Happy Summer!
Wow, what an amazing month June was for me!
I had so much going on, but at the very top of the list is that I won the 2024 Telluride Bluegrass Festival Troubadour competition!!!! I won a brand new Martin D-28 guitar, got a mainstage set at this year’s festival sandwiched between the Punch Brothers and Sierra Ferrell, and I made so many great new friends. I’ll post more about that experience on my blog, and on my Patreon (please subscribe if you haven’t already)!
I do want to take a moment to highlight the other competitors in the contest because they were all so great! I entered the contest in hopes of meeting other songwriters and I made some great friends who are wonderful musicians and worth checking out. Here are the contestants along with links to their websites so you can check them out! Eliza Edens, Eugenia Riot, Mike Stocksdale, Jeff Cramer, Eliza Thorp, Eva Rose King, Andy Sydow, Racyne Parker, and Madison Hughes. They make wonderful music, please support them!
I will also post some videos about the D-28 I won. It’s great, and I enjoyed chatting with the folks from Martin Guitars about their instruments. I’m not sponsored by Martin Guitars, but it’s no secret that I love their instruments, and play them almost exclusively.
Besides the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, I was also on tour with the fantastic Jackson Emmer. We saw a big portion of the Rocky Mountains. We played shows throughout Colorado including in Telluride, Carbondale, Estes Park, and Denver during the first week of the month. Then we went to Montana and played in Paradise Valley, Red Lodge, and Lewistown. Jackson is always writing great songs, and his new stuff is particularly good. Definitely check out his music!
This month I have some shows in the Denver area and in Western Nebraska.
On July 13th ay 7pm I’ll be back at the Evergreen Acoustic Series with the Martin Gilmore Trio (MG3). It is not a big room, so if you want to come, don’t wait. This is a great acoustic series curated by Joey Purmort. It’s a cool little building in a beautiful setting. We will be playing some new songs and some of the old favorites.
July 14th the MG3 will be at Saul Rosenthal’s house concert series in Denver. There are very few tickets left for this, so don’t wait. Contact me and I will get you connected with the hosts. We don’t have many shows in the Denver area this year so if you want to see us, don’t wait!
July 19th at 7pm I will be at Scotts Bluff National Monument in Gering, Nebraska presenting a program on songs from mining camps and some of the history of migration in the west surrounding mining.
July 21st at 11:00am and 1:30pm I will be at Fort Laramie National Historic Site presenting programs of historic music from the American West. I was a park ranger at Fort Laramie from 2000 until 2007. It will be great to be back for these programs.
There is a new session starting at Swallow Hill this week and I will be teaching a class on Bluegrass Singing as well as an Intermediate Bluegrass Ensemble class. You still have a little time to sign up, and even if you miss the first class, you will be able to catch up if you start next week. Please join me if you are interested in playing or singing some bluegrass music.
We are also nearing the time for auditions for the Swallow Hill Bluegrass Band class which starts in September. This class is a sixteen week ensemble that prepares a set of music for public performance. Auditions are held for each instrument in the bluegrass band (Guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin, fiddle/Dobro). If you are interested in forming a band and meeting other serious players then please audition! Feel free to message me for more information.
There is also an info session for folks interested in my Progressions: Songwriting or Progressions: Bluegrass Guitar classes this fall. These classes are very in-depth and are geared towards students who want to move from intermediate to advanced or even professional players. If you are a guitar player who wants a deep-dive into bluegrass or a songwriter who wants to further your craft, these classes are for you! The info session is on July 30th at 7pm on Zoom. Feel free to contact me with questions too if you are interested.
August is full of shows and classes as well, and I’ll focus more on those in next month’s newsletter. But, if you will be at the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in Lyons in August, come see me in the Songwriter’s Showcase. I’ll be one of the ten finalists, and I know that the other writers will be amazing! It would be great to chat with you if you are around!
Time to settle back into a routine around here. There are more shows and tours around the corner, but I’m glad to be home so I can catch up on my garden, my classes, and to enjoy the summer. My son and I went mini-golfing today, it’s pretty hard to beat that!
Happy Independence Day, and happy July!
Martin