Billy Strings Receives Entertainer of the Year at IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards, Director Cameron Crowe Plans Book Tour

Greensky Bluegrass with Al Schnier

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Relix Daily
September 19, 2025

September 19, 2025

NEWS

The biggest night in bluegrass, IBMA’s Bluegrass Music Awards, has resulted in Billy Strings’ fourth title as Entertainer of the Year. The coveted status resumes the musician’s previous three-peat reign, tied to wins in 2021, 2022, and 2023. The ceremony took place last night at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium in Chattanooga, Tenn., led by co-hosts and musical partners Steve Martin and Alison Brown.

NEWS

Oscar-winning writer and director Cameron Crowe, known for his work on films such as Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire, and Say Anything, is releasing his highly anticipated memoir, The Uncool, via Simon & Schuster, on October 28, 2025. In support of his story, Crowe will embark on a seven-city book tour, beginning on October 29, 2025, at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C.

RECAP

Last night, Greensky Bluegrass turned in their latest live performance. The band, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary beginning next month in its native Michigan, took the stage at Saranac Brewery in Utica, N.Y., where they welcomed assistance from a regional fixture of the jam scene, moe.’s Al Schnier.

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LISTEN

Jazz great Charles Lloyd will release his forthcoming double album, Figure in Blue, on October 10, 2025. A new troupe of instrumentalists joins the celebrated saxophonist, Jason Maron (piano) and Marvin Sewell (guitar), to stir up ballads in honor of the Delta blues and earnest tributes to Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, and Zakir Hussain. The tabla master is the subject of today’s single release, the stirring and emotive, “Hymn to The Mother, For Zakir.”

FEATURE

As his longtime instrumental outfit gears up to release their seventh LP, and simultaneously bring their eighth full-length effort past the finish line, guitarist/ producer Thomas Brenneck looks back on the surreal seven years since he relocated to the West Coast.

REVIEW

Much has changed since 2019, when an unsigned, unknown musician named Sierra Ferrell played two days of duo sets at the Nelsonville Music Festival and demonstrated to the lucky few gathered that big things were coming from the diminutive singer-songwriter with the gigantic, classic-country voice.

NEWS

Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy have announced another R.E.M. tribute tour, this time celebrating the 40th anniversary of Lifes Rich Pageant. From Feb. 11 to March 16 of next year, the unlikely duo of the revered actor and indie veteran will make 22 stops across the country, resurrecting R.E.M.’s fourth studio album in full alongside a mix of classics from the band’s broader catalog. This will be their third annual tribute outing, following this year’s anniversary celebration for Fables of the Reconstruction and a 2024 series honoring the same landmark for Murmur.

LISTEN

Los Angeles-based ensemble Arc Iris has shared a new single from their forthcoming sixth album, iTMRW, pronounced “i-tomorrow.” The impending collection was initially conceived as a 90-minute live multimedia science fiction production, set in 2080, and features video art and contemporary dance elements. As a preview, they shared their new single, “We All Deserve to be Beautiful” featuring WILLOW.