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Tickets for Sam Bush show on sale Sept. 7
 Tickets go on sale Tuesday, Sept. 7, for a pre-Mountain Heritage Day performance by mandolin and fiddle master Sam Bush..
Bush and his band are the headliners for the 2004 Mountain Heritage Day Spotlight Concert on Friday, Sept. 24. The show also includes Whitewater Bluegrass Company, featuring Western Carolina University alumnus and Grammy Award-winning banjoist Marc Pruett, and the Frogtown Four. Music at WCU’s Ramsey Regional Activity Center will get under way at 7:30 p.m.
A living legend in bluegrass and acoustic music circles, Bush made his debut recording as a 17-year-old, after holding the title of National Junior Fiddle Champion for three years. At age 19, he founded New Grass Revival, an ensemble that for the next 18 years broke new ground in acoustic music by using traditional bluegrass instruments to create an up-tempo blend of gospel, rock, pop, reggae, jazz, country and bluegrass.
New Grass Revival disbanded in 1989, and Bush went on to lead Emmylou Harris’ Nash Ramblers for five years. Bush won two Grammys as a member of Harris’ band, one for Harris’ At the Ryman and another for Spring Training, a collaboration featuring John Starling, Carl Jackson and the Nash Ramblers.
An in-demand session player for many years, Bush also stays busy touring with Lyle Lovett, Left Over Salmon, Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton and former New Grass Revival band mate Bela Fleck.
Bush’s latest recording, Ice Caps: Peaks of Telluride, features selected 1990s performances at Colorado’s Telluride Bluegrass Festival, where he has been the musical guiding spirit for 26 of the festival’s 27 years, earning Bush the title “Mayor of Telluride.”
Tickets for the Sept. 24 show are $10 for Western students and children 13 and under, and $15 for all others. To order tickets, contact the Ramsey Center ticket office at 227-7722.
Sponsored in part by WNCW-FM and WestCare Health System, the concert is the introductory event for Western’s 30th anniversary Mountain Heritage Day, the annual celebration of Appalachian culture that will be held on WCU’s campus Saturday, Sept. 25.
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