Mike Lawing at the International Bluegrass Music Museum asked me to pass on this piece of news about a program at the IBMM.

Free Saturdays at The Museum, is a program which provides professionally-taught bluegrass music lessons and acoustic, bluegrass instruments to the public”free of charge.

Made possible through a generous grant from the Marilyn & William Young Charitable Foundation, these hour-long lessons will take place every other Saturday at 11:00 AM inside the museum, located at 117 Daviess Street, Owensboro, Kentucky. All ages and skill levels are invited to participate in an effort to increase the number of people young and old who enjoy playing Kentucky”s most famous original art form: bluegrass music. The stated goal of the museum is to grow the “biggest bluegrass band on earth.”

Mike told me that they now have 407 people, young and old, signed up for the free lessons. That’s awesome news for the future of bluegrass music. But they do have a problem. Luckily it’s one that you can help with. 407 students is a lot, and many of them don’t have instruments. The IBMM is looking for people who have an instrument sitting under the bed or in the closet that they would be willing to donate to the museum for use in this program. Your donation would be tax deductible and would help further bluegrass music. So dust em off and send em in folks!

Here’s the address to send your donation to:

The International Bluegrass Music Museum
207 East 2nd Street
Owensboro, KY 42303

For additional information on the Free Saturdays at the Museum contact Program Coordinator Randy Lanham.

Randy Lanham
BITS and FREE SATURDAYS Coordinator
(270) 264-1315
email: highhopesmusic@hotmail.com