Desert Bluegrass Festival returns to Marana's Gladden Farms

Becky Buller and her band join a lineup that includes a handful of nationally-celebrated bluegrass bands, including Portland, Oregon’s Never Come Down, Colorado’s Blue Canyon Boys and Maryland’s Country Gentlemen Show, which pays tribute to the legendary progressive bluegrass band The Country Gentlemen.

This is the 13th year that the festival, from Friday, March 7 through Sunday, March 9, is at Gladden Farms Community Park’s sprawling soccer fields, 12205 N. Tangerine Road in Marana. The festival has been ongoing since the early 2000s.

Minnesota-born multi-instrumentalist Buller has had songs on three Grammy award-winning bluegrass albums — the leadoff single on The Infamous Stringdusters’s “Laws of Gravity,” which won the 2018 Best Bluegrass Grammy; “The Shaker” from The Travelin’ McCourys’ eponymous 2019 release; and “Good-bye Girl” on Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway’s “Crooked Tree,” which won the 2023 Best Bluegrass Grammy.

Ricky Skaggs, Rhonda Vincent and Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver also have recorded her songs.

Buller’s latest release is her very personal album “Jubilee,” a song cycle that chronicles her lifelong struggle with depression and anxiety that reached a crisis point during the pandemic era, according to her website bio.

The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Bluegrass Album Chart in June 2024.

Several Arizona bluegrass bands are also on the lineup, including Cisco and the Racecars out of Phoenix, who add a little country and old-time Americana to their setlist; North of Lonesome, an acoustic band that adds a little “grassed-up” rock to its setlist; Fresh Apples‘ Doc Rolland and Meryl Brown, who will share the stage with banjo player Tyler James and mandolin player Billy Parker; Tucson’s own Permafrost Road that was started by three former Alaskans who ended up in the Old Pueblo and are making their Desert Bluegrass debut; and the Chandler youth ensemble Jam Pak Blues ‘N’ Grass.

The festival kicks off at 2 p.m. Friday with a band contest, band scramble and performance by Fresh Apples, who also will cap off the night at 7 p.m. in a contra dance led by caller Abbie Song. Throughout the weekend, the festival will hold instrumental and songwriting workshops and jam sessions and have a Kids’ Zone for family activities. There also will be food trucks onsite, arts and crafts vendors and nightly jam sessions once the main stage performances wrap up.

Admission on Friday is free; it’s $25 a day for Saturday and Sunday ($40 for a weekend pass) and free for those 16 and younger. It’s $50 for the weekend to camp on the festival grounds. Tickets are available at desertbluegrass.org.