection and his father Charlie, a fiddler who organized local jams. At 11, he purchased his first mandolin after seeing Ricky Skaggs on television. 

A three-time national champion fiddler as a teen, Bush helped form the New Grass Revival, incorporating rock-&-roll, jazz improvisation, and progressive bluegrass. Shunned by some traditionalists but embraced by wider audiences, the band toured extensively and helped define the newgrass movement. 

Bush later worked with Emmylou Harris and Lyle Lovett, earned multiple IBMA honors, and eventually went solo. A Lifetime Achievement Award recipient from the Americana Music Association, he remains a defining force in bluegrass, influencing generations of musicians and continuing to headline festivals with his signature improvisational style.