About Us:

It is an experience all it's own with a story to be told. Stamps-Baxter Music Company, Bill Monroe and a little boy's cherished memories of connecting with his father while sharing the love of music with others, are to thank for the birth of "Bluegrass On The Plains" bluegrass festival. "Bluegrass On The Plains" is an annual bluegrass festival here in Auburn, Alabama the week of Memorial Day. Founder, Mathan Holt, cut his teeth on old time singing schools being taught by his father, Sanford Holt, along with their quartet sponsored by Stamps-Baxter Music Company, The Kingsmen. Starting before Mathan was born, until his teen years, traveling on the weekends to rural churches throughout the south was routine for the Holt family. While, the father of bluegrass music, Bill Monroe, was flourishing in the bluegrass revival of the 60's, Mathan was listening to bluegrass on the Grand Ole Opry and learning at an early age to harmonize and lead groups in shaped note singing along with his dad. Growing up and singing with The Kingsmen lead to Mathan starting his own bluegrass band at the age of 18. Bluegrass gospel was a natural drift for his training with the four part harmony of gospel and the four part stringed instruments of bluegrass. Traveling, himself, on the bluegrass circuit for many years, he continued to develop his love for the lonesome sounds of bluegrass. For four decades Mathan has donated his time to promoting and hiring the bands and entertainment for the annual Syrup Sopping Festival in Loachapoka each year. Hosting a festival of his own has been a "bucket list" dream of Mathan's that has now come into fruition. One of his father's favorite parts of each singing school was to have all of the singers come up on the stage and sing an impromptu performance boasting their newly acclaimed ability to sing shaped notes in four part harmony. The closing act each night of the festival host the "All-Star Jam" as the highlight of the evening, with masterful artist like Rhonda Vincent, Sonya Isaacs, Glen Harrell, Josh Williams, to name a few, join together to jam the night away in the most incredible display of raw talent you have ever seen on stage. Never having performed together before, as all bluegrass lovers know, only makes the artist perform better as the bluegrass impromptu session is a critical elementary tool of the evolution of all great bluegrass musicians. Thus, the party after the party, in the parking lots and campsites of every bluegrass festival in America, musicians, many who come only for the jamming, gather around campfires and pick 'til the sun comes up. Traditions that are all savored ingredients of Bluegrass On The Plains Festival. Free workshops for ticket holders are taught by the amazing talented musicians performing at the festival. A new event has been added to the 2014 Bluegrass On The Plains festival is the Bluegrass Idol Band Competition, a spin-off of the popular TV show American Idol. Bands will perform for three judges and the audience will participate in the deciding vote.

The authenticity of bluegrass music makes this cultural event one of a kind. The sincerity and purity of the tones and intense quality of music is matched by none other. Bluegrass music pierces your soul and leaves you in awe.

Bluegrass On The Plains won the International Bluegrass Music Association 2013 Momentum Award for New Festival of the Year. We are anticipating and making preparation for record numbers this year. This is not an event you will want to miss.

2015 Bands Include: Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, Rhonda Vincent and The Rage, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, Gene Watson, Russell Moore and IIIrd Tyme Out, Volume Five, Claire Lynch, Blue Highway, Detour, The Isaacs, Detour, The Punches Family, Brush Fire, Chris Jones and the Night Drivers, Breaking Grass, The Boxcars, Larry Cordle/Jerry Salley/Carl Jackson, Flat Lonesome, Sideline, Cedar Rock and The Bailey Mountain Cloggers.