Through thick and thin, bluegrass music has shown itself to be a priority for the average concertgoer in and around Baltimore, a city that for decades has boasted a rich even if a bit underappreciated music scene.

This past weekend, the Charm City Bluegrass Festival celebrated its tenth anniversary in proper fashion as Union Craft Brewing played host to a large contingent of music lovers — many from Baltimore, plenty from out of town, too — who enjoyed two consecutive days and nights of live music, revelry, local cuisine, and beverages all while tucked up just north of the city.

The weekend featured a spectacular lineup of both national touring acts along with some of the area’s most respected and up-and-coming musicians who help comprise a vital, active local landscape, especially in Baltimore, a place that has a particular appreciation for music created for or played on stringed instruments.

By late Friday afternoon, fans had packed into the brewery and the grounds outside Union Collective, which sits just east of I-83. Bands took the stage inside and out on the area referred to as the “Porch,” and crowds gathered and danced to all the acts that played on what became a busy and colorful first day.

In a tribute to the famous and influential Jerry Garcia recording The Pizza Tapes, Grateful Dub entertained the growing happy-hour crowd just before Twisted Pine, a Boston based string group, delivered a riveting performance, with flutist Anh Phung mesmerizing the room.

Listen to the newest recording from Charm City 2023 headliners The Infamous Stringdusters, A Tribute to Flatt & Scruggs, via Spotify:

Later Friday evening, attendees were treated to a high-energy, knee-slapping good time with The Steel Wheels out of Harrisonburg, Va. Just moments later, one of the weekend’s most rewarding sets came in the form of the event’s two artists at large — fiddler Allie Kral and guitarist Chris Luquette — offering up a raw, soulful exhibition not just of their remarkable instrumental abilities, but their vocal skills too, delivering some of the richest harmonies of the weekend.

Magic Beans, a rising outfit from Denver that combines various styles into what’s described as “analog dance” and “neo-jam,” filled the venue and led a party that went into late into Friday night and, like so many of the weekend’s sets, featured special guests, with Kral and Luquette regularly dropping in to light up any of the event’s three stages.

Charm City Bluegrass’ Phil Chorney, who organizes the festival and has been instrumental in bringing fabulous lineups to Baltimore year after year, said the past decade has gone by quicker than he realized.

“It’s kind of surreal that it’s been ten years and that the community has rallied around this music and our vision for what an urban bluegrass festival can be,” he said.

And, despite some skepticism about what it all could become, he said the music fans in Baltimore have shown an increasing appreciation and appetite for a wide range of sounds — but especially bluegrass.

“Communities rally,” he said. “They really enjoy it and it’s become a staple of the community.”

For Chorney and his staff, this and every year presents the challenge of trying to balance a more traditional bluegrass lineup while showing the influence of the genre and showcasing music perhaps just outside of the genre that fans are still likely to enjoy.

“To try to do something new that gets people hyped and super stoked, that’s what it’s all about,” he said.

This second day of this year’s Charm City Bluegrass Festival indeed brought a fulfilling dose of string band music and so much more. The lineup featured afternoon of sets on the indoor stage, the porch and the large main stage. Friends and family members soaked in the sun and browsed goods from local merchants or enjoyed delights from a number of Baltimore-area eateries that have been vending at the festival since its early days.

Watch footage of last year’s Charm City Bluegrass Festival, featuring Jeremy Garrett of The Infamous Stringdusters performing with Armchair Boogie, the event’s official YouTube channel:

A highlight of this year’s event, Cris Jacobs — one of the area’s finest and most respected artists — led an inspiriting tribute to the late, great John Prine. Leading the talented crew known as the Cris Jacobs Band, the local songwriter and guitarist invited a host of friends to the stage as he delivered polished, authentic takes on a terrific collection of Prine’s most adored tracks.

“It was causing some anxiety, trying to pick the songs,” Jacobs shared. “But you can’t go too wrong.”

Fans were treated to rousing interpretations of songs like “Pretty Good,” “Spanish Pipedream,” “Souvenirs,” and the infinitely relevant “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore,” which Jacobs said seems like it could have been written yesterday.

Cris was joined by a rotation incredible musicians, several of them local, including the IBMA-honored violinist Patrick McAvinue, who played earlier in the day with The Hampden Bluegrass All-Stars; Laura Wortman, one half of The Honeydew Drops; and singer-songwriter Caleb Stine, who pointed out that it really didn’t get much better than rejoicing in John Prine’s songs on a sunny day — in Baltimore, of all places.

Jacobs, a longtime presence at the Charm City Bluegrass Festival, congratulated the team behind the event. He’d eventually perform a song by himself — a staggering “Hello In There” — and he welcomed his wife, Kat, to the stage for an uplifting take on “In Spite of Ourselves.”

An avid Prine fan himself, Chorney pointed to the many bluegrass artists who regularly cover the legend’s songs.

“John’s music changed my perception of what songwriting and the American song really could be and bluegrass to me is a song-driven genre,” Chorney said.

“At the end of the day, John has inspired so many songwriters and musicians. It meant a lot to me, and it brought everything full circle that I believe in, in music, and having Cris do it was just a real treat.”

Saturday evening saw exhilarating sets taking place across the three stages, as The Way Down Wanderers out of Illinois, local standouts The High and Wides and Magic Beans, again, impressed their respective audiences.

Listen to the 2022 studio album from Magic Beans, Unzipped, via Spotify:

Making the group’s first appearance at the event, headliners The Infamous Stringdusters lit up the big stage Saturday night in a lengthy, festive set of music that of course brought a variety of guests into the light, including Krall, Luquette, and more.

Born in Nashville, Infamous Stringdusters is a band comprised of seasoned, razor-sharp musicians with a reputation for concocting epic, grassy jams: on guitar, Andy Falco; on dobro, Andy Hall; Chris Pandolfi on banjo; Travis Book on upright; and, on fiddle, Jeremy Garrett, who was the artist-at-large at last year’s Charm City Bluegrass Festival.

Fans twisted and turned into the night as the IBMA-honored group showed its ability to bend the bluegrass sound into something so much groovier and funkier than anyone might ever think possible.

Serving up some of their fans’ favorites but some choice covers too, the Dusters proved to be the ideal ringmasters of an unforgettable weekend and what was another successful chapter in the event’s now-decade long history.

Here are images of the Charm City Bluegrass Festival held on May 5 and 6, 2023, at Union Craft Brewing in Baltimore. All photos copyright and courtesy of Casey Vock.

The Infamous Stringdusters

Magic Beans with guests including Allie Kral and Cris Jacobs

Cris Jacobs Band John Prine Tribute including special guests Laura Wortman, Patrick McAvinue, Caleb Stine, Allie Kral, Chris Luquette and Kat Jacobs

Pert Near Sandstone

The Way Down Wanderers

Justin Trawick and The Common Good

Magic Beans with guests including Chris Luquette and Anh Phung

Allie Kral and Chris Luquette, Charm City Bluegrass 2023 Artists at Large

The Steel Wheels with guest Allie Kral

Hazel Raven