Kentucky Museum News

The Kentucky Museum and Potter College of Arts & Letters (PCAL) Cultural Enhancement Series at WKU will welcome Bowling Green native and internationally recognized bluegrass artist Sam Bush to campus as part of the Sonic Music Fest on Saturday, September 6. The event takes place in two parts: a daytime festival at the Kentucky Museum from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., and an evening concert with Sam Bush at Van Meter Hall at 7 p.m.

Music Fest, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Sonic Music Fest begins at the Kentucky Museum from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. with the grand opening of Sonic Landscape: The Musical Legacy of Southcentral Kentucky. Accompanied by musical performances, activities and food trucks, the Kentucky Museum invites our community to discover how Southcentral Kentucky has been a hub for musical expression and exchange – resulting in some of popular music’s greatest innovations and sounds, from early jazz to newgrass to country-rap. The exhibition features a variety of artifacts, photographs, memorabilia and interviews from over 90 individuals – from musicians such as Bill Monroe, Cousin Emmy, Nappy Roots, Cage the Elephant, Mary Rachel Nalley-Norris, Sam Bush and the Kentucky Headhunters – to the producers, sound engineers and insiders who made their success possible.

Sponsored by Houchens Food Group, the festival also includes performances by The Songfarmers, Jane Pearl, Jonell Mosser, Eddie Pennington, Alonzo Pennington, Caleb Coots, Michael Gough, John Martin, Bill Lloyd and Kyle Frederick. Family-friendly activities and food trucks will be available, including A Taste of Europe and Big T’s Bar-B-Cue. Visitors are encouraged to tour the museum’s exhibitions.

For a full schedule of events and performances, visit https://www.wku.edu/kentuckymuseum/events/sonicfest.php.

Admission is free, and all WKU parking lots will be open for visitor parking. The Kentucky Museum is located at 1444 Kentucky Street in Bowling Green, across from the Dollar General.

Sam Bush Concert, 7 p.m.

Sonic Music Fest culminates with an evening concert by Sam Bush at Van Meter Hall, beginning at 7 p.m., sponsored by PCAL Cultural Enhancement Series and Tom and Portia Pennington.

Born and raised in Bowling Green, Sam Bush's love of music came immediately, encouraged by his parents’ record collection and, particularly, by his father Charlie, a fiddler, who organized local jams. As a teen fiddler, Bush became three-time national champion in the junior division of the National Oldtime Fiddler’s Contest. He recorded an instrumental album, Poor Richard’s Almanac, as a high school senior and in the spring of 1970 attended the Fiddlers Convention in Union Grove, NC. There he heard the New Deal String Band, taking notice of their rock-inspired brand of progressive bluegrass. In 1971, Bush and his fellow mates formed New Grass Revival. Within just two years, they were touring nationally and transforming the bluegrass genre - and American music.

A Kentucky native at heart, and WKU honorary doctorate recipient, Bush returns to Van Meter Auditorium on the tenth anniversary of his last concert at the Hill, to once again grace Bowling Green with musical innovation and improvisation. 

Admission is free, no tickets are necessary, and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

To learn more about the Sonic Music Fest and the Sam Bush concert, please visit https://www.wku.edu/kentuckymuseum/events/sonicfest.php

For more information, please contact Brent Bjorkman at brent.bjorkman@wku.edu.

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Additional Links:

About Sonic Landscape: https://www.wku.edu/kentuckymuseum/exhibits/sonic_landscape.php

About Cultural Enhancement Series: https://www.wku.edu/culturalenhancement/