For the ninth year, the Freight celebrates incredible talent with the Berkeley Bluegrass Festival, May 2-4, 2025. With concerts programmed by Grammy-award winner Laurie Lewis, plus curated instructional workshops, Berkeley Bluegrass Festival brings together leaders of the genre, up-and-coming artists, and music fans for three days of concerts, jams, workshops (free for ticket holders!), and good old-fashioned merriment to kick off the summer music festival season.
Schedule
Saturday, May 3, 2025
Mr. Sun, Dom Flemons' "Shultz's Dream, Salty Sally
Lobby: The Town Howlers
Mr. Sun
Mr Sun comprises some of the most original musicians to apply themselves to the American String Band. Legendary fiddler Darol Anger is at home in a number of musical genres, some of which he helped to invent, and is a member of the original "nuclear" generation of pickers who extended Bluegrass, Jazz, and Classical music to find their common ground; Mr Sun is the latest iteration in that legacy. Joe K. Walsh is one of the foremost contemporary mandolinists, with 4 award-winning years in the Gibson Brothers, 3 solo recordings, and a Berklee professorship. Grant Gordy is a standout in the crowded field of Acoustic Guitar Wunderkinds. Grant's work was quickly recognized for its kaleidoscopic excellence and startling emotion, fusing Jazz, R&B, and Bluegrass concepts to an unprecedented degree. The group recently added the masterful bassist Aidan O'Donnell, a Brooklyn, New York (by way of Scotland) jazz veteran.
Dom Flemons’ “Shultz’s Dream”
Dom Flemons has assembled a string band to interpret what Arnold Shultz might have sounded in rural Kentucky in the early 1900s. The band is led by Dom Flemons (The American Songster). He is joined by Dante’ Pope (formerly of Crossrhodes), Brian Farrow (of Gangstagrass), IBMA Award winning banjo player Tray Wellington, and expert Dr. Richard Brown.
Salty Sally
Salty Sally features several young artists whose repertoire draws from bluegrass, folk, jazz and other styles. Sophia Sparks, a YoungArts Award winner and the 2024 RockyGrass mandolin contest winner, has been passionate about mandolin since she joined Sierra Hull on stage at age 9. Multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and songwriter Lucy Khadder is a YoungArts Award winner who has twice been featured as a Next Generation Jazz artist at the Monterey Jazz Festival. MK Martinez Griffith is a cellist and violinist who has played with the Oakland Symphony Orchestra, Mariachi Juvenil de Hayward, and the Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra. And finally, lead vocalist Naima Nascimento is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who performed at the 2024 BottleRock Festival and has been featured in Rolling Stone Magazine and on Access Hollywood.
The Town Howlers
The Town Howlers play traditional bluegrass music and are influenced by the great singers and pickers from the golden era of bluegrass, such as Bill Monroe, The Stanley Brothers, Vern Williams, and Jimmy Martin. With flashy picking, tight harmony singing, and original as well as traditional songs, the Town Howlers show a deference to traditional bluegrass while also adding their own style and sound.
Advance Tickets: $64.00 (includes all fees); Day of Show Tickets: $69.00 (includes all fees)
Doors: 6:00PM; Show: 7:00PM
Additional Dates:
