Bluegrass, a rustic genre native to Kentucky, will grace the ears of city slickers this Memorial Day weekend by being channeled through the unconventional headliner Sam Bush at the Paristown Roots Revue.
Bush, who first began to play the music full-time in Louisville in 1971, said that playing in Louisville always feels like a “homecoming.”
The second year of the bluegrass festival will be held at the Paristown Arts District, and feature both well-known musicians, such as Bush, and students from the Kentucky School of Bluegrass and Traditional Music (KSBTM) located in Hyden, KY. The school instructs students in the bluegrass genre, and they eventually become recording artists themselves who perform on the same stage.
“Our partnership with the Kentucky School of Bluegrass and Traditional Music has provided an opportunity for us to help emerging and popular bluegrass artists continue this great tradition right here in the bluegrass state,” said Steve Smith, managing partner of Paristown, who initiated contact with the school to start the fruitful partnership.
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The idea for the bluegrass festival sprung from the mind of Smith as the revitalization of the once industrial Paristown came into play.
“From the beginning of Paristown’s revitalization, I always believed we should hold a two-day music festival over Memorial Day Weekend that embraces Kentucky’s authentic musical roots,” said Smith, the owner of Stoneworks, a pottery company located in Paristown. It is, according to Jennie Hilt, director of business development at Paristown, one of the oldest continually operating businesses in the state of Kentucky.
Hilt noted that the Roots Revue festival isn’t Paristown’s only brush with bluegrass, as the area also hosts the Pickin’ In Paristown, a free bluegrass concert held between the months of May and October on the third Friday of each month.
Hilt felt this “affirmed” an interest in bluegrass music locally. June’s performance of Pickin In Paristown will feature the Dean Osborne Band, a music act that is also performing at the Roots Revue. Dean Osborne, titular leader of the band, is the head of the KSBTM and served as the point of contact for Sam Bush to become aware of the festival.
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Bush previously performed in Paristown years ago with a symphony accompaniment courtesy of Louisville Orchestra musical director Teddy Abrams. Paristown first undertook the concert collaboration between Bush and Teddy Abrams in 2020 during a socially distanced concert, which Bush noted was pared down, and then a full symphony concert in the following year of 2021.
Bush’s interactions with the Paristown Arts District as a venue showcase the unique interaction between artists from the traditional works of bluegrass, authentically born and bred in the state, to the works of classically produced music, infused with the pluck and picking of strings. Both banjo, mandolin, and violin, or rather, to some, “fiddle,” all find their home and hearth on the Paristown stage
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This article appears in May 9-22, 2025.