Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Culture

7 Bluegrass and Roots Rock Bands To Check Out in 2016

By

If you’ve been to Bonnaroo in the past few years, or have even heard of the festival, chances are, you’ve probably heard of the bluegrass and roots rock mega-hub The Bluegrass Situation. If you haven’t, you’ve been missing out—their BGS Superjams (this year on June 12) are on their way to being nothing short of legendary.

Started by Executive Director Amy Reitnouer and Co-Founder Ed Helms (yes, that Ed Helms), The BGS has evolved into a special entity in the bluegrass, folk, and Americana world—not only is it a place for fans and curious appreciators of music to learn more about up-and-coming acts, but it’s a hub for musicians as well, offering insights and help concerning the culture in and around the music. Being able to help the bands, Reitnouer said, was one of the reasons she got involved in the first place. It was the people and the community that she found that inspired her and made what would become The BGS what it is today.

Related: New Music Monday: Benji Hughes

Recommended Videos

“We’re not just a magazine or an outlet. We have real relationships with the artists that we work with and they trust us and they look to us as central to our community,” Reitnouer said.

With so much insight into everything going on in the bluegrass, folk, and Americana world, we reached out to and then got to sit down with Reitnouer to get the scoop on the acts that you need to check out in the next year. These are the bands, according to Reitnouer, that while you may not know them yet, are poised for breakout years in 2016.

Check out the list below and get ready to enjoy some of the best music you’ll hear all year.

Margaret Glaspy

Margaret Glaspy - You And I (Official Audio)

Dori Freeman
Dori Freeman - Fine Fine Fine

Teddy Thompson
Teddy Thompson - I Thought That We Said Goodbye - Live at McCabe's

Barna Howard
Barna Howard - Quite A Feelin' (Live on KEXP)

Anderson East
The Bluegrass Situation // ANDERSON EAST -- What a Woman Wants to Hear

Moses Sumney
Moses Sumney - Plastic | Sofar New York

Mipso
Mipso - "Father's House"

Digging the picks and need more albums to spin before heading to ‘Roo? Check out The BGS’s Class of 2015 Albums list!
Topics
Sam Slaughter
Sam Slaughter
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Sam Slaughter was the Food and Drink Editor for The Manual. Born and raised in New Jersey, he’s called the South home for…
The first trailer for I Know What You Did Last Summer proves that no franchise is truly dead
Almost 30 years after the original, we're following a new group of hunted teens.
Jennifer Love Hewitt in I Know What You Did Last Summer

If you were one of those people who was wondering when we might get a third I Know What You Did Last Summer movie, then you're in luck. The first trailer for the new film is here, and it features Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. reprising their roles as Julie James and Ray Bronson from the first two films in the franchise.

The film, which is somewhat confusingly called I Know What You Did Last Summer, was directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson and will serve as a direct sequel to the original 1997 film. In that film, a group of friends are hunted by a killer with a hooked hand one year after they killed someone in a hit-and-run accident.

Read more
Max is following Netflix’s lead and cracking down on password sharing
The move will generate some additional revenue for Warner Bros. Discovery
The Max logo.

If you've been sharing your Max account with someone else, Max is trying to make your life harder. Variety is reporting that Max just added an Extra Member Add-On feature in the U.S., priced at $7.99/month. This lets the primary account holder share their account with someone outside of their household. These additional members will be able to create a separate account that is linked to the primary subscriber.

Warner Bros. Discovery had previously said that they plan to notify users about new restrictions on sharing accounts outside of their primary household. This move by Max follows similar efforts by Netflix and Disney+, and are obviously designed to generate additional revenue from users who are currently sharing accounts across households.

Read more
Everything we know about the four Beatles biopics
Get ready for Beatlemania
The Beatles sitting together

As if there aren't enough musical biopics that have been released in the last decade, director Sam Mendes is adding a quartet of Beatles movies to his filmography. A unique set of films that connect into one greater whole, the upcoming Beatles biopics have to be watched together to get a full appreciation of the band's story. Much like Marvel fans who watch all of the superhero movies to get the best experience out of the story, this set of films will work the same way. Whether making an expanded Beatles universe of films is a good idea or not remains to be seen.

Each film will give equal screentime to Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John Lennon, and Ringo Starr. They will come out around the same time to encourage fans to see all of them. This is made possible by a simultaneous filming schedule in which all four movies will be produced alongside each other. The estimated release date is sometime in April 2028, according to Gold Radio. Sony hasn't decided yet whether all four movies will come out on the same day or whether there will be slight differences in release, whether that be one a week, etc. We have everything you need to know about the four Beatles movies right here, from the actors in the films to each Beatle's importance today.

Read more