And so it begins…

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages! The West Michigan Bluegrass Music Association is proud to announce the creation of the W.M.B.M.A. blog. The launch of this blog finally ushers the association into the social media realm. Combined with our presence on Facebook and Twitter currently, along with some other upcoming social media sites and efforts, we hope to reach a fairly wide audience. Welcome.

I’m your blog administrator, Bluegrass Paul

My name is Paul Pope, and I am a familiar face in matters of bluegrass and banjo picking in the west Michigan area. You might know me from the handful of bands that I have been in or are in currently. You might know me from my website at http://www.banjosrule.com. You might know me from my blog at http://www.mybanjolife.com. You might know me from my Twitter profile: http://www.twitter.com/banjopaul67. You might know me from several other social media sites. You might know me from my wanted poster at the post office. You might even know me from having kicked me out of your house once or twice. You probably know me but wish you didn’t. No matter where you know me from, or even if you don’t know me, I say welcome to the W.M.B.M.A. blog. I’ll look forward to getting to know you under my new alias of Bluegrass Paul. And, anywhere you see my efforts on behalf of the W.M.B.M.A., you’ll find the association logo and  ”avatar”, which is that instrument cluster picture, in my signature. If you get approached by someone claiming to be me but there’s no instrument cluster avatar, look out because he’s an imposter!! And if it’s a woman, well, then it’s even more easily detectable that I’m being impersonated. Her legs won’t be anywhere near as sexy as mine.

The W.M.B.M.A.

We are the West Michigan Bluegrass Music Association, and we’re alive and well in big beautiful Lowell, Michigan. We are fast becoming a mature organization, one that is about to celebrate it’s 15th year as an association coming up in 2010. I’ve been around since the beginning, and I can tell you that we’ve come a long way, baby. If you wonder what we are all about, this sums it up pretty well:

The mission of the West Michigan Bluegrass Music Association is to preserve and promote bluegrass and acoustic music in west Michigan

It’s exciting to think of how far we’ve come since our first president, Floyd Norvell, helped give birth to the organization in 1995. Floyd was instrumental in forming a board of directors and instituting elected officers. Each new year brought other presidents and board members, and a better understanding of how to run an association like ours. I’ve personally been on the board once, but I’ve often marvelled at how we’ve grown and have taken on professional and dedicated officers, presidents, and board members over the years. Things haven’t always gone smoothly, and I’m sure we still have a lot to learn, but I’m so impressed at the people who extend themselves on behalf of the association by getting involved in the leadership of it. The future looks really exciting.

We host monthly events!

The W.M.B.M.A. holds monthly meetings, open to the public, which are a combination of jam sessions and membership meetings. The membership meeting portion is fairly short, with the rest of the evening being devoted to music. Some monthly meetings are fundraisers for the association, complete with bands playing and jamming afterwards. Coming up in 2010, you might find as many as 2 or 3 events some months because we’ve set a much more aggressive calendar of activities for the coming year. You can find our yearly calendar on our website at www.wmbma.org, but as of this writing it’s not loaded yet. Stay tuned.

The piece de resistance: our bluegrass festivals

Our showcase events over the year are our two bluegrass festivals that we promote and host. We hold these festivals at the Kent County Fairgrounds in Lowell, Michigan. It’s easy to remember when the festivals take place: the third weekend in May, and the third weekend in September. We named the festivals, appropriately enough: Mayfest and Fallfest. We’ve been working to bring in some top-notch, quality bluegrass entertainment at our festivals, and I think we can say that we’ve succeeded in the past. Ever heard of Kenny & Amanda Smith? Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper? Hardline Drive? Detour? Ah yes, I thought you might have. And we’ve got a great national act coming in 2010, but that’s under wraps for now…stay tuned! Along with the premier national headliners, you can find the best in local and regional talent to round out the weekend’s stage shows. Along with the concert, you can find children’s activities, instrument workshops, a band scramble, beginner’s slow jams, and even more.

We’d love you to become a member of the association

We’ve grown a lot over the years, thanks to our paying members. They are the lifeblood of this organization, and they make it possible for us to move forward. In exchange for membership you get festival discounts, a bi-monthly newsletter, and other perks, so we hope you’ll click over to our website at www.wmbma.org and fill print out, fill out, and mail in a membership form. The dues are very affordable and they help us out a lot. In the future this membership form will be also be located on this blog, but for now we’ll be relying on our website.

Come back often

As the blog administrator, I’ve committed to posting regular articles to the blog. My planned schedule at this point is to post every Tuesday and Thursday, depending on holidays and vacations and what-not. I’ll be blogging about anything related to the association or bluegrass in general. If you would like to receive automatic notice that a new blog post has been entered, there is an easy way to do that. At the bottom of this post you’ll find a box that invites you to click a link, which takes you to a screen where you can enter your email address. You’ll then receive an email with a confirmation link in it. Click the link in the email to begin receiving alerts in your inbox every time I post a new article. It’s pretty convenient.

Show Bluegrass Paul some comment love!

This blog is not intended as just a news reader. Sometimes I’ll say things you don’t agree with. Sometimes you’ll really identify with the article…perhaps it’ll be about you! Or, sometimes you might want to either compliment or criticize what I’ve written. Maybe you’ll want to throw out another viewpoint. No matter what, I hope you’ll leave comments. The aim is for this to be a two-way street, with a back-and-forth dialogue going on. So please comment on the blog posts. Other readers might benefit from what you have to say. There is a comments section at the very bottom of this post (and every post) where you can read what other people are saying, as well as leave your own comments. You’ll need to create a username and password, but that’s easy.

Thanks!

I‘m glad you took the time to read this inaugural blog post, and I hope you’ll be back. There is definitely more to come. I look forward to hearing from you, and I look forward to my duties as Social Media Director for the association. You can find my contact info in my signature below if you want to email me. Or, better yet…leave a comment on this post! Until next time, take care, be safe, and as I always say: pick ‘em if ya got ‘em!

Bluegrass Paul
Social Media Director
Email: bluegrasspaul@wmbma.org
The West Michigan Bluegrass Music Association

Tagged as: Bluegrass, Miscellaneous