Looking Ahead . . . A New Year of Opportunities

Happy 2026!  This year marked the latest in an unbroken string of midnight countdowns that I wasn’t invited to perform on “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve With Ryan Seacrest.”

I was in good company, though, since not many Bluegrass entertainers were featured on TV specials welcoming the New Year. But maybe that’s because a good number of pickers and fans were just hours away from kicking off the first festivals of 2026.

Before most of us had finished our first helping of black-eyed peas, the Jekyll Island New Year’s Bluegrass Festival was set to open at noon. Georgia’s Sea Isles hosted three days of top performers “where the ancient tones of the mountains meet the gentle roar of the emerald sea.”

A highlight on that schedule was a salute to the Stanley Brothers, with Ralph Stanley II and the Clinch Mountain Boys and a slew of special guests.

Clear across the continent, more music echoed from the Wig Wam Resort in Phoenix, Arizona. Del McCoury and Jerry Douglas hosted their “Picking Party” from Jan. 2-5, featuring more all-star performances, master classes, and workshops.

If you’re hosting a festival that includes a songwriting workshop, we’d like to help promote it in this column of The Bluegrass Standard. Please send the information—including dates and writing workshop leaders—two months in advance of the event to DavidHaleyLauver@gmail.com.

SPBGMA Writers Workshop Scheduled Jan. 23

Looking ahead, the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America (SPBGMA) will hold its 51^st national convention and awards show Jan. 22-25 at the Sheraton Music City Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.

SPBGMA is an extended family reunion, part Bluegrass equivalent of Nashville’s storied Fan Fair and part concert venue and awards stage. There may be more January jamming per square foot than any place else on earth.

The event’s Songwriter Workshop will be held from noon to 2 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 23. Returning workshop leaders are Johnny and Jeanette Williams, award-winning writers and performers who, with Jay Shelton, perform as “Shelton and Williams.”

Joining this year’s workshop panel are Kristen Bearfield, hit writer, solo artist and member of the band “High Road”; and Thomm Jutz, IBMA’s 2021 Songwriter of the Year producer, and past Grammy nominee for Best Bluegrass Album. For more information, go to spbgma.com.

Big Times at the “Little House”

The “Little House” Songwriting Workshop in Lebanon, Tennessee, has earned a reputation for helping aspiring writers reach the “next level” of success. For 2026, organizers have scheduled the initial sessions and made plans to take the workshop on the road. You can find more information, including tuition and registration, at littlehousesongwritingworkshop.com.

The Little House Workshop is led by Jerry Salley, Donna Ulisse, and Rick Stanley—award-winning writers, recording artists and producers. Their intensive two-day sessions help newer writers expand their creativity and understanding of how to be a better songwriter. These workshops are limited to four aspiring writers each month.

Each day, two-person teams are paired with a pro writer to co-write a song or two. Then there’s an opportunity to perform at a pickin’ party that includes other artists, publishers, label execs and broadcasters. And there’s great home cooking from Donna and Rick’s farm kitchen, along with delicious desserts brought by Erin Salley.

While cuts aren’t guaranteed, several Little House songs have been recorded by Bluegrass and Gospel artists. These include "Bacon In My Beans" by Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers; “Lie To Me” by Jaelee Roberts; “Dancing With The Stars” by Valerie Smith; “Yesterday’s Heartache” and “Front Porch of Paradise” by Kristy Cox, “Flowers and Lace” by The Grascals; and “Heart of Rosine” by Donna Ulisse.

I’ve been fortunate to be a co-writer on several songs that have gone from the Little House to the radio. Those include “Jezebel,” my first co-write (with Donna and writer/artist Ali Shumate) to reach #1 on the charts.  And the songs that aren’t cut? For Little House alumni, they’ll be on our own recordings and on our set lists for the rest of our lives.

Songwriting workshops are back at the Little House on March 25-26, April15-16, and May 12-13. But if you can’t travel to the farm in Lebanon, there will be three larger group workshops outside Middle Tennessee. Workshop leaders will critique one song that each participant brings and give feedback on songs co-written at the events by small teams of aspiring writers.

The first “Little House on the Road” session is set for Feb. 27-March 1 in the Historic Gatlinburg (Tennessee) Inn, where Felice and Boudleaux Bryant wrote “Rocky Top.”

The next workshop, July 23-25 at Strawberry Point, Iowa, is an extension of the Strawberry Jam Camp (strawberryjamcamp.com.)

The Palmetto State is the site of an August 28-30 group workshop, hosted by the South Carolina Bluegrass and Traditional Music Association at Bills Pickin' Parlor in Columbia (scbtma.com).