TO QUALIFY: First off, you must be at least two people to be considered a band. One man bands are wonderful, but this isn’t the place. To be in the realm of “bluegrassy,” you must have either a banjo or a fiddle (no violins). The only electrified instrument allowed is bass, if you must, but all you electric bassists will have to use the amp we provide and it will be sucky. Kidding. If you have percussion, that’s fine, but you have to be able to carry it on and off with you with no set up time. Be warned, if you get too “world musicy” we might make fun of you. Along those same lines, no vests or hammer pants. You really should be string-based, but we might let you get away with keyboards or even horns if you’re low key about it. If you have questionable instrumentation, just get in touch with us and we’ll use our human abilities to reason and make the call.

FORMAT OF THE EVENING: We will have twelve bands in the competition/show. Each band will need to be prepared to play two songs. Everyone will play one, then the final three will play a second song after which the judges will determine the grand prize winner. To make this not only a contest, but also a lively show, we have to make quick transitions. We will have one or two condenser mics set up and you will have to configure yourselves around the mics rather than the other way around. We will have an additional mic for the bass or an amp for the electric bassists. That should cover things. We’ll figure out anything else we need with the final twelve bands. At the end of the show, we might bring all the bands back out to play something together. We will make this decision as we get closer.

PRIZES: More will likely be added, but this is what we have so far. The winning band gets a slot in next year’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, a few hundred dollars and bragging rights. The runner up band will get some amount of American Cash less than the winner.

ENTRY FEE: Each of the twelve chosen bands will need to ante up twenty-five dollars.

DEADLINE: If you want to be considered, we need to hear from you by Jan 19th. Send us an email at info@steampoweredhour.com. Give us your band’s name, contact info and let us know where we can find your stuff online. Audio works, but video would be even better. We will only be looking at what you do, not the quality of the media or the audience reaction or lack thereof. The final twelve bands chosen to compete will be notified by Jan 21st. We will also chose one alternate band that will be on call in case any of the other bands can’t make it. 

The whole purpose of this is to get everyone together and have a rowdy good time and a really fun show, so come on out and join us. We look forward to hearing from you.