Blue Ridge Music Center Visitor Center Hours

The Blue Ridge Music Center’s Visitor Center, which houses the Roots of American Music Museum Exhibit and a gift shop typically opens in early May and closes the last weekend of October. Please visit us in the spring when we reopen for the 2023 season.

We have two online series we produced that include videos of interviews, music, and conferences exploring topics in American roots-based music. Check out A Place in the Band and Deep Roots, Many Voices described below.

In the meantime, we have programs offsite and online to keep the music going year-round.

The Music Center hiking trails are available year-round.

SUMMER 2023 CONCERT SERIES

The music center has a great lineup for the 2023 summer concert series. Tickets are now available for purchase. 

• May 27 Lonesome River Band+Ashlee & Andrew
• June 3 Scythian+Cabin Creek Boys
• June 10 Watchhouse (formerly Mandolin Orange)+TBA
• June 17 Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper+Crooked Road Ramblers
• June 24 Amythyst Kiah+Foreign Landers 
• July 1 Sam Bush Band+TBA
• July 8 Jeff Little Trio+DaShawn Hickman Sacred Steel 
• July 15 Rissi Palmer+Martha Bassett
• July 22 Sierra Ferrell+TBA
• July 29 John R. Miller+TBA
• Aug 5 Kody Norris Show+Slate Mountain Ramblers 
• Aug 19 Doc at 100
• Aug 26 Larry & Joe+Shay Martin Lovette
• Sep 2 An Evening with the Steep Canyon Rangers

DEEP ROOTS, MANY VOICES

Deep Roots, Many Voices explores diversity and inclusion in roots-based music.

he five-part virtual discussion series explores issues related to diversity and inclusion in American roots-based music. The first two episodes of the Deep Roots, Many Voices video series features a conversation with heralded musicians Dom Flemons and Rissi Palmer. Additional discussions were with Pura Fé and Charly Lowry, Sam Gleaves and Joe Troop, Tray Wellington and Earl White, and Joseph Kwon and AJ Lee.

These discussions, along with an online symposium held on the spring of 2022, are all online and can be accessed through our Deep Roots, Many Voices page.

A PLACE IN THE BAND: WOMEN IN BLUEGRASS AND AMERICAN ROOTS MUSIC

A Place in the Band celebrates women involved in bluegrass and American roots-based music.

The series includes ten interviews with female musicians, festival producers, artists’ representatives, and sound engineering discussing their careers and issues they’ve faced as women in the industry. Join Laurelyn Dossett as she interviews Rhiannon Giddens, Alice Gerrard, Laurie Lewis, Missy Raines, Ruth Ungar, Amythyst Kiah, Kristin Scott-Benson, Traci Thomas, Amy Grossmann, and Haley Miller-Coots.

These discussions, along with an online conference held in the spring of 2021 that included a series of mini-concerts, are all online.

MILEPOST MUSIC

We tried out something new this year – free Milepost Music concerts on rotating Sunday afternoons at several iconic destinations along the Blue Ridge Parkway, from June through September. We’ll be tweaking it a bit, but these popular music presentations will be back next year. In the mean time, check out the Milepost Music page for some photos from the 2022 season.

Milepost Music is a collaboration between the Blue Ridge Music Center, Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, and National Park Service.