Jarod Gregory's Profile

The inaugural Columbus BrewGrass festival was held in at The Bluestone in Columbus this past weekend. As detailed in our preview for the festival, the lineup was wonderful and absolutely lived up to the billing. More importantly for a first-year fest, the common logistical complaints were avoided, and the event went off without a hitch.

My first job after college basically paid me in beans, but they did send all 150-ish recent college graduates working across the country out to Aspen for a week-long vacation. So there I was in December 2009 with a 3-day lift ticket but 7 days to hang around the beautiful mountain town. On one of those days, December 16th, bluegrass/folk-rock group Trampled by Turtles was slated to play The Belly Up with Ben Sollee as the opening support.

Spring is in the air (and also in many of our basements), which means it is finally time for the spring Columbus BrewGrass Festival (Mar 2 and 3 at The Bluestone). As detailed in our preview of the Columbus BrewGrass Festival, the lineup for the inaugural festival is solid from the bottom up. Greensky Bluegrass is on tap to headline both nights, which is worth the very reasonable price of admission by itself.

Live-tronica duo Big Gigantic, comprised of saxophonist/producer Dominic Lalli and drummer Jeremy Salken, are bringing their high energy show to Bogart’s on 2/21. Big Gigantic, who have played primetime sets at festivals from Bonnaroo to Coachella, has a sound that is WAY too big to be contained by Bogart’s which will have the place busting at the seams all night.

Fruition, who comes to the Octave on Sat. 2/17, has come a long way since their last visit to the Cincinnati area one year ago as the supporting act for Greensky Bluegrass. Their new album “Watching It All Fall Apart” released 2/2 on LoHi records is a case study on their maturation as a band, displaying their evolved sound from seemingly purposely indefinable folk-bluegrass-jam act to a full-fledged Americana rock band.

BoomBox (Zion Rock Godchaux) is returning to Cincinnati for a show at the 20th Century Theater in Oakley on February 3rd. The uniquely talented multi-instrumentalist has been busy since last coming through Cincinnati–he’s been breaking in new bandmate DJ Harry for the past year and has a new album “Western Voodoo” ready for a 2018 release.

Greensky Bluegrass is fresh off the first weekend of their winter tour, which saw sold out crowds in Indianapolis, Memphis, and Nashville. After a 2-week East coast stint, the band will come back to the Midwest for a Madison Theater show on February 8.

Big Something is bringing their high-octane funk rock to Taft Theater this weekend in support of Umphrey’s McGee. The 6-piece has been a staple of recent summer music festival lineup announcements, and it’s no surprise – their ability to blend catchy pop melodies with driving funk rhythms and soaring guitar lines has a wide appeal.

The Columbus Brewgrass Festival’s inaugural event promises to bring the best of two wonderful worlds – craft brews and progressive bluegrass – to downtown Columbus. Showcasing bluegrass music and craft beer together is becoming an increasingly popular idea because, well, it’s a damn good idea. And this 2-night event at The Bluestone on March 2-3 looks to be no different as it boasts an impressive line-up in a fitting venue, a combination that has CincyMusic excited to take the drive up I-71.