Bluegrass Pride: Working to make sure that if you love bluegrass, then bluegrass loves you right back.
In 2021 I wrote about cultural movements and histories that may surprise you. One of those was about the LGBTQ+ presence in traditional music. I was guessing at the time that you didn’t know that there was a Bluegrass Pride organization. Well, I’m here to tell you—here in Pride Month 2026—that it not only exists but that their members play great music. And they are not afraid to widen the boundaries of what has traditionally been a fairly conservative music community.
Bluegrass Pride began as a side project of the California Bluegrass Association. The original goal was relatively modest: bring bluegrass music to a new audience via a float at the 2017 San Francisco Pride Parade. The group quickly realized they had struck a chord (no pun intended). Here’s how the group’s website describes that initial foray into the Pride scene.
“In that first year, we celebrated Pride with hundreds of marchers and three float bands, representing the best of the local traditional American music scene: one youth band, one old-time band, and one traditional bluegrass band. Our picket fence float, live music, and enthusiastic marchers made a big impression, within the bluegrass scene and on Pride. We were named the Best of the Best at SF Pride 2017—bringing home the top prize out of 270 marching contingents. It was the first time that a first-time entrant to Pride had won the accolade.”
Fast forward to this year, and the group is now operating as its own organization, “pursuing new avenues through which to provide more opportunities for the musical and professional development of LGBTQ+ bluegrassers, and for community development within the bluegrass scene.”
The group’s message is simple, yet clear:
“We want current bluegrassers to know that they are loved and treasured for who they are and the music they make. We want future bluegrassers to know that they are welcome to come as they are without fear of retribution or exclusion. We want the world to know that bluegrass and old-time music are for everybody, regardless of age, race, gender, orientation, nationality, upbringing, or politics.
We want to make sure that if you love bluegrass, then bluegrass loves you right back.”
One way they will do that is with the first Camp Bluegrass Pride 2026 in beautiful Astoria, Oregon.* I thought it would be fun to hear some of the music of the instructors from the camp as well as from some of the artists who have been carrying this torch for some time.
NOA EVE AND FOG HOLLOW
Noa Eve will be one of the bass instructors at Camp Bluegrass Pride this year. A bassist and composer, Noa grew up in Buffalo, New York, graduated from SUNY University at Buffalo with a BA in music performance, and furthered their studies at UCLA, where they received their master’s, also in music performance. “Noa had their first experiences playing folk music at UCLA, and since then has worked to marry their virtuosic, classical style of bowing with the rhythmic needs of bluegrass and old time.”
They play with the band Fog Hollow and can be heard here in the tune Burning Down and Bodega Rock. The latter features some nice fiddle/bass interplay.
CJ LEWANDOWSKI AND THE PO’ RAMBLIN’ BOYS
CJ Lewandowski is the mandolin instructor for Camp Bluegrass Pride 2026. In his regular life, CJ is best known as the mandolinist and co-founder of the Grammy-nominated Po’ Ramblin’ Boys. His powerful mandolin builds on the traditional, Monroe-style drive.
“With the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, CJ has helped lead one of the most exciting modern bluegrass bands on the scene, earning international acclaim, IBMA honors, and a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album. His playing is precise, soulful, and fearless. His love for teaching and community shines just as brightly as his musicianship.”
NELSON WILLIAMS AND NEW DANGERFIELD
Another bass instructor at Camp Bluegrass Pride 2026 is Nelson Williams.
An upright and electric bass player based in New Orleans, Williams was born and raised in South Louisiana, a “child of the diverse and influential music culture that permeates throughout the region.” He has performed across the nation and aboard, is a founding member of the Black string-band, New Dangerfield, and a member of the acclaimed bluegrass band, Chris Jones and the Nightdrivers.
New Dangerfield “brings together Afrofuturist fiddler Jake Blount (see below) with composer, songwriter, and old-time banjo player Kaia Kater, bluegrass banjo iconoclast Tray Wellington,” and Williams. “Embodying the innovative aspects of the Black string band tradition, Wellington, Kater, Williams and Blount are well-acquainted with the contemporary, the experimental, and the speculative.”
Put No Walls Around Your Garden is a reminder that the only way we’ll get through is together. Rather than walling ourselves off, “now is the time to throw open our garden gates and welcome each other in. Share our abundance, work through our scarcity and lack, and care for each other’s needs—big or small.”
The group takes their name from Dangerfield Newby, one of five recorded Black abolitionists among John Brown’s raiders who died while taking part in Brown’s infamous raid on a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859. By taking traditional instrumental tunes and turning them on their ear, “the band demonstrates the unique prism through which they make music and synthesize these age-old folkways. Each of these four powerful artists has risen to carry the torch for the ancestors who first built this music, but have been forgotten and erased today.”
CARRYING THE TORCH: JAKE BLOUNT
Several well-known musicians in the field have been standing with the community’s LGBTQ+ musicians for some time. Jake Blount, a member of New Dangerfield and a former board member of Bluegrass Pride, is both an advocate for the the Queer community and someone who is well known for stretching boundaries.
“Blount specializes in the music of Black communities in the southeastern United States, and in the regional style of the Finger Lakes. A versatile performer, Blount interpolates blues, bluegrass and spirituals into the old-time string band tradition he belongs to. He foregrounds the experiences of queer people and people of color in his work.”
In 2020, Blount’s first full-length solo album, Spider Tales, was released on Free Dirt Records & Service Co. The album debuted at #2 on the Billboard Bluegrass Chart. Rolling Stone wrote of one of the songs on the album:
A queer and black performer working in Appalachian music, Blount gives an eerie, gender-flipped rendition of Leadbelly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” — famously covered by Nirvana — that’s heavy on mournful fiddle and every bit as unsettling as the original.
That’s followed here by a 2022 rendition of Death Have Mercy played, I suspect, as you’ve never heard it before.
DELLA MAE
Della Mae (or the Dellas as they call themselves) are “women, writing from women’s perspectives, taking their cues from bluegrass and old time music.” As they say on their website, “We are 50% queer, and 100% supportive. We believe that representation, queer voices, and allyship are important in music. We’re not necessarily typical of traditional music, and we love representing our identities and values in new spaces.”
While unafraid to get political, the most topical songs early in their career were based in history, such as Boston Town.
As the writer of the Bluegrass Pride blog wrote about a recent performance by the group,
“Magic Accident brings us more of what we’ve come to love from Della Mae: tight harmonies, brilliant songwriting, and—practically oozing out of the seams—a sense that someone else gets it. It’s a sonic group hug.”
“In 2020, Della Mae reset and came out swinging with Headlight—a record tackling sexual assault, infertility, and the strength needed to carry on in no uncertain terms. They followed it with Family Reunion, centered on “The Way It Was Before”, their clearest statement yet that we are in the present, talking about today’s issues.”
But that didn’t mean that the band lost sight of “the joy needed to sustain the revolution.” Just give a listen to Dry Town and try not to smile.
“‘Cause it’s dry town | No beer, no liquor for miles around | I’d give a nickel for a sip or two | To wash me down | Outta this dry town”
MOLLY TUTTLE
Molly Tuttle is another musician who has been featured on Saturday Soundtrack multiple times—see here, here, here, and here for instance—and who has spoken up for Bluegrass Pride. For today’s post she sings a bluegrass (sort of) version of the Rolling Stones song She’s A Rainbow. It includes powerful statements about gender and equality. As I wrote in the original post in 2021, getting all parts of the bluegrass world to support rights for the LGBTQ+ community may be the definition of hard work, but it is work worth doing.
If you’d like to dig deeper, here’s a soundtrack provided by the Bluegrass Pride website.
Enjoy, and Happy Pride month everyone!
More to come . . .
DJB
*Claire and I visited Astoria on our cross-country drive in 2015. It really is a special place. If you click on the link, you’ll get a hint of what we discovered.
Photo of Bluegrass Pride pins from the Bluegrass Pride website. Photos of the musicians from their various websites.
MORE TO COME... 